Letter to the Editor About Revisions to Paramus' Towing Ordinance: 'Why would [Paramus] want ... a tower on its list without any experience?'

January 23, 2015

Dear Editor,

Last Tuesday, the Borough of Paramus introduced amendments to its towing ordinance to make it weaker, diluted, and will open the rotation schedule to towers that no longer have to have any municipal experience with police towing.

Paramus has one of the strongest towing ordinances in the County of Bergen, and that’s because this town needs it. With the amount of shopping malls, major highways, and population of residents, it has always been in the best interest of the Borough of Paramus to have a strong towing ordinance to qualify towers that can handle the volume and extraordinary circumstances that the Paramus Police department calls for.

Some of the deletions of the ordinance include:

• Eliminating the requirement of having any experience for municipal towing
• Eliminating the requirement that a towers storage yard has to be contiguous to its principal place of business.
• Eliminating the requirement that a tower has to be zoned legally to store vehicles
• Eliminating the requirement that a towers storage yard has to be contiguous to the border of Paramus

First, why would the town want to put a tower on its list without any experience? Police towing is a very delicate and important responsibility. Towing operators can be considered a first responder and are responsible for opening up the roadways as quickly and efficiently as possible to reduce traffic. In order to do this efficiently it takes extensive equipment, trainings, and most importantly experience.

Second, the new ordinance eliminates that a tower’s storage yard must be contiguous to its principal place of business. This was put in here because it eliminates the possibility that a tower can use satellite towing yards in order to store vehicles. When a person comes to pick up their vehicle from an impound or a motor vehicle accident, they should not have to wait for a towing company to leave their office, drive to their storage yard, hook-up the person’ vehicle, tow it back to their office, and then drop it. It makes it extremely inconvenient for someone who has already been inconvenienced by having their car towed.

Third, to amend the ordinance so it does not have to be legally zoned for storing cars means that anyone with a parking lot can turn it into a storage yard or impound lot. Why the Borough would want to take this liability is beyond my belief especially with all the retail and commercial business that occurs within the Borough. Its eye-soars waiting to happen.

Finally, the new ordinance eliminates the requirement that a towers storage yard must be contiguous to the border. This was originally put in to ensure that a tower can respond to an accident in a timely order. As I have stated earlier, with the amount of traffic and major highways within Paramus, it is crucial that its towing companies are as close to the borough as possible. Also, when people come to pick up their car, they shouldn’t have to be traveling miles outside the borough and have to rely on mass transit. This will be extremely inconvenient for its residents. Municipalities such as Hackensack, Englewood, Ridgefield Park, and Teaneck actually require the tower to be within the municipal border.”

The Borough states that they are amending its ordinance because it is too restrictive, inhibits competition, may violate state and federal law, and because it was originally written by towers.

This is all untrue. Yes, the ordinance is restrictive, and that’s because it has to be. But it does not inhibit competition and it does not violate state or federal laws. There are not one or two towing companies currently on the list but there are four.

While we are all competitors in a very demanding and intense industry, I have to say we all do a great job towing for Paramus and we are all unified on this issue. Also, for the Borough to say that it was originally written by towers is false. Towers do not write ordinances - borough administrators and borough attorneys write ordinances. Yes, we were asked for our input and there was actually a committee put together that included towing companies, councilmembers and police officers when the last ordinance was written since towing is such a sensitive issue for Paramus. What came out of this committee was a strong, well-written ordinance that should not be altered at this time.

Thank you,

Michael Salemme