Mayor White to defend his SAFEclear program in court (updated)
Mayor White is heading to court today to defend one of his cornerstone programs: SAFEclear:
"We'll fight. We will fight the towing industry for the safety of the public," said Mayor White on Tuesday. "We do know that there are federal laws and state laws that might protect some activities by the towing operators. I just want to make sure they're fighting for the safety of the people in our region."
Mayor White is voluntarily testifying in federal court Wednesday. He will try to convince a federal judge that the city is actually complying with an order handed down last fall.
"We believe we complied with the court's order," said White.
When Safe Clear first began, only wreckers with contracts could tow stalled cars off Houston's highways. The court order forced the city to allow people to call their own wreckers, but the group that filed the lawsuit says the changes aren't good enough.
"They're still excluding us from doing business the way we did before in Houston," said Suzanne Pool with the Professional Towing Association.
Pool says she hopes to convince the federal judge that all wreckers, not just those with contracts, should be allowed to clear cars off Houston's highways. And she'd like that order handed down sooner rather than later.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: Until the KTRK-13 story was posted, I hadn't seen any real detail in the other stories as to the specific legal complaint from Pool's group. If I'm reading this correctly, it would seem that Pool is insisting that federal law doesn't allow exclusive tow contracts of any sort. I don't know that a federal court is going to agree with that.
UPDATE (12:15 pm): Various media outlets are reporting that the federal judge declined to hear from Mayor White, and also declined to hold the city in contempt (of the court's previous order) after hearing from attorneys. Basically, that means that the SAFEclear program as presently construed will continue (as predicted above). The complainants have promised new legal action.
PREVIOUSLY: SAFEclear archives
LOCAL MEDIA COVERAGE: Chronicle, KUHF-88.7, KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRH-740
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/22/06 06:58 AM | Print | Comments (6)
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