Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this joint committee session of the government operations and fiscal policy and the public safety committees.

We have two items on our agenda this morning.

First is a an amendment we received to the FY27 to 32 capital improvement program, the uh county radio life cycle replacement that we will discuss first, and then we will move on to expedited bill 14-26, motor vehicle towing, redemption of vehicle.

Um Ms.

Frog, should I turn over to you or Dr.

Taregus?

Oh, actually, my co-chair, would you like to say a few words before I do that?

No, I think you can turn it over to either one of those two.

Um staff members, please.

All right, great.

Let's uh deal with this amendment first.

Thank you very much.

This is a March 13th county executive amendment to the FY27 through 32 capital improvements program for the county radio replacement project, which has already been reviewed by the joint committee, or the the original um submission was.

Uh this amendment is actually reducing expenditures by 2.6 million and it's spreading the expenditures out, so it's delaying some replacements.

It's spreading it out across the entire six-year expenditure schedule.

The reason for the reduction is there were duplicate entries for 55 police radio replacements in both FY27 and FY28.

So the new expenditure schedule is removing the 55 replacements for FY28, and council staff recommends approval as submitted.

Perfect.

Uh Councilmember Katz, any questions?

All right, anyone else have any questions or anything?

No, I think the joint committees are good with the recommendation and moving forward with this.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you very much.

Our next item is expedited bill 14 26 motor vehicle towing.

Um this is uh also known as the Vehicle Recovery Act.

I see Ms.

McCartney Green is here, and we have Dr.

Stoddard from the County Exec's office.

Thank you for joining us.

Um as the lead on this bill, I will say that um, and I'm thankful to all my colleagues who have joined on as co-sponsors.

Um, this grew out of conversations with um community members, uh, members of our nonprofit organization and mutual aid groups, and I'm thankful that uh we are CASA is here today as we're discussing this bill.

Um, and also conversations um I had with uh the police department in the city of Tacoma Park.

Um as we saw an increase in federal immigration um activities uh in uh the county, we saw be people being taken off our streets and their vehicles being left behind.

And in some instances, reports of uh ICE uh not just leaving vehicles, but blocking hydrants, uh fire stations, and putting them in places that the vehicles needed to be towed immediately, leaving no time for family or friends to recover them after someone was taken.

Um then what happens is once the vehicle is impounded, um there are obstacles to recovering that if someone is not on the title, or nor if they did not have a notarized document saying that they were uh able to uh have the vehicle released to them.

Um and so after hearing uh many of these stories and looking at how we can assist those who are being impacted uh by uh having loved ones taken um from our streets, uh we looked at drafting this legislation and what alternative um uh forms of identification would be available to have documents released to people who had a familial or household relationship.

Um basically we were looking at what could be a plan C.

Um so if people were not already on the title for ownership or did not have the notarized document, how could they get a much needed asset for their family, their car, um, out of impoundment as quickly as possible.

And so um that is where we are here.

Um and I'll see if my co-chair have anything to say.

No.

All right, Miss McCartney Green, do you want to walk us through the packet and any discussion of any items?

Uh thank you, uh Madam Chair Stewart.

As a matter of fact, you did a good job walking us through some of the preliminaries.

I'll just um circle back on a few uh specific things.

Uh so the bill is um really standardized or codifying existing regulations that are under the executive regulations for police to uh specifically when it comes to a release of a vehicle.

And so if a vehicle is going to be released, uh one of the things is if there's an owner that's present to pick up the vehicle, they're required to have a government-issued identification along with proof of the motor vehicle um registration.

Um so the bill is codifying that part.

It's also saying that if the owner is unavailable or not there, that they're able to authorize an agent who they give permission to, either via a notarized letter or my permanent uh preferred terminology is a power returney.

The regulation also mentions that whether there's a documentation from an insurance company, lienholder, or a rental company as well.

And as you mentioned, the purpose of this legislation is to actually broaden that to be able to accommodate for when there's not a letter available and the owner's not available as well, that a family or a household member may have the option to redeem the vehicle.

Some of the requirements that are needed is that they're allowed to show a US or state government ID, foreign government ID, or a valid ID from a nonprofit organization, along with one other document showing shared residence to the title of where that vehicle is, and that's using utility bill deed, mortgage statement, lease agreement, marriage certificate, or birth certificate.

For the REST just RESJ statement, we received a positive impact from the Office of Legislative Services.

No other impact concerning fiscal impact or climate assessment.

The purpose of the bill is to provide a mechanism, basically, and to make sure we can do that while also maintaining appropriate safeguards.

With that being said, I don't know if MCPD is here to be able to give an overview, but if not, I'm happy to at least mention generally that state law provides under Article 25, the authority when it comes to certain aspects for vehicle removal.

It sets a framework, but it's not occupying that entire field.

So the county does have authority to be able to regulate towing, parking, uh, impoundment.

When it comes specifically to uh release of a vehicle, uh, one of the things that if there's a vehicle that's abandoned, it requires release to an owner or an authorized agent.