DEPARTMENT: Police
DEPARTMENT HEAD: William McManus, Chief of Police
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT: Extension of the current Municipal Tow Manager Agreement for the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Police Department
SUMMARY:
This ordinance will authorize the extension of the current Municipal Tow Manager Agreement between the City of San Antonio (City) and United Road Towing d/b/a United Road Vehicle Management Solutions (URVMS) for the period of 22 months, effective December 1, 2021 through September 30, 2023. The purpose of this agreement is to provide police-directed towing management services in addition to incident management of heavy-duty accidents for the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD).
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
On May 28, 2015, City Council passed ordinance 2015-05-28-0462 approving the negotiation and execution of the Municipal Tow Manager Agreement (Agreement) between the City and URVMS. The initial term of the Agreement commenced on December 1, 2015 and terminated on November 30, 2019. On October 14, 2019, the City exercised its option to renew the agreement by the renewal term of one additional two-year period beginning on December 1, 2019 and terminating on November 30, 2021.
URVMS oversees and manages five local small business subcontractors to perform all towing and tow dispatch services required by SAPD. In addition, URVMS provides the Incident Management services to directly oversee the recoveries of all major traffic incidents within the City limits, including all heavy-duty accidents. Since the implementation of this agreement, the first of its kind in the State, overall response time from time of tow truck request until the tow truck arrived on the scene vastly improved within the City from 45 minutes to 14 minutes.
ISSUE:
This ordinance will authorize extending the current Municipal Tow Manager Agreement between the City and URVMS for the period of 22 months. This extension will be effective on December 1, 2021 through September 30, 2023.
ALTERNATIVES:
This agreement allows for the extension of police-directed towing management services in addition to incident management of heavy-duty accidents for the City and SAPD. If this extension is not approved, the City would have to proceed with a high-profile solicitation seeking proposals from contractors to provide management of towing services.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The estimated average revenue, to the City, from this agreement is $340,557 per year. The City receives a guaranteed commission of $7.00 per tow which is deposited into the City of San Antonio’s General Fund.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends approval of this contract extension.