Paul Bass Photo
One of Monaco’s trucks in the Gando Drive lot.
One set of Anthony Monaco’s trucks are barred for 60 days from towing police-ticketed cars, but two other sets are back on the road.
That’s the result of a hearing that took place at City Hall.
Monaco arriving for City Hall hearing.
Monaco and his relatives (including a deceased father) are technically the owners of three separate towing companies that all operate out of one lot he owns (through a limited-liability corporation) on Gando Drive: Anthony’s High-Tech Auto Center, Lombard Motors, and Fountain Garage.
Police Chief Otoniel Reyes last week suspended all three companies from the city’s rotation list of 10 companies approved to tow vehicles ticketed for parking in illegal spots. It’s lucrative work, especially at rush hour.
Reyes took action after a registered nurse reported resisting a shakedown by two Anthony’s High-Tech Auto Center employees about to tow his car illegally while he was visiting a patient living in a Sherman Parkway apartment complex. (Read an earlier story about that here.)
Reyes ordered an investigation, which confirmed the allegation by the registered nurse, Naim Langston.
Reyes originally said he was planning to suspend Anthony’s High-Tech from the list of police-approved towing companies as a first step toward progressive discipline.
Thomas Breen Photo
Chief Otoniel Reyes at a safe-streets meeting in the Hill.
Since then, Reyes learned that Monaco has a history of repeated legal violations, including insurance fraud and running an illegal chop shop. In 2008, then-Chief Stephanie Redding suspended one of Monaco’s towing companies for overcharging one customer and using an unapproved truck. Monaco got in trouble with the city a year later for not paying motor vehicle taxes, even as the city was paying him under a separate program to tow cars owned by people with unpaid back taxes. That led to him being booted from that separate “Platehunter” program.
Further investigation revealed the existence of the three allegedly separate companies operating on Monaco’s Gando Drive property. Reyes said that, combined with the legal history, led him to take stronger action.
So Reyes initially suspended all three companies from the list, starting Feb. 21. He said in general he wants to crack down on misconduct by towing companies.
Under the towing contract, the companies get to have a hearing to contest the suspensions.
So, accompanied by attorney Michael Hillis, Monaco showed up at City Hall on Tuesday for the hearing, which took place in the Corporation Counsel’s office.
Monaco refused to answer any questions when approached before the hearing. Hillis promised to comment afterwards. (He has since refused to respond to numerous requests for comment.)
At the meeting, “Monaco gave an explanation that I think amounted to: his employees didn’t really understand the city policy,” city Corporation Counsel Pat King said later.
King said that because the notification of the letter about the suspensions referenced only the Sherman Parkway incident — and not the issue of multiple ownership of three companies — the hearing ended with the suspension being limited to just the one company technically involved, Anthony’s High-Tech.
The suspension lasts 60 days, King said.
“In order to be reinstated, Anthony’s has to submit a written policy from their company conforming to the city tow policy, and have all the employees sign off on it,” she added.
“It’s important to hold people accountable,” Mayor Justin Elicker said of the decision.
Competing towing companies have been complaining for more than a decade about Monaco having three family-owned allegedly separate companies on the 10-spot towing rotation.
Monaco offered a defense of the tripartite companies in an interview in 2008. Click on the video to watch his remarks at the time.
