Resolution No. 8590 – A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Hawthorne, California, authorizing and approving an increase to the Administrative Vehicle Stored/Impound Release Fee.
 

Recommend the City Council adopt Resolution No. 8590, amending the City’s Master Fee Schedule to increase the Administrative Vehicle Stored/Impound Release Fee from $102 to $200, establish new administrative fee categories of $325 for 30-Day Impound Hold Releases and DUI-Related Impound Releases, and authorize an annual cost-of-living adjustment to these administrative fees based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The purpose of this item is to update the City's administrative vehicle impound/release fees to achieve full cost recovery and advance fiscal responsibility.  The current administrative fee of $102 no longer covers the actual cost of providing impound processing and vehicle release services. These functions require substantial staff effort for records processing, ownership and eligibility verification, DMV interfacing, statutory compliance checks, documentation, and release authorization. Over time, these costs have increased significantly due to inflation, rising personnel and pension expenses, higher healthcare and benefit obligations, ongoing maintenance and upgrades to technology systems (records management, citation processing, and payment platforms), and expanded regulatory and documentation requirements.  Vehicles subject to 30-day statutory holds or DUI-related impounds require considerably greater staff time and oversight, including enhanced verification procedures, supervisory review, strict legal compliance, hardship hearing processing, and increased liability exposure. The existing fee structure does not distinguish between standard impounds and these more complex cases.  The administrative impound release fee is intended to recover the direct costs associated with impound processing and vehicle release authorization. Maintaining the current fee results in only partial cost recovery and creates an ongoing subsidy from the General Fund to support enforcement-related administrative functions. Adjusting the fee structure will better align charges with actual service costs, reduce the General Fund burden, and support the City's long-term goals of fiscal responsibility and sustainability.
 

The proposed adjustments align with the City’s fiscal responsibility objectives by more closely aligning fees with the actual cost of delivering these services.

Adoption of the proposed administrative vehicle impound/release fee schedule is expected to achieve fuller cost recovery for impound processing and vehicle release services, reduce the ongoing General Fund subsidy currently required to support enforcement-related administrative functions, and generate an estimated additional $554,770 in annual revenue based on historical impound volumes. 

72 hours posted notice pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act.