PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Ryan O'Toole, Vice President of Walton Hauling
2:02:29
·
123 sec
Ryan O'Toole, Vice President of Walton Hauling, testified about issues his company faces with the city's idling violation program. He highlighted problems with delayed summons, escalating fines for rental vehicles, and difficulties accessing evidence for violations.
- Requested quicker turnaround time for issuing summons, as delays of 6-12 months cause billing issues with production companies
- Suggested a transfer of liability program to address unfair escalating fines for rental vehicles used by multiple customers
- Emphasized the need for better access to video and photographic evidence to contest incorrect violations
Ryan O'Toole
2:02:29
Good afternoon.
2:02:29
My name is Ryan O'Toole, and I'm the vice president of Walton Holling.
2:02:34
We're a truck rental house for the film and TV industry as such a few aspects of the city's current idling violation program proven problematic for us, and we're hoping to see some positive reforms.
2:02:46
First, the drivers on our vehicles don't work for us.
2:02:49
They work for the film and TV productions that rent our trucks.
2:02:54
Since we receive idling summons anywhere from 6 months to over a year after they happen, sometimes the productions at that point are shut down, and we have no way to build them back to the customer.
2:03:04
In those cases, we are having to pay the violation and eat the cost even though the driver was not employed by us.
2:03:11
We would like to see a much quicker turnaround time in the issuance of these summons.
2:03:16
As a rental house, sometimes our trucks are rented out to short term to 20 different productions over the span of just a few months.
2:03:23
The escalating fees by number of idyll idling violations per truck has become a big problem for us in this area.
2:03:30
Sometimes our vehicles are on their 3rd and subsequent violation, but each one of those violations was received by a different customer and different driver.
2:03:39
In those situations, the customer understandably is willing to pay the $350 fine, but not willing to pay the escalated $600 fine for the prior violations that other cost customers received.
2:03:50
For this reason, a transfer of liability program would be a very welcome development so that our customers are not penalized for other customers and fractions.
2:03:58
And finally, also, access to video and photograph evidence has been a huge problem for us.
2:04:05
The vast majority of times, I request video evidence prior to hearing, I never received it.
2:04:10
And as actress mentioned, we had a violation received well over a year ago.
2:04:14
We did not have a plate number in our fleet matching the plate number on the violation.
2:04:18
I requested numerous times video evidence prior to the hearing.
2:04:22
And didn't receive it.
2:04:23
So I did attend the scheduled hearing a few weeks ago.
2:04:26
The video evidence provided during the hearing clearly showed that it was another company's truck that was idling.
