The City Attorney’s Office, Police Department and Councilmember Patricia Kernighan of the city of Oakland jointly presented a proposed ordinance to the Public Safety Committee that would add a chapter to Oakland’s Municipal Code.
Read the report here.
The proposed ordinance would create a nuisance vehicle chapter in the Municipal Code allowing the City to declare motor vehicles that are used for prostitution, pimping, pandering or those that are illegally dumped to be subject to impoundment for up to 30 days.
The California Legislature gave city’s authority to impound vehicles used in certain defined public nuisance activities with the passage of an amended Vehicle Code 22659.5. Under the new provisions, a city is authorized to adopt an ordinance declaring a motor vehicle to be a nuisance and to subject the vehicle to an impoundment period of up to 30 days.
There is no fiscal impact to the City.
In addition to the above illegal activity being subject to impound, if the owner or operator of the vehicle has had a prior conviction for the same offense within the past 3 years the vehicle is subject to penalty. The statute also requires that a city ordinance include specific provisions related to payment of towing, storage, and administrative fees, a post-storage hearing, and the release of the impounded vehicle.
Louis Dettorre can be reached at ldettorre@publicceo.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
