It’s clear to us that a vehicle impound ordinance that Denver voters approved in 2008 is problematic and ought to be repealed.
On that point, we agree with City Council members Paul Lopez and Doug Linkhart, who say Initiative 100 is clogging the city impound lot and causing fiscal problems.
But we part ways with the council members on the method of repeal. They want the council to vote to take the measure off the books and will propose that at a committee meeting today.
We think city voters, who approved the measure in the first place, ought to have the final say on whether the ordinance should stand.
Council members ought to put a question on the August ballot, asking voters to get rid of the new impound law. This would return Denver to a scenario that worked just fine: Police impounded cars as needed and the impound lot was sufficient to handle the situation.
For the record, we strongly opposed Initiative 100 from the beginning.
The measure said if Denver police stopped unlicensed drivers, their cars would be impounded and owners would be forced to pay a fine to have the vehicle released. Pointedly, the measure made mention of “illegal aliens,” and included a definition of such.
We saw the initiative as a backdoor attempt to conscript local law enforcement officers into taking on immigration duties that are beyond their mission and would cause a raft of problems.
And Initiative 100 has caused problems, despite an opinion from the city attorney’s office telling police officers they still had discretion in choosing which cars to impound.
That’s because once the cars get to the impound lot, some other requirements of the initiative kick in, including a $2,500 bond that vehicle owners have to post before getting their car back.
City officials tell us that people can’t afford to get their cars back, and in many cases the vehicles are worth less than the total of fines and fees owners would have to pay. The result is that even though impound numbers are down, the city impound lot is frequently full.
That has meant that vehicles that have been booted for, say, unpaid parking tickets frequently remain on the street longer. There is simply no place to put them.
Proponents of the measure say the impounds ought to generate fees, allowing the city to acquire more space for impounded cars, but that revenue hasn’t materialized.
We can only imagine what the landscape would look like if voters last year had approved Initiative 300, which was an effort to strengthen Initiative 100 by making vehicle impounds mandatory in certain circumstances. Voters repudiated Initiative 300 by an impressive margin, with nearly 7 out of 10 voters rejecting it.
Council members Lopez and Linkhart say the vote is a clear indication of how voters feel about the impound ordinance and it justifies council action to repeal it.
While council members would be within their authority to strip the measure from city ordinances, we think voters deserve the chance to make the call on this question.
