§ 12-110. Removal, impoundment and disposition of certain vehicles.

A. 

This section is enacted as an enforcement procedure for protection of public peace, safety and welfare and the safeguarding of property and shall be used generally for the prevention and removal of traffic hazards, the prevention and abatement of public nuisances arising from traffic law violations and the protection of public rights in the use of City streets and thoroughfares.

B. 

Any vehicle which shall be found in violation of any provision of this Code which allows for impoundment of such vehicle shall be deemed a public nuisance, and the police department and any other agency of the City assigned to traffic duty are hereby authorized to remove the same or cause the same to be removed, at the sole cost of the registered owner. The police department or other agency shall have the power and is hereby authorized to remove the vehicle by either private or governmental equipment to some garage within the City.

C. 

Whenever the police department has impounded a vehicle described above, a notice of such removal and the storage place of such vehicle shall be mailed to the last registered owner of such vehicle, if the name and address of such owner can be ascertained with reasonable diligence. Such notice shall state that if the owner fails to reclaim such vehicle within sixty days from the date of the mailing, title to such vehicle will vest in the City, and such vehicle will be sold at public auction to be held not sooner than thirty days after the expiration of the sixty day period contained in the notice.

D. 

The registered owner of a vehicle found to be in violation of any provision of this Code which allows for impoundment of such vehicle shall be presumed to be the owner at the time the violation did in fact occur and shall be severally responsible for the offenses and impoundment, except where the use of the vehicle was secured by the operator without the owner's consent.

E. 

It shall be the duty of the police department to safely keep any impounded vehicle until such vehicle shall have been repossessed by the owner or person legally entitled to possession thereof or otherwise disposed of as provided in this section. The police department shall cause to be kept an accurate record of the description of such vehicle, including the name of the officer from whom such a vehicle was received, the officer employed to deliver the same to such pound or authorized garage, the date and time when received, the place where found, seized or taken possession of, the make and color of such vehicle, style or body, kind of power, motor number, serial number, number of cylinders, year built, state license number, if any, equipment and general description of condition, the name and address of the person redeeming such vehicle, the date of redemption and the manner and date of disposal of such vehicle in case the same shall not be redeemed, together with the cost of outstanding summonses and the towing and storage charges. This record shall be in the form prescribed by the chief of police.

F. 

Any vehicle impounded pursuant to this section will be released to its lawful owner, or person entitled to possession, upon showing adequate evidence of a right to its possession and paying of all accrued fines and costs for each outstanding unpaid summons or depositing of the collateral required for his appearance in the municipal court to answer for each violation for which there is an outstanding or otherwise unsettled traffic violation notice or warrant, and the charges for towing and storage. The release should be signed by an authorized officer.

G. 

Whenever any vehicle so impounded shall remain unclaimed by the owner or other person legally entitled to possession thereof for a period of sixty days from the day notice to the owner was mailed, it shall be the duty of the police department to sell such vehicle at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, the time and place of such sale to be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the City not less than ten nor more than fifteen days from the expiration of such sixty days. Such notice shall contain a full description of the vehicle to be sold and the time and place of sale; provided, that any such vehicle not sold at the first sale may be offered for sale and sold at any subsequent sale without further notice or publication. The proceeds of such sale, after paying all liens and deducting all reasonable charges and expenses incurred by the officer charged with the keeping of the pound, including the fees and charges herein specified, in receiving, towing, keeping, preparing and giving notices, advertising for sale or otherwise disposing of such vehicle, shall be paid to the City treasurer.

(1) 

Whenever any such vehicle shall remain unsold for a period of one hundred eighty days from and including the day when the same shall have been delivered to any vehicle pound as in this section provided, any such vehicle may be given to the use of any department of the City or other governmental agency desiring the same.

(2) 

No member of the police department, and no other employee of the City, directly or indirectly, shall purchase or participate in the bidding for, or purchase of, any vehicle offered for sale as aforesaid.

(3) 

If the vehicle shall be deemed by the chief of police of no value or of insufficient value to warrant storage and sale, and if no owner shall appear to redeem such valueless vehicle within sixty days after the mailing of notice of its removal, which notice shall contain a statement that the vehicle is deemed to be of no value or of insufficient value to warrant storage and sale, and that it is the intention to dispose of or destroy such vehicle, to any owner whose name and address can be ascertained with reasonable diligence, or by publishing such notice in the official newspaper once, at least five days before its destruction or other disposition. Such vehicle as above provided shall be conclusively deemed of no value and to be abandoned property, and there shall be no claim against the City, the chief of police or any of their agents or employees by reason of any such destruction or disposition.