Bellingham Hearing Examiner

**Meeting ID:** BEL-HEX-2025-12-10 ## Meeting Overview On December 10, 2025, Bellingham Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice convened a virtual Zoom hearing to consider an appeal of a vehicle impoundment. The case, filed as HE25-VI-045, was brought by Nancy Witter challenging the city's decision to tow and impound her vehicle, as well as the associated towing and storage fees. The hearing examiner, an attorney under contract with Bellingham and eight other Western Washington jurisdictions, presided over what would prove to be a straightforward but poignant case involving family circumstances, holiday mail delays, and municipal parking enforcement. The hearing followed a structured format with testimony from Andrew Schutte, the city's parking code compliance officer; Chris Heston from Heston Hauling, the towing company; and the appellants Nancy Witter and Christopher Lieb. What emerged was a case that highlighted the intersection of rigid municipal codes with human circumstances — a family using a relative's vehicle to help during a medical emergency, unaware of the 72-hour parking limit, and receiving notice of the violation only as their car was being towed. Rice made clear from the outset that the appellant bore the burden of proof to demonstrate error in the city's impoundment decision, setting up what would become a test of whether procedural compliance trumps compassionate consideration of circumstances. ## The City's Case: By-the-Book Enforcement Andrew Schutte, a Level 1 parking code compliance officer, methodically laid out the city's enforcement action. His testimony revealed a process that followed established procedures with attention to detail that bordered on forensic precision. The sequence began November 9th when a community member reported a black Toyota Camry with license plate CPT 3330 parked at the corner of Inverness Lane and Likely Drive, allegedly unmoved for ten consecutive days. "I responded the following day on 1110," Schutte testified, using the date format common in law enforcement. "I arrived at t…