## Meeting Overview On December 2, 2024, at 1:04 PM, City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice convened a vehicle impound appeal hearing via Zoom. Rice, an attorney who works on contract with Bellingham and nine other cities and counties as a hearing examiner, presided over the afternoon session to decide an appeal of both the validity of a vehicle impound and the associated towing and storage fees. The case—Hearing Examiner File Number H.24.VI.036 and Public Works Case Number 24.PW-01751—involved the November 4, 2024 impoundment of a 1987 Dodge pickup truck owned by Dominique Zervas-Foley. The vehicle had been parked on West Indiana Street in front of a residence when it was cited for obstructing traffic and subsequently towed by Heston Hauling. The hearing brought together three parties: City parking enforcement officer Tony Turner, towing operator Chris Heston, and the appellants—vehicle owner Dominique Zervas-Foley, her son Pascal Foley (who had been using the truck), and neighborhood resident Joan Bannell (at whose house the truck had been parked). What emerged was a complex case involving questions about traffic safety, municipal communication, and the impact of recent infrastructure improvements on a residential neighborhood. ## The City's Case: Public Safety Enforcement Tony Turner, the City's parking code compliance officer, testified first about responding to a citizen complaint on November 4, 2024. "We had a complaint," Turner explained, referring to a service request the City had received about the vehicle. When he arrived at the scene on West Indiana Street, Turner found what he characterized as a clear public safety violation. "The vehicle was obstructing traffic," Turner testified. "So it was jeopardizing public safety. Vehicles had to go around the vehicle onto the oncoming lane." Turner had photographed the scene extensively, and these images became central exhibits in the case. He explained that the truck was "parked on the lane of travel" and "impeding the flow of traffic." Turner noted that while he observed three potential violations—obstructing traffic, parking within five feet of a driveway, and parking within ten feet of a mailbox—he chose to cite only the traffic obstruction. "I figured one citation was good enough for obstructing," he said, demonstrating what seemed like restraint in his enforcement approach. When Examiner Rice pressed Turner about the street configuration, he confirmed that West Indiana Street is a …