City of Bellingham Hearing Examiner

## Meeting Overview On February 11, 2025, Bellingham Hearing Examiner Sharon Rice convened a virtual impound appeal hearing to decide a case that would ultimately turn on competing interpretations of what constitutes proper procedure when a vehicle breaks down in the early morning hours. The hearing, conducted via Zoom, brought together Erica Irizarris, whose 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee had been towed from Horton Road in the early morning hours of February 4, Chris Heston of Heston Hauling towing company, and city staff member Ms. Bowker. What began as a routine vehicle breakdown on a snowy February night had escalated into a $1,370 dispute over whether the city and its contracted towing company had acted properly in removing an allegedly abandoned vehicle. The case presented a stark human dimension that would permeate the entire proceeding: Irizarris, caring for her sick mother while dealing with her own medical challenges including a recent pregnancy loss and health complications, found herself fighting to recover her only means of transportation after what she described as an emergency vehicle breakdown that lasted less than two hours. The hearing would reveal competing narratives about the events of that cold February morning and raise questions about the balance between traffic safety enforcement and consideration for citizens facing unexpected emergencies. ## The Towing Company's Account Chris Heston, owner of Heston Hauling, presented his company's role in straightforward terms that emphasized adherence to established procedures and state-regulated pricing. "Mine, as you've heard before, it goes pretty simple. We go back to the impound invoice," Heston testified, referring to the detailed timeline his company maintained of the towing operation. According to his records, Bellingham Police Department requested their services at 3:04 AM on February 4, 2025. The company dispatched a truck one minute later at 3:05 AM, with the driver arriving on scene at 3:38 AM. The actual towing process, Heston explained, began at 3:43 AM and was completed when the vehicle arrived at the towing yard at 4:08 AM, with all paperwork cleared by 4:20 AM. "For a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes," Heston noted. "Everything was slower that day, as you can see from all the photos. We had a lot of snow, a lot of ice, so everything took time." When it came to the financial aspects of the towing operation, Heston was careful to emphasize that his company's rates were not arbitrar…