HB 273-ABANDONED VEHICLES; PRIVATE PROPERTY  1:43:55 PM CHAIR STUTES announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 273, "An Act relating to vehicles abandoned on private property." 1:44:33 PM JOE GREENOUGH, Staff, Representative Louise Stutes, Alaska State Legislature, presented HB 273 on behalf of Representative Stutes, prime sponsor. He related that abandoned vehicles were a statewide problem, and under current statute it took more than six months for property owners to be able to remove them. The time property owners needed to wait to remove abandoned vehicles, under HB 273, would be reduced from six months to 45 days, Mr. Greenough imparted. The vehicle owner would still have 30 days to respond, he added. If the property owner chose to have the vehicle towed, then the towing company would have a lien against the vehicle for towing fees and storage. 1:47:41 PM The committee took a brief at-ease at 1:47 p.m. 1:47:55 PM REPRESENTATIVE STORY referenced a letter in the committee packet from the Juneau Economic Development Council in which the council expressed concerns about public safety, especially regarding abandoned vehicles. 1:48:50 PM The committee took an at-ease from 1:49 p.m. to 1:59 p.m. 1:59:38 PM DAVID SCOTT CAMPBELL, Deputy Chief of Police, Juneau Police Department, told the committee that Juneau Police Department (JPD) had almost 900 reports of abandoned vehicles in one year. When a report is received, the case is assigned to a Community Service Officer (CSO), he informed the committee, who then works to have the vehicle removed before impounding it or involving the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV). If the CSO's efforts were exhausted and the vehicle is on private property, the property owner must then go through the process of obtaining ownership of the vehicle with the DMV so the vehicle can be properly disposed. In Juneau, vehicles are disposed at the recycling center at no charge to the owner; however, the owner is responsible for the cost of towing. MR. CAMPBELL shared the "broken windows" theory, in which any visible sign of "anti-social activity" tends to breed more of this type of activity. This is seen in Juneau when multiple abandoned cars end up in "big box store" parking lots, he explained. He addressed the question of why a store wouldn't deal with an abandoned vehicle found in its parking lot. Since the store wouldn't be able to take over the vehicle's ownership, it would have to pay the $12 per day throughout the six-month process. Finally, he said that private property owners usually just pushed the vehicle onto the street because the vehicle would then become the responsibility of the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ). Mr. Campbell said that he supported reducing the time frame so that abandoned vehicles may be dealt with more expediently. 2:05:23 PM REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN said he supported shortening the time frame but asked why it was 45 days. He also asked whether a vehicle [abandoned] in a "prime" parking spot at a box store would at least be pushed to the side of the parking lot. MR. CAMPBELL answered that older junk vehicles tend to be left at the periphery of a parking lot. He pointed out that owners tend to properly dispose of their vehicles because there is no cost to do so at the recycling center, while those [abandoning] vehicles tend to be people with whom the vehicle has transferred hands several times and perhaps they have taken parts from the vehicle and then decide to dump it. Another issue, he said, is if JPD towed a vehicle and it was damaged during the process, the repairs would then become JPD's responsibility. This would also apply to stores moving vehicles around lots, he surmised. He agreed that 45 days seemed too long but may be in place for people who were out of town. He admitted that this was not usually the case and by the time the owner was found the vehicle was worth next to nothing. 2:09:47 PM REPRESENTATIVE CLAMAN confirmed property owners who pushed abandoned vehicles onto the street without having contacted JPD beforehand would alleviate the property owner of responsibility. 2:11:24 PM REPRESENTATIVE GILLIS questioned why HB 273 had not been proposed earlier, because abandoned vehicles were a serious problem. 2:11:49 PM CHAIR STUTES asked what percentage of abandoned vehicles' owners were found. 2:11:58 PM MR. CAMPBELL replied that in 2017-2018, out of 890 complaints of abandoned vehicles on public and private property, 190 were impounded and 700 complaints were resolved without the vehicles having to be impounded. 2:12:53 PM CHAIR STUTES announced that HB 273 would be held over.