A Critical Look at New Haven’s Tax-and-Tow Program: Early Benefits and Long-Term Dangers of Monopoly Service Provision in Municipal Contracting

Abstract

In the spring of 2008, Crown Auto Center—along with four other New Haven towing companies—petitioned the City to investigate whether another towing operator, Anthony Monaco, had improperly gained a second spot on the police department’s towing rotation. 1 As established by New Haven’s "tow truck ordinance," the police department must rotate municipal towing assignments among eligible towers on a "reasonably fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory basis . . . ." 2 Writing to the City, Crown and other protesting towers alleged that Mr. Monaco, already the owner of one towing outfit, Lombard Motors, had created a "new" sham business—Anthony’s High-Tech—in an illegitimate attempt to gain a second spot on the rotation and thus increase his share of the City’s towing assignments.3 Their letter to New Haven’s then-Corporation Counsel, John Ward, noted that Anthony’s was located next-door to Lombard and that Mr. Monaco remained the landlord for both properties.4