Pottsville Mayor Casts Decisive Vote on Moving Forward (For Now) with Tow Rotation Ordinance

In less than two months, a new administration will assume control of government at Pottsville City Hall. That would make the current make-up of City Council lame ducks.

But the only thing that’s “lame”, according to one councilperson, is waiting on moving forward with a towing rotation in the city. And wait, they won’t … maybe.

On Monday, Council members voted 3-2 to move forward with having City Solicitor Ed Brennan begin researching and crafting an ordinance that would create a towing ordinance in Pottsville.

Council members were split on the decision, with Mayor Bill Messaros casting the tie-breaking vote following a protracted and, at times, tense discussion.

The vote gives Brennan the go-ahead to begin writing an ordinance for council approval. However, he warned council members that they should really check with the incoming administration on whether they are in favor of a towing rotation or not.

Last week, Republicans seized control of City Hall for the first time in about 30 years when candidates Tom Smith, Jon Marsh, and Scott Price swept the election for three seats and the balance of power.

They’ll take office in January so conceivably, anything like adopting a new ordinance in the weeks before they’re seated could be a waste of time and money on the city’s part.

Brennan said writing this towing rotation ordinance will be “very complicated” and “very detailed” which translates to it taking time and time is money. He even hinted that it may not even be ready before the next administration takes office.

Before council members voted, he said it would be ideal to gauge the interest of the incoming administration before he moves forward.

“If they’re in favor of this, that puts it in a different posture versus whether they’re not in favor it,” Brennan said. “The idea tonight is to find out if the incoming administration is taking a position on this, yes or no. That would be most helpful. If they say no, you don’t want to make all this effort and have it go away in a couple months.”

Only Councilman-elect Price was in attendance at Monday’s meeting and while he didn’t shut the door on the idea of establishing a towing rotation in Pottsville, he didn’t commit one way or the other. He also didn’t want to speak for his fellow newly elected running mates on the issue.

Price urged council members to table the motion to move forward at least until December.

“It’s been on the agenda since July or June. What’s another month going to hurt,” he asked. “It’s something we are willing to listen to but I don’t think it’s pertinent to the operation of the city now.”

Then, after the vote was taken, Brennan added that consulting with the incoming administration will weigh on how much work he puts into writing the ordinance. He then put the onus on the Republicans to act, even though they haven’t been seated on council.

“If you meet with the new administration, ask them specifically – even though Mr. Price would not take a position tonight – are you going to do this? Because if they’re saying no, we’re wasting our time,” he said. “It’s time for them to make a decision or a comment where they’re inclined to go.”

Council Members Split on Towing Rotation in Pottsville

Despite that uncertainty, a majority of council members voted to move forward and charge Brennan with writing the ordinance

Council members Andy Wollyung and Cat Mahon preceded Messaros voting in the affirmative. Tom Wood and Dottie Botto said they weren’t prepared to support the resolution at this time.

A tow rotation, in theory, would establish an orderly process for giving tow business to local companies, removing vehicles from things like crashes. With a rotation in place, police or fire officials would have to call upon a certain company to have vehicles removed, depending on which day, week, or month it is.

The subject of a towing rotation has come up in other Schuylkill County municipalities and was suggested in Pottsville about a year ago.

Wollyung and Mahon strongly pushed for getting the rotation ordinance started right away.

“This is not something that came out of thin air,” Wollyung said, who expressed frustration that it’s taken this long to get the idea to any sort of vote.

He has an idea that the ordinance can be written, approved and read twice before the end of the year so it can be in place by the start of 2026.

“This has been brought up to this table since April,” Wollyung added. “It’s not that I want to start a city feud over this. The problem is, what are we doing here because it’s a simple thing that we could’ve been talking about this whole time and we’ve been kicking this can down the road this entire time and frankly, it’s not fair. It’s not fair to me, the person that’s brought it up. And I’ve been very patient with this subject.

“The decision of this board is to vote and how we vote is everybody’s decision but let’s not make it on the fact that we can’t do anything about it because that’s a pile of crap,” he said.

Mahon went so far as to call it “lame” that her fellow council members weren’t ready to vote on starting the draft of a towing rotation ordinance.

“To be frank, to delay this any further is lame. This has been an issue since I was in middle school. I remember being in middle school and hearing about the towing issue,” she said. “The idea that we have the opportunity to do something about it now and we should just wait two months, again, that’s a little lame.

“We have the ability to do something now. We should do something.,” Mahon added.

Botto countered Wollyung and Mahon’s argument, saying there was “no need to rush this at all.”

She sees added expenses in administering a would-be towing rotation. That cost would come from paying someone within the City government to ensure it’s being followed.

Botto said her focus is creating a budget for 2026.

“Our main focus right now is the budget and should be the budget. This is not a priority right now,” she said. “We should be focusing on the budget right now and also joining forces with the new administration coming in. We can not afford to be putting anything extra in our budget right now.”

The councilwoman also expressed concerns with going against the wills of the police and fire chiefs, with whom she said she spoke to about a potential towing rotation ordinance and based on her comments, were not fans.

Currently, it’s the discretion of the emergency personnel at the scene where a vehicle must be removed from a roadway as to which towing company is called to do the job. Botto suggested that the chiefs would prefer things as they are, at least for now.

“I will not disrespect the fire chief or the police chief,” she said. “We’re not close to a decision on this yet. Not even close.”

Wood backed Botto and said, “We haven’t done our research on it. We haven’t done our homework on it. I know we talked about doing that but we haven’t put anything forward.”

A Matter of Fairness?

In making their case for pushing forward with a towing rotation, Wollyung and Mahon said keeping companies out of the towing business and relying on another person’s discretion is unfair to tow company owners who are pushing for this legislation, that they just want a piece of the action and he feels they’re entitled to it.

“We want to be able to allow anybody into the city that is willing to execute work in a fair and equal manner. I just want to see it to be fair for everybody,” Wollyung said.

The councilman even suggested there are some inner-City Hall politics at play when it comes to who gets chosen for work.

“It is my belief that there is such a conflict on who gets picked for what and how it goes that it is a conflict within departments. I want to see that taken away so it is fair. I don’t think it’s right that it is left up to who it is,” he said. “There are other people who are giving back to this community and being a part of it that is going to help this community grow and frankly, when you turn them away, it’s going to be that they don’t want to do that anymore. We’ve seen it time and time again.”

Mahon agreed, saying that what’s happening now with the lack of a towing rotation is stifling younger business owners.

“As a young person in Pottsville, I understand how hard it is to break into anything because you’re fighting with the institutions. They always say it’s not your turn,” she said.

Open to Litigation

One concern Botto expressed is that creating a towing rotation and then potentially not following it – at least an accusation that it’s not being followed – could land Pottsville in some legal hot water.

That’s what’s happening now in Mahanoy City and has been threatened in Shenandoah, where the issue of a towing rotation has come up recently.

Brennan agreed that the concern is legit. He added that the city’s policy of giving police and fire the discretion on which company to choose to perform towing at emergency scenes is basically air tight.

“Somebody’s got to keep track of the rotation. The litigation concerns, they’re certainly well taken,” he said.

Mahon responded to the litigation worries by saying, “I feel like the fact that we haven’t been hit with litigation for what is going on with the towing policy in the city is shocking enough. Thank you, everybody, for being so cool, I guess.

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