Rexburg officials try to avoid 'mass chaos' with booting situation - East Idaho News
Local

Rexburg officials try to avoid ‘mass chaos’ with booting situation

  Published at

REXBURG – The question about booting is one step closer to getting an answer.

The mayor and City Council held a work meeting Wednesday night with representatives from the Off Campus Housing Association and one of the local booting companies. The biggest question on everyone’s minds was if the current city code makes booting legal under state statutes.

City Attorney Steven Zollinger said he wrote Ordinance 911, which has been used to justify booting in Rexburg, and he believes it does not give Rexburg the authority to allow booting.

“There are a lot of ways to fix this,” Zollinger said. “I can’t advise you that any of those fixes are available as long as 49-229 stays in.”

State Statute 49-229 deals with state law in regard to injuring motor vehicles.

When pressed on the matter Zollinger said he is “willing to ignore it (statute 49-229).”

“They have my blessing to boot,” he said.

Zollinger said the problem with booting is booting companies do not have the right to seize someone’s property and demand payment. He gave an example of a tenant being wrongfully booted and the booting company refused to remove the boot until they were paid, even though the apartment manager requested the boot be removed.

“My policy is not to seize a vehicle whether the management tells me to take it off or not,” said Ryan Cobar, owner of RC Booting. “My policy is to take it off when management tells me to.”

Trent VanderSloot, member of the OCHA and representative for the owner of NorthPoint Apartments, said he and other apartment owners are willing to work with booting companies to amend their practices to align with state law.

VanderSloot said he believes state statute 49-229 will not pose a threat to coming to a solution over booting.

“Because the ordinance was written prior to when booting existed and the fact that they allow towing – I’m confident that we’ll end up in a good place,” he told EastIdahoNews.com. “In the meantime we’d like to see it go as smoothly as possible.”

Mayor Jerry Merrill said he believes the state Legislature will take up the issue and clarify it when it convenes in January 2018. Until then, he and the City Council are trying to “fill the gap.”

“So, apartment owners know what they can do with their private property – that the booting companies know what they can do legally do, that it gives us a little bit of order to the situation so that we don’t just have mass chaos when the students come back in September,” Merrill said.

Zollinger recommended the City Council repeal City Ordinance 911, because a city code is not able to override state law.

The City Council tabled the matter until its Aug. 16 meeting, when it will discuss Ordinance 911 and possibly make changes to it.

SUBMIT A CORRECTION