Towing companies and consumer advocates presented disparate visions for Connecticut’s towing regulations at a state Department of Motor Vehicles working group meeting Monday, highlighting challenges as the group tries to agree on recommendations to the legislature.

The 10-member committee was formed under a 2025 law that overhauled much of the state’s towing law and went into effect Oct. 1. The law passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support last session following reporting from The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica that found that Connecticut allows tow truck companies to start the sales process in 15 days on cars valued under $1,500 — one of the shortest windows in the country. The stories also explained how this and other laws favored towing companies at the expense of low-income residents.

The towing working group had its second meeting Monday at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Wethersfield. It has until February to address the problems that remain with towing procedures in Connecticut.

“How do we help an individual without killing [towing companies] in regards to the fees?” DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera said at the meeting.

Towing company representatives said Monday they need to be sure they can make money and recoup the costs of towing and storage. They proposed ridding state law of the current valuation system that sets different requirements for cars worth $1,500 or less and holding all cars for 30 days, regardless of the value.

Consumer advocates in the group presented a plan that they said would maximize the chances that people who want their vehicles back can retrieve them. Their plan would halt storage charges for vehicle owners who notify the tower that they plan to pay towing fees and get their cars.

Rafie Podolsky, an attorney at Connecticut Legal Services and committee member, said he sees the sales process as two parts. First, there’s the time after a vehicle is towed when the owner can get it back from the towing company. Second, if the owner doesn’t retrieve their car it is sold.

Consumer advocates want to establish a procedure within the DMV so vehicle owners can dispute tows from private property as opposed to tows after accidents. The plan would require that towers stop charging storage fees for 10 to 20 days if the vehicle owner says they want the car back.

They also want to require towers to keep an itemized list of the personal items in the vehicle and ban them from driving the cars for their own purposes. Previous reporting from CT Mirror and ProPublica found that some tow companies used personal possessions as leverage to get people to pay towing and storage fees. The proposal would also have the DMV keep and report out data on towing and sales.

“The problem always is that as time goes by” costs go up, Podolsky said.

Towers in the group said Podolsky’s plan wouldn’t work.

“We’ve still got to make money,” Eileen Colonese, secretary of the Towing & Recovery Professionals of Connecticut, muttered during Podolsky’s explanation.

Colonese, of Farmington Motor Sports, said under the consumer advocates’ proposal, towing companies would essentially be storing vehicles for free.

Towing companies presented a legislative proposal that would do away with the valuation system for towed vehicles in Connecticut. Under the new law, cars worth $1,500 or less can be sold in 30 days in a private sale. Vehicles worth more than that can be sold within 45 days and it must be at a private auction.

The towers’ proposal instead says that all vehicles could be sold after 30 days, regardless of value or condition. Sales of vehicles five years old or newer would have to be advertised in the newspaper, and older vehicles would require only certified mail to the owner.

“We put together a streamlined system,” said Sal Sena, legislative chair of the towing association and owner of Sena Brothers. “We tried to create a concurrent system and then streamline it in 30 days.”

Podolsky said the towing companies’ proposal takes a process that’s “not working” and applies it to everybody.

Guerrera said deciding on a proposal would be a tough balancing act.

“How do we make it easier for the consumer to get their vehicle back? And I think that’s beneficial for you guys too, right?” he asked, gesturing to the towers who had previously said they didn’t want to keep people’s cars; they just wanted to be paid.

“I think our time is going to start to get pretty tight,” Guerrera added, of the legislative deadline.

State law mandates that the committee present recommendations to lawmakers by Feb. 1. The group plans to meet once per month, leaving likely three more meetings until the recommendations are due.

CT Mirror reporter Dave Altimari contributed to this story.