On March 18, 2008, I received a letter from Chairman Hodge, on his company's stationary, in which he stated:

"I stress to you and the rest of the Virginia towing industry that the creation of this board did not happen with the active consent of any tower or any towing association. The BTRO was thrust upon us by legislative action due to decades of abuse suffered by Virginia's consumers at the hands of our industry's rouge (sic) towers. For those of us who were advocating on behalf of the towing industry at the time the choice was and still is clear, we as towers accepted the responsibliity of the board to ensure that a government agency or the Assembly, who have very little knowledge of our industry, did not regulate the industry."

(1) No consumer group has represented itself before the board to push for these oppressive regulations. Why has BTRO been so enthusiastic about presenting such extreme rules without being pushed by consumers?

(2) If the towing industry and the Virginia Association of Towing and Recovery Operators and the Major Incident Heavy Recovery Operators Association did not consent to these  rules, who wrote the proposed regulations?

(3) If the members of the board, including Chairman Hodge, and the two major towing associations did not want regulation, why has the board developed the most extreme regulatory proposals in the entire United States?

(3)  Why has MIHROA, which according to the Va. State Corporation Commission, has not filed any documents since the year 2000, managed to have such a strong voice on the board? (I learned of this by filing a Freedom of Information request with the SCC)

(4) Why are three members of the board also members of MIHROA?  MIHROA claims to have no income but has spent well over $100,000 in its efforts? Why are the members on the board who are also members of MIHROA  not concerned enough about potential illegal operations by MIHROA to resign from the group until it begins to file the documents required by law?