Lynwood Backdates Mr. C’s Towing Contract After Campaign Donations, Despite Allegations of Car Theft and Disability Discrimination (Guest Post by Marilyn Angel)

On November 3, 2026, despite reports of car theft and the targeting of handicapped drivers, the City of Lynwood voted to provide exclusive city towing services to Mr. C's Towing ("Mr. C's") until March 31, 2027. Lynwood's contract not only provided a current contract but also backdated Mr. C's contract to 2024, after The Legal Lens exposed that, from August 2024 until November 3, 2026, Mr. C's had been towing cars without a city contract.

Mr. C's Towing has been the designated city towing company since 2017. Its contract expired on August 8, 2024, yet Lynwood staff continued ordering city tows through Mr. C's on the "understanding" that the arrangement continued month to month, even though the agreement had no month-to-month provision.

Lynwood's own municipal code requires the City Council to approve a contractual extension. There is no specified resolution, if any exists, that staff relied on when they continued ordering those tows.

Campaign filings reviewed by The Legal Lens show that Mr. C's Towing made a generous donation of $495 each to Mayor Gabriela Camacho's and Council Member Luis Gerardo Cuellar's 2026 reelection campaigns in early October. Weeks later, both voted to enable Mr. C's to impound Lynwood residents' cars. The timing raises a pay-to-play question.

Lynwood claims it will seek new proposals. Legal Lens contends that this retroactive backdating of the contract is illegal and is most likely an attempt to conceal the theft of cars so that both the City and Mr. C's can keep their profits from the stealing of cars. Outraged residents are taking to social media to shame Mark A. Mathis, the General Manager of Mr. C's, who Judge Judy already called an "Idiot!"