taxi chair Ron Linton
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Today, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced legislation to overhaul DC’s taxi industry. Despite the fact that the proposed changes may jeopardize the livelihood of many of the District’s 8,000-plus drivers, Cheh didn’t meet to discuss the legislation with The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers (SBA), which has approximately 3,000 members.
“We are moving along with these reforms one way or the other,” Cheh told TheFightBack shortly before her joint press conference yesterday with Mayor Gray on the taxi overhaul. Among the proposed changes is the introduction of a cash-free system, something SBA’s member-companies have already started implementing. The credit card machines Cheh and Gray hope to install will be located in the backseat, have a screen, and play ads all day long. While Cheh hasn’t met with the SBA on this issue, she’s met with unnamed others. “Conversations have been had,” she said.
At yesterday’s press conference, TheFightBack asked city officials why they hadn’t met with drivers about the proposed changes. Directly afterwards, taxi chair Ron Linton preemptively scolded TheFightBack before being asked a question. “You have to decide whether you want to have a rule making process… or whether you want private meetings behind the scenes with a handful of so-called leaders,” lectured Linton.
When asked whether he was having meetings with industry members, Linton replied, “I’m not. No.” He said, “You can’t take a regulator into a private meeting with a handful of people who supposedly represent 8,500, and they don’t.”
But it turns out Linton had just such a meeting on Dec. 6 at the DC Taxicab Commission (DCTC) with several fleet owners, including taxi mogul Schaeffer, according to several sources. In a phone conversation earlier today, Jerry Schaeffer said he didn’t attend, “but I think Jeff went,” he said of his son.
Also present at the closed-door meeting was Elliott Ferguson, president and CEO of Destination DC, according to sources. Ferguson has been nominated but not yet confirmed as a DCTC commissioner, so he would likely have been representing the hospitality industry at the meeting.
“I have not met with anybody in the hospitality industry,” Linton told TheFightBack. “What am I going to meet with them about?”
Linton was not immediately available for comment. Destination DC said they would check Ferguson’s schedule and get back to TheFightBack. Destination DC said Mr. Ferguson was not in attendance on December 6. (TheFightBack regrets this erroneous statement.)
“It’s very disappointing and frustrating to me that city officials are saying that they’re working in partnership with the drivers to modernize the taxicab industry,” said Haimanot Bizuayehu, SBA board member. “What they are doing right now is just imposing their dreams, and in the process they are driving the majority of independent owner/operators out of business and into unemployment.”
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The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers Holds Its First General Meeting, Dec. 6, 2011