Graham retains taxicab oversight
By: Michael Neibauer
Examiner Staff Writer
October 6, 2009
D.C. Councilman Jim Graham will retain oversight of the District's taxicab industry despite the alleged involvement of his staff in a massive taxicab bribery scheme that netted nearly 40 arrests last week, the council's chairman said.
Graham chairs the public works and transportation committee, which oversees all taxicab-related legislation. Ted Loza, his chief of staff, was arrested Sept. 25 on suspicion of accepting $1,500 in bribes to steer taxicab legislation through the council. Two more Graham staffers were called to testify before a grand jury investigating a $300,000-plus bribery ring involving the D.C. Taxicab Commission.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray said Monday that he has met twice with Graham since Loza's arrest and has decided that the Ward 1 representative should maintain oversight of the taxi industry. Graham is neither a target nor a person of interest in the investigation, Gray said, and the Ward 1 councilman has withdrawn a bill that would cap the number of taxis on city streets through the sale of "medallion" licenses.
"I don't see anything at this juncture that suggests it should be removed from his committee," Gray said.
Graham "maintains that he's committed no wrongdoing and sees no need to step down from his oversight of taxicab issues," spokesman Brian DeBose said Monday.
Federal authorities on Friday charged 36 cabbies, mostly Ethiopian, with passing roughly $110,000 in bribes to current Taxicab Commission Chairman Leon Swain, the FBI's whistleblower. Three other men -- Yitbarek Syume, Berhane Leghese and Amanuel Ghirmazion -- were charged with funneling Swain about $220,000 to obtain taxicab licenses illegally.
Syume is a partner in Jet Cab and United Fleet Management with Causton Toney, a former D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman. Toney's home was searched Friday as the investigation unfolded, but he has not been arrested.
Toney on Sept. 10 contributed $400 each to the constituent-services funds of Graham and committee colleagues Phil Mendelson, Kwame Brown and Tommy Wells. One council member said Toney sought a meeting with him on taxicab issues around that same time.
The checks were returned by Monday, the four council members said.
"Due to conflict of interests I am returning to you your contribution," Brown wrote to Toney on Monday.
