The D.C. Taxicab Commission has not met in nearly eight months and drivers say it has devolved into an ineffective agency that holds virtually no authority to manage or reform the industry.
The commission is charged with crafting and approving the regulations and policies that govern the taxicab industry. But the eight-member panel has not convened since May.
The result, drivers said during a D.C. Council hearing Thursday: The industry is in a “sorry state” and operators are suffering.
“The D.C. Taxicab Commission functions within a system of organized anarchy, lacking sufficiently detailed rules and regulations governing oversight and operations of the taxicab industry,” said Larry Frankel, chairman of the Dominion of Cab Drivers.
Mayor Adrian Fenty, meanwhile, has taken control. In June, for example, he authorized the commission by executive order to raise cab fares by as much as 5 percent once a year, but the rates remain the same because the group has not met since.
The council hearing was the first chaired by Councilman Michael Brown, who assumed taxicab oversight from Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham. Graham’s former chief of staff was arrested in the fall — in part of a massive federal probe into industry corruption — for allegedly taking bribes to promote legislation favorable to cab operators.
D.C. regulations require the commission to meet in January, March, May, July, September and November. Commissioner Scott Kubly said the group could not convene because it lacked, until recently, a general counsel and secretary.
Drivers complained, as they have for years, that D.C. cab fares under the meter system are unjustly low. But there’s little recourse, they said, with the commission essentially powerless.
“I’m struggling to pay my mortgage and my bills that are at 2010 levels while our mayor has granted us the privilege of working for 1989 rates,” said Phillip Lebet with Diamond Cab.
Roughly 2,700 people took the licensing exam last year, Kubly said, a sign “there’s still money to be made.” But council members were sympathetic to the plight of drivers.
“These men and women are losing money because of the backward policies of this administration,” Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry said.
