A D.C. judge ruled Monday that the installations of smart meters in the city’s 6,500 taxicabs can proceed while an appeals board considers protests against the $35 million deal, dashing the hopes of two companies that wanted to stop the contract temporarily.
Creative Mobile Technologies filed suit last week to try to bar the city from insisting its taxi drivers install the smart meters, which include GPS technology and credit card machines, as the city’s Contract Appeals Board weighs their protests.
The panel, which is due to rule by Friday, has been reviewing the massive contract since soon after VeriFone won the deal in July. CMT was one of two companies to object to the agreement.
In trying to halt the installations, which began Wednesday, the company argued in court that it would suffer “irreparable harm as the board will not be able to order a directed award to CMT or re-competition in which CMT can fairly compete for the award.”
But in an order Monday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Laura Cordero refused to stop the installations, city records show.
A. Scott Bolden, who represents CMT, said he was disappointed in Cordero’s ruling.
“As long as the contract is being performed, it’s our position that the protestors are being damaged and harmed on a daily basis because this contract award is not final,” he said.
The city will continue installing the meters even as cab drivers will each have to pay up to $500 for the new technology while officials try to overcome one more hurdle to the deal: Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry’s disapproval resolution. Barry temporarily blocked the reimbursement of cab drivers by protesting VeriFone’s contract, saying the city should wait for the appeals panel’s ruling.
The smart meters are scheduled to appear in all D.C. cabs by November. Ron Linton, the chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, told NewsChannel 8 on Monday that he hopes to “ramp up” the process in mid-September and install 100 meters per day.
But Linton warned finding the new meters will be hard until then.
“In the first few weeks you’d have better luck trying to win the lottery,” he said.
