D.C. Council leaders are trying to work out the role they will play as the District prepares to chart the specifics of its switch to taxicab meters.
Mayor Adrian Fenty made the call Wednesday to ditch the District’s ages-old zone system for the time-and-distance meters used in every other major U.S. city. He left it to the D.C. Taxicab Commission to decide the timeline, the fares and the required equipment, among other details, but he made no mention of the legislative branch.
“The role cannot be avoided, but we’ve got to fashion the right kind of role for this,” said Ward 1 D.C. Council Member Jim Graham, who has oversight of taxi issues.
Congress forced Fenty to decide on meters versus zones. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., slipped the provision into a D.C. authorization bill mandating the change, though it also provided Fenty with the option of backing out.
Graham recommended that the mayor opt out, he said, citing a need for more study and a general unpleasant taste that the choice was forced on D.C. by an outside lawmaker.
But at this stage, Graham said, “the die is cast” and now is the time to focus on the “major procedural and substantive questions.” He said he is in negotiations with the Fenty administration to decide where the council fits in the discussion.
“Right now you have only the grain of what this is, you have lots of issues and you’re going to have to have a rulemaking,” Graham said. “This is not something you issue in the dead of night and everybody bows down.”
Ward 8 Council Member Marion Barry, one of the few council members to broach the topic since Fenty made his call, claimed the decision “unjustly benefits tourists,” and he urged the mayor to “fine-tune his proposal so that it does not increase the fares for District residents.”
“We welcome the input of the council,” said Dena Iverson, Fenty’s spokeswoman.
