Mayor Adrian Fenty is considering a drastic change to the role of the much-maligned D.C. Taxicab Commission, perhaps dissolving it or diminishing its power — just as he did with the Board of Education.
“That discussion is ongoing,” Fenty said Thursday, soon after he unveiled the fare structure and regulations tied to a new taxi meter system. “It hasn’t come to a point where we’ve made a decision.”
Fenty announced Oct. 17 that the District would ditch the 70-year-old zone fares in favor of meters. At the time, he left it up to the Taxicab Commission to develop and adopt the regulations, which are its primary responsibilities under the D.C. Code. But two weeks later, the mayor rolled out the rules himself, citing a desire to move quickly.
“These are the mayor’s people’s regulations, in my mind,” Commissioner Sandy Allen, a former D.C. Council member, said Friday, “because I haven’t seen them and I haven’t voted on them. I think a process was circumvented.”
Commission Chairman Leon Swain said he was “given direction and authorization” to draft the regulations, which he “presented to the mayor’s office for review.” But observers were quick to question the commission’s absence: Commissioner Stanley Tapscott said he was left out of the process completely.
Fenty has shown little patience for agencies that he considers inefficient. In taking over the failing D.C. Public Schools, he reduced the Board of Education to an advisory role. He dissolved two quasi-independent development corporations, placing their responsibilities under a deputy mayor.
The Taxicab Commission has long been criticized as impotent and slow to act, and may be in line for a similar overhaul. When the mayor rolled out the new zone fare map in February, it took the commission four months to adopt it. When he asked commissioners for formal advice on the zone versus meter question, they came back with nothing.
“It’s definitely being discussed,” said Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham, who has oversight of taxi matters. “No ifs, ands or buts.”
Allen said the organization’s charges demand more money and more staff. The mayor should consider those needs, she said, “and not just try to eradicate the taxi commission.”
