There was supposed to be a hearing on Open Taxi Access (OTA) held by the MTA's Policy and Governance Committee at 9 am on April 12, 2011. Instead, some people were informed (misinformed?) on April 11th that the agenda item was being postponed. Then the item was apparently discussed anyway and tabled.
I wasn't paying the matter much attention because I was under the impression that OTA was a done deal. So all I'm doing is passing on rumors.
Depending upon who you talked to, the matter was;
- Tabled by Mayor Ed Lee because he didn't want to spend $405,000.
- Send back to TAC for discussion by MTA board member Jerry Lee for the same reason.
- Killed by President and General Manager of Luxor Cab John Lazar's huge back-door presence.
This might be a delaying tactic but if so why? TAC has already discussed OTA and most of the councilors appear to be in favor it.
On the other hand, there is little doubt that John Lazar feels threatened by Cabulous and thinks that giving OTA city money would undermine his own application, Taxi Magic, and thus hurt his business.
Lets see who will be stronger. Influence and money cannot win all the time. The ad wrap fund was 50/50 split as TAC agreed and then now 90/10, the backseat TVs supposed to be at no cost (even cover the credit card cost)but now it cost them to install and drivers are told not to have their own merchant account and only to process credit cards through company's system. There is a lot of scams going on and the authorities are keeping their eyes closed.
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