Cabbies unhappy with the mayor's plan to raise money by selling scarce taxi permits -- known in the industry as "medallions" -- are pondering a possible legal challenge claiming the plan's unfair to hacks who'd hoped to get one for free.
"Obviously there's a lot of support for taking taking legal action because what the [Municipal Transportation Agency] is doing in the first place, on grounds of fairness, is atrocious," said Mark Gruberg, a spokesman for United Taxi Cab Workers, a dissident cabbies union. "They're going from a system by which drivers can get medallions without having to pay a fortune of money, to a system where drivers have to shell out $250,000, possibly more. ... We have looked at some of the legal issues, and think we may have grounds to start a lawsuit."
Under San Francisco's current taxi system drivers put their name on a waiting list. Then, they drive a taxi for 15 years renting another cabbie's permit, hoping to rise to the top of the medallion list, and the promise of a lifetime in medallion rental income that makes each permit worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. So far, however, drivers haven't been able to cash in all at once by selling the permits.
"If you choose not to take advantage of this amnesty program, the SFMTA will not only immediately file medallion revocation proceedings, but will also assess monetary penalties up to $24,000 for each year of total non-compliance or $30 for each hour that is short of satisfying the full time driving requirement.
"You have to consider that people have been waiting as much as 15 years, and they're denying his medallion. He has a family, this is his opportunity to own a medallion. He has a chance to lease his medallion to other drivers," said Surmaitis.
Surmaitis faces a hard legal road, however. Drivers are given no guarantee of a lucrative medallion when they get on the list. And other legal challenges to cities' ability to change permitting regimes have failed, even in cases where permit holders' incomes have been at stake.
SFMTA spokeswoman Kristen Holland, and Christiane Hiyashi, SFMTA's director of taxis, did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
