Down here at City Hall, the chambers are packed with cabbies. Two proposals are before council right now – one creating a limit on the number of cab permits a company can hold and giving 55 permits to a new franchise, most from now-departed Roy’s Taxi, and the other selecting which franchise will get them.
Item 14 awards the new franchise, and judging from the crowd, there’s still some consternation as to who should win. While this would likely be the case regardless, the close scores between the top two applicants have further fanned the flames. (For more background, see our coverage this week. And for even more, on the sale of Roy’s and look at Austin’s taxi history, click here.)
It looks to be a long morning; in addition to the taxi battle, the Waller Creek tax-increment financing district and the proposed charter revision committee were both pulled from the consent agenda for further discussion. And let’s not forget the city manager’s performance evaluation, which won’t happen until the afternoon, following her review in executive session.
This article appears in March 30 • 2007.