Opinion ID: 615084
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Ordinance at Issue

Text: On December 12, 2007, the Houston City Council (the City) passed Ordinance 2007-1419 (the Ordinance) authorizing 211 additional taxicab permits to be allocated over the subsequent four-year period. New taxicab permits had not been issued in Houston since 2001, and the City wanted to expand its cab fleets. The ordinance planned to distribute new permits based on the size of the taxi company. The size categories are: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of current Classification permits --------------------------------------------------------------------- 80+ Large -------------------------------------------------------------------- 25-79 Mid-large -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4-24 Mid-small -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-3 Small -------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 New entrant -------------------------------------------------------------------- The 211 permits would be issued over the course of four years as follows: -------------------------------------------------------------------- Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Large companies (4 total) 28 28 28 24 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mid-large companies 12 12 8 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Mid-small companies 12 12 12 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Small companies 16 [1] 0 0 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------- New entrants 11 0 0 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------- TOTAL 79 52 48 32 -------------------------------------------------------------------- As the chart illustrates, small companies would enter a lottery for 16 new permits in the first year, and would have no opportunities for additional permits in years 2-4. The City developed this plan after consulting with a number of key stakeholders. It formed a Taxicab Working Group comprising current taxi permit holders, community leaders, and City Council members. The group, which included three sub-committees, met over the course of several months to develop the proposal that ultimately became the Ordinance. Most of the reasoning behind this distribution scheme is explained in the Ordinance's preamble and in a memo to the City drafted by the City's Finance and Administration Director. The City viewed the four large companies as full-service taxicab companies in that they offer, among other things, full 24-hour radio dispatch services and complete on-site repair facilities for their vehicles. The mid-large companies offer only limited radio dispatch services. Mid-small and small companies, by contrast, generally do not offer 24-hour service; they communicate by cell phone and tend to operate primarily at the airports. The City concluded further that larger taxi companies are better able to provide disabled access vehicles and more efficient, environmentally friendly taxicabs. As a supplement to this distribution scheme, the Code of Ordinances for the City authorizes additional permitting in limited circumstances. Under § 46-66(d), a qualified other applicant who meets the criteria set forth below may petition the city council requesting that he be granted permits or additional permits.... [2] Subsection 46-66(e) provides the total number of additional permits granted to all petitioners under subsection (d) may not exceed 25 percent of the available permit number. According to the City, this provision acts as a safeguard to provide additional permit opportunities for smaller companies that could, in fact, provide the same services as the larger taxi companies.