Emanuel administration puts brakes on cabbies’ call for fare hearing

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Updated: March 3, 2012 11:37AM

Four times in the last five years, Chicago cabdrivers have petitioned the City Council for a fare increase, only to walk away empty-handed.

Now, they can’t even get that far.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration has ruled that veteran cabdriver Thaddeus Budzynski failed to meet the requirement that he file 1,120 valid signatures — from 10 percent of the city’s 11,202 active licensed chauffeurs — to trigger a City Council hearing.

Budzynski’s petition drive produced 1,500 signatures, but he came up 50 signatures short after City Hall ruled that 430 of those signatures were invalid.

Drivers who signed their names either had “invalid or duplicate” license numbers (362); had been ordered to surrender active or expired licenses (38); had inactive licenses or licenses either denied, revoked, placed on hold or still pending, according to Jennifer Lipford, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection.

Budzynski didn’t buy it.

“To lease a cab, you have to go there every day and show ‘em your chauffeurs’ license. How can they be suspended when I collected those signatures while they were all working?” he said.

“This is a hoax. They’re stalling us. They don’t want to give us a fare increase. They want to let the cab companies raise the leases when we can’t even afford what we’re paying now.”

Lipford countered, “We can only pass judgment on the signatures we got and the license numbers he gave us. As to how they got the lease that day, I don’t know. That’s something to ask the cab companies.”

Transportation Committee Chairman Anthony Beale (9th) vowed to hold a hearing anyway on Budzynski’s request for a 22 percent fare hike, but not until “a couple of months after” July 1, when Emanuel’s sweeping overhaul of the taxicab industry takes effect.

“I want to gather some data. That may either help or hurt our decision on what we need to do as far as a fare increase,” Beale said.

“We’re in a fact-finding mode. Let’s get the data from the ordinance, hold a hearing and make an educated decision on what’s the best approach.”

Three weeks ago, the City Council approved Emanuel’s sweeping plan to pave the way for cabbies to drive newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, be yanked off the road more quickly for dangerous driving and spend no more than 12 straight hours on the road.

Aldermen also agreed to make Chicago’s on-again-off-again, $1 fuel surcharge permanent — raising the cost of entering a cab, known as the “flag-pull,” to $3.25.

Cabdrivers were not appeased, arguing that the $1 surcharge is gobbled up by higher gas prices. They further contend the ordinance takes money out of their pockets by shortening their hours, raising lease rates and flooding neighborhood streets with jitney cabs.

On Tuesday, Beale flatly denied that drivers got the short end of the stick.

“Hybrid cars will help them in the long-run by saving on gas. The [mandatory] credit card swiper will help them get better tips because people tip more when they use credit cards,” he said.

What happens if the changes end up costing drivers money?

“If people are working hard and not getting ahead, we need to look at that. Definitely, we have to be sympathetic” to a fare hike, the chairman said.

Budzynski wants the city to raise the cost of a five-mile ride with a five-mile waiting time from $12.72 to $15.50.

He’s also requesting: a $1 fee for every additional passenger; a $1.50 fee for the “convenience” of using credit cards; a $50 fee for fraudulent credit card transactions and a $75 “clean-up fee” for inebriated passengers who lose their lunch in the back of a cab.

Chicago cab fares have been frozen since an 11.7 percent increase imposed by the City Council in 2005. The last increase before that — 16.6 percent — was approved in 2000 and tied to a controversial requirement that cabdrivers answer at least one radio call each day in underserved communities.