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Marshall says it will keep taxi ordinances

MARSHALL — At first, the recommendation in front of the Marshall City Council was to repeal a city ordinance regulating taxi businesses in town. But after a public hearing Tuesday, council members and city staff changed their minds.

Part of the reason, council members said, was that local taxi operators were asking for the regulations to stay.

Instead of repealing the ordinances, the council voted to refer them to a committee to look for possible ways to improve them.

The question of whether or not to repeal city taxi ordinances was first brought up to the council earlier this month. The city ordinances set licensure and insurance requirements for taxi businesses, as well as other regulations. But after getting complaints that people were operating unlicensed taxi services in Marshall, city staff were unsure how to enforce the ordinances.

“We were not sure that it is necessary for the city of Marshall to regulate taxi businesses,” City Attorney Dennis Simpson said at Tuesday’s hearing. Besides the difficulty of enforcement, the ordinances also raised questions of how the city should handle ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft.

However, local taxi operators think the ordinances are needed. Simpson said he met with Marshall taxi operator Sami Saad El-Dein. Simpson said Saad El-Dein told him taxi licensure requirements were important for public safety. They allow for background checks of taxi operators and drivers to help protect vulnerable passengers.

Other safety concerns brought up by local operators included the need for liability insurance. Personal auto insurance isn’t valid for taxis, they said.

Local taxi operator Bob Quasius said getting rid of the local ordinance would also have implications for his business. For example, some Minnesota cities require taxis traveling in from other communities to be licensed. Without a Marshall taxi license, Quasius said he wouldn’t be allowed to drop off passengers in cities like Minneapolis.

Quasius and local taxi operator Armando Rugama said unlicensed taxis were an issue in Marshall. Quasius estimated he sees about three unlicensed taxi operators that are active within Marshall, mainly serving the Hispanic community. Quasius said he didn’t know if there were similar unlicensed taxi services in other immigrant communities in Marshall.

Speaking through an interpreter, Rugama said unlicensed taxi services do affect him and other licensed cab operators in Marshall. An unlicensed taxi operator can offer cheaper fares, partly because they’re not paying for expenses like taxi insurance vehicle inspections.

Rob Yant, Marshall director of public safety, said there are some challenges in enforcing local taxi regulations. It’s not easy to positively identify an unlicensed taxi — for example, passengers in a vehicle can deny they paid for a taxi ride. Yant said police also have to be careful that investigating complaints doesn’t turn into harassment of an alleged unlicensed taxi operator.

Simpson said one possible option for enforcement is a requirement for taxis to display a license. The current city ordinance calls for display of taxi licenses and for cabs to be marked.

“Public awareness is part of the problem” of unlicensed taxis, along with language barriers, Quasius said. He suggested that there needed to be better outreach about the taxi ordinances, as well as better enforcement.

Quasius said the city could update its taxi ordinance to allow for changes like ride-sharing services. But, he said, “I think for the most part, we have a reasonable ordinance.”

Some city council members said further discussion led them to change their minds about repealing the taxi ordinances. It said a lot, that local taxi operators were asking to keep the regulations, council member Craig Schafer said.

“I think that’s a pretty powerful statement,” he said.

Marshall City Administrator Nicholas Johnson said he was changing his recommendation to repeal the ordinance, and that he supported the idea of more outreach and education on taxis.

Council members voted to keep the taxi ordinances in place, and refer them to the city Legislative and Ordinance Committee, to look for ways to update or improve them.

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