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DEF is a non-partisan, independent political blog based in the
City of St. Louis, Missouri. Our goal is to cast a critical eye
on lawmakers, their policies, and those that have influence upon
them, and to educate our readers about legislation and the political
processes that affect our daily lives.
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Poisoning the well of good faith negotiations in trying to reach a compromise on the controversial Land Assemblage Tax Credit is the amount of anger and raw emotion people have towards its chief architect, Paul McKee, and the amount of damage he has done to a community already devastated by decades of neglect.
"Paul McKee creates blight," said 5th Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin last week as she showed legislators and her aldermanic colleagues long-standing brick buildings which now sit with entire walls spilled out onto its once green yard.
She told the other lawmakers about reports from neighbors of mysterious men ramming Bobcats into the sides of buildings, which only months before housed families, causing the walls to fall onto themselves and leaving the building open to the elements, looters and drug dealers.
Some scenes in the video you are about to watch look like they were filmed in the most devastated areas of New Orleans. Mr. McKee and others will point to these images and say this is why he needs this tax credit. What is important for Missouri's state legislators to understand, say city aldermen, is that just 18-24 months ago, many of these buildings were homes with families living in them. Then Blairmont came.
This is where the anger comes from.
But after all the anger surrounding this one man, what St. Louis' Legislative delegation must remember is that this problem is larger than one man, even this man who in the short-term has made the situation worse.
There are 100 million dollars in much needed tax credits on the table. The challenge over the next few days is how to make them available to people who do care about these communities, organizations and developers who are respectful of the people of these areas and sensitive to their desires about the future of their community, and not to reward a man who has for so long, so blatantly disregarded the men, women and children forced to live next to his piles of bricks and self-made blight.
In an emergency meeting Saturday, the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission vote 4-0 to revoked the license of Wilson Taxi after issues arose with the company’s insurance coverage (read our earlier report).
Two members of the commission who represent other cab companies abstained from voting; Basil Rudawsky of County Cab, and Dave McNutt of Laclede Cab. McNutt is also the vice chairman of operations for the commission. Voting yes were Chairman Louis Hamilton, and board members Vince Bennett, Richard Banahan and W. Thomas Reeves, vice chairman of finance.
The decision ratified the orders issued Monday, June 18, by Commission Director D. Michael Tully revoking Wilson’s license to operate and allowing 15 drivers to transfer to other taxicab companies.
Hamilton said the staff issued the directives subject to the commission’s approval. With Saturday’s vote the commission also opened a 30-day window for former Wilson drivers to complete the transfers, waiving the fees related to the transfer process.
The staff of the commission met Monday with taxicab companies to determine which companies would receive permits forfeited by Wilson Taxi when it was discovered Wilson was operating without insurance, confirmed Patrick McCarthy, general counsel of the commission.
Six of the drivers transferred to A Best Taxi and two transferred to Midwest Metropolitan Taxicab. Five other drivers have yet to transfer to other companies. Wilson directly held two other permits that were reclaimed by the commission.
A source familiar with the meeting convened at 4:30 p.m. Monday in the commission’s office, 100 N. Tucker, told PubDef that Tully contacted the taxicab company owners to inform them of the situation with Wilson and solicited their input.
McCarthy said the staff met with the taxicab company owners to ask them to contract with drivers affected by Wilson’s closing.
According to the source, the director revoked Wilson’s license to operate, reclaimed the company’s 15 permits and offered Wilson’s former drivers the opportunity to join other taxicab companies. When 8 drivers decided to accept the offers, the director allocated the reclaimed permits to the companies that hired the former Wilson drivers.
At the commission’s regularly scheduled public meeting Wednesday (June 20), Tully and McCarthy discussed the situation without identifying Wilson, saying that an investigation was ongoing. PubDef learned after the Wednesday meeting that Wilson was the company being discussed. Tully was not at Saturday’s meeting because he is traveling in Europe.
The commission opened the meeting at 10:20 a.m. then promptly went into executive session to discuss the Wilson Taxi situation. The public portion of the meeting was reconvened around 11:40 a.m. The commission voted , entertained questions and then adjourned.
During the public comment portion, Charles Kirkwood, a construction company owner, appealed to the commission to approve his application for permission to operate under the name Ebony Cab Co. LLC. Hamilton responded the commission will act on pending applications to organize taxi companies after the completion of a study of the taxicab market in December.
Kirkwood said that north St. Louis was under-served by taxicabs and that companies that do operate in north St. Louis are being forced out of business. He referred specifically to the February collapse of Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery.
Taxicab drivers trying to start their own company say they have been put on hold by the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission while the industry-dominated panel bypassed a moratorium on new permits to grant them to existing companies.
The organizers of City Express, whose prospective drivers are predominantly Ethiopian, have been trying to get the commission to allow them to pick up 120 existing permits forfeited by Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery when the company folded earlier this year.
Several of the drivers declined comment for this story because they work for other taxicab companies and don’t won’t to jeopardize their livelihoods. Speaking anonymously, the drivers claim the commission is favoring existing companies and as a result allowing a non-competitive environment to flourish.
Former drivers for Allen Cab note that it was one of only two companies that provided substantial service to north St. Louis neighborhoods. The other is Harris Taxicab.
Drivers put out of work when Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery went out of business were hired by other companies after the commission declared an emergency and granted the permits formerly allocated to Allen Cab and St. Louis Auto Livery to existing companies.
The commission placed a moratorium on issuing new permits two years ago. Michael Goldberg, the lawyer for City Express, has questioned the commission on the process it goes through to suspend the moratorium when cases like the Allen Cab situation arises.
At the most recent meeting of the commission June 20, Goldberg was able to get Patrick McCarthy, the general counsel for the commission, to admit that the process has been in his words “ad hoc.”
“I think it is important to have a fair procedure,” said Goldberg during the public comment of the meeting.
Goldberg asked for and got a commitment from the commission director D. Michael Tully to provide how many applications for permits are on file, how many are ahead of City Express and how many applied after his client.
The commission has hired a researcher from University of Missouri-St. Louis to study whether more permits are needed, whether to extend or lift the moratorium, and the quality of service in the metropolitan area. The study is to be delivered to the commission with recommendations in December.
The commission has suspended the moratorium three times since it was imposed. The latest time was earlier in June when Wilson Taxi was found to have been operating without insurance for at least 90 days, a violation of the code regulating taxicabs.
Tully told the board that an emergency was declared, Wilson’s permits were revoked and seven of its 15 drivers put out of work were hired by other companies.Wilson’s permits were reassigned to the companies that hired the drivers.
Both Tully and McCarthy confirmed to the commission that code enforcement agents were completing a full investigation of Wilson Taxi.
As they wait to see if Governor Matt Blunt decides to sign the huge check that is House Bill 327 — which gives millions of dollars to dozens of entities, including developer Paul McKee and his "Blairmont" companies — residents of the north St. Louis neighborhoods most affected by McKee's secret plan hold their breath and look to the sky for the other shoe to drop.
This week, PubDef.net turns its eye towards the State Legislature. In the final days of the 2007 session, all the rhetoric and flowery phrases begin to fall to the ground and the true character of Missouri's 94th General Assembly reveals itself — and we'll be there to snap the picture!
Stay with us this week as we bring you stories, interviews, photos, and videos of what our state senators and state reps are doing, and what the consequences will be.
