A months-long feud over taxicab licenses continued at Monday’s Nome Common Council meeting. A resolution authorizing the City of Nome to take legal action against local resident, Steven Longley, was presented to the council, prompting Longley to speak during the citizen’s comments period.
Longley routinely offers $5 rides around town on local Facebook group, Nome Post. He said at Monday’s meeting that the money raised from the rides is donated to Nome-Beltz’s cheer coach, Bailey Immingan-Carpenter.
But he’s providing the rides without a taxicab license, exploiting what he calls a “gray area” in the city’s taxicab code.
He told the council Monday that the rides have been fruitful, raising over $3,000 to date for the cheer team.
“I'm probably going to be giving her another grand or two in the next week or 10 days. Money is not going to my pocket, not even one penny of it is going to my pocket,” Longley said.
City weighs whether to issue new taxicab licenses
At a Jan. 27 work session the council discussed whether it should issue new taxicab licenses after fielding complaints about poor service from the city’s sole licensed operator, Nome Checker Cab, LLC.
Longley sat in the audience for the January work session and told the council that Checker Cab’s owner, Rodney Jones, was hoping to sell the business for $300,000. Council Member Scot Henderson questioned whether issuing new licenses would dilute the value of Checker Cab.
“Is it fair to say that if we issue more permits, we’re going to effectively help destroy the existing cab business or certainly economically damage it?” Henderson asked at the January work session.
A resolution to issue three new permits was put on the council’s Feb. 10 agenda, but an impassioned speech by Jones during the citizen’s comments period persuaded the council to hold off.
“If these permits come out… It'll destroy me. And every effort that I did for 30 years would be gone. I’ll have nothing for my children,” Jones said.
The council voted to table the discussion for 90 days, setting up another look at the permits at the council’s May 12 meeting.
Over several council meetings that followed, Jones and Longley continued showing up to plead their cases. On Feb. 24, Jones spoke during the first citizen’s comment period to question whether he could perform his own inspections. Then, he pointed his attention toward Longley.
“He’s a predator. He’s running the streets, unlicensed, uninsured, doing whatever he wants. He says he’s ‘not gonna do nothing’ until I’m fully licensed. And then my license is being held up by an inspection that I can’t acquire. It’s a brick wall, tell me where I go from here,” Jones said.
Longley joined later in the meeting and spoke during the second citizen’s comments period. He claimed that Checker Cab had liability insurance, which he said doesn’t generally cover the occupants of a vehicle.
“If he gets in an accident, who’s going to pay that bill?” Longley asked. “They’re going to go out for the next biggest person with deep pockets, and that would be the City of Nome. And the City of Nome is basically aiding and abetting him to violate city ordinance.”
Longley went on to acknowledge the city’s position on the legality of his taxi service.
“Your lawyer says what I'm doing is illegal. That's your lawyer's opinion,” Longley said. “I told them ‘Have NPD cite me. We'll let the judge decide if what I'm doing is legal or not’.”
The following day, Longley was served a cease and desist by the city to halt taxicab services. According to a weekly press release issued by the Nome Police Department, Longley was cited on Apr. 4 for operating without a taxicab license.
'If you allow them, why can't I?'
As a police officer stood watch at the entrance of City Hall Monday, Longley urged the council to hold off on suing him until a judge could weigh in on the situation.
“This resolution is kind of putting a cart before the horse,” Longley explained. “If you wait and see what the judge says before you do a lawsuit. It's gonna cost you a bunch of money.”
He claimed that Checker Cab remained out of compliance with city code, which requires cabs to place both an identification number on the back of the vehicle and signage on each side of the vehicle with the name of the cab company.
“You guys are allowing Checker to knowingly violate the law,” Longley said. “So if you allow them, why can't I? And what I'm doing, it's a gray area.”
Henderson stepped in to help mediate the situation, asking Longley to obey the cease and desist so the council could make a determination at an upcoming meeting.
“This is a request, this is not a negotiation... Is that something you're willing to do?” Henderson asked.
Longley agreed to stop the rides and subsequently announced on Facebook that the rides would be suspended for two weeks.
When reached by phone Monday morning, Longley said his ultimate goal was for the city to “do away with the licenses completely.”
The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Apr. 28.
