The City of Nome is once again reviewing its taxicab code. At an Oct. 27 Nome Common Council work session, councilmembers hashed out the ways changes to – and enforcement of – the city’s code could impact local transit options.
The discussion followed months of back and forth between the city, Nome Checker Cab owner Rodney Jones and unlicensed former taxi operator Steven Longley. The council formally took up the issue in a Jan. 27 work session, where they discussed issues with timely rides from Nome’s sole active operator, Nome Checker Cab.
There were also concerns over Nome Checker Cab’s adherence to taxicab code, which requires annual vehicle inspections and prominent identification on the sides of the cabs. In January, the council opted to delay changes to the taxicab code to give Jones time to get compliant. The council also weighed whether to issue new permits to interested operators.
The taxicab conundrum continued through the spring with appearances at council meetings by both Jones and Longley. The effort appeared to fizzle out as the council’s attention shifted to the city’s ailing budget.
The path forward
Councilmember Scot Henderson began the taxicab conversation by laying out the stakes of action, or inaction.
“It seems like the problems I've seen that have arisen is because the city has not enforced the current statutes, current ordinances on the books and so people have gotten into a habit of noncompliance,” Henderson said.
Henderson questioned the council no less than eight times on what the “remedy” to the situation was.
“Does the current ordinance structure have a remedy for those violations?” Henderson asked. “There is a remedy in place in the existing ordinances. We just have chosen not to exercise that yet.”
The remedy for noncompliance, according to city code, is revoking Nome Checker Cab’s licenses. Doing so could leave Nome without an active operator, which concerned councilmember Maggie Miller.
“We're getting darker and darker every day. It's getting colder every day. My concern is that we have no cabs, then we have people walking from places where they need to be,” Miller said. “If we're talking about public safety, it's getting pretty close to below freezing, then people are going to be waiting outside.”
Miller lamented that the council hadn’t taken action sooner. Councilmember Kohren Green agreed.
“And while we've been doing this going back and forth, we've had people waiting 20, 30 minutes, 40 minutes for cabs,” Green said. “We've been failing our citizens by not taking any action at all.”
Green described the cab issue as a “perpetual” problem that wasn’t going to stop unless the council took action.
According to City Clerk Dan Grimmer, city code doesn’t outline how long before revoking a taxicab license it must notify the license holder. But Grimmer said any change to the ordinance would take at least two public hearings. The time would allow for other interested parties to spin up taxicab operations of their own to fill the gap.
The council also considered whether demand in Nome could even support additional taxicab operators. Nome City Manager Lee Smith highlighted courtesy shuttles operated by local entities like Norton Sound Health Corporation and Bering Air. The council debated whether the additional ride options have taken demand away from Nome Checker Cab, which only uses three of its six licenses, or if the courtesy shuttles were created in response to poor service from the cab company. Miller cautioned the council against taking the courtesy shuttles for granted.
“It's not an essential function of their business, they can take it away at any time, and in that point it's not guaranteed,” Miller said.
Smith said he would consider the council’s feedback and talk with city staff about “next levels of enforcement”. The council’s next scheduled meeting is Nov. 10.
