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Commission Elects Martin Smith as President
The Taxi Commission elected cab company representative Martin Smith as its president at its April 25 meeting. The commission was without a president on account of the recent death of former President Arthur Jackson.
Immediately after his election, Smith voted against a motion to oppose Supervisor Fiona Ma’s legislation eliminating the gate cap, even though the cab companies he represents said they were no longer pursuing elimination of the cap.
Smith came onto the commission under a cloud that grew darker at his very first meeting. Mayor Willie Brown appointed him to replace Yellow Cab executive Richard Weiner. Weiner was a fair commissioner, but he was bounced because his position at Yellow made him ineligible to vote on a matter of great importance to that company — the awarding of eight medallions formerly held by deceased Yellow shareholder Georgette Welch to her children, Amy and Philip Welch.
Smith is a Prop K permit holder who by all rights should have sided with his fellow drivers, but instead, without saying a word in defense of his vote, he sided with the Welches. UTW’s appeal of the decision is pending in the Court of Appeal.
Smith’s appointment was controversial because in the 1990’s, he purchased the Yellow Airport Express shuttle company from Yellow Cab. The California Public Utilities Commission later shut the company down after it was found to be responsible for dozens of violations of law and PUC rules, including insurance violations, poor maintenance, using unqualified and unlicensed drivers and threats to passengers. Chief PUC Investigator Larry McNeeley referred to the violations as “one of the most outrageous cases we’ve ever seen.”
Voting for Smith were Vice-President Patricia Breslin and Commissioners Smith, Michael Kwok and Mary McGuire. A statement by Kwok during the discussion on the vote indicated that the election may have been illegal. Kwok referred to a phone call he received from Smith asking for his vote.
Under the law, there cannot be private discussions among a majority of the members for the purpose of influencing decisions to be taken at public meetings. If a majority of the commissioners discussed who should be the next president amongst themselves, even in separate discussions, that would violate the law.