Board, Mayor Debate Addition of Second Taxi Service in RVC

Representatives from the Lynbrook-based Village Car Service pleaded with the Rockville Centre Village Board at Monday’s meeting in an attempt to be approved for a taxi license that would allow the company to work within the confines of RVC.

The plea to the board comes after Village Administrator Keith Spadaro rejected Village Car Service’s initial application, maintaining All-Island Taxi as the lone taxi service in the village.

According to Rockville Centre Village Attorney A. Thomas Levin, village code provides that if an applicant wants to operate a taxi in Rockville Centre — for pick up and drop off solely within the village limits — they must apply to the village for a taxi license.

After receiving an application, Spadaro’s process is twofold: he must determine whether or not the public convenience and necessity requires an additional taxi service and, if that is so, Spadaro must determine whether the applicant meets all village qualifications.

Spadaro saw that there was no demonstrated need in the public convenience or necessity for an additional taxi service in this case, Levin said.

Allen Stein, an attorney for Village Car Service, and Harris Schechtman, a transit planner with the Manhattan-based Sam Schwartz Engineering, argued that competition between the Lynbrook service and All-Island Taxi would provide residents with a better means of transportation around the village.

Schechtman brought up a number of additional arguments to demonstrate the necessity of a secondary taxi service in the village, including the number of people without a car in Rockville Centre — 10.9 percent according to the 2010 U.S. Census — and the condition of All-Island Taxi’s fleet.

“I hope the boards understand that we are dealing with rather archaic language and that, under the circumstances, I’m going to use the expression that we do have to think outside the box,” Stein said in reference to the village code.

More than half-a-dozen audience members spoke out against the addition of Village Car Service, including RVC resident Anne Madougherty who said she travels weekly by taxi with no problems.

“I don’t have an impressive resume like these gentlemen, but unlike these men I have been in this town for 23 years,” she said. “... Even though there are these rules that you’re calling ‘archaic,’ that makes the charm of this community.”

Lon Jacobson, an investigator with the Wantagh-based firm MCS Consultants, said his firm was contacted by All-Island Taxi to conduct an investigation of Village Service Taxi violating village code and operating illegally within Rockville Centre.

During a nine-month investigation — spanning from Sept. 27, 2012, to April 21, 2013 — Jacobson said that operatives from his firm were given a total of 20 rides by Village Car Service within the village limits, with receipts and audio and video surveillance confirming as much.

The hearing heated up briefly when a back-and-forth ensued between Stein and All-Island Taxi Vice President Lawrence Blessinger Jr., who was in attendance and spoke on behalf of his company.

The taxi hearing will continue at the next village board meeting, which is scheduled for June 3 at 7 p.m.