City Officials Postpone Decision On Taxi Medallion Issue Again

While vacation bound Harvard students were flagging down taxi cabs to the airport last week, Cambridge officials once again delayed a proposed sale of 52 taxi licenses from Yellow Cabs of Cambridge to the Ambassador/Brattle Cab Company, pending an independent investigation.

Responding to the City Council's unanimous denunciation of the sale last Monday, the Cambridge Licensing Commission decided to postpone its decision on the transfer until April 15.

The two companies first proposed the sale in February, and the transfer has been estimated to involve at least $1.2 million until an independent investigator can look into "all charges relating to the operation, ownership, and governance of the taxicab industry in Cambridge," according to the council recommendation.

Taxi drivers told the Licensing Commission in February that the transfer would give Wilfred C. Suozzo, the owner of Ambassador/Brattle, a virtual monopoly on taxi medallions and allow him to dominate the taxi business in the city. The total number of taxi licenses was fixed by city law in the 1940's.

With 75 percent of the 240 city taxi licenses, Suozzo could "put the squeeze" on medallions, raising prices, and offering them to other owner-operators at high interest rates, cabbies said, adding that Suozzo would also dominate the only radio dispatch network in the city.

Last month City Manager Robert W. Healy said the transfer would not constitute a monopoly under Massachusetts or federal anti-trust laws.

In another taxi-related measure, Healy told the city council last night that new taxi license applicants will now have to pass an exam on points of interest in the city and the surrounding area.