OCEAN CITY – In a review of the town’s taxi medallion ordinance this week, a resort commission agreed to recommend maintaining its authority to revoke business licenses.
On Monday, the Ocean City Police Commission voted unanimously to recommend the commission keep its powers for revoking taxicab business licenses.
“Since the police commission has all the background, it would probably be better to be at this level,” Mayor Rick Meehan said.
City Solicitor Heather Stansbury came before the police commission this week to present a revised ordinance for the town’s taxi medallion system. Following last month’s discussion on taxi medallion fees, Stansbury said her office worked with Ocean City Police Captain Mike Colbert, the town clerk and the city manager to review the ordinance and make recommended changes.
“In doing that, because this ordinance is so old, it did need some code cleanup,” she said. “So that’s what these changes really are. There aren’t any substantive changes in a departure from what really is happening. It’s just over the years, as different ordinances lay on top of one another, some consistency is lost in terminology.”
Stansbury, however, noted an inconsistency to the town’s process for taxicabs that violate the ordinance.
“There is also another violation listed at the very end that allows the police commission to revoke the business license,” she said. “That’s really all it said, it doesn’t have a process for that. When you see the word ‘business license’ and there’s no other terminology, you are left to go to Chapter 14 where the business license procedure is set forth. The problem in Chapter 14 is that the city manager has the authority to revoke the business license.”
Stansbury told commission members this week officials could change the process, giving those powers to the city manager. She noted, however, staff recommended the police commission keep that authority.
“In talking with the various staff members, this seems to be a good place to land on it,” she said. “The appeal process is still the same, back to the Mayor and City Council, and as I understand it this has been invoked very few times, if ever.”
After further discussion, the commission voted 4-0 to recommend the authority for revoking business licenses remain with the police commission. The recommendation will be forwarded to the full council, which will also consider a recommendation to lower medallion fees to $50 and transfer fees to $100.
