Order for a hearing to utilize American Rescue Plan Act federal and state COVID recovery funds to buy-back Hackney Carriage Medallions. On motion of Councilors Lara and Baker, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Flaherty as a co-sponsor. Councilor Lara moved for substitution of the language. Motion prevailed.
Thank you, counsel. While. Dr. zero 25 will remain in committee. Motions, orders and resolutions. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket 0767 Police. Duck Enema 0767. Councilors Lara and Baker offer the following order for a hearing to utilize the American Rescue Plan Act, Federal and State COVID Recovery Funds to buy back Hackney Carriage Medallions. Thank you. Thank you. The chair recognizes counsel. Our counsel. Laura. You have the floor. Thank you, President Flynn. I would like to move to replace Doug in number 0767 with the amended version, which I read into everybody's desk. This amended version reflects just small changes and updated updates on data. And I think the statement also has. Let me just confirm, everybody have the updated Dr.. You may continue, counsel. Thank you, President Flynn. I would also like to suspend the rules and add Councilor Flaherty as one of the original co-sponsors. Hearing no objection, council clarity is awarded. Thank you. I am really excited to put this on the floor with both Councilor Baker and Councilor Flaherty. Just a few weeks ago. This body voted unanimously to support a resolution that would. Ultimately strike down or asking the state house to strike down Uber and Lyft's overreach in their ballot question, which has now been voted down and been identified as not moving forward by the Supreme Court justice. And I think that in conversations about big tech's overreach and the impact of Uber and Lyft on our on our city and the possible future impact that they could have. My office has done a lot of reflection in terms of the impact that big tech has already had on the constituents here in the city of Boston. And so in ultimately the introduction of Uber and Lyft and these kind of rideshare companies for. Lack of a better word has decimated our local taxi industry. And I think that I'm one to explore what it would look like to use ARPA funds to really give some relief to these families. Most of the folks, actually more than half of the people who own taxi medallions here in the city of Boston own 1 to 4 of them. So we're talking about families who run their small businesses, who use this as their source of income and have ultimately, because of Uber and Lyft or these rideshare companies are underwater and in debt. And with COVID 19, you know, just kind of turning our economy upside down, it's really added more pressure, financial pressure for these families. The ARPA funds have really been identified for us to also be able to give one time support to small business owners. And Councilor Baker oftentimes talks about how are we going to make sure that we use ARPA funds to have a lasting impact? And I think that creating a grant program that would help these families get into get out of the red and into the black and really give them the financial support that they need is going to have a huge impact economically on our city. We didn't do enough for the taxi industry when Uber and Lyft was coming into the city of Boston. And I think that with ARPA funds, we really have an opportunity to make some corrective legislation here in the city to support these families. Councilor Baker has been a leader and incredibly vocal about his support for the taxi companies. I found out that Councilor Farrow's father was a taxi driver, and so I'm really excited to work on this issue with the both of them. Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Ira. The chair recognizes Counselor Baker. Counselor Baker. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. First, I'd really like to thank Counsel Larry for including me in on this. This is an issue that I worked a lot on. We watched the whole industry slip away in front of us. Classic, classic. You know, get rid of a get rid of a service that is provided. And then once that service is gone, you come in, you see, you saw with over and Lyft, the prices go up, all those all those sorts of things. But even more than further than just going after off of dollars dollars, this is a good time to talk about the taxi industry possibility to maybe rebuild that that industry with more more of a local focus. You know, in in in whatever it is that taxi industry needs to do to to come back, you know, we should be able to talk about it. I know there was money available. The state had had you know, we got we got to I think it was a dollar per ride. We added that money go. That's maybe a good place to start the discussion also. So thank you, Cancellara, for including me. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Counsel. Baker, the chair recognizes. Counsel. Clarity. Counsel, clarity. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. And take the lead sponsor for including me. As I mentioned, my grandfather actually owned and drove a cab, as did my father. And his older brother is just helping out the family, raising ten kids. So taxi medallions have helped folks raise families, educate their children and also been able to borrow on them and upgrade their fleet. So the taxi medallion industry, the values have been decimated in obviously large part to the ride shares, but also because of the onerous requirements of the Hackney division. So while we're talking about this, we may want to bring the Hackney Division in just to see what, if anything, they can do to kind of make things easier for those that are still trying to compete in the taxi industry. And maybe we could sort of have a rebirth, if you will, of the taxi industry, which at one point flourished here in Boston, taking advantage of close proximity to Logan, as well as all of our tourist attractions, our hotels, our convention center. There is no reason why our taxi industry cannot flourish in the city, and unfortunately, it's off the rails right now. But I think that this hearing will be very timely and bring in the appropriate parties to try to one assist in that, whether it's the buy back medallion provision law, finding ways that the division could be less onerous and more cooperative and helpful with existing current cab drivers and owners to try to help them in their business to survive. Thank, Mr. President. Thank you, counsel. Fire to the chair. Recognizes counsel and cholera. Counsel Cholera. You have the floor. Thank you, Chair. I just rise to commend the makers. We are in a humanitarian crisis with this. We are seeing it across the country. Folks have lost their. Life savings and the. Suicide. Rate in New York City alone is just appalling. So I love the fact that we're we're looking into this. So thank you. Again, this doctor reminds me of a proposal. That we put forth in 2020 during the height of the pandemic to buy back liquor. Licenses from restaurants as a as a means of relief. And back then, the administration was not open to it. Hopefully they will be open to it this time around. And I just want to flag that in New York City, they went. After predatory lenders and they also wrote. Legislation that. Forgave debt and provided additional relief. So I would just respectfully, through the chair, encourage the makers to review New York City's model. And I just look forward. To the conversation ahead on this. So thank you. Then. Thank you, counsel. I also wanted to ask a question to the to the to the chair to the to the author of this the the taxi industry now is under the and is being supervised under the Hackney. Division of the Boston Police Department. I don't think that under Hoover unless that's that's the case. There's console firing reference. Would we be able to have a discussion on the differences between supervision under the Boston police with the taxes and what supervision, if any, Boston police has under under a over and left? But just wanted to ask Councilor Lara her thoughts on that. Thank you, President Flynn. First, I wanted to add two things. One of them is that we're researching New York City's model, and New York City's model inspired a lot of the writing and the thought behind looking at this hearing order specifically, because we've seen a lot of creative approaches. I think that we have to have a specific conversation about what works in the city of Boston, how our program works, and how we can be inspired by some of the work that other cities have done. I also want to say that we cannot solve this problem alone. My hope is that having this hearing order, creating a city program is going to signal to the state that they also have to kind of pitch in and help us and help the people in the state. So I think that those are two, two responses that I wanted to give to, um, to what I heard from my colleagues this question and the lack of liability from Uber and Lyft and specifically these big tech companies are part of what we've been fighting with this ballot initiative is that Uber and Lyft wants to continue to consider their employees independent contractors so that they also don't have any liability for things that happen in the Uber and during the rides. And so I think that this is part of this bigger statewide fight to make sure that we are considering these drivers as employees of these companies so that we can ensure that these companies have liability. And so similarly, the Boston Police Department has oversight of the hacking program. There is no oversight with Uber and Lyft. And not only is there not any oversight, they are currently because they consider their drivers independent contractors. There is no liability, so there's no level of consumer protection. And as part of my fight against big tech here in the state and in the city of Boston, I definitely want to look more about how we make sure that Uber and Lyft are liable for the well-being, and we're really increasing consumer protections for these big tech companies. So, yes, I would love to have a conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Consul Lara. Is anyone else looking to speak on this matter? Would anyone else like to add their name? Please raise your hand. Mr. Clarke, please. Please put down council Royal Baker Mark Braden matter. Counsel, Fernandez Anderson. Console and console me here, console Murphy in the chair as well. And talk of 0767 will be assigned to the committee in Boston's COVID 19 recovery. Mr. Clarke please read 0768, please.