Taxi Cab Commission members meeting on St. Thomas Tuesday spoke about recruitment efforts for enforcement officers and said that while some have been hired on St. Croix, there are currently none working on St. Thomas.
Commission Executive Director Levron Sarauw brought up the subject after explaining in his meeting report that all the new St. Croix employees are now hooked up to the government “punch” system for check-in. Meanwhile, all three slots are open on St. Croix and Sarauw spoke about issues with one applicant who said he had retired from the V.I. Police Department, while the department claimed he as fired.
In his report, Sarauw also spoke about fees paid to the Veteran’s Affairs Office from taxi medallion sales, and how the percentage of what is given has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent. That figure recently amounted to $17,146 and along with that, the commission made outstanding retro pay payments to its members, Sarauw said.
With the commission’s finance committee chair absent from the meeting, members moved on to discussions about educational efforts, in particular helping residents learn the information they need to pass the taxi licensure exam. Commission board chair Sweeney Toussaint explained Tuesday that the last time the test was given, 25 people failed, but that number improved to three the next time around. The next exam will be in September.
Toussaint also spoke about finalizing the Taxi Commission’s handbook, which was approved Tuesday despite spelling errors that some said would be corrected before the document went to print. Commission board member Richard Doumeng spoke about distributing the handbook in more ways than just printing out a hard copy, but was met with resistance by other members who did not agree with sending the more-than-20-page document by email or text. It was decided that hard copies would still be printed and that taxi association members could pick them up at the commission’s offices.
A meeting to discuss the document with taxi drivers on St. Thomas was set for Oct. 13, but no date was finalized on St. Croix. Toussaint and other members said they would “handle it” themselves.
Before heading into executive session, members also spoke about getting up a dedicated website for the commission, but said that work still has to be done.
