Police warn of infractions; one hearing set for Monday
By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN The Borough Council recently denied four of seven taxi license applications after hearing about serious infractions by the companies from the Police Department.
At least one of those companies, Tu Amigo, is appealing the decision, and the council is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday night.
Tu Amigo’s owner could not be reached for comment.
By 4-1 vote at its April 19 meeting, the council denied applications from borough-based Mega, United and Tu Amigo taxi companies, as well as East Windsor-based Nieves taxi company.
Police Detective Ben Miller, who led the background investigations into the applications, recommended the denials.
He told the council his reasons: one company falsified data on its application, another had a driver who’d been charged with driving while intoxicated four times under an alias, and a third had a driver previously charged with leaving the scene of an accident.
Detective Miller refused to identify which charges were associated with which company.
The lone dissenting vote came from Councilwoman Isabel McGinty. The councilwoman said her vote was based on “procedural grounds” because police did not provide council with any documentation about why the applications were recommended for denial.
Taxi companies have been under the council’s microscope since December of 2008 after many residents complained about cabs clogging the streets and honking horns in the predawn hours. The governing body implemented a moratorium on new licenses to discuss possible restrictions. It lifted that ban in September and unveiled a more stringent application, asking each of the seven companies that operate locally to apply under the new rules.
On March 1, the borough approved license applications for two companies, Karina and Tele-Taxi, according to Borough Administrator Herb Massa.
Managing Editor Vic Monaco contributed to this story.