By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MUNICIPAL DISTRICT — As the taxi-overcharging scandal has unfolded, the poster boy for corrupt drivers has been Wasim Khalid Cheema, who allegedly defrauded hundreds of passengers over a few months, charging them $40,000 in improper rates, investigators said.
But there were dozens of other drivers who skimmed the meter more often than he did, Taxi and Limousine Commission officials revealed Monday at a meeting about the taxi scam.
“I believe there were in the neighborhood of 40 drivers who we identified with 1,000 or more overcharges,” Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman David Yassky told the City Council’s transportation committee Monday.
Yassky did not reveal any additional information about the additional drivers' identity or exactly how much money they overcharged their customers.
Yassky, who took the job in March, described a host of dysfunctional or weak regulatory guidelines within the TLC that keep the agency from disciplining wayward drivers who commit offenses.
For example, the agency has little power to discipline drivers who commit offenses, as the maximum amount the TLC can demand is $850, he said.
The only cases when the TLC can collect larger fines in cases is if it negotiates payments in exchange for allowing a driver to keep his or her license.
“That’s mind boggling,” transportation committee chairman James Vacca responded. “That’s outrageous.”
The agency will hold closed-door settlement hearings Wednesday to seek fines against drivers who overcharged 50 or more passengers. With the cap on fines, the worst those drivers will face is the $850 fine and the loss of their license.
Technically, those same drivers can later reapply to get new licenses, Yassky said.
Drivers found to have overcharged fewer than 50 passengers who want to keep their licenses will have to negotiate with the TLC, Yassky said.
He said his agency is also working with the District Attorney’s Office, which is conducting a separate criminal investigation into the scandal.
In March, the TLC said that an internal review had found thousands of drivers who had overcharged riders by more than $1 million.
Later, the agency said the scope of the crime wasn’t as big as originally believed, and that many of the alleged overcharges were instead mistakes made by drivers fumbling with buttons.
But the revelations have continued to reverberate, as more details about the agency’s problems continue to come to light.
Also on Monday, the TLC revealed that the agency is owed $5.5 million of uncollected fines owed by drivers who have quit the business. Under "a quirk" in current law, the agency said it has little ability to go after those drivers.
Yassky said the agency wants the Bloomberg administration to change the city’s administrative code so that debt can be collected through wage garnishment and other traditional means.
His statements came during an afternoon discussion on a series of reforms to the way the TLC does business.
One measure requires the agency to report on its website data on complaints against drivers and enforcement actions taken against them. Another says drivers must use E-Z Pass discounts at tolls.
A third bill mandates drivers to install equipment that would record all fare data, and make the information available to the TLC. A fourth tightens inspection requirements. The proposed reforms also include a concession to drivers that would set aside a seat on the TLC board for a current or retired taxi driver.
Yassky said he agreed with most of the proposals in principle, but had concerns about how the TLC would make the data available on its website.
And he said he opposed putting a driver on the agency's board because it would raise “conflict of interest” issues.
He suggested putting drivers on advisory boards, which haven't actually had a meeting in several years, he admitted under questioning.
“It’s time to constitute them,” Yassky said.
