BURBANK : Hearing Delayed on Taxi Firm’s Permit

A hearing on whether one of the San Fernando Valley’s two taxi companies should lose its operating permit has been put off until June 8.

The Los Angeles Board of Transportation commissioners was scheduled to consider whether to revoke Checker Cab Co.’s permit Thursday. But the board decided to postpone the matter at the request of the Burbank-based taxi company, which requested more time to respond to the city transportation department’s allegations that the company did not keep promises to improve service.

Attorney John E. deBrauwere told the board that he had been retained by Babaeian Transportation, Checker Cab’s parent company, Wednesday and needed more time to prepare a response.

Transportation officials have recommended that the board cancel Checker Cab’s operating license for failing to meet its contractual obligations, including instituting a computerized dispatching system and adding seven wheelchair-accessible cabs to its fleet.

Masood Babaeian, president of Babaeian Transportation, said his company installed a system that later failed, and that the firm was in negotiations with other computer-systems companies when the transportation department discovered the lapse.

According to Babaeian, the cab company did add six wheelchair-accessible taxis that the department found did not comply with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

But transportation officials said they had given Checker a break by allowing it to temporarily use cabs with wheelchair ramps rather than wheelchair lifts. Officials said they made it clear that seven lift-equipped vehicles were to have been operational by April, 1994.

The cab company has a troubled history with the department. In October, 1992, Checker was put on a six-month probation for illegally dispatching to the Valley a cab that is not permitted to operate in the area. That same month, the board directed Babaeian to forfeit a $20,000 performance bond for failing to meet a promised schedule for putting cabs on the road.