Jax cabbie demands Vehicles for Hire committee chair removal

The Jacksonville City Council Vehicles for Hire subcommittee has been full of pitched debate, but progress has been incremental.

Part of the reason for the slow pace: uncertainty on the city level about the ultimate outcome in Tallahassee for vehicles of Transportation Network Companies.

With that in mind, subcommittee chair Matt Schellenberg delayed the next meeting of the committee until March 22.

That pace doesn’t satisfy at least one cab company owner.

In a Wednesday email to Council, Brad Braddock, general manager of Checker Cab, accused Schellenberg of bias toward Uber and demanded he step down as committee chair.

Citing incidents involving TNC drivers that, in his mind, require action, Braddock takes issue with Schellenberg’s delays:

“Schellenberg, the chairman of the special sub-committee that was assembled to address the rising concerns over these app-based companies, has once again decided to delay the process despite telling the local news media on Feb. 21^st, ‘further regulations should be worked out in 2-3 weeks,'” Braddock notes, adding that Schellenberg has “assumed the advocate role for Uber.”

“Schellenberg gave instructions to have a link to an Uber promotional video distributed to the sub-committee and all city council members,” Braddock writes. “Not only was this act unethical, it was appalling given the recent incident where six people lost their lives.

“It is obvious that Mr. Schellenberg’s extreme bias mindset for Uber has clouded his judgement,” Braddock writes, noting that Schellenberg “even referred to the sub-committee as the ‘Uber sub-committee’ in his email. I do not feel at this point that Mr. Schellenberg can provide a fair and reasonable solution to the issues at hand and therefore he should be removed from this committee.”

We are attempting to reach Council President Greg Anderson and Schellenberg for comment. Check back for updates.