(A) The schedule of rates to be charged as taxicab fares shall first be submitted to the Taxicab License Board by each taxicab owner with his or her application for a taxicab owner’s license.
(B) The Board shall cause a notice of the filing of the proposed taxicab rate schedule to be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the city. The notice shall include the name of the taxicab owner who filed the proposed rate schedule. The notice shall state that the proposed rate schedule is on file with the Board, that such rates will become effective two weeks from the date of the notice unless objections are filed, and that persons wishing to object to the proposed rates should file their objections in writing with the Board before that time.
(C) Two weeks from the date of the notice, which shall be the date of the first publication, if no objections have been filed, the proposed taxicab rates will become effective.
(D) If any resident of the city shall file a written objection to the proposed taxicab rates within two weeks of the date of the notice, then the rates shall not become effective automatically, and the Board shall hold a hearing on the proposed rates.
(E) At such hearing the Board shall hear evidence on the part of the owner and others in favor of the proposed taxicab rates, and evidence presented by anyone objecting to the proposed rates. The Board shall determine a rate for the owner which will be just and reasonable, and in doing this, shall value the owner’s equipment and property. It shall consider the owner’s cost of operation, and set a rate or rates which will allow a reasonable return on his or her investment.
(F) The determination of the Board may be appealed to the Wood County Common Pleas Court as provided in R.C. §§ 2506.01 through 2506.04.
(G) When a taxicab owner wishes to change his or her existing rates, the same procedure will be followed as for originally establishing them.
(1980 Code, § 114.17) (Ord. 7041, passed 11-18-2002; Am. Ord. 7654, passed 3-19-2007) Penalty, see § 114.99