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Dixie Cab service in jeopardy

For failure to pay SafeSpeed and SafeLight tickets

File Photo by Robin May

Dixie Cab owner Salah Yousef is scheduled to appeal to the City-Parish Council on Tuesday a revocation of his vehicle-for-hire permits set to go into effect on Oct. 30 for failure to pay SafeSpeed and SafeLight tickets. It’s unclear how much Yousef owes City Hall for the unpaid speed-camera violations, although The Advocate cites city records in reporting he owed roughly $11,000 a couple of years ago.

In an Oct. 6 letter to city officials, Yousef complains that the SafeSpeed program has been unfair in its treatment of his company, arguing that its placing an undue burden on him by forcing him to have each violation citation notarized:

I own the cars, the drivers are self-employed, and they lease the cars from me. This means that the drivers are responsible for any violations they may make on the street. When I filled out the back of the tickets, including copies of driver’ [sic] licenses and all information on the drivers who were driving the cars at the time of violation, SafeSpeed rejected the forms and requested that they be notarized. I offered to notarize my signature, and take full responsibility with my signature, but SafeSpeed refused, and demanded that ever form must be individually notarized. I went to City Council meetings for several weeks, and people heard me speak on TV to try to explain the problem, but they did not really hear me at all. It makes no sense for me to pay a $20 notary fee on each individual ticket when the majority of tickets are $25.

View Yousef’s letter as well as the city’s Sept. 30 letter informing him of the impending permit suspensions by clicking here.