More hearings needed to determine if there's Hispanic discrimination. Two Dover ordinances regulating taxi companies are constitutional in general, but further court hearings will be held to determine whether, when applied, they discriminate against Hispanic-owned taxi firms, a Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Assignment Judge B. Theodore Bozonelis, sitting in Morristown, said the ordinances enacted in March by Dover's board of aldermen are "facially"constitutional, including the mandate that taxi drivers know "sufficient"English so they can "reasonably communicate"with passengers, and police if an emergency arises.

But Bozonelis on Friday dealt mainly with the general constitutionality of the ordinances, and said future court hearings, where evidence will be presented, will be held so he can decide whether the ordinances unfairly target Hispanic taxi companies and impose unreasonable licensing and insurance fees.

As for the English language aspect of the ordinances, the judge said the town — with the purpose to protect the public — can require minimal English-speaking skills of cab drivers. The ordinances are not prohibitive in that they do not ban drivers from using other languages or call for English fluency, he said.

But the judge stressed that the town needs to put fair and consistent standards in place so that English sufficiency can be gauged of taxi drivers — a point that town attorney David Pennella said Dover is working on as one way of cooperating with a complaint that was filed against it on behalf of Hispanic-owned taxi companies by the state Division on Civil Rights.

"There must be a standard in terms of some sort of testing,"Bozonelis said. "We don't want police coming in and saying 'You can't communicate.'"

Challenges to the ordinances were brought by lawyers for the Hispanic owners of four, town-based taxi companies, and a Mine Hill-based firm that said the ordinances demand it be licensed by Dover to pick up passengers in town, yet no licenses are available. The companies are Apple Limo-Taxi Service Inc. Chamo Limo Inc., Queens Limo Inc., 07 Taxi Limo Inc., and Mine Hill-based Azua Limo Car Service.

Vagueness to be fixed

Two of four attorneys for the cab companies — Joseph Bell and Steven A. Lang — did persuade the judge that certain mandates in the ordinances are "unconstitutionally vague" so that Bozonelis ordered those terms stricken for now, but they may be rewritten to be more specific if the town chooses. The terms include rules that taxi drivers be clean, neat and "appropriately dressed," know the geography of the town and provide "prompt and adequate service." Those terms as written are too open to interpretation and potential abuse, the judge said.

With nearly a dozen taxi cab owners and drivers watching the hearing, company owners argued against the $500,000-per-vehicle insurance coverage the town requires, along with annual license fees the town wants for each vehicle. The ordinances call for fees of $200 or $250 per vehicle depending on the seating capacity of the cab.

Bell said it costs the companies $10,450 per vehicle to maintain the required coverage — a price tag he said severely cuts into the ability of the companies to make a living. The judge said the town has the right to set licensing fees and determine whether insurance coverage is adequate, but that he needs more information on whether the figures are reasonable or not and comparable to other municipalities with taxi cab ordinances.

Pennella said that the $500,000 per vehicle coverage being contested was enacted in 2004, and cab companies should have complained of the cost back then.

No dates were set for when further hearings on the ordinances will be held.

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