The Sitka Assembly voted to postpone a conversation concerning a major overhaul of the city’s commercial transportation code on Tuesday (8-12-26) after several community members spoke out against the proposed changes.
Sitka’s current taxi code has remained largely unchanged for nearly three decades. At assembly meeting, Municipal Administrator John Leach said the city has been working for several years to update it to more accurately reflect the community’s current transportation landscape.
“The chapter in place has remained largely unchanged since the late 1990s,” he said. “The existing chapter regulates only taxis. It does not account for tours, shuttles, limousines, human-powered vehicles such as pedicabs, all of which operate in Sitka today.”
The updated code city staff developed would introduce an endorsement system divided into three classes, folding in the updated transportation methods. It would not allow taxi operators to hold any other endorsements, a change Leach says is intended to ensure dedicated public taxi service. The new code would also update the existing fare structure to a flat-rate system based on pick-up and drop off zones, rather than a metered one.
“Under the current chapter, a person who believes they’re hiring a taxi at a regulated rate can find that the trip is billed as a tour or a sightseeing service at a rate the city does not regulate,” Leach said. “That’s a hard position for a passenger who has no way to know the difference, and it’s not fair to the operators who do charge the published rate.”
Leach said changing the city’s taxi code is contentious. The “painful process” began with community conversations in 2023, but the city’s efforts were stalled after a taxi company sued the former police chief over his interpretation of the taxi code. The case was settled last summer, allowing the city to revisit the issue.
“Nobody’s touched this in 27 years because every time we try to touch it, this is what happens,” he said. “And most people have said, ‘This is not worth my time and energy.’”
Even though a few years have passed, the issue still got pushback at Tuesday’s meeting, where several community stakeholders said they don’t support the proposed updates, and that if approved, it will hurt business.
Elias Carroll works for Tidal Taxi and Tours. He said taxi demand has decreased in recent years, as hotels, fishing lodges, and cruise terminals have started to provide their own shuttle service. He said a few local calls and walkups a day isn’t enough to maintain the cost of running a taxi business.
“As regulations on taxis increase, drivers will soon not be able to survive in Sitka’s high costs of living,” he said.
Sig Rutter agreed. He said throughout his tenure as a cab driver in Sitka, he’s sold taxi, tour, and shuttle services, and he wants to keep it that way.
“I believe it’s completely inappropriate for the assembly, or chief of police, or the administrator to try to force us to choose whether we’re going to be a taxi, tour or a shuttle,” Rutter said. “I’m entitled to continue doing business the way I have for the last 16 years.”
Assembly Member Scott Saline said he wants more public engagement before voting on the code update, and suggested postponing the issue until later this year.
“I’m just afraid we’re going to end up with like a haulout that can’t haul out boats, and we’re going to end up with cabs that can’t pick people up,” he said.
Assembly Member Katie Riley agreed with the postponement. She said balancing the affordability needs of residents with the needs of providers to make a living is a tough line to walk.
“I would love a little bit of thought to go into this process because it has been talked about for 27 years, and there keep being impediments,” Riley said. “So there needs to be some dedication to getting a comprehensive look at what all the comments are on this proposal, where all the little rub points are, and then what can we do about that.”
Ultimately, the assembly voted unanimously to move the issue to its meeting on Nov. 24.
