Airport Officials Soften Controversial Proposal to Clean Up Cabbies’ Hygiene

Keeping arm’s length from a political stinker, local airport commissioners Wednesday assigned a committee to resolve whether--and how--to regulate the personal hygiene of cabdrivers.

But the airport staff, showered by national media attention, watered down its initial proposal by eliminating any specific requirements for “fresh breath” and “pleasant body odor.”

Even the notion of hygiene guidelines continued to raise a stink among some cabdrivers. The proposal was drafted by image-conscious airport management after it received complaints from tourists about unwashed cabdrivers. The initial proposal would have required cabdrivers to shower with soap, brush their teeth with toothpaste and use breath mints daily.

The adoption of hygiene guidelines will now be debated by a committee of airport commissioners, cabdrivers and representatives of the local SunLine Transit Agency, which regulates the region’s taxis.

“We’re very hard-working blue-collar people,” Rainbow Cab owner Ken Olsen told commissioners Wednesday. “But you’re not my mother. I don’t want you to tell me how to dress or comb my hair.”

Other cabdrivers said hygiene guidelines are best left to their bosses, not bureaucrats.

Wednesday’s meeting was held in a conference room with views of sunny blue skies and palm trees, and everyone agreed that image is important to the tourism-driven town. And they also agreed that most of the 250 cabdrivers who work the region are dapper enough to suit the area’s ritzy reputation.

But what about the 10 or so who aren’t?

“I don’t see where the beef is in trying to make a set of rules that apply to everyone,” said airport Commissioner Mark Gershensen.

Commissioner Phil Kern said: “We’re trying to kill a fly with an atomic bomb.”

SunLine manager Richard Cromwell III said the hygiene regulations could be unconstitutional at worst, difficult to enforce at best.

“It’s a tricky situation,” he said after the meeting. “The few we’re talking about are who I call the ‘independent entrepreneurs.’ The whole cab industry seems left over from the stagecoach days when it was survival of the fittest. But the world’s different now and the general public expects a certain standard.”

The transit agency suggested that a booklet be distributed to cabdrivers, counseling them on personal appearance.