Mobile lawmakers took the final step Tuesday to allow the ride hailing service Uber to continue operating in the city limits.

The City Council approved changes to the vehicles for hire ordinance carving out new regulations for the app-based transportation company. After about one month of debate, all seven councilors voted unanimously at its regular meeting.

To the pleasure of several residents, many who spoke in favor of the service, Uber drivers can now legally give rides to passengers. The company had been in Mobile since mid-June when Mayor Sandy Stimpson announced that the company arrived.

But the council took up the measure, seeking to strike a balance between concerns of existing commercial transportation firms and the Silicon Valley upstart.

Last minute amendment

In recent days, Uber sent messages to many, if not all, of its customers in the Mobile area asking them to email their council members to support passage of the proposed law.

The email singled-out Councilwoman Bess Rich as a supporter of an amendment that would have changed the insurance requirements for the company, an allegation Rich said Tuesday was untrue.

Council President Gina Gregory sought to clarify the matter at the start of the meeting, calling the emails "misinformation" that "targeted" some members of the council but primarily Councilwoman Rich.

"Again, what has happened though is the wrong information was put out in so many of those emails," Gregory said. "And what happens is, people assume these things to be true, they post them, they comment on them and then social media just explodes with the wrong information."

Uber has deployed similar strategies in other cities, including the city of Birmingham, seeking to harness public support through social media. Whatever its effect, council members were undeterred, many of them taking a moment to voice their support for bringing the service to Mobile.

Rich said that she was considering a proposal to address a "valid issue encountered in other cities" but sensed there wasn't enough support for the measure. The proposal would have broadened the commercial insurance requirements Uber would have been obligated to comply with.

"I did bring this to the attention of my colleagues and the administration, and was considering a proposal for insurance cover requirements for Uber driver similar to taxi cab drivers in our city," Rich said, "however I didn't sense the support from the administration and other council members to address this public safety issue."

Rich also took a moment to admonish the mayor's chief of staff Colby Cooper for a Facebook post, in which she said he was "lobbying people to prevent Bess Rich from 'killing Uber.' "

A 'level playing field'

The new rules didn't pass without some opposition from local transportation companies. The new regulations focus on taxis cabs and the newly-defined transportation network companies, leaving out shuttles and limousines.

William Hunter, owner of Hunter Limousines, said that may have been a mistake. Hunter told council members during the meeting that he felt uneasy about the scope of the law and doubts it went far enough to balance regulations for the entire transportation industry.

Hunter said he, too, has worked as an Uber driver and used the service before in Mobile and Gulf Shores, and is not against the company operating in the region.

"I am absolutely about laissez-faire economics. If they make a better mousetrap then so be it. Consumers love it," Hunter said. "All I'm saying is you can't have a set of rules for Uber and another set of rules for the cabs and other public transportation companies."

Hunter said his company is required to have airport decals and city decals. "All I'm saying is if we do this, the current laws that I have to follow need to be addressed and leveled," he said.

Florence Kessler, chief assistant city attorney, said the aim of the law was to try and enact in every way possible a level playing between Uber and taxi cab companies. But there were some instances where it may have been unnecessary.

During the City Council's pre-conference meeting, Kessler said vehicle requirements, background checks and insurance obligations when Uber drivers have a passenger on board were each areas in which the city could create parity between the two industries, "but also recognizing that they're two different types of service."

"What the ordinance does in [terms of] a level playing field is it allows taxis to also -- if they choose - operate like TNC's, to set their own fares in advance with the passenger, and have that agreement before the passenger gets in," Kessler said.

Kessler added, "So the level playing field is achieved not by obliterating all the rules for taxis, but by allowing them alternatives which also at all times protect the public safety."

There were still a few sticking points to be addressed, said Jarrod White, an attorney for Mobile Bay Transportation and Yellow Cab of Mobile. Other than permitting taxis to operate on a fare system similar to Uber, the new ordinance did little to change the old fare system taxis cabs use

"I think keeping the regulated fares, keeping the requirements that they should be published and keeping the meter requirement creates confusion for the customers," White said.

White also took issue with leaving language in the ordinance that made it necessary for cabs to use meters and some of the detailed requirements specifying car color and vehicle markings, a demand Uber drivers will not have to worry about.

Update: This report was updated on July 14, 2015 at 3:42 p.m. to include more details from the City Council meeting.