For anyone wondering whether the ride-sharing debate in San Antonio is over, and for any elected official who might wish that it were — it’s not.

Not if District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg has anything to do with it.

After a 7-2 vote last week to over-regulate services such as Uber and Lyft — a vote in which one councilman disappeared mysteriously from the dais, another abstained because he had just been appointed to council that day, and another pushed a button despite having been voted out of office two days earlier — Nirenberg is angling for a redo.

“I think the most compelling reason for reconsideration is the governance part of it,” Nirenberg told me on Monday. “I mean, it was everything people say is bad about Congress, people passing thousand-page bills that they don’t read — that’s what happened on Thursday. So I think that’s the reason to reconsider no matter what.”

District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran offered amendments to the ordinance shortly before the vote, a manuever backed by Mayor Ivy Taylor, who took a dim view of all the Sturm und Drang surrounding the debate.

“There is an undercurrent to this discussion that makes me a bit uncomfortable,” she said on Thursday. “This, for some reason, is being used as a litmus test as regarding our city’s progress, but I’m not quite sure what’s being measured.”

I asked Taylor on Friday whether she understood why some think she failed to grasp the impact of the vote, which could drive Uber and Lyft from the city. Her response: Public safety is paramount, and anyone who disagrees with the ordinance should recall the case of 6-year-old Sofia Liu.

Last year, Liu was struck and killed in San Francisco by a former Uber driver who failed to yield while turning and crashed into pedestrians. The driver at the time was logged into the Uber driver’s app but did not have passengers in his car.

One of the most contentious aspects of the new ordinance requires ride-sharing services to carry excess insurance even when drivers are logged into an app but don’t have any passengers.

“There are real concerns with the ordinance as written,” Nirenberg said, “because they place barriers in front of a new business model that don’t appear to be for public safety purposes — excess insurance and forcing new drivers to appear in person in front of the city to deliver driver records, things like that.”

Nirenberg is mulling how to proceed. He needs a broader coalition on council, perhaps to include new District 1 Councilman Roberto Treviño (who abstained on Thursday), District 2 Councilman-elect Alan Warrick II (who’s replacing taxi industry-supporter Keith Toney) and District 7 Councilman Cris Medina, who inexplicably bolted from the dais before the vote, possibly on weak knees. Medina didn’t return a call.

Nirenberg should take heart in the open mind of District 9 Councilman Joe Krier, who voted for the ordinance on Thursday.

Ride-sharing services “wanted more time to work out something more reasonable on that,” Krier told me on Monday. “Interestingly, they are getting, as a result of this ordinance, a whole six months,” when the city plans to revisit the regulations.

“And frankly,” Krier continued, “I would urge that they continue those conversations right now. If they could come forward with something that would make everybody happy before six months … We need to have something that both sides think is reasonable.”

Krier at least recognizes that council failed to find a compromise, as illustrated by the dismay of so many constituents also concerned about public safety. One is Chad Carey, co-owner of near-downtown restaurants Hot Joy, The Monterey and Barbaro.

“I can assure you, there are less people drinking and driving when Uber and Lyft are available,” Carey said. “There is no doubt about it.”

Too often, customers “wait for a cab for 30, 45 minutes, an hour,” Carey continued. “Taxis make it — not inconvenient; inconvenient is waiting for a VIA bus that’s 10 minutes late when you’re trying to use transit to get downtown. This is not inconvenient. It’s impossible, and it’s impractical and it screws up your night, which is why no one uses it.”

So council: try again.

bchasnoff@express-news.net