Pressure is mounting to ease regulations on ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft in San Antonio.

It started on Monday, when Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff penned an entreaty to Mayor Ivy Taylor, then released the letter to the media. Prior to that, a seemingly immovable majority of Council — Taylor, Rebecca Viagran, Shirley Gonzales, Ray Lopez, Joe Krier and Mike Gallagher — appeared unlikely to crack.

All six seem unruffled by Uber’s vow last week to leave San Antonio on March 1 unless the city reworks regulations set to go into effect on that date. On Wednesday, Uber representatives made it clear just how unworkable the new law is.

“This ordinance is a bit like Frankenstein’s monster,” said Chris Nakutis, general manager for Uber in Texas. “There are so many issues … Short of something that is copy and paste from another city, there are just too many issues.”

For instance, the law requires so-called transportation network companies to purchase nearly eight times more insurance than cab companies, and drivers must spend more than $300 to get on the road.

In Austin, where Uber operates, no fees are levied on drivers, many of whom work part-time to stay afloat financially.

San Antonio must “repeal and replace” its entire ordinance, or Uber is gone on March 1, Nakutis said.

That’s a tall order.

But Nakutis is “a perennial optimist,” he said.

“There are certain things at play in politics,” he said. “There’s a bit of a groundswell.”

Enter Wolff, who meets with the mayor once a week.

“Thank you for meeting with me this morning regarding Uber and Lyft,” Wolff wrote on Monday. “I appreciate the fact that you are willing to consider reaching a compromise.”

That was news. A few days earlier, Taylor was sticking to the status quo, stating publicly, “We are currently in the phase-in period of the ordinance, and we are looking forward to reviewing how (transportation network companies) are able to operate in June and then again later this year.”

Politically, that wasn’t surprising.

With the help of thousands of dollars in donations from the taxi industry, Viagran crafted the burdensome ordinance. And the councilwoman is a close ally of the mayor’s; last year, she helped Taylor win the appointment.

But Wolff can be persuasive.

“The judge has a track record of always speaking very frankly and from a common-sense point of view,” said state Rep. Justin Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, a former councilman, “and very rationally pointing out facts that I think brings a certain level of gravitas to matters.”

Among those facts: Bexar County saw 8,519 DWI charges last year. Ridesharing reduces instances of drunken driving, a scourge that can shatter lives. And while some couldn’t care less whether Uber vanishes, a certain demographic does: “millenials and young professionals,” Wolff wrote, the sort of residents the city and county have invested millions of dollars to attract here.

“My God, cities need to be on the cutting edge of these things, not hiding their heads in the foxhole,” Wolff told me.

The county judge shared his concerns with City Manager Sheryl Sculley, and he asked Rackspace Chairman Graham Weston to “start making calls and get people energized,” he said.

A strong jolt, indeed, is required to persuade council to scrap the ordinance.

But council should do just that.

“Regulation can be used to keep a consumer or resident safe,” Councilman Rey Saldaña said, “or it could swing the pendulum the other way and it can be used to advantage one competitor over the other, and I think that’s where the council fell on its vote.”

Saldaña has been texting the mayor, he said, “just letting her know how concerned I was, that we took this too far.”

He met with Taylor on Wednesday.

“She was more open to the idea (of compromise) than I thought,” Saldaña said. “She seems really in favor of the idea of doing something, of having a response.”

bchasnoff@express-news.net