A contingent of the San Antonio City Council is working to stave off the imminent implementation of an ordinance expected to force transportation-network companies Uber and Lyft to shutter operations in the Alamo City on March 1.

That’s when the city’s revised vehicles-for-hire policy is slated to take effect. Uber executives have said it’s the most restrictive set of regulations in the country and have informed the city that if the ordinance isn’t significantly overhauled, the company will flip the switch on its smart-phone app, killing the ability for its untold number of local drivers to work.

Lyft, another transportation-network company, or TNC, has said absent major changes, it too will have to leave San Antonio when the ordinance takes effect.

But Councilmen Alan Warrick and Roberto Treviño are working on a fix that could prevent Uber and Lyft from high-tailing it out of town.

“I’m very positive. I think we can get it done,” Treviño said. “My feeling is that we as a council will work together to make sure we’re deliberately producing policies that are not going to just drive people out of here but will encourage innovation. I feel very positive about it, and we’re going to move quick on this.”

Treviño had just been appointed to the council on the same day it voted on the TNC ordinance in December. Having been on the dais for only a couple hours when it was time to vote on the measure, he abstained. That day, Warrick, who’d been elected to serve District 2 but hadn’t been sworn in, addressed the council as a citizen. He asked his then-soon-to-be colleauges to delay the vote so he could participate.

Now, the two are working together to arrive at a solution that won’t run the TNCs out of town. Uber and Lyft have become a litmus test for San Antonio as to whether the city is welcoming of innovation, tech startups and the like. Having TNCs in San Antonio, Warrick said Sunday, will help retain and attract millennial growth and “raise the cool factor of San Antonio.”

Surely, this city doesn’t want to be one of the few in the U.S. that says “no” to Uber and Lyft, he said, adding that “isn’t the kind of national press we want.”

But Uber says the city’s regulations are unworkable. Left unchecked, San Antonio will charge a $175 permit fee to TNC drivers, while Houston charges about $11, and Austin charges nothing. Uber’s general manager for Texas, Chris Nakutis, wrote in a letter to the council that San Antonio’s new regulation “applies insurance levels significantly higher than what is required of taxis in the city and creates unnecessary hurdles and costs for those who want to make a living using the Uber platform.

“Worst of all, it is unclear how these added burdens even add to the protection of the safety of riders and drivers,” Nakutis wrote in a Feb. 4 letter to the council.

John Bouloubasis, president of Yellow Cab San Antonio, called it “ludicrous” to amend safety regulations created just two months ago — that haven’t even been implemented yet.

“San Antonio's City Council did the right thing by creating a TNC ordinance that put passengers' safety first, and we hope they don't fall for the empty threats Uber is issuing now, a play used in cities like ours whose safety standards interfere with their profits,” he said. “The ordinance agreed on in December provides a business-friendly legalized framework for TNCs.”

Warrick said he’s worried that there isn’t enough time to delve deeply into the policy issues and is advocating for a delay in enforcement of the new policies until later this summer, after the council elections. By then, the Texas Legislature would have had an opportunity to weigh in, perhaps by passing a statewide law that could preempt local ordinances.

“We don’t have time to hash through all the details again, and there’s a lot of data that can be collected,” he said. “Other cities have been able to reap the benefits (of Uber and Lyft), and I think San Antonio can and will, eventually, as well.”

Whether the council will take action remains unclear. Its members are split on the issue and any action likely hinges on one to two votes.

Mayor Ivy Taylor said she welcomes TNCs to San Antonio and thinks they’re needed here, in part because public transportation here “is somewhat limited.” But trying to find a compromise that would satisfy the TNCs is a crapshoot, she said. If the city lowered the permit fee, would the TNCs then say they still won’t stay because of the insurance requirements, she asked rhetorically.

jbaugh@express-news.net

Twitter: @jbaugh