RUMFORD — Unlike Rumford, the cities of Lewiston and Bangor make taxi drivers pay for their criminal background checks and only count their criminal convictions for the past five years.

City Clerks Kathy Montejo of Lewiston and Patti Dubois of Bangor said Wednesday that their cities enacted extensive ordinances many years ago to set standards for cabbies.

Rumford last amended its regulations in 2007, but they were not enforced until last month when police Chief Stacy Carter received a list of drivers and found nine of the 12 had criminal convictions dating back to 1968. That means they are barred from operating cabs, and he has asked selectmen at their 7 p.m. meeting Thursday, Jan. 7, to revoke the licenses of Road Hog Express and Courtesy Cab.

All Maine towns and cities with taxi services have such taxi cab ordinances because the state doesn’t regulate motor vehicles for hire, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Wednesday in Augusta. Maine only requires such drivers to have a valid driver’s license, he said.

Lewiston’s and Bangor’s ordinances don’t dip into disqualifying criminal convictions further back than five years immediately preceding applications for cab driver licenses. And, unlike Rumford’s ordinance, Lewiston’s and Bangor’s make taxi drivers, not companies, ensure they haven’t had any convictions.

Montejo and Dubois said their cities each have more than 100 people licensed annually as taxi drivers. Both also said taxi companies and their drivers must each apply for annual license renewals, but only the drivers must pay a nonrefundable fee that covers criminal background checks by police.

Rumford’s ordinance states any person or entity applying for a license must make certain that no one hired to drive has any felony  convictions or more than three misdemeanor convictions related to driving.

Lewiston’s standards deny cabbie licenses for felony convictions if the offense “is rationally related to the purpose of licensing taxicab drivers.” Licenses can also be denied if the applicants have been convicted of driving-related crimes at any time during the three years immediately preceding application.

However, if their driver’s license was suspended, withdrawn or revoked within the three years preceding application, due to nonpayment of state mandated child support or because they lacked personal vehicle insurance coverage, they can’t be banned from driving taxis.

Bangor puts their standards on the license application itself. These include any convictions for murder, manslaughter and other felonies. Cab drivers cannot have misdemeanor convictions such as assault or harassment in the past five years. They also can’t have three or more convictions within the past three years unless they’ve completed a state-approved defensive driving course in the past year.

“It’s been a pretty good system,” Lewiston’s Montejo said. “Other towns use it as a model for theirs.”

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