More Cabbies Cry Foul Over County’s John Wayne Contract

There’s a new wrinkle in the airport-cab controversy, which has centered on the supervisors’ 3-2 vote to award the exclusive John Wayne contract to American Taxi, a new company formed by well-connected lobbyist Lyle Overby. An eight-member review panel that included county staff and airport commission members had given higher scores to incumbent A Taxi Cab, but the supes opted for Overby’s runner-up bid when A Taxi ran into insurance problems. Now the bidder that scored third in the review, a consortium of California Yellow Cab, Yellow Cab of North Orange County and Taxi Systems, is crying foul. It has retained Tustin lawyer and longtime county critic William R. Mitchell. He’s been in touch with the county’s internal audit department, which is examining the whole affair. Mitchell says his clients would have scored higher than American except for terrible scores from two panel members: “We got low scores for experience, even though our companies have 57 years of experience and Lyle’s company has eight months” Susan Schaben says retired Freedom Communications’ CEO James Rosse was in San Francisco last week testifying as an expert witness on behalf of Hearst Corp. in its defense of an antitrust suit seeking to block its $660 million purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle Antonio Banderas is more than a pretty face. Marketing pro E. Lesly Martin notes that it is also an intersection in Rancho Santa Margarita … The irrepressible Roger Kranz, publisher of the Business Press in Ontario and former OCBJ ad boss, is home in Irvine, recovering from a heart attack. A recent caller found him in high spirits, raving about how good-looking the Hoag Hospital nurses are and promising to be ready for a June 5 golf date The Insider notes yet another recent addition to the rapidly expanding OCBJ family: Sage Amber Malvin, a production of Chris Malvin and OCBJ freelancer Sabine Herndon.