Triton Taxi, the A.S.-sponsored “safe ride home” service, is facing a budget deficit of $9,600, which may grow to over $13,000 before the end of the quarter, according to A.S. Commissioner of Student Services Kelly Vasant.. Vasant said that the deficit is due to an unexpected increase in the number of students using Triton Taxi.
The A.S. Council approved the reallocation of $8,000 from the operations and services account to help cover the costs during its April 7 meeting. Income from senior memory book photo shoots is expected to cover the remaining $1,600 in bills.
“I think this is a good problem that we’re facing right now because it means students are actually using our services,” A.S. Commissioner of Student Advocacy Jeff Boyd said.
Triton Taxi service is contracted to Cloud 9 Shuttle, a San Diego-based taxi, shuttle and limousine service. Under the terms of the current agreement, Cloud 9 will provide enough shuttles so that students will not wait more than 40 minutes from the time they request a ride to when they are picked up.
Increased ridership over the past few months caused Cloud 9 to allocate more shuttles to Triton Taxi and charge the A.S. Council accordingly.
“The way this service works is on an as-needed basis,” Vasant said. “There is no feasible way to estimate how many students will use the service.”
The 2003-04 A.S. Executive Budget cut Triton Taxi funding $3,000 from the previous year, leaving $12,000 allocated for the service even though about $20,000 was spent on Triton Taxi during the 2002-03 academic year, according to Vasant.
No one could remember why Triton Taxi funding was reduced during discussion in the A.S. Finance Committee meeting on April 7.
“We just need to be able to estimate better on what it is and how much we’re going to spend,” A.S. President Jeremy Paul Gallagher said. “That’s something we failed at this year and that’s something I take responsibility for, as well I think the council should.”
During fall quarter 2003, some councilmembers discussed the possibility of obtaining sponsorships from local alcohol distributors for Triton Taxi. Since then, the UCSD administration has resisted accepting money from alcohol providers, Vasant said.
Thurgood Marshall College Freshman Senator Alan Haimowitz objected to the $8,000 allocation because, he said, Cloud 9 made no effort to alert the council to the sharp increase in ridership.
“I think the least they could have done was contact us, to make sure that this would be all right, especially when we’re dealing with such a huge sum of money,” Haimowitz said. “I think it’s totally unfair that we’re accepting full responsibility.”
Other councilmembers took issue with the idea of trying to negotiate a new price with Cloud 9.
“We made a bill, we have to pay it,” Vasant said. “I don’t think we’ve messed up.”
Gallagher agreed, calling the idea of renegotiation “unrealistic.”
Triton Taxi was unanimously hailed by councilmembers as a service that provides safe rides home for people who are intoxicated or in uncomfortable situations on Friday and Saturday nights.
“This could potentially be about people’s lives,” A.S. Panhellenic Representative Rachel Corell said.
John Muir College Sophomore Senator Nam Bui echoed the statements of a handful of councilmembers.
“This isn’t money that’s gone to waste, it’s money well spent,” Bui said.
While the current funding crunch for the service seems to be solved, more bills for Triton Taxi loom on the horizon. One solution discussed by the finance committee was taking money from the mandated reserves account.
“From what I understand about mandate reserves, mandate reserves are there for emergencies,” Vasant said. “And, well, we have a little bit of an emergency.”
A proposal to limit the number of students who can use the service or the number of shuttles that Cloud 9 can send out on a given night was met with strong resistance on the council floor.
“Can you really put a price or limit on student safety?” Vasant said. “If people are deciding whether to take Triton Taxi home or whether to drive home drunk, I would rather pay $1 million a year for Triton Taxi so that no one gets hurt.”
