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Board of Appeals Grants Jurisdiction in Taxi‑Medallion Appeal After Notice Dispute
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Appeals voted 4‑0 on March 3, 2010, to grant a jurisdiction request in an appeal over an SFMTA decision that denied a taxi medallion, reopening a 15‑day appeal period after the appellant’s attorney argued the driver did not receive actual or constructive notice.
The San Francisco Board of Appeals voted unanimously to take jurisdiction over a late appeal from Kalesilasi Ghebresilasi, whose application for a taxi medallion was denied by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. President Tanya Peterson moved to grant the jurisdiction request after attorney Ray Alexander told the board that his client did not receive actual notice of the agency’s decision and therefore was deprived of meaningful appellate rights.
Alexander argued the documents mailed to his client were not clear and that the appellant was abroad, caring for ill family members, when the agency’s notice was sent. "Mr. Ghebrey Salassi did not receive actual notice and I have contended in the papers I have submitted that he did not even receive constructive notice," Alexander said during his presentation.
Deputy City Attorney Francesca Gessner and board members discussed the legal standard for late jurisdiction. Commissioners noted there is a 15‑day filing deadline for appeals and that the Board’s power to grant late jurisdiction is grounded in case law rather than an express charter provision. Several commissioners said the circumstances Alexander described—an overseas absence and a transition in taxi regulation from a prior commission to SFMTA—were sufficiently compelling to permit a late filing.
President Peterson’s motion to grant jurisdiction passed on a 4‑0 vote with Commissioner Frank Fung absent. "Jurisdiction is granted and a new 15 day appeal period shall open up tomorrow," a board staff member announced after the roll call.
The board’s action does not rule on the underlying merits of the medallion denial; it only reopens the administrative appeal window to allow the appellant to pursue a substantive hearing before the Board of Appeals.
Outcome and next steps: The board granted jurisdiction and ordered that a new 15‑day appeal period begin immediately. Any substantive hearing on the medallion denial will proceed only after the appellant submits a timely appeal in that reopened period.
