In a bland, one-story office park in Tukwila, at the end of a winding road, sits a parking lot with more than two dozen spanking-new Toyota Priuses. Topped with taxi signs, they gleam with fresh paint—a vivid grass-green on the body with a green-and-white-checked border. The logo on the cars says: Green Cab.

The cars belong to an association of Ethiopian drivers who, until last month, thought they had a lock on approximately 50 new taxi licenses being issued by King County. The drivers took out home-equity loans and spent $2.8 million in start-up costs, according to their leader, as they prepared to launch the new green fleet, which was supposed to be not only more environmentally friendly than current cabs, but more labor-friendly as well: The association had signed an agreement with the Teamsters union to allow collective bargaining.

But that picture of supposed progress has since been blown up in a wave of suspicion, lawsuits, and recriminations. The rest of the local drivers have responded with outrage to the county plan, first announced in October. They lambaste the county for funneling the licenses directly to Green Cab—whose members have given generous donations to King County Executive Ron Sims and other county officials—without any chance for others to bid. Lawsuits have been filed, and a King County court commissioner issued a restraining order against the county's move last month. In the face of the protest, Sims' staff has quickly backed down, claiming it was all a misunderstanding, and has agreed to allow other groups of cabbies to pitch for the new licenses.

But even now, many feel the fix is in and Green Cab will still come away with the prize—the first new licenses released by the county in 17 years. Typically such licenses sell for between $150,000 and $350,000 when traded among cabbies. These will be given away essentially for free. But the drivers have only until April 8 to make their case, as the county hastily issued a request for proposals. Under the terms of the RFP, drivers have to buy pricey hybrids—a million dollar or more proposition—which, as it happens, the Green Cab guys already own.

In a conference room at a King County administrative building, Jim Buck, the overseer of taxi regulation for the county, was surrounded by 100 irate drivers at a meeting last week.

"How in the world could any association be able to make a proposal that's remotely responsive in two or three weeks?" asked Douglas Titus, a West Seattle lawyer representing a group of 40 taxi drivers.

"I think it can be done, but I'm not a driver so I don't know," responded the mild-mannered Buck, wearing a brown corduroy jacket and bifocals and looking exceedingly pale amid the East Africans and Indians, some of them in colorful turbans, who dominated the room in a tightening circle around him. Ridiculing laughter erupted, and not for the first time.

"Excuse me, were you involved in the award of licenses to Green Cab?" asked a fellow in a black cap.

"Yes, I was," Buck conceded.

"Then you should excuse yourself. Without a lawsuit we would not be here today."

"Does anyone have any doubt that this is a recipe for Green Cab?" shouted another man in a green skullcap to the crowd.

"No! No!"

A mustached Somali named Saed Raigal jumped up and called for a two-week strike. "OK? Promise? Nobody working tomorrow," he said, madly waving his arms.

"Yes! Yes!"

And with that, and more chaotic shouting in a mix of languages, the meeting messily broke apart under the eye of a just-arrived security guard. While the strike never materialized, the furor continues.

Sims vehemently denies that the assignment of the leases to Green Cab, without any RFP or other application process, had anything to do with the roughly $20,000 in contributions given him during his most recent re-election campaign by drivers associated with Green Cab. "There was no tit for tat," he says. "I don't operate that way."

Yet something seems amiss about the way the process unfolded, and the county's explanations have only added to the mystery. In a Feb. 1 letter to King County Council Chair Julia Patterson, Sims said that the county was now putting out an RFP because "since this announcement [that Green Cab was getting the licenses], additional groups have expressed interest in participating" (emphasis added).

Yet, according to Joe Blondo, president of the Alliance of Taxi Associations, the bigger and better funded of the two groups suing the county, once the county issued notice in May about a test program offering new licenses, "everyone jumped on it." Drivers furiously began forming associations to apply for the licenses and, in some cases, formed detailed business proposals.

More than five dozen responses came in to the county's request for comment, according to documents obtained through public disclosure by Blondo's Alliance. Blondo, a veteran part-time taxi driver who is one of the few native-born Americans in the industry, submitted a proposal on behalf of the newly formed 21st Century Taxi Company, which comprises some 40 members. "All of this is a bit confusing," he wrote in a cover letter to the county. "Does this mean, after the surveys from the various associations arrive, that one or more associations will be chosen to submit formal bids?"

He wrote that he had investigated hybrid cars and settled on the Toyota Sienna as his preferred choice. He was also scouting taxi lots, looking into financing, and proposing a color scheme of "light blue (sky blue, robin egg blue) and crème."

A group of 40 Indian-born drivers calling themselves the Seattle Washington Taxi Association also expressed interest and hired Titus to help. He, too, couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Though he repeatedly called county officials, he says, "I was unable to obtain any information about the process."