Columnist Jeff German: Support grows to revamp supervision of taxis

JEFF GERMANis a senior investigative reporter. His column also appears in the Las Vegas SUN on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He can be reached at 259-4067 or on the Internet at [email protected]

AFTER nearly a 30-year run, much of it mired in controversy, the state Taxicab Authority is on its last legs.

A move is afoot to merge the Taxicab Authority into the new state Transportation Services Authority, which regulates the likes of limousines and shuttle buses.

Spearheading the push is Department of Business and Industry Director Claudia Cormier, who oversees both agencies.

"I think it makes sense from a standpoint of organization and effective delivery of services to the people," Cormier says.

Cormier is putting together a proposal to ask the 1999 Legislature to place the Taxicab Authority under the TSA's wing. The authority, which only operates in Southern Nevada, was created by the 1969 Legislature following a bloody taxicab war here.

Surprisingly, both Taxicab Authority Administrator Bob Anselmo and Authority Board Chairman Jim Jimmerson support the reorganization.

"It's ludicrous that there are two different agencies regulating transportation in Nevada," says Anselmo, a veteran bureaucrat who has had his share of headaches at the helm of the Taxicab Authority.

Jimmerson agrees, saying the state needs to develop consistency in its regulation of the transportation industry.

Under the present setup, for example, limousines, which aren't under the Taxicab Authority's jurisdiction, get much less scrutiny than taxicabs, Jimmerson says.

"There ought to be one board that handles these different types of enforcement," he says.

Once hailed as the industry's savior, the Taxicab Authority now seems to have outlived its purpose.

Nellis Cab Co. owner Ray Chenoweth, who's been in business since 1960, long before the authority was created, says a change may not be a bad idea.

"As long as they don't throw the baby out with the wash, I think it would be acceptable to most operators," he says. "They should keep what's working and get rid of what's not."

Like everything else in Southern Nevada, the transportation industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years. Many cab companies now own limousine and bus services, regulated by the TSA.

Always under-funded, the Taxicab Authority has had a tough time keeping up with the changing transportation scene.

At the same time, cabbies have stepped up complaints about the draconian way in which the authority presides over disciplinary proceedings.

Talk to any cabbie and you'll likely get a long list grievances about the authority.

Most don't understand why they have tight regulations and limousine drivers don't.

Even some of the owners are starting to needle the agency.

Recently, Pete Eliadis, who has an interest in Yellow-Checker-Star Cab Co., complained that he was losing business at his Olympic Gardens adult nightclub because he refused to pay kickbacks to drivers to steer customers his way.

That prompted the Taxicab Authority to launch an investigation that put the drivers further on edge.

Within the agency itself, concerns also have been raised that some investigators may be too close to company owners.

On several occasions, insiders report, leaks of sensitive information to the companies have threatened to compromise ongoing investigations.

In 1996, the Taxicab Authority was forced to abort an undercover sting aimed at breaking up a lucrative toll ticket scam at McCarran International Airport after one of the targets got wise to the probe.

The authority blamed the botched investigation on its informant, John Mirkovich.

But Mirkovich, a 46-year-old Western Cab Co. driver, blamed the authority. He has been on a crusade since then to expose what he calls corruption within the industry and the authority.

Mirkovich has talked to anyone -- including the FBI and IRS -- who will listen.

"I'm going to continue digging up dirt on the Taxicab Authority," he says. I'm not going to let up."

Time, however, may be running out on Mirkovich.

Soon, the Taxicab Authority, as we know it, no longer will exist.

* Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa has not had a good political run of late.

Earlier this year, you'll recall, Del Papa backed out of the race for governor after she failed to drum up enough financial support. Democratic Party leaders, who felt let down, have been struggling since then to come up with a big name to challenge Republican Kenny Guinn.

Then, when Del Papa decided to run for re-election, she found a solid Republican, former Assemblyman Scott Scherer, eyeing her job. Scherer is likely to receive support from the Culinary Union, which lost enthusiasm for Del Papa during the bitter Frontier strike.

Last week, the attorney general angered Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who has been working overtime to regain control of the upper house for the Democrats.

Titus went ballistic when she learned that Del Papa had agreed to host a fund-raiser May 28 for Russell Davis, a Democratic candidate in Senate District 7.

Democrats have known for some time that Titus is the one who persuaded Las Vegas lawyer Terry Care to step into the race.

Titus saw Del Papa's fund-raiser for Davis as an attempt to meddle in the Senate races.

Diffusing the tension, Del Papa pledged to host an event for Care, too.

But Titus is said to still harbor some ill-feelings toward the attorney general.

* It took David Broder, the Washington Post's veteran political writer, to persuade Charles Muth to come clean on the extent of Sheldon Adelson's role in the GOP's workers' rights initiative.

Muth, a Republican Party activist who's been ducking the issue locally for weeks, confessed in the Post last week that Adelson is bank-rolling "a good portion" of the anti-labor campaign.

Adelson, who's building the $2 billion Venetian megaresort, was described in the newspaper by one unidentified Nevada Republican as "rabidly anti-union."

Kenny Guinn and other top Republicans oppose the initiative, which seeks to require written permission from union members for political use of their dues.

Broder reported that another prominent Republican, Rep. John Ensign, who has received union support in the past, is "squirming on the issue."

Ensign is running against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who opposes the initiative. Reid is receiving strong labor backing in the race.

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