54°F
weather icon Mostly Clear

Las Vegas taxi leaders have key date with legislative panel

While the city's taxi industry reels from a state audit accusing it of millions of dollars of overcharges and recommending the dismantling of the Taxicab Authority, officials have a new worry — a date with the Sunset Subcommittee of the Legislative Commission.

Taxi industry leaders and the administration of the Taxicab Authority have already begun preparing to respond to the scathing accusation that cab companies overcharged customers by $47.3 million in high credit card use fees and unnecessary fuel surcharges.

Cab company operators say both the credit-card fees and the fuel surcharges were appropriately approved by Taxicab Authority board and the board added that all fee determinations were reached in properly noticed public meetings.

The audit, delivered by the Executive Branch Audit Committee in mid-January, was discussed by what is now a four-member Taxicab Authority board last week. The board unanimously voted not to accept the recommendations of the audit and will await an independent research report on the findings of the audit by Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis, an economics and finance research company.

The Applied Analysis report, commissioned by the Livery Operators Association, will take three months to complete and will be undertaken by principal Jeremy Aguero.

The Taxicab Authority administration also is preparing a request for proposals to develop an independent report on the authority board's history of approving rates and medallion distributions.

While the authority board and the administration await the research, another group will review the Taxicab Authority's function next week. The Sunset Subcommittee of the Legislative Commission routinely reviews the operations of state boards and commissions. Three senators and three members of the Nevada Assembly comprise the committee, which meets Tuesday and also will review the operation of the Nevada Transportation Authority as well as the Taxicab Authority. The Transportation Authority oversees the operation of limousines, buses and ride-hailing companies as well as taxi operations in all but Clark County. The Taxicab Authority regulates Clark County's 16 cab companies.

Taxicab Authority Administrator Ronald Grogan said he has spent much of his time reassuring the authority's 63 employees that the audit recommendation to disband the agency and the appearance of the authority on the Sunset Subcommittee's list of agencies to review does not mean there would be immediate action that would put them out of work.

"It's been a rollercoaster here for the last few days," Grogan said.

He suspects that if plans were developed to disband the agency, the need for oversight would continue and the responsibilities would be shifted either to the Transportation Authority or to Clark County.

"We would just cease to exist as a separate entity," Grogan said. "But there would continue to be a need for what we do."

Disbanding the agency would take at least a year and a half because it would have to be approved by the Nevada Legislature, which doesn't convene for a year.

He said the timing of the Sunset Subcommittee review was surprising because it came right after the audit report.

"The Taxicab Authority hasn't been vetted by the Sunset committee in 10 years," he said.

And, if the Taxicab Authority board has any say in the matter, the agency won't go away without a fight.

While the board intends to wait for the completion of the research, board members made it clear where they stood and cab company executives weighed in on what they thought of the audit.

"While I'm not an attorney and it's my opinion, it's beyond the scope of the auditor's role to call for the dissolution of the agency," Chairwoman Ileana Drobkin said in the board's Jan. 28 meeting. "It's beyond the scope of the auditor's authority to undermine the discretion of the board's decision-making process in hearing appeals. The process by which the board determined the rates was consistent with what the law provides."

Drobkin noted that it wasn't that long ago, in January 2013, that the Taxicab Authority was named the Department of Business and Industry's "agency of the year" for its standards and level of service.

"For them (auditors) to come to the conclusion that this agency should be eliminated is shameful," said Brent Bell, president of the Bell transportation group as well as president of the Livery Operators Association.

"We look forward to peeling back a few layers of this onion," he said.

Jonathan Schwartz, director of Yellow Checker Star, said every decision reached by the Taxicab Authority was supported by data and solid testimony.

"I must comment that the audit is misleading and there are inaccuracies within the audit that simply misstate the facts," Schwartz said.

"We believe that the conclusion of this report are false, damaging and substantially misled the public," added Jamie Pino of Nellis Cab. "What really amazes me is how quickly it got to the public. I think it's only fair to say that this audit was so quickly sent to the media and put out there, affecting our companies. It's been done maliciously to affect us because people are scared to get in cabs."

Attorney Jason Awad, who owns Lucky Cab, questioned the motivation of auditors distributing the report without previously issuing it to the board.

"I can tell you, I've never seen anything like this," Awad said. "This is a hatchet job."

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST