Complaint targets limo firm

Friday, May 22, 1998 | 9:56 a.m.

Ordinarily, it would be a good thing that Las Vegas Limousines are so visible that the company's luxury vehicles are easy to locate by those who require upscale transportation.

However, competitors allege that the reason for that is because the company, which operates under the auspices of the A-NLV Cab Co., has been putting more limos on Clark County streets than the state allows it to have in operation at any one time. At least one competitor has filed a formal complaint against LVL.

The Public Service Commission, in a Sept. 25, 1997, order, restricted LVL, one of seven Clark County limousine companies, from stationing limos anywhere in Clark County for walk-up service and limited the number of operating vehicles to 12.

That decision was appealed Oct. 17 to the Nevada Transportation Service Authority, the regulating body for local limousine service. As a result, the TSA will hold a hearing 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Sawyer State Building to address a petition of reconsideration by LVL to remove the limo limit restriction.

"We had an unlimited certificate before then (Sept. 25)," Sandy Avants, spokeswoman for Charlie Frias, president/owner of Las Vegas Limousines since December 1996, said Thursday. "We believe an error was made and that it will be corrected Wednesday. He (Frias) is an excellent operator with an excellent record."

However, LVL competitors are expected to bring their concerns to the attention of the three-member TSA panel.

"I reasonably conclude that LVL is vastly exceeding its authority and is illegally operating limousines in excess of the number authorized by its Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity," Bell Trans General Manager Richard Gull said in an affidavit filed in support of his April 6 complaint to the TSA.

Suspicious that there were too many LVL vehicles on the street, Gull ordered the supervisors of his limo company to count the number of LVL limos in operation and record the license plates, according to his complaint.

During a four-day period in early March, his supervisors recorded 29 LVL limos on local streets, the complaint says. The license plates included FRIAS 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 30, 31, 37, 38, 40 and 10 non-vanity plates, the affidavit in support of the complaint says.

Bell Trans then hired Corporate Intelligence International, a Las Vegas investigative consulting firm, which stationed its agents at McCarran International Airport, the Luxor hotel and Circus Circus hotel on April 2 to count LVL limos, the complaint says.

In a 1 1/2-hour period, CII counted 14 different LVL limos at those locations, the complaint says.

"I also believe LVL is staging limousines at hotels/casinos and also is seeking and serving walk-up charter business," Gull, who has been in the limousine business for 30 years, said in his affidavit.

TSA Administrative Attorney Francis Arenas said Thursday an investigation is ongoing into that complaint.

Avants, former executive administrator of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, said LVL also is looking into those allegations.

Las Vegas Limousines attorney Kristin McMillan, in her answer to the Bell Trans complaint, said her client did nothing wrong.

"LVL is without information and belief as to the truth or falsity of the allegations ... of the complaint and, therefore, denies the same," she said in her answer.

"Any restrictions referred to in the complaint are overbroad and vague and therefore are in violation of the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Nevada."

McMillan also said in her answer that enforcement of the restrictions referred to in the Bell Trans complaint "would amount to selective enforcement" and that "any restriction on the number of vehicles LVL can operate is an illegal revocation of LVL's operating authority."

The Sun also received a call Thursday from a person who identified himself only as a local cab driver. He said this past weekend he saw a number of LVL limos that he believed exceeded the limit of 12.

Cabbies have long been at war with limousines, which they say have illegally solicited the walk-up business that is the domain of taxicabs.

TSA Chief of Enforcement Mike Kloberdanz said Thursday his office has received no such complaint this week regarding LVL's operations last weekend.

He said a limo company that is found to have violated the restrictions on the number of vehicles it is permitted to have in operation faces a maximum fine of $10,000.