Columnist Jeff German: Taxicab Authority chief has hands full

Friday, April 5, 2002 | 2:56 a.m.

LIFE IS ANYTHING but boring inside the colorful Las Vegas taxicab industry.

Former FBI Agent John Plunkett, who is running the state Taxicab Authority, is finding that out after eight months on the job.

Plunkett spent most of his career in law enforcement chasing mobsters, drug dealers and crooked politicians.

Today he's prowling the streets for cabbies who illegally divert passengers away from their intended destinations or rip them off by taking the long route.

He's also in the middle of a high-stakes kickback war between topless nightclubs vying for the business cabbies bring them.

His work may not be as dangerous now, but it's no less interesting. And Plunkett seems to be attacking it with the same integrity and devotion as his days with the FBI.

There is a feeling within the industry that Plunkett, with his even-handed style and law enforcement mentality, has potential to become the best Taxicab Authority administrator in the agency's 32-year history. He doesn't play favorites with the companies or the drivers.

Lately, however, his job has brought home a few headaches.

Plunkett's biggest source of pain has been Olympic Garden owner Pete Eliades, who's on a relentless anti-diversion campaign.

Eliades, whose topless club is one of the city's most successful, doesn't tip cabbies to bring in business because he believes it gives them incentives to divert passengers.

Some of his lesser-known competitors, however, don't share that opinion. They've tried to lure customers away from the Olympic Garden by offering drivers as much as $40 per passenger.

Eliades filed suit against those rivals earlier this year to stop them from handing out the cash, but angry drivers retaliated with a boycott of Olympic Garden.

That goaded Eliades into stepping up his crusade against the cabbies.

Recently Eliades spent a weekend documenting the latest dirty tactic that drivers are using against him. He jotted down the identification numbers of dozens of cabbies who dropped off passengers at his club, but refused to pick up customers waiting to leave.

His list found its way to Plunkett, who knows it's against Taxicab Authority regulations for drivers to decline a legitimate ride.

Eliades and his attorney, Dominic Gentile, also have been keeping track of dozens of incidents of cabbies ignoring requests from dancers to drive them to work at Olympic Garden and other clubs not paying kickbacks.

One night last weekend, Eliades took me to the doorstep of the Palomino Club in North Las Vegas, his latest rival looking to steal customers. The topless cabaret was offering cabbies up to $20 a passenger.

Drivers that night were milling around the parking lot and lining up to receive their cash at a back door, while tourists at major Strip resorts, we were told, were having a tough time finding a taxi. There's something wrong with that scenario.

Plunkett says he's doing everything within his power to stop cabbies from diverting passengers. He has been conducting undercover stings to ferret out the bad apples for two months and plans to make it a regular practice.

But Plunkett explains that he doesn't have the resources to station investigators outside the Olympic Garden or the Palomino Club at the whim of Eliades to make sure drivers follow the rules. That, he says, is the responsibility of the cab companies and their road supervisors.

At the moment Plunkett's biggest problem on the streets is not catering to Eliades or even stopping diversion, but rather preventing cabbies from long-hauling, or gouging customers when they take the longest route to a destination.

"The public's really getting screwed here," he says.

When you talk to Plunkett, you can tell he needs all of the help he can get to deal with the taxicab industry's growing problems.

You can tell his job isn't boring.