Columnist Jeff German: County eases up on cabbies

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

The uproar over the sudden push to stop cabbies from accepting tips from Strip clubs, restaurants and other businesses was supposed to have subsided on Friday.

That's when Gov. Kenny Guinn announced he was vetoing a transportation bill that passed the Legislature in its waning days with a secret amendment barring cabbies from receiving the gratuities.

This is something the lucrative strip clubs, in particular, have given cabbies over the years as a reward for steering customers their way.

The amendment, in the eyes of Guinn and anyone else with common sense, was seen as inherently unfair because it didn't include limousine and shuttle bus drivers, who also have been the beneficiary of such kickbacks.

So the bill is headed to the big legislative graveyard in the sky.

But the outrage continued Monday, thanks to some misguided enforcement efforts in the county.

County licensing officials confirmed that they started to enforce a 20-year-old ordinance that, you guessed it, bans only cabbies from taking kickbacks from businesses that serve alcohol.

Derek Dubasik, a spokesman for the county's Business License Department, said nine strip clubs were given written warnings over a two-day period last week that they were violating the 1985 ordinance by giving tips to cabbies. Among those informed were some of the biggest clubs in the county, Sapphire, Jaguars, Club Paradise and Spearment Rhino.

Cabbies say the clubs, as a result, stopped giving them tips which, to many drivers, amounts to a dramatic decline in income. The clubs have been paying up to $25 for each passenger dropped off at their doors.

Like the questionable legislative amendment, the county's sudden interest in an outdated ordinance it has rarely enforced in the past came out of left field. The ordinance was written at a time when there were very few limousine and shuttle bus drivers trolling the Strip.

"It's ridiculous," said activist cabbie Greg Bambic. "We fought hard to get the governor to appreciate that we are hard-working people who shouldn't be discriminated against, and here we go with the county."

But there was good news for cabbies from the County Government Center late Monday.

Following a meeting with Yvette Moore, the administrator of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, County Manager Thom Reilly issued an edict to hold off on the enforcement of the ordinance.

Reilly was impressed with Moore's argument that everybody -- the county, the Taxicab Authority and the city of Las Vegas, which has an ordinance similar to the county's -- all should be on the same page.

That's going to mean a round of joint governmental meetings.

The Taxicab Authority recognized three years ago that its own regulation barring drivers from accepting tips from businesses was basically unenforceable.

It's five-member board repealed the regulation.

At the time Moore's predecessor, John Plunkett, hailed the vote as a new day for cabbies.

"Under the new policy (the drivers) can now accept gratuities for doing the right thing," he said. "It's a Vegas tradition for cab drivers to offer their advice on restaurants and shows."

It's a tradition that has a better chance of surviving now that smarter heads have prevailed in the county.