RED TAPE CHRONICLES

Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007 | 7:46 a.m.

When 80-year-old Arline Shively felt she had been wronged by the local bus company that shuttles disabled people around town, she called to complain.

And then she really had something to complain about. The employee on the complaint desk hung up on her.

Shively's problems began Nov. 6, when she called for a paratransit bus to take her to church - only to miss the connection by a minute.

"In the past, I've had to wait for that bus for as long as two hours, yet I was one minute late that day and he left without me," said Shively, a mother of two, grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of four.

Shively, who rides a motorized wheelchair, returned to her 12th-floor, one-bedroom apartment on Las Vegas Boulevard South and angrily called to cancel her four other paratransit bus appointments for the day.

Citizens Area Transit Paratransit Services offers free door-to-door, on-demand service to qualifying disabled riders, in compliance with state law.

The company, however, does not tolerate people abusing the system by being "no shows" or by canceling appointments at the last minute, (CAT requires cancellation by 5 p.m. the day before a scheduled ride.)

The company is permitted to suspend riders for chronic abuse and last year temporarily denied service to 250 customers who broke the rules.

Shively was sent a certified letter on Jan. 12, telling her she was dinged 20 demerits - two above the amount required within a 30-day period to ban someone from using the service for 15 days.

The letter, signed by Senior Public Service Specialist Pat Lewis, told Shively her suspension would begin in late January.

Shively called the phone number on the letter and gave a CAT worker a piece of her mind. After making what Shively said was her lengthy - and admittedly loud - appeal to drop the suspension, the conversation ended with an abrupt click at the other end.

A complaint desk that hangs up on complainers? Shively, a retired school teacher, couldn't believe it.

"That upset me more than the suspension," Shively said.

Tracy Bower, spokeswoman for the Regional Transportation Commission, which oversees CAT Paratransit Services, says when a customer is rude, loud or foul, the employee is permitted "to disconnect the call."

"We make every effort to appease our customers, but our customer service representatives must be treated with respect," Bower said.

"We do consider extenuating circumstances (to reverse suspensions), but there is a history of chronic no-shows and late cancellations with this customer."

Shively admits she had a suspension in 2006 for forgetting about rides she requested and for making late cancellations. She says she did not protest that suspension, which she says was her only prior one.

Bower said last year, CAT Paratransit buses gave 780,000 rides, the average cost of which was $41. There were more than 10,200 no-shows, potentially costing the company more than $418,000, she said.

Shively is reluctantly sitting out her suspension that runs through Saturday. She said until then she will be getting rides to doctors and to other key appointments from friends and will take fixed-route CAT buses for less important trips.