Car Wars : ‘Sting’ Inflames Taxi Turf Battle

With the citizen arrests made and the handcuffs put away, with the undercover photographs taken and the “sting” operation shelved, there still appears to be no resolution in sight to the festering taxicab war in the San Fernando Valley.

The clash has pitted the Valley Cab Co., holder of an exclusive Los Angeles taxi service franchise for the Valley, against Super Car Service, a small, upstart company that holds a charter car service permit from the state.

Valley Cab officials have accused Super Car of illegally operating a taxi service and stealing their business. Super Car officials counter that they stick to their charter business, following rules that bar them from cruising streets, cabstands or hotels.

It is a tempest in a taxicab that brewed for six months before finally spilling into police stations and the courts this month.

Though the dispute focuses on the finer points of what a charter service permit allows, it clearly has not been just a war of words. Two weeks ago a group of Valley Cab drivers and an off-duty police officer carried out an unofficial sting operation, handcuffing and arresting seven Super Car drivers for allegedly operating “bandit,” or illegal, taxicabs in the Valley.

Declined to Prosecute

The city attorney’s office declined to prosecute the citizen arrests, and the city’s Department of Transportation has said it has no authority to investigate complaints about Super Car Service because that is the state’s responsibility.

And on Thursday, a judge let lapse a preliminary injunction that barred Super Car from acting as a taxi service. The Superior Court injunction had been issued Dec. 30, and a hearing will determine later whether Super Car has been improperly operating a cab service.

Meanwhile, state officials said they had not been asked to look into the flap and, because of sparse staffing, they would need a written complaint before acting.

Undeterred, Valley Cab officials said the war will continue.

“We are not going to stop going after violators,” said George Piadra, a general manager for Valley Cab. “They are illegally taking our business away. We are going to do something about it. The city isn’t doing anything, so we will.”

Ivik Sarkisian, president of Super Car, vehemently disagrees and attributes the friction to David-and-Goliath-type clashes between a new, fledgling business and an entrenched giant.

“That’s all baloney,” Sarkisian said of Valley Cab’s accusations. “They have a monopoly in the Valley, and they don’t want any competition. We are operating legally.”

The cab squabble began eight months ago when the North Hollywood-based Super Car Service opened for business with a fleet of nine cars. Sarkisian has a permit from the state Public Utilities Commission that allows him to operate the charter car service.

The permit does not allow its holder to run a regular cab service, said Mike Nakasone, a utilities commission enforcement officer. But it does permit Super Car to offer a service in which rides are reserved in advance--usually by phone--and costs are computed per mile.

A charter car cannot have a fare meter or a taxi dome light, and it cannot wait for riders at cabstands or pick up customers who flag it down on the street, Nakasone said.

Noticed Competition

Shortly after Super Car opened, Valley Cab drivers began to notice they had competition, said Tom Hefferan, another general manager for the Van Nuys-based fleet of 71 taxis.

Valley Cab has been the only taxi service licensed by the city to do business in the Valley since 1981. It is one of eight firms the city has licensed to operate in different parts of Los Angeles.

The companies pay about $64 a month per cab for the right to cruise for fares in their assigned sections of the city. While each company can respond to phone requests from anywhere in the city, they are not allowed to advertise outside of their assigned areas.

The city has licensed taxis since 1915, said David Leatherman, an engineer in the Department of Transportation’s regulation and enforcement division. The arrangement allows the city to regulate safety, insurance and service standards of taxis and ensures that the companies can make a profit.

City transportation department officials said they are considering revamping the franchising system when the taxi companies’ permits expire in July. The new plan includes a proposal to allow a second company to operate in the Valley.

“We’ve had resistance from Valley Cab, but we’ve had resistance from everybody when that happens,” Leatherman said. “We think the market’s there, the need’s there.”

John E. de Brauwere, Super Car’s attorney, said the clash has developed because a company licensed by a different government--in this case, the state--to provide car service has entered the Valley to compete with the city’s license holder for taxi service.

“It’s a strange case,” de Brauwere said. “I can understand why Valley Cab has gotten its nose out of joint. But both companies have a right to operate.”

Valley Cab officials disagree. Shortly after noticing Super Car was in business, they started watching the smaller company closely.

Off-duty Valley Cab drivers called for rides from Super Car and kept notes on how the company operated. They clipped Super Car advertisements in the “taxicabs” section of the local Yellow Pages. They photographed Super Car automobiles, which are painted school-bus yellow with orange stripes.

“Somebody would have to tell you it wasn’t a cab for you to know,” Hefferan said.

Accused of ‘Guzzling’

Worst of all, Hefferan claimed, Valley Cab drivers have watched Super Car drivers “guzzling” riders--cabbie parlance for listening in on a competitor’s dispatch radio frequency and then beating the driver to a pick-up spot to snare the unsuspecting rider. Super Car officials denied this.

Hefferan said that after Valley Cab put together what he believes is solid evidence of Super Car’s wrongdoing, the company informed the city Department of Transportation’s bandit cab unit, which is charged with getting unlicensed cabs off the streets.

Operating without a taxi license is a misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. There are as many as 600 bandit cabs in the city in addition to 1,150 licensed cabs, according to Los Angeles Department of Transportation estimates.

Bobbie L. Walker, head of the city’s bandit unit, said he began an investigation of Super Car but ended it without taking action against the company. He said city transportation officials decided that because Super Car operates through a state Public Utilities Commission permit, the company fell under the jurisdiction of state investigators.

“The city can’t investigate them for violations of state regulations. The state has to determine that,” Walker said. “We can only enforce the rules on cars that we license” or that have no license or permit at all.

“The consensus was that any arrests we would make would be no good because if any laws were broken they would be state laws,” Walker said. “In my opinion, they are using the state permit to get around the city’s license.”

Valley Cab next took its case to Van Nuys Superior Court. On Dec. 30, Judge David R. Nisall granted a preliminary injunction ordering Super Car to stop operating a taxi service. He ordered the company not to advertise or solicit taxi service in the Valley or to try to “pass off” any of its vehicles as licensed cabs.

But Valley Cab’s victory was short-lived. The ruling did not eliminate its problem, it only set the stage for the company to take matters into its own hands.

Hefferan said Super Car ignored the order. Sarkisian said his company had no choice because the judge ordered Super Car to stop doing something that it had not been doing.

“We never were acting as a cab service in the first place,” Sarkisian said. “We have stayed within the state PUC codes. I am not supposed to have the lights on top of my cars or the meters. I don’t. We are not supposed to pick up flag-down fares. We don’t. Anyway you look at it, I am not a taxi service.”

But Valley Cab representatives said they are unswayed by such subtle distinctions.

“If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and eats like a duck, then it’s a duck,” said Valley Cab attorney Steven M. Neimand. “They are trying to fall through a crack and say as long as we don’t have a meter and top light, we can operate.”

Frustrated by their unsuccessful effort to get Super Car off the road, Valley Cab officials hired off-duty Glendale police officer Ronald Jenkins and planned their sting operation.

By Jan. 7, they were ready to strike. Hefferan and a Valley Cab driver called Super Car from a phone booth in Van Nuys and arranged for a ride while Jenkins waited at another location.

What happened next is a matter of opinion and dispute. Valley Cab officials charged that by answering the call and providing a ride to the two men, Super Car was operating as a taxi service in violation of city law.

Super Car officials said they were simply operating in accordance with their state permit.

Waiting With Handcuffs

Regardless, when the Super Car vehicle took the two riders to their destination, Jenkins, who had been on unpaid administrative leave from the Glendale Police Department since August, 1987, was waiting with handcuffs. He told the driver he was under arrest, read him his legal rights, cuffed him and hauled him to the Van Nuys police station.

Police processed the paper work, and the driver was released on his own recognizance. The Valley Cab team made six more citizen arrests of Super Car drivers over the next three days.

Officer Don Lawrence called the arrests “a little unusual. Normally, citizens will report a crime. But it’s not regular that citizens will actually bring in a suspect.”

And while the use of handcuffs may have seemed excessive, it may not have been improper, Lawrence added. Citizens can use “reasonable force necessary to hold the suspect,” he said.

Jenkins, who has accused the Glendale Police Department of discriminating against him because he is black, has been on leave awaiting a ruling on his claims that he has suffered severe emotional distress because of the harassment.

Super Car officials said the arrests were uncalled for, the dispute has cost them business, and they are considering filing a lawsuit against Valley Cab in retaliation.

“They are really bad-mouthing Super Car,” de Brauwere said. “We have noticed a tremendous decline in patronage.”

The unofficial sting operation came to a screeching halt when police refused to take the Super Car drivers after the sixth and seventh citizen arrests.

The city attorney’s office declined to file charges against the Super Car drivers because of insufficient evidence gathered by Valley Cab, said Martin Vranicar, supervising deputy in the city attorney’s Van Nuys office.

“They don’t meet the filing guidelines for bandit taxi cab operations,” Vranicar said of the seven cases. “These cases were done by private individuals and not by professionals. We do not encourage private citizens to investigate crimes because of the possibility of violence, danger, not knowing whether it’s really a crime and not understanding what evidence is necessary.”

Hefferan expressed disappointment in the city’s stance.

“It’s not fair. It’s very frustrating,” he said. “The city doesn’t pay enough attention to it. They should be protecting the companies they franchise.”

Injunction Expires

Valley Cab suffered another setback on Thursday when Associate Court of Appeal Judge Richard Amerian, sitting in Superior Court, continued until Feb. 3 a hearing on the company’s request for a permanent injunction against Super Car. In doing so, he allowed a preliminary injunction against Super Car to expire.

With no court order stopping Super Car from operating and the city staying out of the dispute, the Public Utilities Commission, the agency that gave Super Car its permit, may be Valley Cab’s last resort. Late last week, Valley Cab officials indicated they may soon file a request with the commission to investigate the matter.

Super Car attorney de Brauwere agreed that state officials ultimately may hold the key to peace in the dispute. He said state legislators someday may have to consider changing utilities commission codes to better define the role of charter services.

“They should all get their heads together and decide the exact parameters of how a charter party service can operate,” he said.