NO-KICKBACK PLEDGE EYED FOR CABBIES.

Byline: Beth Barrett Staff Writer

Los Angeles officials took steps Thursday to begin cracking down on taxi companies that kick back up to $3 million a year to Los Angeles hotels for exclusive rights to pick up passengers.

But several cab company operators complained that the measure is flawed because there is no corresponding crackdown on the hotels.

The Daily News reported last month that the practice, which violates the taxi companies' city franchise agreements, has been tolerated by city officials for years even while the sums involved soared into the millions.

An ad hoc committee of the Los Angeles Board of Taxicab Commissioners on Thursday directed city staffers to develop an affidavit by May 22 that company owners would have to sign attesting they were in compliance - no longer paying for exclusives - or face investigatory hearings.

Also to be addressed is closing a loophole in the regulations, which now allows taxi companies to give hotels thousands of dollars for exclusives under the guise of paying for parking or other services.

Companies that continued to pay for exclusive rights would face fines of up to $30,000 for three offenses and could have franchises revoked for further offenses.

``The idea is to give the companies a chance to tell the venues they're paying off: We're under heat from the city, and we can no longer pay for exclusives,'' said Thomas Drischler, city taxicab administrator.

``Hopefully, if they all do that, they'll be out from under $3 million a year in exclusives.''

But the plan brought objections from operators of feuding taxicab companies that have engaged in bidding wars to get the lucrative hotel exclusives and that have hired some of City Hall's most connected lobbyists and others to work behind the scenes to influence the council and Mayor James Hahn.

Yellow Cab, the city's largest, wants the ban on paid exclusives lifted so that taxi companies could legally negotiate whatever deals they want with hotels.

Jerry Qonsul, general manager of L.A. Checker Cab Cooperative Inc. in Lennox, called the city proposal ``a joke'' with no crackdown on hotels.

Qonsul said cab companies asked for a rate increase a few years ago partly because they were paying out so much in exclusives. City officials set the new rate on an index that does not include expenses for exclusives.

He said his company spends about $500,000 a year on exclusives and wants city officials to ban all forms of exclusive taxi arrangements, allowing the first taxi at a cab stand to get the first fare.

``The political environment is not to touch exclusives,'' Qonsul said.

A group of independent, owner-operator taxi companies, represented by lobbyist Ken Spiker Jr., wants hotels as well as taxi companies barred from engaging in any exclusive agreements on cabs.

David I. Shapiro, on the board of United Independent Taxi Association, said the hotels were being unfairly excluded from the crackdown.

``No hotel or doorman is being asked to give affidavits,'' Shapiro said, suggesting it shows city officials aren't ``in earnest.''

Spiker, who represents most of the taxicab companies with the exception of Yellow Cab, said the smaller ones need free access to hotels and other venues within their franchise areas to survive.

Spiker said city officials need to stand up to hotel owners to break the practice of kickbacks for exclusive access.

``Why is Los Angeles playing this dirty little game?''

The hotel industry has defended the arrangements as necessary to guarantee the quality of cab service provided to guests. Spiker said service isn't the issue since hotels change cab providers depending on how much they pay.

The president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Area Hotel and Lodging Association, Scott Blech, attended the meeting, but said there was little to comment on.

``We're not regulated by them,'' Blech said about the taxi commission.

Yellow Cab's Tony Palmeri, who heads the company's management group, said companies should be free to pursue their own business interests and can always refuse to pay high fees to hotels.

``You have to be a business person. You don't throw good money after bad money.''