A longtime employee of the Nevada Taxicab Authority has accused the agency’s administrator of ordering confidential financial information to be sent to a taxicab company employee whose union is in contract negotiations with three cab companies.
Kelly Kuzik, a management analyst with the Taxicab Authority who has been with the agency for 10 years and a state employee for nearly 21 years, said administrator Charles Harvey directed his secretary to send a spreadsheet containing confidential revenue information for three Clark County taxicab companies — Yellow Cab, Checker Cab and Star Cab — to a representative of the company.
He said Harvey also threatened him with disciplinary actions if he disclosed sending the information.
If the allegations are true, Harvey could be found in violation of three Nevada administrative codes and a state statute.
A spokeswoman for the Taxicab Authority said she could not comment on the accusations because they involve personnel matters.
Kuzik made the accusations in a detailed memorandum sent to Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Copies also were sent to Gov. Brian Sandoval, Terry Johnson, director of the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, Bill Shranko, operations director for Yellow Cab, and some journalists.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s Office could not confirm late Thursday whether the office had received the email and would not speculate on what would be done with its contents.
According to Kuzik’s email, Harvey ordered his secretary to send a spreadsheet containing information from the companies, commonly referred to as Yellow-Checker-Star or YCS.
Clark County’s 16 cab companies submit statistical information every month to the Taxicab Authority. Data include number of trips, shifts operated and revenue collected. The information is tabulated and released publicly as industrywide totals, but the individual reports are kept confidential.
One of Kuzik’s job responsibilities is to keep individual reports confidential.
Kuzik said he has copies of email correspondence Harvey is alleged to have made.
The financial information included in the reports could be used to gain an advantage in contract negotiations.
“It is unconscionable that the chief regulator for the taxicab industry in Clark County would release information that is by regulation confidential, thus injecting his influence into the collective bargaining process, and then exhibiting a bias to one side (labor) over the other (management),” Kuzik said in his email to Masto. “Having the confidential information gives the labor union representatives a distinct advantage in their negotiations, similar to ‘insider information’ in the stock market.”
Harvey is alleged to have ordered the transmission of the information on Sept. 26. Kuzik said he received a written reprimand on Oct. 12.
“It is astonishing that (Harvey) would sincerely believe that after 20-plus years of service, I would start exhibiting the outrageous behavior for which he now accuses me,” Kuzik said in his email to Masto. “If any classified State of Nevada employee at the Taxicab Authority had released this confidential information to the public, they would be summarily dismissed and escorted from the building.”