Two with Louisiana transportation system ties likely finalists for Nevada post
Two men with past connections to transportation systems in Louisiana appear to be finalists for the open Nevada Taxicab Authority administrator’s position.
Malachi Hull, a transportation consultant on for-hire transportation systems who formerly headed the taxi and for-hire bureau of the Department of Safety and Permits in New Orleans, and Dwight Brashear, a former executive with Keolis Transit America in Las Vegas and the former CEO of the Capital Area Transit System in Baton Rouge, La., were interviewed for the administrator’s opening Tuesday by the authority board.
Board members voted unanimously to postpone making a recommendation on the position until its March meeting.
Under the hiring procedure, the five-member Taxicab Authority board, which currently has a vacancy, is asked to forward the names of three candidates to Bruce Breslow, director of the Nevada Division of Business and Industry, for consideration.
Hull and Brashear were interviewed Tuesday and a third candidate removed himself from consideration before the meeting. Breslow could choose an administrator from the candidates presented by the authority board or reject them and start the process anew if he is dissatisfied with the candidate list.
The new administrator would replace Charles Harvey, who resigned from the position in October. In the interim, the agency has been overseen by Tom Ely, a state Public Safety Department captain. Ely said he is ineligible for consideration.
Authority board members expressed some concerns about both candidates.
Board members questioned Hull about his departure from the New Orleans position. Although he successfully developed transportation services for such high-profile events as the Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball Final Four and the 2014 National Basketball Association All-Star game, Hull was fired last summer for failing to properly supervise taxi bureau inspectors involved in confrontations in October and November 2013.
New Orleans media accounts say Hull was controversial among owners of taxi companies and tour operations for his efforts to impose stricter controls on those industries.
Hull said he was under pressure because one of his inspectors pepper-sprayed and handcuffed a cab driver in a confrontation in the French Quarter that was captured on video by a bystander.
Hull previously worked for the Atlanta Police Department in its Bureau of Vehicles for Hire.
The board questioned Brashear about his frequent job changes. Currently an executive with SCR Transportation, a paratransit company in Chicago, Brashear worked for Tectrans, helping to negotiate the company’s sale to Keolis Group. After the sale, he became executive vice president of Keolis’ Las Vegas operation, one of the fixed-route contractors of the bus lines overseen by the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.
Brashear also had previous experience with MV Transportation, overseeing its Washington D.C. bus system, and with Capital Area Transit in Baton Rouge. When in Louisiana, he was tapped by former Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to coordinate the evacuation of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The Taxicab Authority has its monthly meeting Thursday but can’t act on the administrator position then because the item hadn’t been posted on the meeting agenda.
Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta
