🚖🗳️ NYC TLC Chair David Do Term Ends On January 31st. Will He Be Reappointed?
NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do term ends on January 31st. Will he be reappointed? City Council Members Brooks-Powers & Farías leadership roles should be noted
NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission Chair David Do term expires at the end of this month, January 31, 2024
Although Do was appointed in 2022, he’s completing a previous term that’s been occupied by four previous acting TLC Chairs, originating from when current Deputy Mayor of Operations Meera Joshi was leading the TLC
TLC Chair & Board Commissioners must be approved by City Council
Unclear if Do has been re-nominated as TLC Chair and when City Council hearing and vote will be held
NYC Council Members Selvena Brooks-Powers and Amanda Farías will likely be influential in any reappointment process
An AutoMarketplace subscriber reached out recently and brought something to our attention that we overlooked…NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do term expires at the end of this month, January 31, 2024! The original seven-year term stems from when current Deputy Mayor of Operations (DMO) Meera Joshi was leading the TLC.
In addition, TLC Board Commissioner Kenneth Chan term also ends on January 31, 2024. We also believe TLC Board Commissioner Kenneth C. Mitchell term expired in January 2022 and has not gone through a City Council reappointment process, although TLC Board Commissioner Thomas Sorrentino did in 2023, when his term similarly expired in 2022. Very confusing, to say the least 🤷.
Below, we also share the previous appointment letter for former TLC Chair Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk, who David Do ultimately replaced. Heredia Jarmoszuk was the official replacement for Meera Joshi. Ms. Joshi resigned as TLC Chair in 2019.
We could not find any reconfirmation vote or document in the City Council archives for the seven-year TLC Chair term Meera Joshi began in January 2017, which expires at the end of this month. However, we did find the original TLC Chair nomination letter for Joshi in 2014, which confirmed her original term ended in January 2017.
Based on the recent reappointment of TLC Board Commissioner Thomas Sorrentino, more than a year after his 2022 term expired, TLC Board Commissioner Kenneth Mitchell continuing to serve past his 2022 term expiration (correct us if we’re wrong please) and our inability to find former TLC Chair Meera Joshi’s official reappointment documents from when her term expired in 2017, we’re confused when Chair Do would be subject to a City Council re-confirmation hearing or vote. It would conceptually be odd (at least to us) if a City Council vote to reappoint Chair Do happened after his term expired.
Please reach out at info@automarketplace.com or comment below if you’re more of a City politics expert than us, as we’re having difficulty bridging all of this. As of now, we can’t find a scheduled hearing or vote in this year’s City Council agenda for either TLC Chair Do or TLC Board Members Chan or Mitchell? 🤷
🪑 Musical (TLC) Chairs
Although current Chair David Do was recently confirmed in May 2022, he officially replaced former TLC Chair Aloysee Heredia Jarmoszuk who resigned, after public controversy, a little over two years after being appointed in February 2020.
As can be seen from the letter shared earlier, former Chair Heredia Jarmoszuk was a Mayor Bill de Blasio appointment, who was then kept on by current NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Heredia Jarmoszuk actually replaced de Blasio’s original TLC Chair nominee Jeffrey D. Roth, after Mr. Roth’s reportedly poor performance in front of City Council.
The City Council ultimately has the power to confirm or reject nominees for TLC Chair and TLC’s eight other Board Commissioners.
“Later, Mr. Johnson asked four times if the T.L.C. had properly regulated the medallion market before Mr. Roth conceded it had not. Then, after the nominee sidestepped multiple questions about legislation that the Council had drafted in response to the crisis, the speaker paused, dropped his head in his hands and groaned into his microphone.
“We need more specifics here today,” he said. “We need to be more specific, given the crisis that we’re facing.”
- NY Times (‘New York Needed a New Taxi Chief. But a Battle Got in the Way’ by Brian Rosenthal, published July 23, 2019)
Notably, current Deputy Mayor for Operations (DMO), Meera Joshi, served as the last officially nominated TLC Chair before Heredia Jarmoszuk was appointed in early 2020. Joshi was officially nominated by Mayor de Blasio in March 2014, after serving as Deputy Commissioner of Legal Affairs, General Counsel for the TLC, but resigned as TLC Chair in early 2019. As DMO for the Adams administration, Joshi oversees the TLC, among several other agencies.
There were also two interim acting TLC Chairs, Bill Heinzen after Joshi resigned, and Ryan Wanttaja, after Heredia Jarmoszuk resigned. Interestingly, Mr. Wanttaja just left TLC to serve as General Counsel for the NYC Department of Transportation.
In summary, there have been 5 acting NYC TLC Chairs, including David Do, since 2018.
Does Do Deserve To Continue As TLC Chair?
Firstly, it’s not up to us. It’s up to City Council, which essentially represents New Yorkers. However, we’ll share some thoughts below.
We want to be very clear about one thing, our opinions are not based in any personal animus, as we think Chair Do is a decent person. We simply think, as we’ve laid out before and as we lay out below, that he has not been a balanced policymaker.
For anyone who’s read our publication it’s no secret we’ve very recently and repeatedly called for the resignation of TLC Chair Do since October 18th. On that date, Chair Do, supported by Mayor Adams & Deputy Mayor Joshi, pushed through, in our view, one of the most reckless TLC policy decisions of the last five years.
Do’s shock announcement that anyone who buys an electric vehicle (EV) could apply for an FHV License (TLC Plate), undid a lot of hard fought victories, spanning years and lives, won by financially distressed and emotionally exhausted taxi medallion owners. To be clear, these were individual TLC-licensed drivers who invested in six or fewer medallions, not huge fleets or garages (many large taxi fleet owners and garages went bankrupt and were not bailed out by any government money or entity).
It was a surprise policy gut punch for many in the yellow cab industry and is set to add ~10,000 (🙄) more for-hire vehicles on NYC streets. This also comes at a time when there is raging debate about traffic congestion/congestion tolling and also risks diluting all TLC-licensed driver earnings (“too many cars, chasing too few trips”).
Unsurprisingly, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), a prominent yellow cab drivers advocacy group, quickly sued and was successfully granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the policy. However, the final outcome of that case is yet to be decided.
Furthermore, it was a unilateral policy action. The TLC never mentioned its intention to implement such policy and never held a public hearing. Our point is you could even agree with the policy, but we find it hard to believe that anyone agrees with how the policy was implemented.
Given Chair Do’s inability to concede a mistake might have been made and his continued misinformed, unconstructive, public defamation of “predatory” leasing companies as a way to deflect criticism, we have serious doubts about his competence and demeanor.
New York is a complicated place. A TLC Chair must listen to and balance the demands of all NYC for-hire transportation stakeholders from drivers to passengers to Uber/Lyft to traditional black car & livery bases to insurance brokers to leasing companies to taxi medallion owners, etc…Saying the right words is part of the public policy discourse equation, but instituting policy that reflects a balanced policy approach is arguably more important. For example, very few people like to pay their auto loan(s) or insurance premiums, but that doesn’t mean you start calling every single auto lender, bank and insurance company a predator.
Some might be, some might not be, but we all understand there is a lot of nuance as these companies also have expenses to pay (i.e., employees, rent, etc), risks to underwrite, shareholders to answer to and need to run a sustainable business (kind of like taxes and a government needing to balance its budget 🤔).
Chair Do could have made the discussion around leasing companies a lot less hostile. For example, he could have held a TLC public hearing (as is the norm), quantify the arguments (do math) and then make informed policy that protects drivers, but is also reasonably commercial (i.e., FHV Lease Caps, reissuance of recently retired TLC Plates to drivers who have been leasing for several years and not only restricted to EVs).
This is why we say we question his competence and demeanor because this is obviously what a good leader would have done. This is the mindset a leader must have. Whether Chair Do and his TLC wins the legal case against NYTWA, is missing the point. Why was there a lawsuit to begin with? Who do you think is paying for said lawsuit? Why couldn’t a discussion or hearing have occurred so the likelihood of lawsuit would be reduced?
Of course, if TLC Chair Do is reappointed for seven more years, we’ll obviously have to accept that and be constructive, continuing to critique and compliment, when appropriate. We’re rooting for a successful TLC and TLC Chair that can promote a better industry for all stakeholders. We do not believe Do is up to the task, but we’d be more than happy to be proven wrong. So, if Chair Do is reading this, he should know we do not have immovable viewpoints but we, along with many others, respectfully, would like to see a more balanced approach, more discussion, more preemptive public communication.
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Brooks-Powers & Farías: City Council Leaders
NYC Council Members Selvena Brooks-Powers and Amanda Farías were recently (re)appointed (Brooks-Power was previously Majority Whip) to leadership positions in the City Council.
This is interesting for several reasons as it relates to TLC Chair Do’s potential reappointment and the future of NYC for-hire transportation policy, in general. Both Council Members Brooks-Powers and Farías were members of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in 2023. In fact, Brooks-Powers was the Chair of the Committee, which often presents, debates and passes legislation related to the TLC industry.
For example, last month Council Member Farías, now Council Majority Leader, successfully pushed through legislation that allows for in-vehicle advertising in all NYC for-hire vehicles (FHVs) despite the TLC being against in-vehicle ad tablets.
“Some of you maybe asking, why did I introduce this bill? Why does the City Council decide if our drivers get to have in-car advertising or not? The New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission regulates interior and exterior vehicle advertising…over the last five years, drivers have been subject to the slow, bureaucratic process…what makes today so important, is that drivers will no longer be subject to TLC policy changes and their opportunity for advertising will be cemented into law, for years to come.”
- NYC Council Member Amanda Farías (District 18)
More relevant to the topic of David Do’s potential reappointment was Council Members Brooks-Powers and Farías November letter addressed to Mayor Adams and TLC Chair Do, related to the surprise reinstatement of the EV exemption to the TLC Plate Cap.
“[We] were surprised that this major policy decision was announced without providing meaningful opportunities for debate or discussion among drivers, advocates and Council Members…
…Without timely corrective action on the part of the Administration, we will pursue all possible avenues to limit congestion and ensure TLC hard-working drivers can continue to earn a living wage.”
- NYC Council Members Selvena Brooks-Powers & Amanda Farías (November 15, 2023)
Our opinion, as outlined earlier, is very much aligned with what Council Members Brooks-Powers and Farías write in their letter.
If Do is subject to a City Council hearing or vote ahead of being reappointed, would this clear policy error hinder his ability to garner enough City Council votes?
If Not Do, Then Who?
The obvious question becomes is if David Do is not re-appointed as TLC Chair, who would replace him? We don’t want to speculate or promote unnecessary politics, but we believe there are many potential candidates, from internal TLC leaders to long time City civil servants who understand the for-hire transportation industry and how to navigate NYC politics. Of course, one could argue a political reality is that an ally of Mayor Adams and Deputy Mayor Joshi is likely to be chosen.
For example, before joining the Adams administration, DMO Joshi (remember, also a former TLC Chair) was a visiting scholar at NYU’s Rudin Center for Transportation. When Mayor Adams had to nominate a TLC Board Member he chose Sarah Kaufman, the Director of the NYU Rudin Center for Transportation. Is this illegal? No. Does this mean Ms. Kaufman is not qualified to serve on the TLC Board? No. Can a pretty direct connection be drawn between her appointment to the TLC Board and a likely existing relationship with Deputy of Mayor of Operations Joshi? Yes.
It should be noted, we believe the City Council has the power to force the Mayor to nominate someone more independent or unaffiliated with the current administration. In fact, it’s unclear what David Do’s relation was to NYC politics before his appointment as TLC Chair, so we’ll also use an example that counters are own argument.
Driver Commissioners?
Right now, the NYC TLC industry is in flux after a highly disruptive period, so it might be as good a time as any to redefine how the actual NYC TLC Board looks, even if TLC Chair Do is reappointed.
As mentioned in Black Car News in late 2021, there was a proposed City Council bill that sought to increase the size of the NYC TLC Board from 9 to 11. The proposal was summarized as follows:
“This bill would increase the size of the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) board from nine to eleven commissioners. The two additional commissioners would be required to hold a valid TLC driver license and would be appointed by the Mayor, with the advice and consent of the Council.”
- Int. 2247-2021 (proposed to NYC Council)
This is probably an idea worth reconsidering. Instead of the increasingly US vs. THEM discourse in the industry (i.e., Yellow vs. Uber, leasing company vs. driver, insurance company vs. driver/fleets, regulator vs. driver, NYTWA vs. IDG, etc.), it’s as good a time as any for the industry to come together to solve the very real issues everyone collectively faces. The only thing we would add to the 2021 legislation is to include a NYC TLC base and/or fleet representative to the Commission’s Board, in addition to TLC-licensed drivers.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
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