Mayor Mamdani is predicted to call Midori Valdivia because the commissioner of the town’s Taxi and Limousine Fee, the Day by day Information has realized.
Valdivia, who presently sits on the board of the MTA, is a former deputy commissioner on the TLC, which regulates the town’s yellow cabs, liveries, Ubers and Lyfts. She served because the TLC’s commissioner for finance and administration from 2015 to 2017.
Mamdani is predicted to make the announcement Tuesday night time at LaGuardia Airport, a serious hub for taxi and rideshare-app drivers.
Mamdani spokeswoman Dora Pekec declined to remark forward of the anticipated announcement, as did Bhairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Staff Alliance and a member of the Mamdani transition group.
Valdivia herself couldn’t be reached.
Valdivia’s TLC appointment comes after she was additionally into consideration to change into Mamdani’s deputy mayor for operations or Division of Transportation commissioner, in line with sources accustomed to the matter.
Finally, Mamdani picked Julia Kerson, a former infrastructure adviser to Gov. Hochul, as his deputy for operations, and transit skilled Mike Flynn as DOT commissioner.
In Valdivia, Kerson and Flynn, Mamdani has three advisers with intensive expertise in public transit — a deep bench that might be key for him as he seeks to make good on his promise to make the town’s public buses quick and free.
However Mamdani additionally has a historical past of fiercely backing taxi employees — a status that can put an in depth eye on his decide to steer the business’s regulation.
As an Meeting member, Mamdani was amongst the half-dozen elected officers arrested whereas rallying for higher debt aid for taxi drivers in 2021. Throughout these protests he additionally joined the drivers on a starvation strike, a tactic that finally drove then-Mayor de Blasio to cap debt funds for the drivers struggling underneath the taxi medallion disaster.
Along with serving on the MTA board and the TLC, Valdivia has held many roles in New York Metropolis-area transit.
She lower her enamel on the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, beginning as a fellow in 2008 earlier than rising to change into a senior adviser to the bi-state company’s govt director.
After leaving the TLC in 2017, Valdivia served because the chief of employees to 2 MTA chairmen, Joe Lhota and Pat Foye, earlier than departing in 2020.
Valdivia then opened her personal transportation and concrete planning consultancy agency in 2020. She has stored operating that agency since ex-Mayor Eric Adams named her to the MTA board in 2022.
