1 1 2 3 4 5 NEW YORK CITY TAXI AND LIMOUSINE COMMISSION 6 MEETING held on Tuesday, March 30, 2004 7 at 40 Rector Street 8 New York, New York 9 10 11 MATTHEW DAUS, COMMISSIONER/CHAIR 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY, INC. 305 Madison Avenue 142 Willis Avenue 24 Suite 449 P.O. Box 347 New York, N.Y. 10165 Mineola, N.Y. 11501 25 (212)349-9692 (516)741-5235 (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 ELIAS AROUT, Commissioner NOACH DEAR, Commissioner 3 HARRY GIANNOULIS, Commissioner STANLEY E. MICHELS, Commissioner 4 HARRY RUBINSTEIN, Commissioner ELLIOT SANDER, Commissioner 5 ALBERTO TORRES, Commissioner IRIS WEINSHALL, Commissioner 6 PETER M. MAZER, General Counsel 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (9:30 a.m.) 3 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Good morning, I want to 4 thank everybody for coming this morning. I am going 5 to give you a brief description of the agenda for 6 today and then we will commence the public hearing 7 process on the rule making before the Commission 8 today. We have gone through a very long process to 9 get to this point and we have some major decisions 10 to discuss today. There are many people in this 11 room who contributed to this process which has led 12 to good, well thought out rules, and I want to thank 13 you for your participation. We look forward to 14 hearing your comments. 15 Most notably, I would like to thank all 16 the TLC Commissioners here today as well as Mayor 17 Bloomberg for their input and their guidance. 18 Now we will proceed to the two items on 19 the agenda. Item One, approval of minutes from the 20 February 26, 2004 meeting. 21 COMMISSIONER AROUT: Motion to accept. 22 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Commissioner Arout has a 23 motion to accept. Do we have a second? 24 COMMISSIONER TORRES: Before we do 25 that, on page 7 at the top, if you can just check, (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 4 1 it says "Commissioner Torres stated that a fare 2 increase was intended to proportionately benefit the 3 industry." 4 I don't know if I said that or if 5 Commissioner Salkin said that, if you could double 6 check. You don't have to do it now. I don't recall 7 saying that. 8 CHAIRMAN DAUS: We can double-check that 9 for you if you like and we can take a vote on it in 10 a little while. 11 COMMISSIONER TORRES: Well, we can 12 approve and make a modification. 13 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Okay, if it is 14 different, we will come back to it. 15 Do we have a second? 16 COMMISSIONER WEINSHALL: Second. 17 CHAIRMAN DAUS: All in favor? 18 (Chorus of "Ayes.") 19 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Any opposed? 20 (No response.) 21 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Okay. 22 So, Peter, if we could have somebody 23 check the transcript while the meeting goes on and 24 report back to us. 25 Item Two: Report of actions taken at the (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 5 1 February 26, 2004 executive session. 2 Peter, could you please give us a report. 3 MR. MAZER: Yes. There were two cases 4 on the agenda at the executive session. The first 5 was a repeal of the revocation against Staten Island 6 Car Service, case 0007. The commission has voted 7 five/nothing to affirm the penalty of license 8 revocation and the fine that was imposed by the 9 Chair. Commissioner Arout recused himself on that 10 proceeding. 11 The second case before the Commissioners 12 was the appeal of Aonate Clodate (ph.), 13 A.O.N.A.T.E., hack license 496295. The Commission 14 has voted unanimously to modify the penalty to 15 provide for a six-month license suspension, a fine 16 of $500 and license probation. 17 Those are the only two cases that were 18 before the Commissioners at the executive session. 19 CHAIRMAN DAUS: Thank you ,Peter. 20 Now we will proceed to the Chair's 21 report. I will be brief. First, on the medallion 22 sale. Our outreach for the medallion sale is 23 certainly in full swing at this point. 24 We have held a total of five 25 informational seminars, on in each borough of the (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 6 1 city over the past few weeks. Over 1,000 people 2 have attended these seminars. We have also held 3 three technical bidders workshops which have been 4 well attended by over 100 people so far. Over 2,000 5 people are part of our bidders' mailing list and 6 have asked for information and bid packages for the 7 medallion sale. We are very optimistic that so many 8 people have shown interest in the sale thus far. 9 In preparation for the sale and as 10 mandated by our rules, the TLC set the minimum upset 11 prices for the medallion sale as follows: An 12 unrestricted individual medallion will have a 13 minimum upset price of $233,000. The restricted 14 individual medallions, which are CMG or accessible 15 medallions will have a minimum upset price of 16 $210,000. For the corporate mini fleets which are 17 sold in lots of two, there will be a minimum upset 18 price of $550,000, and for restricted medallion 19 corporate lots, the minimum upset price will be 20 $495,000 per lot. 21 The medallion auctions are scheduled to 22 take place at the Tishman Auditorium, which is 23 located at 66 West 12th Street between Fifth and 24 Sixth Avenues. There is a flier that is in the back 25 if you would like to take it which has all the (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 7 1 details and parking information. 2 The corporate bids will be accepted from 3 April 12th through April 15th and will be opened on 4 April 16th. The second auction will take place for 5 individual medallions, and that will be accepted 6 from April 19th to the 22nd. The bids will be 7 opened on April 23rd. 8 During March of 2004, for your 9 information, individual medallions sold for an 10 average of $249,000, which is down $1,000 from 11 February of '04. There were 16 individual medallion 12 sales. On the corporate side, there were 5 13 corporate medallions sold to date in March, and they 14 sold at an average of $280,000, which is virtually 15 the same as their February average price. 16 On Operation Street Hail, I just want to 17 make a few policy statements and comments on 18 enforcement. I would like to take this opportunity 19 to announce a new stepped-up enforcement plan that 20 will go into effect after the sale of the first 300 21 medallions. We believe there is a real need for 22 these new medallions to service the public, 23 especially in the central business district where we 24 often hear from constituents that taxis are 25 difficult to find. (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 8 1 To protect the yellow taxi's exclusive 2 right to pick up street hails, especially with 900 3 medallions added to the mix, it is imperative that 4 the TLC commit more resources to preventing the 5 illegal hails that have become pervasive in the CBD. 6 While the details of the new operation are still 7 being fleshed out, in the next few weeks we will 8 announce a new enforcement effort and we will work 9 with our Commissioners on that as well. 10 That concludes the Chair's report. 11 Any questions? 12 Okay, we will proceed to the public 13 hearing. 14 COMMISSIONER DEAR: Can I add? The last 15 time you made a report, there were two issues that 16 you talked about. One was with regard to the 17 insurance issues with the livery cars and the vans 18 that was resolved. I understand that it has not 19 been resolved and it is an ongoing issue and 20 something that I would like to raise. 21 We should have a hearing on, or whatever 22 we have to do, after today obviously, and let's deal 23 with that issue as well. 24 The second issue is we had a conversation 25 in regard to enforcement in regard to the new (212) 349-9692 TANKOOS REPORTING COMPANY (516) 741-5235 9 1 handicap car service that you talked about that you 2 are going to do enforcement on with regard to livery 3 services. It's important, it's imperative that not 4 only do we inform them, but we start beginning to do 5 enforcement, because this is a rule that has been in 6 existence prior to 9/11 and something that I think 7 we should absolutely deal with. And I hope again 8 after today that we can pay attention to that. 9 That's a very, very important issue. 10 CHAIRMAN DAUS: I certainly, 11 Commissioner Dear, I concur with your concerns.