Mayor Adams has picked a veteran transportation official and the leader of the city’s main planning agency for two open positions on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board.
Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi, a former chief of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, and city planning head Dan Garodnick, a former City Council member, now await state Senate approval of their new roles.
Joshi and Garodnick are expected to keep their current city government roles. They’ll replace Adams’ current representatives on the board — Sherif Soliman, who resigned from the board in September, and current member Frankie Miranda.
Miranda plans to step down following his replacement’s confirmation, said Adams spokesman Charles Lutvak.
Joshi served as the head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission from 2014 to 2019 under former mayor Bill de Blasio, and then went to work for the U.S. Transportation Department on interstate trucking issues. Adams named her deputy mayor of operations in 2022.
Garodnick represented Manhattan’s East Side on the City Council from 2005 to 2017, before becoming chair of the Department of City Planning in 2022.
Transit advocates welcomed the picks announced Thursday. “These are both smart and responsible choices,” said Danny Pearlstein, spokesman for Riders Alliance. “I think riders will be well-served.”
All MTA board appointees bust be confirmed by the state Senate. It remained unclear Thursday when hearings could be expected.
The MTA’s 23-person board has 13 votes. Five are given to the board’s five gubernatorial appointees, four votes are given to the mayor’s appointees, and one vote each is given to appointees from Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties.
Representatives from Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Putnam counties each receive a quarter of a vote.
Seats on the board representing Gov. Hochul, Rockland County and Orange County are now vacant.
In addition to Soliman’s seat, legislators have yet to replace Robert Mujica, an Andrew Cuomo pick who left the board late in 2022 to become the executive director of Puerto Rico’s fiscal control board.
Orange County’s representative, Harry Porr, resigned in June and has yet to be replaced. Rockland County’s quarter-vote seat, previously occupied by Frank Borelli, is also vacant.
Another vacancy is expected when Suffolk County representative Samuel Chu’s term expires at the end of February.
Legislation working its way through Albany would give voting authority to the board’s three rider representatives who are picked by councils representing the Long Island Rail Road, the Metro-North Railroad and New York City Transit.
The bill is currently before the state Senate Transportation Committee.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
