Chair Menin and Robert Bookman Debate DOT vs. DCWP Program Management

It should have always gone to DCWP, which has a licensing center right down the street that you can walk into that when people have issues, they can actually talk to someone to help them fill the paperwork out.

I mean, why would we give this program to a transit agency?

Why wouldn't we give the program to a licensing agency?

And we simply did not have those concerns, quite frankly.

And Rob, I know you can attest to this.

You know, we worked together a long time on DCWP issues around the sidewalk cafe issues.

So I'm very concerned about that aspect of this.

I I filed thousand applications over the years under the old I still call it consumer affairs, I'm sorry.

That's where I met my wife, and it was good.

We both worked at Consumer Affairs, so it's for me it's Department of Consumer Affairs.

I filed over a thousand applications.

You physically went there, it was it was the special application unit, not even a window, a special application unit because it was complicated.

There's plans, there's photographs, there's a lot of documents.

Somebody would sit down with you, you can make an appointment or wait, they would review it, and they would either uh say, No, this you need this, you need that, and then come on back and we'll accept the application, or you got everything here, stamped approved within five days.

They sent that on to the next step in you know uh in the process while they did their substantive review.

That was listen, that was a compromise.

The administration insisted on on it being uh DOT.

I think they you know they they've done the best job that they can be.

I just want to interrupt for a minute.

I just want to say it again.

The administration insisted that it be DOT.

Yes.

We I I we I couldn't have been clearer personally with my objections.

I know other colleagues had objections around DOT, and now I think we are all paying the price, and quite frankly, it needs to be remedied, and that's one of the goals of this hearing.

Um, I do have one more question, and then I wanted to turn it over to the chair and the colleagues who I know have a number of questions.