CM Krishnan on deactivation bill implementation readiness

Thank you, Chairs, Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, and all the whole team.

Thank you all so much for all your great work at DCWP and your leadership.

Proud to see all that you're doing and to partner together.

Deputy Commissioner, First Deputy Commissioner Carlos Ortiz, also a constituent in Jackson Heights, too.

So I appreciate you all paying close attention to the issues there from street vendors.

The taxi cab drivers, everything else.

I just have a quick question.

So one is, you know, we've talked a bit about having the resources that you all need for the new legislation that we've passed.

And so I just want to make sure we've talked a lot about street vendor implementation.

Very glad to hear that.

I know, Commissioner, we've spoken a bunch about.

Taxi driver, the deactivation bill that we've passed and how important that is.

So I just want to make sure you all feel that you have what you need for the number of cases that will come in, the look back period, and how that will be raised.

You feel good with what you've got to unveil that program?

I do, Councilmember.

I really appreciate the question.

I think it was probably apparent from the last hearing we had that my biggest concern actually going into the summer is how we're going to make sure we can meet the Council's mandate on

the outstanding bill we championed on for higher vehicle deactivation and then later in the year, at the end of the year, delivery worker deactivation.

I do feel confident.

Liz's team is working very hard to put an infrastructure in place.

You know, we're going to see what the volume is.

If it spikes much higher than we think, you know, we might have to revisit it.

But at this point, based on our projections and staffing, we do have confidence we can meet those needs.

Great.

And can you say a bit more about, is it going to be a new staff, a set of staff attorneys hired that would be focused on this in particular?

What would that staffing look like?

Let me turn that over to our person in charge of that.

Sure.

Right now, we're very focused on rulemaking.

and being sure we can get a rule out that lays out some of the key details of how apps are required to handle their various obligations under this law.

We are looking to staff this law the way we have successfully enforced many of our other laws with investigators trained to do the initial intake work.

Who often are able to successfully resolve a case without attorney involvement and then moving to attorneys when that's not possible.

And, you know, we believe that we're going to be able to be able to start successfully handling those cases.

Great.

Very glad to hear it.

And, Commissioner, I would just say, too, any ways that we can partner together, you know, to get the word out to in districts where there's obviously high, you know, driver resident populations, you know, partner with us, my office, with NYCHA.

Very happy to find any ways to get the word out there.

We would love to do that.

We're eager to get the word out.

NYCHA has been a great partner on this, and we'd love to work with you further.

Absolutely.

Well, thanks for your leadership.

And I know Carlos will follow up separately, too, on a couple quality of life issues, too, in the district that we wanted to address with you all, too.

So appreciate your partnership there, too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilmember Wong, followed by Councilmember Caban.