Epstein on backlog concerns with upcoming mandates
Epstein worries about backlogs persisting after hiring, given 10,000 potential Uber/Lyft deactivations, 2,000 new street vendor licenses, and other new laws. Levine acknowledges the challenge of rising complaints but says they've accounted for it.
And you think both sections of the department, that is going to get you in a sufficient place to deal with any backlog and all these future issues that are coming forward?
We have 10,000 potential Uber lift deactivations coming down the pike.
We are having 2,000 new potential street vendor licenses, not to mention laundry workers, not to mention security guards, not to mention every other thing that we're going to do.
You know, I know Councilman come on talked about last mile, you know, there's like things that are coming that might be coming forward.
I want to be clear that do you think there will not be a backlog when consumers and workers are coming to your office?
We're not going to tell them wait six months now when we're staffed up.
That's our projection at this point, Chair.
I'll say those numbers we just rattled off are, of course, for FY27.
There are additional infusions for all of my colleagues here in FY28 and then further in FY29.
But again, this is going to be...
We're going to be continuously evaluating this.
If delivery protection passes, as I hope it does, we're going to have additional needs for lines.
We're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
We may need additional OTPS for outreach there.
So we're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
We're monitoring this.
So we're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
We could see a big spike, an unexpected spike.
So we're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
You know, we've already seen an increase in worker complaints in 2026.
So we're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
But again, this is going to be...
That is going to make it harder to close the backlog.
But again, we have accounted for that in this budget.
We're going to be continuously evaluating this.
But we have to be monitoring our complaints, as we will be, and we have to be monitoring our backlog, as we are, and of course monitoring the new laws that are coming online.
If delivery protection passes, as I hope it does, we're going to have additional needs for lines.
We're going to be monitoring the student loan marketplace.
We may need additional OTPS for outreach there.