Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced two new recommendations to represent the city on the MTA Board, giving the nod to Deputy Mayor Meera Joshi and City Planning Director Dan Garodnick.
Both Joshi and Garodnick have lengthy portfolios in transit and planning, preparing them to serve on the 23-member Board that governs policy, budgetary, and planning matters for the sprawling transit agency that controls the subways, buses, paratransit, commuter railroads, and several bridges and tunnels in the tri-state area.
“Deputy Mayor Joshi and Director Garodnick are the perfect people to help secure the MTA’s future and deliver a world-class, safe, reliable, and accessible transportation system to all New Yorkers,” Adams said in a statement. “New York City’s transit system is our backbone, and once confirmed to the MTA Board, Deputy Mayor Joshi and Director Garodnick will help ensure our backbone is stronger than ever.”
Joshi currently serves as Deputy Mayor for Operations, which oversees a wide portfolio of agencies and policy matters covering transit, climate, sanitation, and capital projects, among other things. Before joining the Adams administration, Joshi served in the Biden administration as head of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates trucking nationwide, and before that she led the city’s Taxi & Limousine Commission.
“From delivering needed upgrades to effectively operationalizing congestion pricing, I am committed to faithfully serving the people of New York as a member of the MTA’s Board of Directors,” said Joshi. “I am deeply grateful for Mayor Adams’ nomination and look forward to the State Senate’s review.”
Garodnick, meanwhile, leads the Department of City Planning and chairs the City Planning Commission, overseeing land use matters at a neighborhood and citywide level. At the City Planning Department he has worked on complex land use quagmires such as extending Madison Square Garden’s operational permit in the face of conflicting efforts to rebuild Penn Station. He is currently shepherding three citywide zoning text amendments focused on the environment, economic development, and expanding housing.
Beforehand, he represented Manhattan’s East Side on the City Council from 2006 to 2017.
“Our mass transit system is the lifeblood of New York City and our entire region,” said Garodnick. “I’m honored to be recommended by Mayor Adams to this important role, and I will work every day to deliver the safe and reliable transit system that New Yorkers rely on and deserve.”
Joshi and Garodnick would replace on the Board Sherif Soliman, Adams’ Chief Policy & Delivery Officer, and Frankie Miranda of the Hispanic Federation. Soliman has already resigned from the Board, while Miranda would resign if Joshi and Garodnick are confirmed, a spokesperson for Adams said.
Adams’ other two representatives on the MTA Board are David Jones, head of the Community Service Society, and Midori Valdivia of Coro New York.
The nominees must be confirmed by the State Senate. Technically, only the Governor can make formal nominations, though the structure of the Board calls for various stakeholders’ recommendations to be heeded.
The MTA is nominally an independent public benefit corporation, but it is effectively controlled by the Governor, who appoints five members to the Board plus the chair. The mayor recommends four members, while the executives of Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester counties each appoint one member. Dutchess, Putnam, Orange, and Rockland counties have one collective vote, and the Board also has non-voting members who represent the interests of commuters and the MTA’s transit worker unions.
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