A Premature Report of TAC's Demise?

I would like to apologize to MTA Board Secretary Roberta Boomer for passing on rumors instead of checking with her first. In my last post I wrote,

"Roberta Boomer, the Board's secretary, has refused to even return Sweis's calls, much less speak to him."

MS Boomer called and told me yesterday that she has never refused to return his calls.

Chris Sweis called me later in the day and told me that there had been a misunderstanding. He said he had talked to MS boomer three or four times in the past about putting the Taxi Advisory Council's recommendations on the agenda.

The first of these (I might add) was back when former Executive Director of the MTA, Nat Ford, was still polishing his resume. Rumor has it that Director Ford expressed a total lack of interest in hearing such a report.  Mr. Sweis has been trying to put TAC's reports on the Agenda ever since - without success.

Sweis said that his report was supposed to have been on the agenda for the June 5th MTA Board meeting but, when Medallion Reform was taken off that agenda, Director Ed Reiskin gave Sweis the choice of presenting the report June 5th or at the August 21st meeting. Sweis choose the later.

When I asked him if the report would be a separate agenda item, Sweis said that he wasn't certain.

Better late than never I suppose ... but TAC reports should have been regularly on the Board's agendas all along just like the reports of the Citizens' Advisory Council. However, it was wrong to blame Ms. Boomer for this situation. If the MTA Board really wanted to listen to the TAC, they would have found a way to do so.

Sweis, who didn't attend the last TAC meeting, added that he thought that the recent vote to end the TAC was inappropriate because there already had been a previous vote to continue the Taxi Advisory Council in some form or other.