Taxi and Limousine Commission
City board
The Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) licenses and regulates New York City's medallion (yellow) taxis, green (boro) taxis, for-hire vehicles (including app-dispatch services such as Uber and Lyft), commuter vans, and paratransit vehicles, along with the drivers and bases that operate them. Its nine-member board sets fare rules, license standards, and policy at public meetings. A salaried Chair, who is also a commissioner, heads the agency and its roughly 600 staff; the other eight commissioners are unsalaried. Five of those eight must be residents recommended for appointment by a majority of the City Council members of each of the five boroughs. Commissioners serve three-year terms. The Commission was created in 1971.
- Board members
- 9 seats (salaried Chair + 8 unsalaried)
- Appointed by
- Mayor; five seats nominated by borough Council delegations
- Term
- 3 years
- Chair
- Midori Valdivia
- Regulates
- Taxis, for-hire vehicles (incl. Uber/Lyft), commuter vans, paratransit
- Established
- 1971
Board members (6)
The Commission has nine seats: a salaried Chair plus eight unsalaried Commissioners, all appointed by the Mayor with City Council consent. Five seats are reserved for residents recommended by each borough's Council delegation. Six seats are currently filled and three are vacant, matching the city's
- Midori Valdivia Chair & Commissioner — Former MTA Chief of Staff and TLC Deputy Commissioner. Nominated by Mayor Mamdani on January 13, 2026 and confirmed by the City Council on March 26, 2026.
- Kenneth C. Mitchell Commissioner (Staten Island) — Executive director of the Staten Island Zoological Society and a former City Council member. Recommended by the Staten Island Council delegation and appointed by Mayor de Blasio in November
- Thomas Sorrentino Commissioner (Brooklyn) — Certified public accountant, partner at PKF O'Connor Davies. Recommended by the Brooklyn Council delegation and appointed by Mayor de Blasio to a term that expired January 31, 2022, now serving
- Elisa Velazquez Commissioner — Deputy CFO and Deputy Commissioner at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection and former counsel to the Queens Borough President. The TLC does not publish her appointment date.
- Paul Bader Commissioner (Queens) — Queens resident, former yellow-cab driver and driving instructor. Recommended by the Queens Council delegation on April 28, 2023 and appointed by Mayor Adams on May 26, 2023.
- Andrea Bierstein Commissioner — Manhattan resident and attorney. Nominated by Mayor Adams on March 20, 2024 and appointed on April 24, 2024 after City Council confirmation.
The industry TLC regulates, by the numbers
Currently licensed drivers and vehicles, from the TLC's daily-updated license datasets (as of 2026-08-31). One TLC driver license now covers both yellow-cab and for-hire (Uber/Lyft/livery) driving, so the driver count is a single total, not a sum across license types.
- TLC-licensed drivers 180,264
- For-hire vehicles (Uber, Lyft, livery, black car) 104,630
- Yellow-cab medallions 10,235