Commissioner / Chair David Yassky

David Yassky is the eleventh person to serve as Commissioner/Chairman of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. He was nominated by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on March 12, 2010, and confirmed by unanimous vote of the New York City Council on March 24, 2010. Yassky’s term will expire on January 31, 2017.

Most recently, Yassky recently completed eight years of service in the New York City Council, representing the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. On the Council, Yassky sponsored legislation to promote the use of fuel-efficient hybrid cars as taxicabs. He also authored innovative laws in the areas of affordable housing and economic development, including the City’s Film and TV Production Tax Credit.

Before election to the Council, Yassky had a distinguished legal career in government service, private practice and academia. In the 1990s, Yassky served under then-Representative Chuck Schumer as Chief Counsel to the House Subcommittee on Crime, helping to enact the Brady Law, the Assault Weapons Ban and the Violence Against Women Act, and practiced law representing major corporations and financial institutions on acquisitions and securities offerings. In 1998, he joined the faculty of Brooklyn Law School, specializing in administrative law and constitutional law. His scholarship on the Bill of Rights has been published in leading law reviews and has been cited widely in academic journals and judicial opinions. He has also taught at NYU Law School, and has published more than 20 op-ed articles in New York daily newspapers.

Yassky earned his A.B. at Princeton University, and his J.D. at Yale Law School, where he served on the editorial board of the Yale Law Journal and was awarded the Potter Stewart Prize for best moot court argument. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Diana Fortuna, and their daughters Susan and Margaret.

COMMISSIONER ELIAS AROUT

Commissioner Elias Arout was born and raised on Staten Island, graduating from Alexander Hamilton Vocational High School, and has actively represented his home borough on the Commission since 1988.

A consummate community volunteer since 1957, Commissioner Arout is also a veteran of the Armed Forces and a retired member of the Housing Police. Commissioner Arout retired as a photographer First Class from the U.S. Naval Air Reserve after 26 years of service, including two years of active duty during the Korean conflict. He is also a current member of Staten Island Council Knights of Columbus as well as a Past Grand Knight, a Past Chapter Chairman and Past District Deputy of the organization and is currently serving his second year as President of AARP #1424 of Staten Island. He is also a Former County Commander for the Richmond County American Legion.

Among the highlights of Commissioner Arout’s distinguished tenure with the TLC was his instrumental role in the opening of the Staten Island Taxi and Limousine Commission Licensing and Adjudication Satellite Office.
He currently lives in Staten Island with his wife Margaret.

COMMISSIONER HARRY GIANNOULIS

Harry Giannoulis was born and raised in the community of Jackson Heights, Queens. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School and New York University, where he was a Philosophy major.

His first post-college job was editing children's textbooks for Random House Publishing. Later in his career, he took a position as community representative in the Queens regional office of former Governor Mario Cuomo. After three years in that position, he was promoted to New York State Ombudsman. He later became director of public affairs for an organization that provides services to more than 3,000 persons with developmental disabilities and mental illness. He is a founding partner of the Parkside Group, a governmental relations and public affairs consulting group.

Commissioner Giannoulis was appointed to the Taxi and Limousine Commission in 1998 and has served with distinction ever since.
Commissioner Giannoulis is single, and currently resides in Long Island City, Queens.

COMMISSIONER IRIS WEINSHALL

Iris Weinshall was appointed Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning, Construction, and Management at The City University of New York in April 2007, after having served the City of New York City for more than 25 years, most recently as Commissioner of Transportation.

An alumna of Brooklyn College, Ms. Weinshall returns to CUNY where she has responsibility for the University's award-winning design and planning initiatives and a five-year capital construction budget of more than $3 billion for 23 colleges and University professional schools. Ms. Weinshall joins CUNY during a system-wide renaissance on its campuses fueled by state, city, and - increasingly - private philanthropic resources, characterized by bold new interpretations of the "urban campus" ideal by some of the world's best architects.

As CUNY Vice Chancellor, Ms. Weinshall is responsible for physical plant maintenance and operations, facilities planning, and capital programs; planning, negotiating, and implementing capital construction and rehabilitation programs in consultation with a broad range of constituencies including the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York and the City University Construction Fund; and monitoring and providing technical assistance and support to the campuses for the operation and utilization of the 26-million-square-foot, 300-building CUNY plant.

Appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) in September 2000, Ms. Weinshall supervised a $5 billion capital program that included the construction of the widely-praised Whitehall Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan and the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. Under her leadership, the DOT consolidated its offices at 55 Water Street in lower Manhattan and launched a major program to rehabilitate and maintain the city's huge network of bridges and roadways, including the nearly $3 billion rehabilitation of the city's East River Bridges. Ms. Weinshall implemented programs to improve traffic flow and upgrade the city's infrastructure, while making the city's streets and sidewalks safer for millions of pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.

Ms. Weinshall was appointed Special Transportation Advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2003, with responsibility for shaping the city's transportation strategy. Mayor Bloomberg also named her to the Taxi and Limousine Commission. During Commissioner Weinshall's tenure, pedestrian fatalities in New York fell to their lowest level since 1910. The THRU Streets Program, implemented in 2003 by Commissioner Weinshall and Mayor Bloomberg to enhance traffic flow in Midtown Manhattan, has reduced cross-town travel times by 25% and increased vehicle speeds by 33%. In addition, DOT filled a record 260,000 potholes in 2005 and was able to respond to pothole complaints reported to the city's 311 line in four days, on average.

Ms. Weinshall graduated cum laude from Brooklyn College, and earned her Master's Degree in Public Administration from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. In 2000, she was named Alumna of the Year by the Brooklyn College Alumni Association, the group's highest honor, in recognition of her commitment to the betterment of the community through her many professional and civic achievements.

A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, she has two daughters and is married to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

COMMISSIONER EDWARD GONZALES

With nearly 20 years of experience in banking, Commissioner Edward Gonzales has held managerial positions in the treasury departments of the former Dime Savings Bank of New York and, currently, Citigroup, both multi-billion dollar financial institutions. Commissioner Gonzales has successfully met the challenges of managing people, processes, and money in support of the residential mortgage business for these financial institutions. Most notably, Commissioner Gonzales played a key role in restoring the Dime Savings Bank to a “well-capitalized” designation with the Bank’s primary federal regulator in the early 1990s.

Commissioner Gonzales holds a BBA in Management from the College of William and Mary as well an MBA in Finance from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, completed on a part-time basis while working full-time. He is also a graduate of Regis High School in Manhattan.

Outside of work, Commissioner Gonzales enjoys running and weight training.

As a lifelong New Yorker, Commissioner Gonzales is honored to have the opportunity to give something back to New York City with an agency that has a vital impact on the day-to-day lives of so many of his fellow New Yorkers. He looks forward to enhancing policies that ensure customer and driver safety as well as business viability for owners.

Commissioner Gonzales was appointed to the Taxi and Limousine Commission in 2005 for a seven year term.

COMMISSIONER LAUVIENSKA POLANCO

Lauvienska Polanco was born and raised in Santiago, Dominican Republic and relocated to Manhattan to join her family at the age of 16 which is the borough where she has resided ever since. She enrolled at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where she graduated with honors. Having demonstrated a keen and intuitive grasp of politics at an early age, Commissioner Polanco decided to pursue an education in law at Pace University School of Law.

Commissioner Polanco worked briefly as a mediator for insurance defense claims, before spending some years at a personal injury law firm. After that successful stint,

Commissioner Polanco joined the New York State Unified Court System, first as a Court Attorney in the Lower Civil Court, and now in an elevated role as Principal Law Clerk at the Bronx Supreme Court.

Commissioner Polanco is an active community advocate, as former chair and active member of the Neighborhood Advisory Board of Manhattan Community Board (NAB) #12, which is responsible for identifying the service needs of their local communities (Manhattan #12), a process which guides the City in its allocation of federal Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) funding to support community-based human service programs in areas such as education, employment, health, housing, immigrant services, senior citizen services and youth development. Commissioner Polanco also maintains an enthusiastic dedication to her profession while demonstrating a commitment to women's issues through her board membership in the Dominican Women's Caucus.

"In the short time I have been on the TLC's Board, I have learned much about the importance of our regulated industries to the City's transportation network. Someday, when I look back on my time here, it is my hope that people will say, 'she brought something to the table, and she made things better.'" said Commissioner Polanco.

COMMISSIONER JEFFREY A. KAY

Jeffrey A. Kay was appointed director of the Mayor's Office of Operations in March 2006. In this position he oversees the publication of the Mayor's Management Report, a twice-annual report card on the delivery of city services. The Mayor's Office of Operations also helps manage the daily operations of city agencies and coordinates initiatives and special projects to improve the delivery of city services.

Previously, Kay was a deputy director at the NYC Office of Management and Budget (OMB), where he served as a senior member of OMB's management team and oversaw relations with the state and federal governments and the Department of Education's $17 billion budget. He previously served as an assistant director for Intergovernmental Affairs at OMB, where he was chief budget lobbyist for the City of New York in Albany.

Before joining OMB, Kay was an assistant legislative representative in the Mayor's Office, representing the city on a range of issues from education policy to municipal labor and pensions.

Kay was appointed to the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission in 2007.

He holds a B.A. from the State University of New York (SUNY) Binghamton and an M.A. in public policy from SUNY Albany.