FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM NOVEMBER 28, 2019 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
Queens DA-elect Katz names 31-member transition team
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
As she prepares to take offi ce in January,
Queens District Attorney-elect Melinda
Katz announced her 31-member transition
Ridesharing company off ers new $15 fl at rate from LGA to Queens
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
With ongoing construction at
LaGuardia airport compounding its
ever-increasing car traffi c, rideshare app
Via has stepped in to make riders’ experience
more aff ordable.
Last week Via launched LGA Connect,
ride service that will off er $15 fl at-rate
rides from LaGuardia to Manhattan,
Brooklyn and Queens, and $20 to Staten
Island and the Bronx. It attributes the
decrease in cost to effi ciency, stating that
it does not rely on city subsidy or come
out of the pay of its drivers.
“We’re serious about reducing congestion
on our roads — and now, that
includes the roads at LaGuardia Airport,”
read the promotion’s press release.
Th e off er’s business model is based on
the notion that fi lling up a six-passenger
van will bring costs down by maximizing
vehicle capacity. Th e service will consist
of a fl eet of drivers in Mercedes Metris
vans who will wait to collect riders before
departing the airport. Travelers can select
LGA Connect in the app or head to pick
up points at Terminals C and D to hail a
Via in person.
Additional passengers are $5 per head,
but the price caps at $30 per booking. So
if the drivers are carrying only individuals,
they would collect $90. If it’s a whole
family, they would collect $30.
A Via spokesperson told QNS that LGA
Connect drivers consist of the normal
pool of Via drivers who operate Metris
vans. Th e pay model for these drivers
is the same for the rest of the app. Th at
means that each day, drivers can select
they want a guaranteed hourly rate or get
paid per ride.
“Via’s hourly rate varies based on a
number of factors — so there is no standard,
but driver partners are given the
option and visibility to current guaranteed
hourly rate when they log into the
Via platform each day,” wrote the spokesperson,
citing a Taxi and Limousine
Commission report that showed Via’s
driver earnings at $21.73 per hour aft er
expenses.
Th e drivers all own or lease their Metris
vehicles.
team.
Th roughout her campaign, Katz maintained
that her time as borough president
gave her the experience needed to
run a multimillion-dollar budget and run
an offi ce with more than 700 prosecutors
and staff .
Her numerous opponents in the primary
pointed out frequently that she was the
only one in the fi eld with no courtroom
experience and now she has to take control
of an offi ce that has not changed its culture
much in nearly three decades under the
leadership of Richard Brown, who stepped
down last year before his death in May.
Katz has promised to reduce low-level
nonviolent off enses, implement discovery
reform, speedy trials and plea bargains
at the same time new criminal justice
reforms become law in New York, including
the end of cash bail for non-violent felonies
and misdemeanors.
She loaded her transition team with
experts in law, criminal justice reform,
government operations and civic and community
leadership. Her committee will
be charged with recruiting top talent and
shaping the future administration with
shared values of justice, equality and fairness,
according to Katz.
“I am proud and ready to lead a new
dawn of justice in Queens,” Katz said. “I
am grateful to the co-chairs and the members
of my transition team for their dedication
to the people and families of our home
borough. Justice has been denied as other
counties in our state and across the country
were at the forefront of reforming our
criminal justice system. We will prove defi -
nitely in Queens that you can enhance safety
and equality at the same time, in a way
that is collaborative and benefi ts all of us.”
Th e Hon. Randall Eng — the former
Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division,
Second Department — will serve as
co-chair, along with Christopher Renfroe,
the former president of the Macon B. Allen
Black Bar Association who employs more
than three decades of criminal law experience
including the defense of the fi rst death
penalty case tried in Queens.
Sharon Lee, who currently serves as deputy
borough president, is the team’s executive
director on a volunteer basis.
Th e committee members are Antiss
Agnew of Forestdale, Inc.; Amy Arundell of
the United Federation of Teachers; Pascale
Bernard, MSW of Planned Parenthood of
New York City; Dr. John H. Boyd, II of
New Greater Bethel Ministries; Victoria
Brown-Douglas, Esq. of the Lawyer’s Guild
of the Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of
New York; Joan B. Brown, Esq.; Sociologist
Dr. Tricia Callender, PhD; Ray Cameron
of the NYC Department of Probation;
David Cohen of 32BJ SEIU; Reverend
Dr. Phil Graig of the Greater Springfi eld
Community Church; Sister Tesa Fitzgerald
of Hour Children, Inc.; Reverend Kirsten
John Foy of Arc of Justice; Joshua Glick,
Esq. of Queens Law Associates; Everett
Hopkins, Esq. of the Macon B. Allen Black
Bar Association; Lucy Lang, Esq. of the
Institute for Innovation in Prosecution
at John Jay College of Criminal Justice;
Jacques M. Leandre, Esq.; former State
Supreme Court Justice Jeff ery Lebowitz;
Jack Liebler, Esq.; Nelson A. Madrid, Esq.;
Jane Manning, Esq. of the Women’s Equal
Justice Project; former NYPD Deputy
Commissioner Hugh H. Mo, Esq; Dilip
Nath of SUNY Downstate Medical Center;
Th omas Oliva, Esq. of the Latin Lawyers
Association of Queens County; Camille
Russell, Esq.; Lisa Schreibersdorf of the
Brooklyn Defender Services; Matthew
Silverstein of America Works of New
York, Inc.; and M. Jane Stanicki of Hour
Children, Inc.
Rounding out the transition team is
JoAnne Page, the president and CEO of
Th e Fortune Society, the Long Island Citybased
nonprofi t that has been paving the
way for formerly incarcerated people to
face the challenges and harmful stigmas
that prevent them from successfully reentering
society.
“I am honored to help shape District
Attorney Melinda Katz’s vision for
Queens, and to be part of her intention,
expressed in her words, ‘to lead a new
dawn of justice for Queens.’” Page said.
“For more than 50 years, Th e Fortune
Society has been both the service organization
and an advocacy organization.
What we are seeing in our city is a movement
away from over-incarceration, and
instead toward ‘building people, not prisons,’
which is Fortune’s mission.”
Th e transition team will establish subcommittee
working groups that focus on
the specifi c divisions, bureaus and units
envisioned for the incoming administration
of the Queens District Attorney’s
offi ce. Applications for jobs in the future
administration can be submitted at
katztransition2020.com.
Photo: Bill Parry/QNS
Photo: Jenna Bagcal/QNS
Queens DA-elect Melinda Katz has formed a transition as she prepares to take offi ce.
/katztransition2020.com
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