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New Executive Director
Sets Ambitious Goals

In late July, Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Heidi Machen as executive director of the Taxi Commission. She succeeded Interim Executive Director Kelly Castagnaro, who left to accept employment with a non-profit organization in New York.

Machen, an attorney, is a graduate of San Francisco State University and Hastings College of the Law. She previously worked as an aide to Newsom when he was a member of the Board of Supervisors. Subsequently she worked as a staff attorney for the Office of Citizen Complaints and as public affairs officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority.

Among her near-term goals are improving service to the disabled; moving forward with the debit card pilot program for paratransit customers; ensuring workers’ compensation coverage for cab drivers; achieving a taxi driver health care plan; and bringing about greater enforcement of laws against illegal activities by limousines and out-of-town cabs.