When you work for a City agency, you frequently receive letters from constituents - or citizens that we in public service assist - writing about many different issues and concerns. But sometimes, a letter will cross your desk that is so unbelievable that it makes you stop and shake your head in absolute amazement.

Here at the TLC, we honor drivers who have performed with excellence at our Driver Recognition Ceremony. Among our upcoming honorees is a driver that has been driving for many, many years and will receive a lifetime achievement award for his long and distinguished career. Last year, I wrote his daughter and informed her of the good news that her father would be honored at our ceremony, which I said in the letter would be, "sometime in the near future."

Due to many high profile issues here at the TLC that have become very high priorities, such as an upcoming medallion sale and a possible fare increase, the Driver Recognition Ceremony has, unfortunately, been put on the "back burner" while we concentrate our efforts on more pressing and pending matters. Apparently, the daughter of the driver I mentioned does not feel that issues that could change the face of the taxicab industry and our agency as a whole outweigh the award her father was supposed to receive. Apparently, the award was so important to this woman - that she wrote a four page, very detailed letter to Mayor Bloomberg himself demanding that he make sure the TLC holds the ceremony so her father can get his award. In the letter, she described every single interaction we have had with her through phone calls and letters, and told the Mayor that it is "reprehensible" that we have not given her father the award that we "promised" to give him and that we should, "be held accountable" for our actions.

First of all, I wish I had that much time on my hands where the most important thing in my life was an award. I also wish that our Driver Recognition Ceremony was indeed the City of New York's highest priority. While I understand that she wants her father to receive appropriate honors - writing to the Mayor of New York City - who, last time I checked, has much bigger fish to fry - shows me just how self-centered she is. She actually is serious when she wrote the Mayor demanding that we hold this ceremony so her father could get his award. She even went so far as to reject our invitation to honor her father individually at a management meeting in front of the entire Executive Staff of the TLC. In her own words, she wrote that, "my father does not want a special private award ceremony, but he wants to be honored at the promised (and very public) TLC Driver Recognition Ceremony." She is so adamant about the fact that we "promised" this award and ceremony to her - that she used the word "promised" 23 times in a four page letter.

When the day comes that we do award her father for his years of service as a New York City taxi driver - I think we should also give her an award - for being one of the most self-centered people I have ever encountered.

Now that is an award I would "promise" to give on time.