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Press Coverage
05/27/2016
Councilman Ben Kallos wrote a letter to the DOB pushing the agency to issue the stop work order on May 16.
"New Yorkers have won a rare victory over developers by stopping a skyscraper in a residential neighborhood," Kallos said in a statement. "I am glad we stopped this loophole before it was too late."
05/26/2016
Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Lisette Camilo testified at a City Council hearing two weeks ago that she would share records on more than a dozen properties with pending restriction changes, but according to Brewer and Councilman Ben Kallos, she still hasn’t.
The requests come several months after the city lifted deed restrictions on the Rivington House nursing home, paving the way for the property to be sold to a developer that plans to convert it to luxury housing — a deal now being investigated by the US Attorney’s Office.
Kallos suggested the delay could hurt the mayor’s spending plan. “We need to see it before we pass the budget,” he said.
05/26/2016
As Crain’s investigated an assertion by City Councilman Ben Kallos last week that Law Department reforms would save the city $430 million over the next four years, one thing became clear: There’s not a lot of love lost between Kallos and the de Blasio administration.
Kallos has been pestering and pressing the Law Department for two years about reducing the amount of money it pays out to people who sue the city, or threaten to.
When budget documents revealed the predicted savings, he claimed victory, issuing a press release attributing the $430 million to his advocacy and the administration’s grudging cooperation. He cited a decision to expand a Bronx pilot program in which one city lawyer handles a case from beginning to end, a policy known as “vertical case handling.”
05/23/2016
Councilman Ben Kallos, a Democrat from the Upper East Side, sent a letter to the Buildings Department last Monday requesting an immediate stop-work order for the tower, arguing that the “unbuildable lot” could create a “dangerous precedent for a new and dangerous loophole.”
05/23/2016
City Council Member Ben Kallos is accusing Joe McMillan’s DDG Partners of using a novel tactic to expand the size of its planned Upper East Side condo tower that Kallos says violates the spirit of the city’s zoning regulations.
The developer filed to alter the tax lot at 180 East 88th Street back in 2014, seeking to slice off a narrow, four-foot strip of the property. The change, which was eventually approved, allowed the developer to skirt requirements for buildings abutting the street, which in turn allowed DDG to build its planned tower a full 60 feet higher, opponents charge.
The “sole purpose” of the alteration, Kallos wrote in a letter to the city’s Department of Buildings, was “to frustrate the intent of the zoning resolution,” the New York Times reported.
05/23/2016
New York State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright, Manhattan Borough PresidentGale Brewer, and City Council Member Ben Kallos attended Big Swim Big Kick to show their support for Asphalt Green and cheer on the swimmers and soccer players.
Big Swim Big Kick’s corporate sponsors include Fried Frank, Glenwood, PepsiCo, Bloomberg, Skadden, LaLiga, Bloomberg Philanthropies, TYR, Morgan Stanley, Omni New York LLC, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hospital for Special Surgery, Citizen360, Elite Service Group, Paul Hastings, Sakura Lifesave Associates, Inc., Skanska and USA Swimming.
05/22/2016
Councilman Ben Kallos, a Democrat from the Upper East Side, sent a letter to the Buildings Department last Monday requesting an immediate stop-work order for the tower, arguing that the “unbuildable lot” could create a “dangerous precedent for a new and dangerous loophole.”
In March 2014, the department said the project could go forward with the adjacent lot along 88th Street. But at the time of that approval, the lot proposed by the developer was more than 30 feet deep — a size that could be developed into a separate building.
After that determination, the developers shrunk its size and filed papers with the city that created the new four-foot-wide property, known as Tax Lot 138. Plans describe the space between the building, Tax Lot 37, and the side street, designed as a garden for residents that is open to the street, as a “rear yard.”
05/20/2016
The City Board of Elections and State Board of Elections did not respond to requests for comment.
Mayor Bill DeBlasio recently offered the NYC BOE $20 million in exchange for implementing needed reforms — an offer that, according to City Council member Ben Kallos, the BOE has rejected. Kallos said in a statement last week that the Council had passed legislation for a voter information portal and called on Albany to permit same day and online registration.
05/18/2016
The expectation that Manhattan will have fewer students going to public schools might result in a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” worried City Councilman Ben Kallos, whose Upper East Side neighborhood is short 2,000 pre-K seats, forcing many parents to commute with their 4-year-olds in the morning rush to free programs in Lower Manhattan or pay a high price for private programs nearby.
4. A school has to be significantly overcrowded before the years-long process of building a new one can begin.
The city won’t consider building a new school until there’s a 5 percent increase in an existing school’s population, School Construction Authority president Lorraine Grillo told City Council members at budget hearings this week.
05/16/2016
At Friday’s hearing, BOE Executive Director Michael Ryan couldn’t say where BOE commissioners stood on the proposal since they had yet to analyze it in detail. “Once the details of the proposals have been fleshed out, they will be shared with the commissioners and, ultimately in a quasi-legislative process, the commissioners will have to pass on that either in totality or in part,” he said.
Ryan also couldn’t say whether the BOE would consider replacing patronage positions with professional employees selected through an open-hiring process, a top priority for Council Member Kallos and several of his colleagues (it is also something de Blasio has called for). This authority, Ryan insisted, lies with the BOE commissioners, who are borough-based. The structure of the BOE is also dictated by state law, which de Blasio and others say they want to see changed.
Kallos was less than satisfied with Ryan’s testimony overall. “I got the answers I have learned to expect, but not the answers that I wanted or needed,” he told Gotham Gazette during a break in the hearing.
05/16/2016
City Councilman Benjamin Kallos asked about the "windfall" developers received from the way in which properties were valued.
He cited that the Harlem property's deed was lifted for $875,000 and the plot was sold for $3.1 million. The Lower East Side deed was lifted for $16 million and the land was later sold for $116 million.
Camilo told council members the agency is not moving forward on any new deed restrictions until its internal review and the investigations are complete. She said about 13 applications, many of them made years before, are currently on hold.
05/13/2016
“I’m concerned that the Board of Elections is underfunded and setting up the democratic process for failure,” Kallos told Gotham Gazette. At Friday’s hearing, he will press the BOE for more details on “whether they have enough money to run an election, whether they have enough to hire poll workers, to advertise, and to do an audit of why 90,000 affidavit ballots were rejected in the primary.”
One of the major changes Kallos is pushing for is the elimination of patronage positions. The BOE has a bipartisan structure and its commissioners and employees are selected based on their affiliation with the two major political parties on a borough by borough basis. Kallos takes issue with this and said BOE funding should come with “terms and conditions” such as the hiring of professional employees through an open hiring process to replace patronage positions, and required audits of “who’s doing what and where.”
Referring to the mayor’s offer of extra funding, Kallos said, “I think the BOE needs to do everything they can to improve their image and to assist voters. They need to accept all the help that’s offered.” He also rejected the administration’s rationale that the BOE budget is lower this year because of fewer elections. “The general election is the superbowl of elections,” he said, referring to November.
05/13/2016
Lisette Camilo, commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which handles the deed restrictions, told the City Council Friday the administration is reviewing the process but refused to answer specific questions about the Rivington and Harlem deals.
The city has put all pending requests to lift deed restrictions on hold — halting 13 to 14 deals, she revealed.
“We put a stop to all of the deed modifications that have been in the pipe. We have put those on hold,” she said.
“The processes by which deed restrictions are valued, and restriction removals are authorized, are similarly under review and subject to overhaul,” Camilo said.
Councilman Ben Kallos, chair of the government operations committee, questioned why the city would “give a windfall to property owners.”
“How many more situations like Rivington and [St. Nicholas Ave., the Harlem site] are coming down the pike?” he said.
05/13/2016
During a budget hearing at the City Council Friday, DCAS Commissioner Lisette Camilo said the city removes about four deed restrictions a year and that “13 to 14” already in the pipeline were put on hold following a suspicious deal on the Lower East Side, where a developer made a $72 million profit when a deed restriction was quietly lifted.
Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) told The Post afterward that he had to learn about the Harlem deal from the press and couldn’t get answers from the administration.
“The city has to take ownership of what is happening,” he said. “I am deeply troubled that there was no budget transparency in this process.”
Camilo said her agency would surrender its deed-restriction records for the past five years to the City Council for review.
05/13/2016
Councilman Ben Kallos, chairman of the council’s governmental operations committee, asked whether the agency had approved similar deals. “Here’s a chance to come clean,” he said.
Ms. Camilo said the agency had put all of its “13 or 14” requests to alter deed restrictions on hold since the Rivington deal came to light.
Mr. Kallos said the Rivington deal was disturbing, in part because it allowed a building once designated for a nonprofit to be turned into condos when the city could have used the space for other needs.
“We need schools like you wouldn’t believe. We also need homeless shelters. And affordable housing,” he said.
Ms. Camilo said agency officials shared council members’ concerns about the Rivington deal. “No one was happy with the outcome,” she said.
05/13/2016
“I am concerned that this is just the tip of the iceberg, and there may be other situations just like this,” said city Councilman Ben Kallos (D-5th).
At a hearing, Kallos put that question to Lisette Camillo, the head of the obscure city agency that is responsible.
Kallos: “How many more situations like Rivington and St. Nicholas are coming down the pike?”
Camillo: “Right now, none. They’ve all been put on hold.”
Kallos: “How many are currently on hold?”
Camillo: “I believe it’s about 13 to 14 currently.”
Kallos: “Wow.”
05/13/2016
The Department of Citywide Administrative Services has come under scrutiny amid investigations by city, state and federal authorities into the lifting of deed restrictions at a Lower East Side health-care facility, Rivington House, that paved the way for it to be redeveloped as condos.
Councilman Ben Kallos, chairman of the council’s governmental operations committee, asked whether the agency had approved similar deals. “Here’s a chance to come clean,” he said.
Ms. Camilo said the agency had put all of its “13 or 14” requests to alter deed restrictions on hold since the Rivington deal came to light.
05/11/2016
Shutting off gas to buildings on the Upper East Side has been a more common occurrence since a gas leak led to an explosion that leveled two apartment buildings in East Harlem two years ago, said Councilman Ben Kallos, a Democrat whose district includes Yorkshire Towers.
“Ever since there was an explosion related to gas, we’ve seen Con Edison being very aggressive with gas shut-offs all over the district,” Mr. Kallos said. “If Con Ed says there’s an issue, we have to trust them.”
His office, he said, has become more adept at persuading Con Ed and the Buildings Department to speed up the process of restoring service as soon as possible after repairs are made.
05/11/2016
The city has begun publishing detailed budget data on its open data portal, not long after Councilman Ben Kallos introducedlegislation that would require making the budget information accessible in a format that is searchable and accessible to third-party applications.
05/11/2016
The city has begun publishing detailed budget data on its open data portal, not long after Councilman Ben Kallos introduced legislation that would require making the budget information accessible in a format that is searchable and accessible to third-party applications.
As chair of the Committee on Government Operations, Kallos oversees the Financial Information Services Agency, which operates the software that manages the city budget. He was able to confirm with FISA that its software can easily make the budget available in an open format.
The mayor's Office of Management and Budget has worked with Kallos and Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, chair of the Finance Committee, to make several key budget documents available in searchable format on the open data portal, rather than just PDF formats.
05/09/2016
According to the playbook site, the city took input from residents, as well as several civic and technology leaders, elected and city government officials and providers, along with examples from other governments and the private sector.
The playbook specifically credits City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and Councilmembers Ben Kallos, James Vacca, Brad Lander, Vanessa Gibson and Helen Rosenthal. It also credits the organizations Bangladesh-American Community Council, the Brite Leadership Coalition, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, the Central Family Life Center, Adhikaar, Make the Road NY and MASA.
05/08/2016
Fuleihan (pictured) reiterated this concern as well, and also spoke of the dangers of shaky global markets and the lack of support from the state and federal governments, as de Blasio had when he presented the executive budget earlier this month. Outlining the city’s new spending initiatives, including investments in public safety, education, anti-homelessness services, transportation, infrastructure and the Board of Elections, Fuleihan said the executive budget, “makes investments that address longstanding structural issues that affect all New Yorkers.”
Throughout the hearing, Fuleihan repeatedly emphasized the administration’s willingness to collaborate with the Council on its proposals. He said multiple times, “We’re happy to continue that conversation,” whether it was to Council Member Steven Matteo on his request to discuss property tax rebates or to Council Member Ben Kallos, who brought up issues of performance budgeting and contract overruns.
As evidenced by de Blasio’s latest budget outline and Friday’s hearing, one of the most important issues at play right now is the city’s plan for reforming and revitalizing NYC Health + Hospitals, which was laid out in a new report, One New York: Health Care for Our Neighborhoods.
05/05/2016
The New York City Council is expected to vote this afternoon on legislation that would place a five cent fee on single use plastic and paper bags—a forward-looking initiative designed to slash the seemingly endless stream of plastic litter in the nation’s largest city.
The bill would place a five cent fee on plastic and paper carryout bags dispensed at supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies. Fees collected would be retained by the retailer, but shoppers who bring their own bags with them would be exempt from all charges.
05/05/2016
Resolutions passed by the council Thursday advocate for no-excuse absentee voting, and would allow people to register with a party up to 10 days before an election.
"For me, voter empowerment and barriers to registration is something I've been working on for nearly a decade," City Councilor Ben Kallos of Manhattan said. "In fact, it's one of the issues that brought me into government."
Meanwhile, the board failed to accomplish what it set out to do at its meeting Thursday: certify the citywide results from last month's primary.
Instead, that was postponed because officials from the Manhattan office failed to show up for the official vote.
05/02/2016
Councilman Ben Kallos, Chair of the Governmental Operations Committee, followed up on a slight uptick in provisional hiring discussed during a budget hearing two weeks earlier.
To comply with the 2007 Long Beach decision by the state Court of Appeals that limited provisional appointments to nine months, the Bloomberg administration created a five-year plan to reduce the number of provisionals by 8,600. That plan was extended in 2014, and Ms. Camilo said she anticipated another extension. “That was always the intention when we submitted the initial one,” she said, though she declined to speculate on how long the deferment would be.
There were 22,954 city employees who hadn’t taken civil-service exams at the time the plan began. They were reduced to 21,416 in December 2014, but rose to 23,052 in the most recent count. Though DCAS gave 290 exams over the past two years—a record high for the agency—the de Blasio administration continued to hire provisionals to meet pressing needs.
“The city is faced with a number of operational challenges that it must meet on a daily basis,” Ms. Camilo said. “The city continues to hire to address the fulfillment of mandates and new priorities.”
She said there was “substantial headway” in reaching its goal. Lists for the Administrative Manager and Administrative Staff Analyst, once they are published later this year, should substanially reduce the number of provisionals.
