Benjamin J. Kallos (born February 5, 1981) is an American attorney and politician who represented the
5th district of the
New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, and now serves in the Executive Office of the President in the
United States Digital Service
The United States Digital Service is a technology unit housed within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. It provides consultation services to federal agencies on information technology. It seeks to improve and simplify dig ...
. He is a
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
. The district includes
East Harlem,
Midtown,
Murray Hill,
Roosevelt Island and the
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Kallos is also a
software developer who ran his office on
Agile, and has office hours at green markets.
Early life and education
Kallos was born in Florida.
He attended
Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School.
He then attended
Bronx High School of Science
The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Sp ...
,
SUNY Albany
The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a Public university, public research university with campuses in Albany, New York, Albany, Rensselaer, New York, Rensselae ...
as an undergraduate, and
SUNY Buffalo School of Law.
Career
Kallos has served as a
Manhattan Community Board 8
The Manhattan Community Board 8 is a New York City community board encompassing the Upper East Side, including the neighborhoods of Lenox Hill, Yorkville, and Roosevelt Island in the borough of Manhattan. It is delimited by the East River on ...
public member and statewide coordination committee chair for the New York Democratic Lawyers Council from 2005 to 2013. He was also chief of staff for New York State Assemblymember
Jonathan Bing
Jonathan L. Bing (born March 13, 1970) is an American attorney and politician. He was a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly from the 73rd district.
Political career
A resident of Manhattan's East Side for two decades, Bing was f ...
from 2007 to 2009, director of policy for then
New York City Public Advocate
The office of New York City Public Advocate (President of the City Council) is a citywide elected position in New York City, which is first in line to succeed the mayor. The office serves as a direct link between the electorate and city government ...
Mark J. Green
Mark Joseph Green (born March 15, 1945) is an American author, former public official, public interest lawyer, and Democratic politician from New York City. Green was New York City Consumer Affairs Commissioner from 1990 to 1993 and New York Ci ...
in 2009, and executive director of New Roosevelt from 2010 to 2013.
New York City Council
On September 10, 2013, Kallos won the
Democratic primary
This is a list of Democratic Party presidential primaries.
1912
This was the first time that candidates were chosen through primaries. New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson ran to become the nominee, and faced the opposition of Speaker of the Uni ...
for the 5th New York City Council District, receiving 46% of the vote to
Micah Kellner's 39% and Ed Hartzog’s 15%.
He won the general election on November 5, 2013 and assumed office on January 1, 2014. On November 5, 2017, Kallos won reelection to another term with 81% of the vote.
Kallos has been ranked one of the best lawmakers on the New York City Council, with ''
City & State
''City & State'' is a political journalism organization based in New York City. The company publishes a weekly magazine covering politics and government in New York City and New York State that is distributed to New York State legislators, count ...
'' giving him fifth place in 2017 and seventh in 2020. He was named one of the most powerful politicians in New York City in 2018, 2019,
and 2021.
He is well known as an advocate for student loans, affordable housing and government transparency, as well as for keeping "big money" out of government.
In 2018, ''
Commercial Observer
Observer Media is an American online media company. The company was formed through several acquisitions, including acquisition of ''The New York Observer'' in 2007. Observer Media is based in Lower Manhattan, New York City, and was owned by busi ...
'' named him as one of the "Officials Who Call the Shots on Real Estate." Kallos was endorsed by the editorial board of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', who praised his "fresh ideas", including proposals to forgive
student loans
A student loan is a type of loan designed to help students pay for post-secondary education and the associated fees, such as tuition, books and supplies, and living expenses. It may differ from other types of loans in the fact that the interest ...
, incentivize the construction of more affordable housing, reform
congestion pricing
Congestion pricing or congestion charges is a system of surcharging users of public goods that are subject to congestion through excess demand, such as through higher peak charges for use of bus services, electricity, metros, railways, tele ...
and expand access to
broadband service.
He chaired the Committee on Contracts and was a member of the committees on Education, Governmental Operations, Oversight and Investigations, and Women and Gender Equity.
In 2015, Kallos proposed legislation to allow low-income residents on the Upper East Side to automatically receive
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other government social safety benefits. In 2016, Kallos worked with
Intuit
Intuit Inc. is an American business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparation application ...
to release their Benefits Assist software as free and open-source software. Later that year, Kallos proposed legislation to get scaffolding down in a timely manner. He introduced a law in 2017 to lower the noise allowed from construction during the evenings and weekend.
In 2016, Kallos, who is an
ERISA
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (, codified in part at ) is a U.S. federal tax and labor law that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry. It contains rules on the federal income tax eff ...
attorney, authored legislation with Public Advocate
Letitia James and Mayor
Bill de Blasio for the city to automatically enroll employees in individual retirement accounts at no cost to employers who did not offer a retirement plan themselves. The law passed in 2021 and was then extended statewide.
Campaign finance and ethics
In 2014, Kallos refused $64,000 in additional income, and authored legislature to ban outside income and make the job of Council Member full-time. In 2016, Kallos wrote a law to make New York City's budget available online, which he worked with Mayor de Blasio to implement.
On March 22, 2018, Kallos authored the law that raised the cap on public funds received by participating candidates to establish a full public matching system that matches every small dollar donated by New York City residents at a rate of 8 to 1. The new public matching system worked to elect the first majority women City Council.
Land use
In 2015, Kallos worked with
ProPublica
ProPublica (), legally Pro Publica, Inc., is a nonprofit organization based in New York City. In 2010, it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its journalists''The Guardian'', April 13, 2010P ...
and a whistle blower on an investigation that found 50,000 affordable apartments that were not registered by landlords who were receiving tax breaks, and might have been charging tenants too much rent. Kallos authored legislation to force landlords receiving tax benefits for affordable housing to register every unit and allow anyone to apply for them online. The law passed in 2017, requiring most landlords in New York City to register their affordable housing. In 2020, as part of the legislation, the city began to add back hundreds of thousands of existing affordable apartments and launched an affordable housing portal, Housing Connect.
Kallos has advocated against the construction of new luxury tower developments in New York City. In 2015, Kallos organized a community initiative to fight a proposed 950-foot "supertower" that would expand the neighborhood known as
Billionaire's Row. In 2016, Kallos joined a grass roots rezoning effort to prevent the construction of more supertowers to protect existing affordable housing.
This rezoning effort successfully halted the construction of another luxury skyscraper in 2017. Kallos led a rezoning that banned the use of mechanical voids as a loophole for luxury housing developments to exceed height limitations by "give billionaires better views".
He opposed legislation that would weaken the city's landmarks law in 2015. In 2017, Kallos authored laws to reform a zoning relief board and force developers to honor commitments for promised public spaces. In 2019, Kallos opened supportive housing for homeless women and children in the Upper East Side. He advocated for opening a new safe haven shelter in his district in 2021.
Education
Kallos wrote legislature to force transparency around how the city determines need for school seats. As a result of these laws, the city agreed to add hundreds of new school seats to the neighborhood Kallos represents. He began advocating for free pre-kindergarten for all four-year-olds in 2014. After this proposal won, he advocated for the addition of 400 new pre-kindergarten seats for his district in 2018, which had not been granted enough seats. Kallos advocated for extending free pre-kindergarten to all three-year-olds, which had a citywide rollout in 2021.
As a public student, Kallos was too ashamed to stand on the free and reduced school lunch line and went hungry instead. He authored a law to mandate reporting on the number of meals served to students to help extend breakfast after the bell and free lunch to every public school student in 2015. In 2021, Kallos proposed offering free supper at every public school to end youth hunger.
In 2015, Kallos joined Letitia James in advocating for cable companies to offer low-cost high-speed Internet to low-income New Yorkers, as a way of bridging the
digital divide. In 2017, Kallos and James won low-cost high-speed Internet for one million students on free and reduced lunch as well as seniors on
Supplemental Security Income. Kallos then proposed legislation to force landlords to offer basic internet as a utility.
Public health and climate change
Kallos authored a law to create the Offices of Food Policy and Urban Agriculture. Kallos passed a law in 2019 to require that only healthy drinks are offered with children's meals in New York City.
In 2019, Kallos authored a declaration of climate emergency and passed it making New York City the largest city in the United States to do so. In 2018, Kallos introduced legislation to ban the sale of plastic water bottles in city parks and purchase by city agencies that Mayor de Blasio implemented by executive order in 2020.
He authored the law to ban toxic pesticides from being used in New York City parks in 2021.
Campaign for Manhattan Borough President
Kallos ran in the primary for the Democratic nomination in the
2021 Manhattan borough president election, finishing fourth. In the first round, Kallos received 13% of votes, putting him in third place. He was eliminated in the sixth round of the ranked-choice voting process.
Election history
References
External links
Kallos for CouncilNew York Democratic Lawyers CouncilOpenLegislation.orgVoterSearch.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kallos, Ben
1981 births
20th-century American Jews
American political activists
Candidates in the 2021 United States elections
Living people
New York City Council members
New York (state) Democrats
People from Manhattan
The Bronx High School of Science alumni
University at Albany, SUNY alumni
University at Buffalo Law School alumni
Activists from New York (state)
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American Jews