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The mayor might not like to take questions from the press — but he does believe they have the right to join a union.

De Blasio was among nearly two dozen city officials who signed a letter Thursday in support of reporters at two popular local websites who are fighting to get management to recognize their recent union vote.

“We support the editorial staff of DNAinfo and Gothamist as they exercise their right to unionize,” the letter said.

“The work of these reporters and editors is crucial for NYC. We call on management to respect their democratic right to organize and immediately recognize their union,” it concluded.

"When there aren't public postings, that's a good indication there may be patronage involved, or worse yet conflicts of interest," Kallos said. "New Yorkers would know about the 350,000 jobs the city has, and the city could expand its pool of qualified applicants," Kallos said.

A group of families celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday by participating in a union strike at 1735 York Avenue and E. 90th Street.

Members of 32BJ who work at the building — along with their children, some of the tenants, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and City Council Member Ben Kallos — were there to protest their treatment by Bonjour Capital, which bought the building from Glenwood Management. The strike started last Thursday and ended Monday morning

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.

“With auto-enrollment, people will be nudged into saving for retirement,” said Councilman Ben Kallos, a Democrat from the Upper East Side of Manhattan, who will be one of the sponsors of the legislation once it is introduced. Though people can choose not to participate, he said, city officials hope that most would.

“86th Street is one of the busiest commercial corridors in the city,” Kallos said, noting that the 86th Street stop on the Lexington Avenue line is among the subway system’s top 10 in commuter usage. “Many other locations have BIDs, and this one was long overdue.”

The effort to create the district will step up this week as a survey is sent out to take the neighborhood’s temperature on having a BID. The survey includes basic information about BIDs and a questionnaire regarding neighborhood conditions, quality of life problems, and desired services.

“Rather than trying to deal with the problems on a case-by-case basis, it would be better to deal with it in the long term by creating a BID for that part of the neighborhood,” Kallos said.

The hearing saw a thorough back-and-forth between industry representatives and Council Members Ben Kallos and Daniel Dromm, who refused to accept the opposing arguments being made.

The Gotham Gazette reported that New York City Council members Ben Kallos, Laurie Cumbo and Robert Cornegy are trying to pass an ordinance to help parents re-enter the workplace.
 

The time between a candidate taking a civil-service exam and a list being established has fallen by six months, according to the most recent statistics. Still, Ben Kallos, the Chair of the City Council’s Governmental Operations Committee is asking the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to adjust its goals to encourage even more progress in the future and to better diversify the city’s applicant pool.

City Council Members Ben Kallos, Laurie Cumbo, and Robert Cornegy today introduced a bill and five-point plan to help working parents re-enter the workforce after temporary disruptions in employment.

The proposed legislation, of which Kallos is the lead sponsor and he introduced at the Council's Stated Meeting, would expand the city's "Workforce1" job training program and provide additional online resources for parents returning to work.

The five-point plan calls for training in technology, partnerships between public agencies and private companies, resume assistance, a proactive outreach campaign to spread the word about job training, and more online information for parents.