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“When you talk about previous wage salary, you establish a floor,” said James. “And as a result of that floor, which is discriminatory in nature, you start off with a discriminatory base. So we really want to prohibit city agencies from asking about previous salary information of job applicants.”

City Council Member Ben Kallos, the only man who serves on the Council’s Committee on Women’s Issues, also believes wage disclosure will be an important tool in working towards pay equity.

“You can look up every public employee’s salary and we know what their gender is,” Kallos told Gotham Gazette in a phone interview. “Why can’t we do an automatic and internal audit comparing folks to their collective bargaining and make sure people are getting paid what they’re supposed to? The entire point of the civil service is supposed to be equity and treating people based on what they know, not who they know or what their gender is.”

Several City Council members asked the chancellor when free lunch will be a reality for all students.

“I want to wake up in a city where every kid has the opportunity for free lunch,” Upper East Side Councilman Ben Kallos said at the budget hearing.

“I’m not saying ‘no,’” Fariña said. “It’s all a matter of priorities. We have to take it one step at a time.”

But with the projections still going up, City Councilman Ben Kallos questioned how the city estimates its legal liabilities. He said other spending needs are going unmet because of the funds reserved for litigation.

"With regard to investing in defending these frivolous lawsuits, the key issue here is: We should be seeing a return on our investment, and that should be reflected in the judgment-and-claims budget," Kallos (D-Manhattan) said.

New York City Councilmember Ben Kallos (Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island) told the crowd, “We’re taking back our waterfront.” He said that the expanded ferry service expected to roll out in 2017-2018 would “connect all five boroughs.”

The Councilmember has literally immersed himself in his subject.

“It’s always a please to swim across the East River, and around the Statue of Liberty with New York Swim,” he said. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be in the Hudson, swimming from 99th to 79th.”

City Councilman Ben Kallos, who chairs the government operations committee, has repeatedly raised the issue of the vacancies at public hearings.

"I have identified years-long vacancies for half of the commissioners at the Tax Commission at multiple preliminary budget hearings and I have sought and extended a call for applicants at these public hearings," Kallos told Capital in an email.

Councilman Ben Kallos's statement came after the Daily News exclusively reported that the city had been unable to produce a single email from the files of former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly or former Chief of Department Joseph Esposito in which they used the words "summons" or related terms.

Councilman Ben Kallos of Manhattan said Monday that he may hold a hearing into allegations that members of New York Police Department destroyed documents that would show the agency has a quota system for summonses—something top cops have denied for years.

”Destruction of evidence is a serious charge and one that the courts will have to decide on as they move forward," said Kallos, chairman of the Council's government operations committee. "The allegations in this case are troubling for anyone who has ever received a ticket they felt was unfair.”

But City Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), who has waged a campaign to clean up a board that built a bad rep as a nest of patronage and blundering, had plenty to say.

“The Board of Elections waited until just after the (city) budget agreement was announced to sneak in a raise for top managers, who are already overpaid,” fumed Kallos, who helps oversee the agency as head of the Council’s Governmental Operations Committee.

Kallos said the raise money would have been better spent preparing and running elections to cut down on long lines and head off problems for voters.

“Between refusing to (advertise) for open positions or major meetings, failure to correct for nepotism, and constant overspending, they should be cutting salaries — not raising them,” Kallos said.

Under the bill being introduced by Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan) Wednesday, businesses could lose their licenses or permits if they have $50,000 overdue for two years, or $25,000 overdue for five years. They’d also get hit if they owe $10,000 and fail to make three straight payments on a payment plan.

“There’s $1.5 billion that’s sitting on the table,” Kallos said. “Passing these laws to revoke permits would do a lot to improve quality of life.”

City Council members want to grill the subletting service Airbnb about fears renters could die in a fire while struggling to flee an unfamiliar apartment.

“We need to ensure Airbnb is not putting profit over people by allowing listings that cram too many tourists into apartments far too small to guarantee their safe escape from danger,” said Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Upper East Side).

The council’s Housing and Buildings Committee has scheduled a Jan. 20 hearing over “short-term rentals” arranged through Airbnb and other sites.

In a recent affidavit, an FDNY official said that, unlike hotels, apartments being illegally used for “transient occupancy” don’t offer visitors a “detailed fire-safety and evacuation plan.”

An Airbnb spokesman said the company was “eager to participate” in the hearing, and insisted, “We take safety seriously.”