A New York City Council candidate who had made his name as a technology consultant and spearheaded an open government initiative several years ago found parts of his website copied by another City Council candidate in a different borough, as Politicker first reported.

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Ben Kallos is a Democrat running for City Council on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island. Kallos, who previously served as director of policy and communication for former Public Advocate Mark Green's 2009 campaign, heads up Kallos Consulting, which has the tagline "Where Technology, Politics and Law Come Together."

He was also a cofounder of the Open Government Foundation, a New York-based non-profit started in 2009. On his website, Kallos says that the platform was the first "to post attendance, legislation and voting records going back to 1995 along with an application that showed how often your New York City or State legislator voted with the majority." He notes that the New York State Senate and the New York City Council launched similar portals with that information shortly thereafter. The information on the OGF's website has not been updated since 2009. Kallos Consulting also focused on web development for organizations including the Democratic National Committee’s Law School Democrats, the New York State Democratic Party, and New York City Government’s Community Board 8 in Manhattan, according to his website. Kallos said his website was developed with Drupal.

According to the NYCCFB, Alvarez has raised $16,988.00, and Kallos has raised $63,288.00.

According to Politicker, Kallos sees the imitation as flattery. “The fact that our campaign’s open platform focused on solutions and progressive internship program have become a model demonstrates that we are not only leading by example, but changing the dialogue,” he told the news site.

The State Assemblymember whose district includes Roosevelt Island (and a candidate for Lappin’s City Council seat when she leaves to run for Borough President this year), previously declined to answer or even acknowledge a request from The WIRE for a statement. He was not at the hearing.  His competition for the Council seat, Ben Kallos, sent a representative to read his statement in opposition to the project and in support of community concerns.

“Cornell NYC Tech can’t claim to be sustainable unless it supports the local infrastructure on which it relies,” Kallos’ campaign asserts.  It goes on to quote a statement by City Planning Commissioner Michelle de la Uz in her no vote for the project: “I am not happy with their exemption from paying for services.”