Daniel Fitzsimmons

Upper East Side Residents of District 5 have just been handed a blank check.

Councilman Ben Kallos announced his office is taking part in an abbreviated participatory budgeting program with $1 million available to spend.

Under normal circumstances, a council member taking part in participatory budgeting – where constituents vote on how to spend a certain amount of money in the district – gets seven months to hear and vote on proposals from the community. Because Kallos took office in January, however, the process is being expedited.

Freshman Councilman Ben Kallos, representing the Upper East Side, held a hearing Monday as chair of the Government Operations committee aimed at overhauling the application and appointment process to the city’s 59 community boards.

Kallos’ office reported about 1,500 spots were opening across the five boroughs, and that reforms in recent years had been achieved but never standardized.

A new report by a group opposing the construction of the waste transfer station on the Upper East Side claims that the city’s comprehensive waste management plan is deeply flawed –the latest salvo in a battle between local residents and a city that’s struggling to adequately deal with the trash it generates.