John Francis Hayes (1915 – January 3, 2001) was an American politician who served as the Borough President of Brooklyn in 1961. Hayes served a 35-year career as assistant and deputy to a number of Brooklyn borough presidents before he was elected to the New York State Supreme Court in 1977. He retired in 1984. In 1957, during his tenure as executive assistant to John Cashmore, Hayes took a phone call from Walter O'Malley, who announced he was taking the Brooklyn Dodgers to the West Coast. Prominent figures of the time stated, "the reality was John Hayes was the borough president in all but the title. He was the guy who would take those calls."