In a virtual town hall meeting back in April, Mayor Kamal Johnson said he had asked all department heads to submit plans for reducing their budgets by 5 percent and 10 percent. Members of the committee wondered if those budget cuts had ever been submitted, because there seems to be no indication that any proposed cuts are being implemented. Alderman Rebecca Wolff (First Ward), who sits on the Finance Committee, said she wanted to see the budget cuts that had been received by the mayor. In June, Johnson issued an executive order on police reform, which declared that the budget for the Hudson Police Department would be reduced by 10 percent. An article that appeared in the Register-Star on August 11 reported that there were still no plans for how that would be accomplished: "No clarity on 10% police cuts."
Council president Tom DePietro, who chairs the Finance Committee, observed, "A couple of departments do last minute spending to use up what was budgeted," and maintained, "It's considerable in a few instances." When asked which departments he was talking about, DePietro answered, "The police and DPW." Campbell added the Youth Department.
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The Tourism Board and, by extension, the Common Council should not approve grants to programs that bring no tourists to Hudson.
ReplyDeleteFor example, someone is requesting thousands of dollars for “Hudson Open Studio 2020,” an online “event” that will draw no tourists to Hudson to dine at a restaurant, stay at a hotel, or shop in a store.
Instead, Common Council should deny the grant and use the funds to create a marketing campaign to draw companies like Backroads, “the world’s #1 active travel company,” and VBT Bicycling Vacations, to Columbia County. Our elected officials must spend our tax dollars prudently.
Listen: don’t criticize things that you don’t understand. I was one of 40 artists to participate in Open Studio Hudson last year, I ran the Instagram account. How by many artists studios did you visit Radio Row? It was an awesome event. We can’t do it again this year for obvious reasons. If you have a problem with the proposals fine but maybe you should take it down a notch, you are attacking people like me that you have never met.
DeleteThe DPW is so wasteful, it really is scary. The superintendent, Rob Perry, makes $100,000 a year and is "NEVER" in his City Hall office (quoting from his assistant). His foreman takes his city-issued pick up truck home every night (does not live in Hudson) and there are no mileage logs for that vehicle or Mr. Perry's vehicle (I foiled for them, they don't exist). I see DPW vehicles unnecessarily idling ALL THE TIME. They sweep the streets much too often in that behemoth of a sweeper truck. In our little city the DPW garbage truck, with 3 crew members, is moving 8 hours a day for 5 days every week, plus some on Sunday. Recycling is picked up on 2 days, Wed and Thurs, when the official recycling day is Thursday. Garbage blue bags are picked up on two days and could be done in one. The public trash cans are emptied 4 days a week -- it use to be 3, but Sunday was added last year as most cans on Warren fill up by Saturday. Ever see how many trucks are out clearing the streets after a snow storm? And the amount of salt they use? I guarantee that if an auditor was hired to peer into the DPW daily activities, the results would be appalling. Mr. Perry is essentially accountable to no one, and his spending habits have gotten OUT OF HAND. In 2018 he paid a company called ALWAYS SAFE SIDEWALKS $18,000 to grind away the tiniest of tripping "hazards" on city property, nothing more than 1/4 of an inch high, and to list all the other problem concrete that should be gotten to by the city in lots, parks, and on sidewalks. It boggles the mind. I call them the Department of Public Waste, and they are crippling the City, slowly but surely. B HUSTON
ReplyDeleteIt's bizarre that in Kamal's 200 DAYS letter to the community there is not one mention of budget cuts or revenue shortfalls. A BLM mural on the street and a PILOT are noteworthy accomplishments, I guess, but if the City is facing bankruptcy or serious hard times, shouldn't the person in charge at least acknowledge the dire situation at hand? Or is just ignoring it easier? Ignore it at our own peril.
ReplyDeleteIt's somewhat inconceivable to me that all the committee does is ask questions that have no apparent answer. Does no one feel the need to do any work to bolster the City's finances? They're content waiting for the mayor to magically save us? There's scant evidence that the mayor is doing anything at all besides writing unedited press releases and misapplying honorifics.
ReplyDeleteThe committee should be considering adding a 4% local sales tax on prepared food and beverages sold within City limits. Every study shows that there is no affect of such a tax on elasticity of demand. It would very conservatively add about $150k to the City's coffers every year.
If there’s Tourism money to be spent, there’s some relatively inexpensive amenities so tourists feel welcome, and may return. Things like a water fountain ( maybe with a bottle filler and dog dish), and a mister for those unbearably hot days. They could have automatic timers. The pocket parks On Warren would be ideal locations. I think water is already on-site at the park next to Mex Radio, and Thurston Park on the 200 block, and street level at the park on the 300 block, would all be other possible locations. They don’t need to all be done at once.
ReplyDeleteAnd it Would be really nice if the Common Council tabled the STR law, so we could get some revenue back up. There’s no need to rush. It can always be revisited once the city’s economy is stabilized.
Yes! Water fountains with bottle fillers and dog dishes! I agree. I'll bring it up at our next meeting. So needed.
DeleteOh brother! Yeah - that's gonna get people flocking to Hudson! "Hey - they have dog water bowls! We have to go there!" Tamar has no understanding of what it will take to attract people to the city of Hudson and her pie-in-the-sky view of the items she supported from the Tourism Board are evidence of that. Ridiculous!
DeleteFunky, I wasn't suggesting that water fountains would bring tourists flocking to Hudson. and I agree we also need to address the larger solutions, but sometimes little things make a person feel welcome, local dogs included.
DeleteWhile well put the Tourism ideas above are too little, too late. Heather's comment "We haven't seen things bounce back in June and July as much as we hoped." Since there was no marketing effort to attract people to Hudson and the "Safe Hudson" and "Shared Streets" programs were thrown together last minute is anyone surprised? Everyone sat by, patting themselves on the back for ideas that were duplicated in thousands of towns around the country (and to much better effect, I might add) and just expected people to be knocking down our doors "because - well - it's Hudson!" And what's being done for the rest of the year? Nothing as far as I can tell, so Heather's forecast of wiping out the Fund Balance seems pretty believable. EVERY company in the country laid off/furloughed workers - just look at the number of people filing for unemployment. The City of Hudson? No. Business as usual. And we are all going to have to cough up even more money to cover the cost!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many realize just how ominous Heather Campbell’s case flow projections appear to be for this City. The City might well be out of cash when the Common Council votes on the City budget in this November. So far, there does not seem to be much action on making the tough decisions about slashing, yes slashing, spending. Per the Common Council President, departments rather than conserving cash, rushed to spend what was in this year’s budget, with the all too typical bureaucratic attitude of use it or lose it.
ReplyDeleteSo having fiddled while Rome burned, and the City either out of cash, or soon will be in the immediate future, the Common Council will either have to 1) agree to Draconian cuts (bye, bye youth department), or 2) with a 60% vote (i.e., 7 council members voting yes), blow through the 2% cap on increasing the mill rate, to a percentage well into the double digits (a 30% increase perhaps?), with the voters then receiving next spring much higher property tax bills than this year’s, forcing many to sell their homes, or simply not paying their taxes, and in essence borrowing money from the City at a 1% monthly interest (12% per annum).
The denouement of this season’s ongoing soap opera that is Hudson, is that with everyone having their most unwelcome property tax bills in hand, shortly thereafter there will be a primary election held in June 2021. Budgets and spending and taxes are just so boring to all but the green eye shade types, until they bite your ass off. Does anyone get my drift here, or am I being too subtle?
It is appears to me that the City is in dire (yes DIRE, that was not meant to be a rhetorical exercise in hyperbole) financial shape, and the metaphorically chickens, in addition to the real ones that we with which we will now be sharing space, are going to come home to roost sooner rather than later.
If anyone can persuade me that I am being a Cassandra here, and have it all wrong, and not to worry, because Everything is GoinG to Be OK (EGGBOK), nobody would be more delighted than I. Please post, and set the old man straight please, and do it sooner rather than later. Thank you.
Not a Casandra at all. Note, too, that the county and school district tax warrants the City receives are due in full whether the underlying taxes are paid by property owners. Last I heard, the City’s property tax receipts were running at 66% of where they were YTD. Not a good sign at all.
DeleteTime for the Council to forego their salaries and perqs to set an example. And well past time for the council and mayor to act rather than issue self-congratulatory press releases.
Steve:
DeleteI agree wholeheartedly with you. To my knowledge none of the departments submitted plans for cost cutting. "use it or lose it" in the current crisis is irresponsible. The city (Mayor's Office) should veto last minute expenditures. We need to look at every department budget and cut back until we are fiscally sound. All non-essential expenditures should be terminated.
I think there is a real possibility of home owners selling up and leaving town. The downstream impact of that will be more wealthy second homeowners, more AirBnBs etc.
Dire is good word to describe the situation. I have been here for just over 10 years. When I moved here I had no plans to move. It was not an investment opportunity. But as my taxes rise every year I am having to confront the real possibility that I may have to move.
We really need to get our collective act together and come up with a (5 year) plan to dig ourselves out of the hole that so many communities are facing right now.
Also, let me add another comment on garbage collection. When I first moved to Hudson, I found out about the blue bag process. I did it for a couple of months until I figured out that I could get a bin and weekly pickup from a commercial trash collection company. How much are we paying for the artisanal rolling up of blue bags in City Hall 5 days a week, 8 hours a day? Is that really efficient? Could the city not just issue one time City bins and have City trucks pick up garbage for a fixed monthly fee? Or even allow people to put out regular garbage bags and charge them a monthly fee, thereby foregoing the cost of the bins. The garbage collection model in Hudson is a case study in inefficiency.
ReplyDeleteyeah, DPW's blue bag program is another inefficient waste of money. They pay someone to fold and rubber band the bags, and pre-covid there were often 2 paid employees in the chambers, one to fold and one to deal with walk-in customers. So ridiculous. Greenport has it right: the clerk's office sells stickers for bags to residents. No folding, no extra employees needed, no vending machine needed. I often see Mr. Perry filling the vending machine with bags -for this we pay him $100,000 a year?
DeleteDuring my daily bike ride down Warren Street today, I noticed that restaurants appear to be crowded. Does anyone know whether the restaurant business has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels? Are they going to survive? If they are doing well, perhaps the City should implement John Friedman's proposal to add a 4% local sales tax on prepared food and beverages sold within City limits.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, Steiners is one of the few businesses on Warren Street that is having a good summer. The folks who work there report that demand for bicycles has gone through the roof. There's enough business to employ two bike mechanics. I see this as evidence that marketing Hudson as a destination for bicycle tourism could create more jobs and tax revenue for the city.
ReplyDeleteI have consistently said that Hudson needs bike racks and a bike share program for visitors who come up on the train (or would rather than driving if they had the means to get around.) Sadly, our tourism board seems more focused on patronage than planning.
DeleteThe Tourism Board should be renamed the Anti-Tourism Board.
ReplyDeleteOr, Give Money to our Friends and Screw Tourism Board
DeleteBoth of you should workshop your branding process.
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