Monday, November 8, 2021

Meetings of Interest in the Week Ahead

We've fallen back. Yesterday, the sun set at 4:41 p.m. Today, it will set a minute earlier. As we plunge deeper into darkness, here's what's happening this week.
  • On Monday, November 8, the Common Council holds its informal meeting at 6:00 p.m. On the agenda is a resolution in support of the "good cause" eviction legislation that has been introduced at the state level (A5573/S3082). Also on the agenda is a resolution outlining the process by which majority and minority leaders are determined when all members of the Common Council are of the same party. 
In the event that all members of the Council belong to the same political party, the entire Council shall hold one vote to designate the Majority leader and another vote to designate the Minority leader.

If there are two members who belong to different minority parties, they will split the two-year term for minority leader, unless one cedes the right to the other.

If there are more than two members who belong to different minority parties, they will divide the two-year term by that number, unless one or more of the members cedes their right.

To avoid the situation that occurred in 2020, when Calvin Lewis and Shershah Mizan decided to "identify" as Working Families Party in order to elect Rebecca Wolff the minority leader, the resolution states: "party membership shall be determined by the party membership of the Council member at the time of commencement of the most recent city election cycle which shall be deemed the last day for submitting petitions to be placed on the ballot." Click here to join the Zoom meeting. 

  • On Tuesday, November 9, the Hudson Community Development and Planning Agency (HCDPA) meets at noon. This meeting will take place in person at City Hall.
  • At 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 9, the Conservation Advisory Council will hold what seems to be a special meeting, since the CAC has already met once this month. Unlike the CAC meeting last Tuesday, this one is on Zoom. Click here to join.   
  • At 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 9, the Planning Board holds its regular monthly meeting. Last week, when the Planning Board canceled a special meeting, it was announced that the Colarusso issue, which was the topic of the special meeting, would be taken up at the regular meeting on November 9. It's not clear if that will happen. Gossips learned this morning that the meeting agenda for Tuesday is still in flux. Like the agenda, the link to the Zoom meeting has not yet been published.
  • On Wednesday, November 10, the Hudson Housing Authority Board of Commissioners meets at 6:00 p.m. This is an in-person meeting which will take place in the Community Room at Bliss Towers, 41 North Second Street. Very likely one or both of the new interim directors of HHA--Nick Zachos and Aiesha Davie--will be present for the meeting.
  • Also at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 10, the Common Council holds a special meeting to "receive and consider" the city budget for 2022. This meeting will be held on Zoom, but the link to the Zoom meeting has not yet been published.
  • On Friday, November 12, there will be a public hearing on the proposed 2022 budget. The hearing will take place on Zoom, but the link to the meeting has not yet been published.
  • On Sunday, November 14, at 3:00 p.m., Friends of the Public Square (FOPS) will hold a Community Engagement Day at Seventh Street Park. According to the announcement of the event on Facebook, "This is the first of a series of community engagement events that FOPS will be holding. Before we apply for grants and plan anything major, we would like to hear from the people of Hudson what you want in our shared public space."
COPYRIGHT 2021 CAROLE OSTERINK

13 comments:

  1. If this Common Council wished to introduce a change to the Rules of Order for the sake of better process and representation, they should have done so well before the election. At this point, Council members who will be taking seats in January ran under the expectation that they should be able to pick their own leadership, not have Tom and this Council limit their options.

    If a group of Democrats wishes to caucus together as a minority caucus, they should be free to do so under the existing rules. If five members of the Common Council hold a different set of principles or policy goals than the other six, they should not lose their voice as the six majority members of the Common Council select both majority and minority leaders. While, as the resolution notes, there are limited powers associated with the minority/majority leader in Council meetings, they do both sit on the IDA and HCDPA. As we saw this year with the Galvan PILOT, the results of bad leadership can be disastrous for the community.

    People need to speak up on this issue or they will find themselves with a government that benefits no one but out-of-town subsidized housing developers and the hedge funds they partner with. Of course, that may have been the goal all along. Maybe Tom should ask his wife how that works.

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  2. Carole:
    For the 11/10 CC meeting regarding the budget, do you know where we might view line item budget proposals?
    Margaret Morris

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    1. I expect the budget will be publicly available after it has been presented to the Common Council on Wednesday, in time for the public hearing on Friday.

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  3. I’m trying to follow this. It only took TWO MINUTES for this to go to private. Executive session. WHY?!?!?! What are they hiding?!?!

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    1. The Council went into executive session to discuss litigation--a legitimate reason to go into executive session. The non-Council member involved in the executive session, David Luntz, is an attorney https://hinmanstraub.com/professionals/david-luntz.

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    2. Agreed, this is ridiculous. Cheryl Roberts dragged the Council into executive session last month for forty minutes to lobby for Colarusso at the beginning of last month, and now this. It's a poor use of Council time, disrespectful to community members, and flies in the face of honest and transparent government. (This is to say nothing of Cheryl's behavior on the Police Reform committee on behalf of the Greenberger Foundation, which apparently, and much to my disappointment, cares less about helping people than lining its own pockets.)

      Tom and Kamal prove over and over that Trumpism is not simply a disease of the Right.

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    3. With all due respect Carole, if the city is being sued, that means us. Do we not have a right to know why we are being sued?

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    4. Last month's executive session of the Common Council to discuss the Planning Board was not just "a poor use" of the Council's time, it was a blatant abuse of power according to the Open Meetings Law. Increasingly, Hudson's leaders are behaving like crooks.

      Throughout the 19th c., Hudson was dominated by what our local histories named "old fogeyism." Nowadays, ever since we rid City Hall of the Scalera-era Old Boys, what we got is another iteration of the Old Boys.

      As long as Tom DePietro, that hater of transparency, continues to cover for the mayor and the mayor's attorney Cheryl Roberts, the Common Council must be viewed with the utmost suspicion and disdain. The greatest expertise of most of the Aldermen have shown is passing the buck.

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  4. Carole, Like Holst, I am trying to attend this meeting. It seems to me that the Council is the elected representatives of the people of Hudson; the attorney to the Council, by extension, is representing the people of Hudson. If we are being sued, do we not have a right to listen? To know what litigation is being discussed? I understand that public comment should not be allowed, but can we not at least hear what litigation has arisen from the actions of our elected officials?

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    1. Any settlement has to come to the council in open session for decision making. No votes can be taken in executive session unless minutes are taken. If there are minutes they can be foiled.

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