The plan referred to in the title is Spear's idea for creating a "citizens' assembly" to review the current city charter and make recommendations for change, not the proposal for change that has already been brought forward. Of course, we know Mayor Kamal Johnson doesn't like that one either. He was quoted in the Register-Star describing the citizens' initiative as "making backroom decisions about city government without the citizens." Similarly, in the Times Union article, Johnson describes the citizens' assembly Spear is proposing as "taking a handful of people and making decisions for a city of 6,000 people."
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🌶️ I did not have Peter Spear becoming the Ralph Nader / Jill Stein (spoiler minority candidate) of Hudson on my bingo card for 2025… but I guess this week is already pretty weird at all levels so why not.
ReplyDeletePeter, I consider you a friendly acquaintance and I like your cardigans.
But we need a city leader that delivers outcomes, balanced budgets, and success, not someone who is “process-driven but outcome-agnostic.”
In that quote you sound like someone sailing a ship but not caring where it lands, cooking a meal but never tasting it, building a bridge to nowhere... in short, a consultant or facilitator, not a decisive leader and man of action.
Right now, after a year of lobbying, the Hudson Mayor's office rejected your idea, and your own family organized the City Manager Charter Reform (effectively rejecting your raison d'être).
I am yet to meet a single resident in Hudson who supports Citizen Assemblies in general, let alone as a solution for Hudson.
🪞 Peter - when can I attend your office hours or hear about your platform for mayor?
How will you save me tax dollars, fix the sidewalks, better lead and support the hard-working unelected civil servants?
❓ Your campaign website has a form that asks me what _I_ would do as mayor… but I want to know what you stand for and how you will make Hudson more efficient and less political as mayor. Hudson is not Congress or the NY State Assembly… it is a town the size of an African high-school with a spending, meetings, and corruption problem.
⛓️💥 And while I appreciate your sincere and frequent reminders to these fine citizens organizing the Charter Reform to "engage"... I am still waiting for you to "engage" with the currently elected mayor about the various conflicts of interests in the City. They have flat out ignored you and your efforts to organize a Citizen Assembly for almost a year. They spent $200k on a Survey Monkey exercise that is not statistically sound or significant. If they respected your idea they would have engaged in good faith and and spent some of that money on a Citizen Assembly experiment.
It seems to me that you are challenging unelected volunteer residents (unfairly), while not challenging corrupt elected officials (fairly).
Hudson is not a small liberal arts College town where we can sit in seminars and pontificate about Foucault or Fishkin… Hudson's Mayor doesn't even write publicly, our public Common Council meetings feature no public debate or deliberation… in some ways Hudson serves as a prime case study of why Citizen Assemblies do not work in America.
So if your mayoral candidacy amounts to more meetings… more talking... more assemblies… and challenging unelected volunteers vs elected and paid public servants… as Ariana Grande says… "Thank U, Next"
Peter is not the enemy here. The cynicism lies squarely with the mayor who, no matter what or how you propose something, will belittle it. His objection that it's just a few people making decisions for 6000 citizens is pretty bold when one sees how he, the mayor, is currently forging ahead with a housing plan that is deeply at odds with a large portion of Hudson's populace and that has already led to some appointed members of the city administration to step down in protest.
ReplyDeleteWhat I know for a fact is that Peter opposes Kamal's plans for the same reasons that we here do.
My chief suggestion to him would be to make that his platform. A citizen assembly to reform the charter is still a good thing to pursue but it might not be the best thing to run on. But, if elected, he should initiate one.
In fact, any mayor who wants to move the machinery of governance more into the public eye would get my vote. We've seen tonight at the Charter Initiative meeting what a beautiful thing a room packed with engaged citizens can be.
Hi Tassilo -
ReplyDeleteI never said Peter is the enemy... I merely pointed out that Citizen Assemblies do not seem to be catching on... and that Peter should hold elected officers to the same standards as volunteers...
The more candidates for mayor and council the better, so please run for mayor or your ward council, Peter. Maybe then there will be a live mayoral debate...
But I am still not 100% certain... is Peter
A) running for Mayor
B) running for Mayor on a platform to use Citizen Assemblies as a mechanism for unity
C) running for Mayor AND getting signatures for a Charter Change proposal that mandates a non-binding Citizen Assembly
D) running for Mayor AND getting signatures for a Charter Change that mandates a Citizen Assembly, the outcome of which is BINDING
E) Something else?
Why would the City or the current mayor yield to the collective opinion of a Citizen Assembly if they don't pay particular attention to the electorate today?
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All of this illustrates why small towns should not have a complicated political apparatus... and just raise as little taxes as possible, to run the most basic public services as efficiently and apolitically as possible.
What we know is that Peter's running for mayor. I know that transparency of governance is going to be one of the pillars of his platform (and, looking at how Kamal does things, a much needed one) but probably not the only one.
DeleteI have not heard a single thing that would indicate he is launching his own petition.
Peter is well aware that he needs to become mayor to make an assembly happen. Kamal has over four years proven that he has zero interest in it.
Ok gotcha. So "B" running for mayor, and then as mayor use some version of Citizen Assemblies to effect change and unity.
ReplyDeleteGreat - Peter, if you are reading this... can you please tell us more about your platform and how you can make the City of Hudson more efficient and less political?