On Friday, the Common Council held a special meeting to vote on a resolution requesting that the State Assembly and Senate pass the legislation necessary for the City of Hudson to continue to collect lodging tax. At a Friday evening meeting, called only days before, the number of councilmembers present just barely constituted a quorum. Both representatives of the Second Ward--Mohammed Rony and Dewan Sarowar--and both representatives from the Third Ward--Lola Roberts and Shershah Mizan--were absent. Councilmember Rich Volo (Fourth Ward) attended virtually but was not permitted to vote because his camera didn't seem to be working.
Before the vote was actually taken, Councilmember Dominic Merante (Fifth Ward) asked why the meeting had been called so late. Council president Tom DePietro answered simply that the issue was time sensitive. The resolution had to be received by our state representatives before June 12 so the legislation could be acted on before June 17, which is the end of the legislative session. Councilmember Margaret Morris (First Ward) explained this is something that happens every two years and opined, "We could have done this in April."
When Merante pursued the issue, asking how the current situation could be avoided in the future, DePietro suggested it was the treasurer's responsibility to initiate the resolution. Morris argued that it was not and pointed out that in the past this has been handled by mayor's aide Michael Hofmann. In the discussion that followed, it was revealed that both our state representatives--Assemblymember Didi Barrett and Senator Michelle Hinchey--had contacted members of city government early last week to remind them of the need to do this. After further discussion, all of which can be heard here, the six members of the Council present and able to vote--Jennifer Belton (Fourth Ward), Vicky Daskaloudi (Fifth Ward), Merante, Morris, Gary Purnhagen (First Ward), and DePietro voted unanimously to approve the resolution.
As Gossips understands it, this is how the process is supposed to work.
- The mayor notifies our representatives in the state senate and assembly of the intention to renew.
- The assemblymember and senator introduce bills and send the bill numbers to the mayor.
- The Common Council president drafts a resolution for the full Council to approve.
- The mayor signs the resolution and sends it to the senator and assemblymember.
- The state legislature votes to approve the renewal.
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Fucking christ on a cracker, but the Hudson City Council as about as useful as tits on a bull. How do the 2nd and 3rd Ward aldermen justify accepting their paychecks? How can Tom DiPietro sit on his stupid throne with a straight face and act like this is business as usual? If his "leadership" continues, we'll probably forget to enforce the property tax warrant next year -- what a shit show he presides over.
ReplyDeleteI noticed Shershah has a new billboard up at the corner of Green and Fairview proclaiming himself "a proven leader for Hudson." What am I, a poor 3rd Ward voter to do -- assume he's full of shit or simply illiterate? Or, perhaps, he's taken Tom's definition of leadership for himself: do nothing. Tom's perfected it. Seems my aldermen have, too.
Honestly, I haven’t heard more than three sentences spoken from Shershah total in all of the meetings he’s ever attended. What’s his motivations? The pittance of a stipend? The prestige 😂? He has no agenda, principles and doesn’t seem to care about any issue. Why bother?
DeleteAnother reason why one councilor per ward is an idea that’s past due. The council his half dead weight of members who never share an opinion, ask questions, or do any committee work. Their only purpose seems to be as acting vassals for Tom when he needs pushover votes.
Don't forget about Lola, John. She hasn't said a worthwhile thing in a year and a half. And Tom signed her petition twice two years ago.
DeleteWould you expect people to show up to a last minute meeting during Christmas or Thanksgiving?
DeleteThis last minute meeting was called to take place during Eid Al Adha. As such, none of the three Muslim members of the council attended the meeting.
Such a great point, thank you Rony!
DeleteWhy was this meeting so rushed and who moved it to a Friday instead of a Monday?
Not ideal both for religious purposes and social / travel purposes, no?
It's truly remarkable when our two state representatives have to do the work that would normally be initiated by the mayor.
ReplyDeleteRight - normally. Our mayor unfortunately is apathetically sleep-walking through his third term.
For the past four years, Vicky Daskaloudi has been one of just three or four involved council members. The other 6 are worthless disgraces keeping our city from its potential. Do you see why she is not returning next year? Who would want to be part of such dysfunction, surrounded by people (if they show up) who either don't know what they are doing, don't care what they are doing or aren't doing anything at all?
ReplyDeleteThe system is COMPLETELY BROKEN!
This meeting is the perfect anecdote, in a nutshell, of Hudson’s dysfunctional governance.
ReplyDeleteA mayor’s office that’s perpetually disinterested in the day to day business of running the city and things constantly fall though the cracks. Need more examples: blowing off 11 Warren when given notice, the now near $3M in uncollected back taxes, the uncollected parking tickets, the unpaid Senior Center bills, the city’s website and email domain expiring, lack of sidewalk enforcement that led to lawsuits/DOJ settlement/sidewalk tax, no coordination with National Grid that led to utility work on busy weekends and hurting local businesses, not to mention the lack of oversight on any of the department heads… I could go on.
Meanwhile, you have a Common Council who’s agenda is tightly controlled by a petty tyrant that ignores its role of executive oversight and its power of the purse, only to spend all of its time entertaining dark money funded, out of town, astroturfing lobbyists and the useless non-binding virtue signaling resolutions, which do nothing to help actual residents, but give a platform for fake activists to get their photo ops in. By the way, since it’s the 11th hour in this year’s state legislative session, have any one of these bills that we wasted time on to send in supporting resolutions even make it past committee? The REST Act has not had even a hearing since it was introduced in February. So while the council could have sent something useful to Albany, like renewing our lodging tax, we instead sent Mayor Kamal Johnson on a field trip to do a fake press conference in an empty hallway, holding signs that were paid for by a superPAC.
So when people wonder why many of us would like to just hire a city manager who will simply do the mundane work of running this city, this is why. Our government has been held captive by incompetent idealism for too long. Outside predatory entities, from tax parasitic developers to fake nonprofit grifters, have exploited this weakness. Time to put the adults in charge and spend our time and effort on fixing Hudson for the people who actually live here.
How can we ever accomplish big plans and ideas if we cannot even do the routine things on a to-do list? We can’t.
ReplyDeleteHow can we have a worthwhile representative government if our elected representatives do not participate? We can’t.
Those that are failing us are asking to be reelected. They shouldn’t be.
The system is broken and in need of overhaul…now!
🇯🇵 Obviously this is so shockingly unprofessional... if Tom had any honor he'd resign.
ReplyDelete👀 That said, a question for the 1% of readers who are the commentariat, and the 99% of readers who lurk:
Close followers of City Hall and the Mayor overwhelmingly disapprove of all of this. They realize it is bad for taxpayers, but even worse for more economically challenged residents.
🤔 Every time I meet supporters of the Mayor or Tom DePietro I genuinely try to understand why, ask open and sincere questions, and then get an illogical answer. And no one, not even educated upper middle-class voters who sit on the boards of these various 501c3s and admit voting for Kamal 6 years ago, will go on the record to write in their support.
Their answers come in two forms:
1️⃣ Misinformation: Kamal can do X, or did do Y, when X is not within the power of the mayor and Y was initiated / funded / executed entirely by a 3rd party.
2️⃣ Nativism: General recognition that Kamal & Tom are floundering, but ideologically supporting them over other candidates who "are not from here", or who are somehow responsible for the NATION-WIDE challenge of inflation, housing affordability etc.
And 2️⃣ is especially weird because Kamal, Joe, Peter, Tom, Margaret, and Loyd... were not born here and most of them spent more than a decade, if not two, here.
But Margaret actually lived in Irish subsidized housing... Peter has spent a nearly equal amount of time in Hudson as Kamal and with his family, and Joe and his family are more New York Democrats (with receipts) than everyone else combined.
What gives?
All 5, except Tom I guess, if you count his alleged property mogul moves in Missouri, own single homes that they occupy, or in Kamal and Michelle's case, live in Galvan housing on Union Street between Talbot & Arding and W.M. Farmer & Sons. Really a man of the people.
~~
My question: how can residents who do not have time to follow all these details closely and attend a Common Council meeting a week, engage with facts and policy and make informed decisions based on merit?
Kamal and Tom are not writing anything down and only meet with their supporters and this debate... will likely be a high school debate.
Any ideas?