The Register-Star announced this evening that there will be a debate between two of the mayoral candidates--Joe Ferris and Lloyd Koedding--on Wednesday, October 22, three days before early voting begins: "Hudson mayoral candidates Ferris, Koedding to face off in debate."
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| Photo: Shawn Ness | Register-Star |
As was the case for the debate that took place in June, before the Democratic primary, the event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the Hudson High School auditorium and will be moderated by Register-Star editor Mary Dempsey. The article indicates it will also be livestreamed.
KACO - Kamal always chickens out.
ReplyDeleteAHOD: Abandoning Honest Open Debate
ReplyDeleteThe High School Mayor is refusing to debate the candidates running for Mayor of Hudson? He doesn’t see a benefit? Not surprising. The reason there are debates is to hear and understand a candidate’s position on issues. And it’s no big surprise our mayor won’t do that. The previous debate showed his penchant for grade school childishness, “cool” theatrical moves and snark, rather than truth and facts. Having had a recent conversation with Mayor Johnson and my husband, I have to say I learned a lot about the mayor. His refusal to engage in discourse about important issues currently facing our City, is clearly shown by his obfuscation and refusal to speak of facts or even share his opinions about our city codes. When asked about his opinion on the issue of Colarusso and their impact on the Hudson waterfront, and how their operations are in direct conflict with the City of Hudson’s codes directly relating to the waterfront, Mayor Johnson speaks of “a lot of people” who are in support of their industrial operations on our waterfront. We asked: who are they? He said: there’s a lot of them, they’re out there. We asked, do they live in Hudson? Are they local voters? Are they City of Hudson taxpayers? Do they work for Colarusso? His answer: mumble mumble. We asked him: how do the drastically increasing operations of a mining company benefit the City of Hudson? How many City of Hudson residents work for Colarusso? No answer. We asked: what are the benefits of their operations on the waterfront? Cont…
ReplyDeleteCont… He spoke of the donation of uniforms for sports teams, the fireworks and other donations. When we mentioned that those are tax write offs, he was silent. Then he spoke of all the work they do in our city: we responded by saying: That is work we pay them for- it’s not a donation to the city, they just seem to always have the lowest bid. The whole exchange made it seem that he feels that because Colarusso exists, we must support them without criticism, without restrictions. We brought up the easily obtained information on NY State Government websites clearly showing the deleterious effects of mining industries on local/nearby populations. He did not seem concerned about the effects of a mining industry on our city and its children, elderly and inhabitants. He also had no apparent knowledge (or possibly feigned it) of Colarusso being in a “lease to own” agreement with the City of Hudson, apparently negotiated by Rick Scalera, for 336 acres of land owned by the City. Interesting that Scalera and Johnson were the recipients of awards at their local club recently. The Scalera deal put Hudson’s land into Colarusso’s hands for an annual pittance, nowhere near its actual value: Very important land that surrounds our backup water reservoir. Btw… we’re in a drought and climate change isn’t going away. Very important land that City of Hudson should never sell to a for profit, multi million dollar corporate industry that is in direct conflict with the health of our City and its inhabitants. Mayor Johnson seemed to have no knowledge of this money, coming into the city coffers, which will stop coming in when Colarusso becomes the owner of the land, and The City of Hudson will have lost an important asset, all for the profit of a major corporation. I wonder if this will be a subject at the debate? The most disturbing part of our conversation was the clearly apparent lack of interest in the vast amount of community involvement there has been lately by the hundreds of people who’ve signed petitions, and sent letters to the mayor/Common Council/Planning Board, and spoken at our Planning Board meetings. The people with real names, real addresses, and real concerns. When we asked about Mayor Johnson’s thoughts on the countless hours put in by Hudson locals to save our waterfront from mass industry, Johnson seemed disinterested. He said he had to represent the other people in the community, who didn’t have a voice.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of our conversation with Mayor Johnson, we outstretched our hands and thanked him for his time. He and his assistant chose to end it by speaking about how they are “locals”. Justin: “for many generations!” Instead of expressing interest in the tax paying constituents standing before them, who they’d just spoken with for an hour, they were much more excited to push their nativist narrative.
Thanks for your recounting of your meeting. The reservoir part is a big deal that many don’t know about. And also, as Gossips pointed out, Colarusso just became a “Platinum Sponsor” of Kamal’s latest fundraiser at $1,000. It has nothing to do with the actual Hudson residents and community. It’s the Columbia County Cronies and Good Ol’ Boys, that exploit Hudson and its residents for their personal gain and use nativism as their secret handshake.
DeleteThank you Sienna, and to add to your observation:
ReplyDeleteWe have asked more than a dozen supporters of Mayor Kamal (from Allen St to Columba Street) to write a Guest Op-Ed articulating why another Kamal mayoral term would be good for Hudson, or simply why they like him... not a single person said yes. Some said they'd try but never delivered. Most talk about "from here".
And these are not folks we see in passing on the street or with a lawn sign. These are folks we know, who are competent, who write regularly for work or pleasure.
Maybe now that Caitie Hilverman is now longer at Spark she can write the "pro" case for Kamal without pretending to be unbiased? She was not bothered with his debate performance before, and said "things get messy".
Maybe Lisa Dolan who was at the fundraiser for Kamal last night could share her thoughts on why Kamal should be mayor?
If anyone is interested. Please feel free to email editors@HudsonCommonSense.com.
We'd love to learn from you, publish opposing views, and amplify the "steelman" case for Kamal.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/steelman
Since my name was mentioned, I figured I'd share a few important points for context:
ReplyDeleteThe "secret" Colarusso meeting happened on June 25th. Every single group interested in the dock operations was invited to the table except Sienna. She called for a meeting with the mayor which he graciously accepted. She came into the office on July 2nd with a chip on her shoulder as she was not invited to the infamous Colarusso meeting however, she was not invited to the meeting by the participants! Nobody wanted her there as they don't want to be associated with her. I did not know much of her until this meeting and I must say she appeared very unhinged. She told the mayor not to speak in his own office!! She came in with a narrative, not an openness and willingness to have a true conversation. She was combative and frustrated. She exclaimed at one point that her husband measures air quality for a living . I asked why was he not offering his services? She started fumbling over her words as she was not expecting that question. I find it interesting that she has such a spot on play-by-play of a meeting that happened 3 months ago. I can only assume she had some sort of secret recording device which miraculously left out all of her rudeness. Only someone truly bothered would take my genuine handshake and statement that I'm from Hudson and generations at that, as something other than trying to convey that I care about my hometown and that I would not participate in anything that would destroy it. If my pride for Hudson is now going to be spun as nefarious "nativism" then I suggest people get a hobby. I'll keep reminding myself to consider the source.
Thank you for sharing your perspective, Justin.
DeleteSince you’re here, could you clarify who’s managing Mayor Kamal’s campaign or where questions about his re-election platform should go?
It obviously can’t be you, at least 9-5 and from your office, since you work for City Hall.
On his re-election site, the mayor lists as his very top/first achievement a “rental assistance program preventing nearly 100 evictions and assisting 124 households.”
But he fails to mention that the program is run by his romantic partner, Michelle Tullo, and many of the payments, as per the unredacted FOIL, went to Galvan, Kamal and Michelle's landlord.
FOIL responses from City Hall and Ms. Tullo redacted all recipient info, criteria for awards, and proof of payment.
No objective criteria have been shared to show the funds were distributed fairly or without political favoritism. These were taxpayer dollars mixed with private grants and handled through public channels and City Hall officers.
Some basic questions an ombudsman or tax payer could ask:
- Was there a conflict of interest in letting the mayor and his partner oversee who got public money?
- What oversight ensured that recipients were picked based on need, not connections?
- How much of the money went to Galvan, and how many recipients were tied to the mayor’s political campaign or family?
If everything was above board, why redact the FOILs at all?
For the legal eagles. The Hudson Roots program is listed as “emergency rental relief,” not “public assistance” under state law. There’s no clear sign that ERAP standards were followed.
We have a right to know exactly where our municipal tax dollars go, (this is not federal social services) and it should not be funding Kamal’s re-election campaign and friends.
This is like when Trump, breaking with precedent, put his signature on Covid relief paper checks (tax payer money) before the national election, except if he also decided who got the checks (and who didn't), and then did it in secret so no one knew who received money and how much.
Yes, the payments were variable in size and discretionary. No reason given.
You cannot make this up.
It is interesting that Mr Weaver chooses to peddle a provably false narrative to personally attack me, and chooses not to address what I am saying about the fact that Mayor Johnson is not participating in the debate.
ReplyDeleteI do have a transcript of the meeting that my husband and I had with the mayor and would be glad to publish it. Our meeting was in no way related to what Mr Weaver states in his response. That, frankly is a slanderous lie. We were there to speak of our concerns, as tax paying private citizens of Hudson. There is no where that my husband or I, ever asked to participate in what Mr Weaver refers to as a “secret meeting”. We stated our opinion that the meeting goes against how Hudson should be operating as a City with a Planning Board, a City Council and necessity to operate under NY Open Meetings Law. We were criticizing the fact that they held a closed meeting in the first place, without involving key local environmental groups who have spent years documenting the public’s opposition to increasing mining operations at our Hudson River Waterfront. Weaver has posted quotes here as if these are sentences that came from my mouth. They are not. Not only that, they are false and slanderous. And yes, I can prove this by providing a transcript of a recording we made with our phone which was sitting on Mayor Johnson’s desk. I want to make it clear that nearly everything Weaver has stated here is either false, inaccurate or slanderous. I would also like to point out the words like “unhinged” Weaver uses to describe me are sexist and rude and are clear tropes used to delegitimize women. If you mean that “a chip on her shoulder” means I have criticisms of the way Mayor Johnson is running the City Government then yes, this is accurate. To assume a phone sitting on a table is a “secret recording devise” is delusional. Stating your family goes back four generations is not offensive in itself, it’s the way he said it in order to pull rank that is offensive. The Mayor of Hudson after all, is the mayor of all constituents in the City of Hudson, no matter how long he or they have lived here.
So let me get this straight. Unhinged is now sexist. Hometown pride is now nativism. And secret meetings are now closed door meetings. Got it. What is truly slanderous is publicly stating that I lied about anything. I stand by every single word I said on here. I had no knowledge that you were using a recording device in the mayor's private office and we probably would not have minded if you had been open, honest, and upfront about it. It is very important to note that recording someone in such a location could potentially be contested in court as an invasion of privacy, regardless of the one-party consent law. You don't know me at all, so to claim that I said something in a way to "pull rank" shows you are either misinformed or just plain ignorant. Whichever one is true, I'll let you decide. I only wish you had followed up our meeting from over 3 months ago with any of these concerns, critiques, or questions in a civilized manner by using my business card I handed to you after graciously and earnestly shaking your hand and emailing either myself or the mayor. Instead, you chose to try to paint the mayor as unwilling to communicate or unconcerned seemingly to fit your own narrative, which I have stated previously. Our doors are always open if you'd like to attempt something resembling a productive conversation, but just let us know next time when you are planning on recording us. And I truly hope your husband is putting his air quality expertise to use.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Justin Weaver