A comment on Gossips' earlier post, reporting the outcome of counting the affidavit ballots, expressed this sentiment: "This is the mayor's last opportunity to exhibit any grace: he should concede immediately, congratulate Joe, and begin cooperating with his transition team." Well, that hasn't happened.
In his first Facebook post since the results of the election seem finally to be settled, Mayor Kamal Johnson took it upon himself to criticize those who question, not unreasonably, why the taxpayers of Hudson should assume 100 percent of the operating expenses of the Youth Department when about a third of the children taking advantage of those services do not live in Hudson
Johnson's post may well have inspired this post by Greenport resident and staunch Johnson supporter Kristen Zanotelli, who aims her criticism directly at Council president-elect Margaret Morris. (Click on the image to enlarge.)
The public hearing on the budget, which Morris urged should be a detailed, comprehensive presentation to the taxpayers of Hudson on how the proposed budget was crafted, because, as she said, "We owe it to them," is more likely to turn into a reprise of the BEA workshop back in 2018 when a bag of dog feces was hurled at the late Mayor Rick Rector in protest of his attempts to rein in the Youth Department budget.
Now I understand where that Kristen post was coming from. She wasn't at the meeting of course but as usual took at face value what Kamal is saying which was a gross misrepresentation of what Margaret actually said.
ReplyDeleteThere's only going to be two more months of Kamal lies before this is over. Whatever happens at that upcoming meeting can be ignored but the public is of course invited and free to hurl their anger at those that crafted the budget (and the five prior budgets). That wasn't Margaret.
It’s still the same council and mayor until January. Margaret is not the council president yet. This is a complete mischaracterization of what happened. They all (well most of the council) asked questions about all departments. The common denominator in so many issues and controversies are due to a great many people seem to not understand that Hudson and Greenport (and others) are different municipalities. Kamal should move to Greenport and become town supervisor.
ReplyDeleteYou just want to see the world burn, it seems. We in Greenport already have a supervisor we like, thank you. Just gave her another term with 1.5k votes.
DeleteWe will not allow Kamal to pick up the pieces of his failed political career in Greenport.
The widely known stages of grief, as per the Kübler-Ross model are:
ReplyDelete—denial
—anger —> Kamal is here
—bargaining
—depression
—acceptance
The Facebook mayor’s comments on his post tonight is irresponsible and possibly liable. He’s inciting people who didn’t attend or watch the meeting with a lot of misinformation. It’s very reminiscent of Trump and Jan 6… Run a divisive campaign with social media bullying. Sow division between groups. Nativism. Refuse to debate. Don’t concede. Question the results. Use misinformation to rile up supporters who trade in grievance (like Ms. Zanotelli. I’m actually embarrassed for him. State Democratic Party officials should take note—in cases he wants to run for higher office.
I would advise HPD to staff the public hearing. And keep an eye out for bags of dog poop.
Incredible, the NYTimes reporter writing about Hudson could capture so many truths about Hudson's broken culture, the mayor's character, the Greenport / Hudson divide... all in this one vignette... we should call it The Kamalian Effect.
ReplyDelete[The exact opposite of the Pygmalion Effect; higher expectations of a person lead to improved performance]
First - Morris did not say the Youth Center should be closed, she simply requested a public presentation to residents about the total/entire 2026 budget (it has a $400k deficit after raising taxes to the legal maximum of 3.9%). Besides, the Youth Center unionized... the true sign of adding value.
Morris (and others) simply repeated the fact that a large percentage of youth at the Hudson Youth Center are from Greenport, and the possibility of getting financial help from Greenport or the County to pay for it.
Kamal's mob, not known for their critical reading or thinking, as evidenced above, failed to appreciate that at least $500k in the budget was wasted on parking kiosks (Tom DePietro), unusable community surveys (Kamal's romantic partner Michelle Tullo) etc. and that almost $2m in taxes and $250k in late parking fees remain uncollected.
Were these taxes and fees collected (Kamal refused to go after delinquent property taxes) then the Youth Center could even have, theoretically, received a lot more funding in 2026 or the City could have avoided a hiring freeze.
Kamal leaves out this detail in his Facebook posts. He is responsible for this budget crunch that Morris, one of 10 common council members, is trying to resolve.
A reasonable and honest person would not attack and misrepresent a request from an elected representative to present more information to voters. And a reasonable person may suggest that the City of Hudson simply collect money owed and think carefully about expenditures to make up the deficit. This way cuts could be avoided.
Not Kamal's Facebook mob.
Second - if one looks at that Kamal thread / Chihuahua whistle... the vast majority of comments are from Greenport residents, except perhaps Dorothy Heyl (wife of current and outgoing Common Council President Tom DePietro who lost his election in a landslide (2:1) to Morris, and Tiffany Garriga, the former council member who simply asked a clarifying question, and Adolfo Lopez, the Assistant Director of Greater Hudson Promise Neighborhood).
So why does an extreme yet vocal minority of perhaps a dozen Greenport retirees and angry HCSD grads like Zanotelli, and two social activists whose salaries depend on arguably duplicative social programs staying fully funded, kick up a storm about a program in another City?
Imagine for a second if a dozen angry and misinformed Hudson residents marched on the next Greenport Town Hall meeting (picking up Dunkin Donuts on the way) and demanded that Greenport spend $400k on some service for Hudson residents, in perpetuity.
ReplyDeleteImagine if without evidence that irate group, uninvited, started calling beloved Greenport Town Supervisor Kathleen Eldridge
- "vile" (Zanotelli),
- and "we gotta get the picket signs ready for this reign of terror" (Adolfo Lopez),
- and "Does [Kathleen] have a husband or children?" (Edith Dinehart),
- "They gonna have task force there at this mtg lol" (Barbara Jones)
- "That’s what white folk who claim to be “democrats” do. Linda Mussman wanted this. We cannot trust Hudson (or Catskill) Dems." (Elliot Matos),
- "[Kathleen] couldnt wait to win the power and immediately attack the children. Very predictable outcome after those election results. Children and families under attack" (Adolfo Lopez, not realizing Morris' term only starts in 2026)
- "It’s the incoming council president. She’s out of control" (Kamal Johnson)
- with the nativist rejoinder from Zanotelli;
"SAY IT LOUDER!!! They want to Make Hudson White Again, get anyone lower income out of the city, and don’t give a damn about children, especially children of color. Every last one of them who relocated here"
[Zanotelli did not attend the meeting that she insists on commenting on, is by her own admission not a Hudson taxpayer. She is an HCSD graduate, and founder of a quasi invite only Facebook group for HCSD alumni that often features nativism, misinformation, and divisive falsehoods. Like 4chan, if it never left its hometown.]
Such a protest in Greenport would not go over well. Greenport would not tolerate the dishonesty or the disrespect, and its taxpayers would certainly not subsidize another town.
Greenport has a slightly lower population to Hudson's yet and their budget is ~1/4 of the City of Hudson's budget. ~$5m to ~$20m.
Lost on these Zanotelli and Kamal stans is the fact that Morris, as she shared publicly on the campaign trail, grew up in the European equivalent of public housing in a large family, before immigrating to America and succeeding. Or Volo who fought for LGTBQ+ rights for decades, or other Council members who are legally disabled but serve. All of whom are tireless progressives simply trying to balance the budget and make Hudson work.
Anger before evidence. Victimhood before understanding. The Kamalian Effect.
Third - now let's forget that tonight's Hudson City Hall meeting and Morris/Daskaloudi/Volo/ comments were about overall budget discipline.
ReplyDeleteAnd let's turn our attention to the youth funding mystery in Hudson and the County:
Let's consider that there are 5 towns in Columbia County with a higher or equivalent population to the City of Hudson (see reference below), and then let's look at the most recent US Census and discover that the under-18 population (Youth Share %) of these towns, is between 16% and 20% for Hudson, Kinderhook, Claverack, Ghent, Livingston, Copake, and Stockport.
In fact, Stockport has the highest percentage of residents under 18 in the County.
Does the town of Stockport NY have a $800k in public funding + $200k in private funding for a Stockport Youth Center? Or the same per capita spend?
There are more families with more kids, don't they deserve some childcare?
Do any of the other towns with roughly the same or higher number of youth deserve a Hudson taxpayer funded youth center?
All these towns are served by the County Youth Bureau (paid for by our County taxes).
Do any of these other towns have Kite's Nest, Hudson Promise Neighborhood, a $50m plus HCSD budget with after-school funding, Perfect Ten, Spark of Hudson, Friends of Hudson Youth, etc. to name just a few of the youth-serving entities in Hudson?
Where are the results?
It is very likely that if you add up all the full-time employees at all these not-for-profit + the City of Hudson Youth Center (6+) that there are more adults working on Hudson Youth, than there are Hudson youth taking part in these programs outside of the summer months?
Are we serving youth or creating adult jobs off the plight of youth?
~
Angry Greenport residents and Kamal's Facebook mob can throw dog feces again, threaten violence again, call everyone, falsely, a racist, fascist, and the latest slur tonight and on Tom's radio show; white supremacists...
But those deflections will not hide the embarrassing and undeniable failure of youth programming in Hudson. And the evidence is clear for all to see, race and economic differences are weaponized for votes, influence, and ultimately sinecures (pay without real work).
No wonder the Youth Center is Hudson's third rail.
p.s. Not to confuse readers... but take a look at "The Morris" Memorial in Chatham... it is a true community center that serves youth, seniors, activities for all, after-school programs... it brings the community together, instead of diving it.
https://www.morrismemorial.com
It is a 501c3 that runs on 1/4 of the City of Hudson Youth Center's budget. Less than $200k vs. $800k. Unlike the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition, the Morris Memorial tax disclosures are online.
~
Reference; Kinderhook (8,330), Claverack (6,085), Hudson (5,894), Ghent (5,303), Greenport (4,473), Chatham (town) (4,104), Livingston (3,628), Copake (3,346)
Oh, to the Zanotelli sisters: when your grandfather “ran” the Youth Center, it was the Boys and Girls Club of America.
ReplyDeleteIt was not funded or programmed by the City.
Why are Hudson Youth Department jobs going up while the City of Hudson population and youth population are going down?
Did the City of Hudson Youth Center have six, going on eight, funded jobs before the pandemic?
There’s nothing that’s a lie about wanting to cut the full time staff at the youth center. mayor is just a title I’m gonna be vocal about anything I feel is unfair.
ReplyDeleteI spent some time this morning watching the video, and having the relevant parts of the meeting transcribed.
DeleteYou can find it here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16oO2twF4JnqPkETKOlejUCx7uYAOf0MLxR2GbVt4pUo/edit?usp=sharing
Can you show us where this unfair moment. occured in the conversation?
you are acting in bad faith. also thanks for not being able to balance the damn budget and raising my taxes. put THAT in your FB and IG posts.
DeleteClearly, “mayor” is just a title for you — you never actually worked at being mayor, just acting like one is some ways and ignoring your duties. Just like you ignore punctuation.
DeleteIf you had not refused to collect delinquent property taxes, or allowed six years of outstanding parking tickets to pile up, this budget deficit would not be an issue.
DeleteYour (in)actions as mayor have consequences for real people.
Why did you let Calvin and the other Department Heads down?
You are directly responsible for the fiscal austerity now hitting the entire City.
You are entitled to your feelings, but not to your own facts.
Dog whistling to your remaining Greenport and Hudson allies, and spreading misinformation to intimidate council members or Department Heads and everyday residents, is not only unwise, it is disrespectful to every employee at City Hall and every resident.
You had a narrow window to take the high road, move on to a real job, and take some justified pride in being elected young and managing Covid reasonably well.
Instead, you now tell us that “mayor is just a title” and you will be “vocal” about what you think is unfair.
The truth is simpler.
You ignored the revenue, created the hole, and now shout from the sidelines while others have to clean up the mess.
You are showing anyone in Albany, the Delgado team, the County and State Democratic party, HCSD students and graduates, and the supporters of whatever project you want next that you are factless, feckless, fraudulent, and unfit for the next office you seek.
p.s. We do not call ourselves "Elon Musk 2.0" as you again lied on FB. You do that.
Just like the other lies you spread, which we can easily debunk with facts, logic, basic forensics.
Now, everyone knows, that everyone knows.
When will you be vocal about officially losing the election to Joe Ferris and wishing him well? You know, like an adult.
DeleteWhile grossly distorting what was said (at best), you conveniently leave out the fact that you created this budget deficit, stirring the hate and dividing the community even more (someone in a since deleted post actually said, “Go punch her” - how does that make you feel?). Go cry your faux Hudson tears somewhere else. Some of us - actual residents, business owners and voters- are looking forward to having a few more grown ups in the room.
DeleteHear, hear…well said!
DeleteFrom the video transcript that Peter Spear posted:
ReplyDelete- Calvin Lewis, Youth Director:
"Six full-time, ten part-time. Part-time is usually 15 to 20 hours a week."
When asked if Hudson "should get some funds from the municipalities whose children are participating."
Calvin Lewis, Youth Director:
"Yeah, I mean, I think you have a valid point."
----
So Kamal failed to collect outstanding revenues that would pay for City services.
Kamal's internally appointed Youth Director admitted to the council that it makes sense to charge other municipalities (like Greenport) for services.
~
If Kamal had any integrity he would concede the election, clear up the falsehoods on Facebook, and apologize to City Hall staff for spreading misinformation in the first place.
I, for one, look forward to the upcoming reign of terror! I’m saddened that Kamal and this Zanatolli cat have twigged to Joe’s and Margaret’s secret slogan — “Eat the Children!” It’s too bad all those promises made to the former Hudson residents (and those who just thought they lived in Hudson but really lived in the Bronx or Stockport) so long ago (“move to Greenport and Hudson will be free for you and your progeny forever”) are going to be made lies by our newly-elected leadership. It’s just so unfair to those poor folks in the surrounding towns, especially those entitled few who, paying absolutely no taxes to the City of Hudson, feel that essentially stealing from Hudson taxpayers is perfectly reasonable. They may take some solace, at least, in the fact that the indignity of having to pay for what they use will give them additional reasons to post lengthy screeds on their facebook pages. And won’t it be fun to watch all those cidiots who visit Hudson and drive up the price of a night on the town order the “kid” at one of our finer restaurants thinking it’s goat! Hudson. Never ceases to amuse.
ReplyDeleteAlso, none of this is rocket science.
ReplyDeleteOn inter-municipal charges for services, the precedent already exists.
The City of Hudson has an MOU, signed by Kamal on 16 July 2025 and passed by Common Council resolution, that sets out what the Town of Greenport pays HPD for services, including the hourly rate and minimum billable hours. Greenport doubled down on HPD, clearly they see value.
That raises an obvious question for any economist and wise taxpayer.
If the Hudson Youth Center is as transformative as its advocates claim, why are non-Hudson residents not paying for it voluntarily, the way Greenport pays for policing?
Greenport had options. It could have expanded its own part-time police unit, contracted with the County Sheriff across the road, or hired another municipal department in the county. Instead, it chose to contract with HPD, then renew and even increase those payments. Greenport is telling you, with its own money, that HPD is professional and good value.
So why not test the Youth Center the same way?
Give every family in Hudson a “youth education voucher” equal to total City of Hudson public youth spending divided by the number of resident children (2-18 in age), funded from the same tax base.
Then watch what they do.
Do families choose the existing Youth Center?
Do they go private? Do they spend the voucher on online education, books, tutors, or activities that ease childcare costs? Do neighbourhood childcare hubs appear, competing on service and quality for those vouchers?
The experiment would be revealing. Real value does not fear competition.
Investing in public education is important. But so is using money wisely.
Right now taxpayers pay HCSD exorbitant taxes and the school is in the bottom quartile. Then we are asked to pay the City of Hudson Youth Center to basically provide overlapping services (except perhaps over the summer), and then we are also asked to donate to the dozen youth focussed not-for-profits in the area, while our federal tax dollars subsidize Greater Hudson Promise and Kite's Nest's new campus.
Wouldn't it be better for the youth if we solved the root problem.
At this total expenditure per youth (HCSD + CoH + not-for-profits) we could send students to private boarding schools.
How many National Merit Scholars has Hudson produced?
How do the career outcomes compare to equivalent cities/towns that spend the same or less?
This is not a question about frugality. It is a moral question that anyone who genuinely cares about Hudson's youth should ask.
Reference:
https://www.hudsonny.gov/departments/common_council/resolutions-approved.php#outer-13920
I don’t care what all of you say. Best believe no one will be cutting staff at the youth center.
ReplyDeleteMayor (for now), your continued optimism in the face of overwhelming odds is refreshing and a bit nuts. Your inability or unwillingness to grasp the basic economics of public finance under the State constitution and applicable statutes, GAAP and FASB rules, and common sense merely underscores how unfit you are for your (present) job. Good luck in the future.
DeleteWith that comment you confirm what we all suspected all along...
DeleteThis is not about residents, not about health care for city staff, not about youth outcomes, and not about growing the tax base so the city can afford better services.
It is about protecting your friends on the payroll at the youth centre. If you put even a fraction of this energy into building a business instead of whipping up resentment and spreading half truths, you might actually employ people, pay more tax into the system, and stop living off coercive claims on everyone else while presenting yourself as a champion of the people.
So which will it be, Kamal, to turn yourself into another half-employed “community organize” to raise taxes on working families and chase grants from philanthropists (we have many of those), or to become a productive member of society who makes instead of takes?
You have many talents, we need more residents paying into the City budget, instead of living off the City budget.
People listen to Jay-Z but they don't _listen_ to Jay-Z:
“I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them.”
https://genius.com/Jay-z-moment-of-clarity-lyrics
It’s obvious you don’t care what anyone says since you argue in bad faith and misrepresent people. The video is online and Peter Spear even made a transcript. Nobody on the council specifically talked about cutting staff at the Youth Department. And the meetings were about all departments, not just the Youth Department. And since the budget you submitted to them has a major deficit, even after assuming a state maximum tax hike of nearly 4%, they challenged each department head to find where they could find savings, trusting the department heads would know where best to do that. Margaret also pointed out that many non-residents are utilizing the Youth Department, which is paid for by Hudson residents. Everyone is pointing out how this is unfair to residents, who continue to be burdened with higher taxes (and soon another tax for sidewalks). No one even suggested limiting the Youth Department participation to residents, but that we should pursue either a fee structure or shared service agreement with Greenport and neighbors, like we do for other shared services. The head of the Youth Department ended the discussion by agreeing that this is a “valid point.”
DeleteInstead of conceding the election like an adult and working of getting the budget passed through compromise, you choose to grab on to a few mundane comments about one of the many city’s departments, because you know it’s a lighting rod and you turn it into a culture war issue via misrepresenting it to your high school friends on Facebook—as you are well aware they don’t follow meetings, and many have very little civic knowledge about how the municipalities are separated, and how they function.
It took a few years, but eventually the people that actually live in Hudson, pay taxes, pay rent, and run businesses started to pay attention and realized the emperor has no clothes. The ones that actually live in the city limits have seen nothing but their expenses increase while city services and infrastructure has declined. You ridiculed your opponents in the election because they bring up things like infrastructure, traffic and pedestrian safety, and collecting the revenue owned to the city. That’s why you lost. We don’t want a showman like Trump, we wanted someone just to come in and do the mostly boring work it takes to run a small city. That’s it. On top of that, many new residents have moved to Hudson and are frankly tired of being vilified for being the source of Hudson’s problems, while at the same time being asked to foot the lion’s share of the tax burden and investment—especially from the actual mayor and his online buddies; many, if not most, are currently nonresidents (as in non-Hudson voters). Did you think that would be a wining campaign strategy? I don’t even have to get into the possibility of quid pro quo with Galvan and Colarusso, or your alleged very unprofessional and inappropriate romantic relationship with your direct report.
So invite your Greenport friends to come to the budget hearing and yell at the council for a budget you have underfunded though years of neglect. It’s only fitting that we come full circle back to the past budget hearing that launched your mayoral campaign—the one where Mayor Rector was assaulted. Just tell your buddies to leave the dog poop bags at home.
To close the loop on this thread and for posterity:
DeleteSpecial Report: Curtain Call on Kamal’s FB Mob Playbook
https://www.hudsoncommonsense.com/kamalmob
What’s the reason Greenport cannot afford to contribute to the cost of the Youth Center? They have $22,000,000 + corporation called Colarusso operating in the tax base. If Colarusso can give uniforms to sports teams and fireworks as a tax write off, can’t they also help support the youth club?
ReplyDeleteOr should Zanardelli and Kamal lead a protest with torches and pitchforks against Greenport contributing to the Youth Center? Nice historic photo of the youth club btw! That’s an amazing contribution to Hudson history.
Why would we? No one is asking us to.
DeleteNone of this debate exists in Greenport. Here, currently, the main concerns are the new zoning that is being worked on and the rebuild of our Highway Department garage which is a big expenditure for our pretty slim budget and it's difficult to even find a suitable site.
We have youth programming in Greenport but it's largely limited to the summer months where we have our version of a summer camp. It's not free and parents have to pay 100 bucks per child and week to drop it off. Parents from outside of Greenport pay $175.
This is all very much non-controversial. More resources and programing for the youth isn't really on anyone's mind in Greenport.
Max -
DeleteWhy is Greenport so low drama, and Hudson so high drama?
Do you guys send all your half-employed activists to Hudson, or is it a culture issue?
It’s sad to see so much attention directed at the Youth Dept. budget, but back in 2013 the total Youth Dept budget was around 64K, today it’s almost 800K and the population has gone down, so there should be some trimming to do there. The whole Housing Justice Dept could be eliminated, the things it does should be handled by a non profit like the Housing Coalition. Why pay 30K for the City Council to have legal counsel when the City has an attorney on payroll? Get rid of that. Crime and population has gone down, but over a million more is being paid in police salaries. Why do we need more police? Cut back on that. Why would City property be sold at a discount to a dysfunctional Federal Housing Authority? That makes no economic sense. Forget fixing the sidewalks, send a notice with the water bills, if people don’t fix their sidewalk, issue fines.
DeleteI think a lot of these expenses are created with the idea that it is combating gentrification by helping the low income residents. The fact is, when taxes go up along with property values, lower income residents cash out. Tax increases accelerate gentrification more than anything else. Making City Hall into a social service organization only exacerbates the problem.
Kristen Zanotelli needs to stay in Greenport and spend more time at WalMart. ~ PJ
ReplyDeletePeter, this a bit low-brow. I shop in Walmart and have friends in Greenport. As I explained earlier, all one neededs to is that the current problem with the Youth Center is Mayor Scalera's doing, when he helped bankrupt the nonprofit Boys and Girls Club and then "rescue" it by the City --- as you can tell from Kamal's defense of it, the current Youth Center is vote-getter. --peter meyer
DeleteSuggestion to city, council, Joe Ferris, etc. Set up an online portal or phone number so that residents can offer suggestions to trim waste and improve efficiency at departments. Residents who are paying attention see a whole lot more of the reality of services than the majority of council members do. And certainly more than Kamal Johnson ever had or ever will. The question is, who would handle such interaction with the public?
ReplyDeleteDon't expect people to sit through an hour or two long meeting to possibly be able to say something for more than 30 seconds (or feel comfortable enough doing it) to a room full of deaf ears. They won't. They don't!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17U75Z5xkZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr
ReplyDelete