Out with the Old, in with the New

In its New Year's Eve edition, the Register-Star devoted most of its front page to the end of Kamal Johnson's six-year tenure as mayor of Hudson--"Kamal Johnson has no regrets as he leaves Hudson City Hall"--and Joe Ferris's imminent assumption of the office--"Mayor-elect Joseph Ferris is ready to lead the city."

Of interest in the article about Johnson is, after taking credit for a number of antidisplacement initiatives--the Hudson UP universal basic income program, the Hudson Roots rent subsidy program, the good cause eviction law--and for getting more people involved in local politics, Johnson attributed his loss to the fact that many of the voters who supported him in 2019 (the only time he didn't run unopposed) no longer live in Hudson. The following is quoted from the article:

In his opinion, however, the biggest reason he lost November's election was the loss of votes from people who have left the city since he took office.

"With the population decline, a lot of people who were on my team back in 2019 no longer live in the city anymore," Johnson said. "That's particularly why you saw my signs in Greenport, Claverack and everywhere else, because those people used to live in Hudson, they know what I was fighting for and still stood by me, even though they got priced out or were forced to move."

Anyone who was hoping to get a better sense of our future mayor's plans for Hudson will be disappointed by the article about Ferris. Apparently that information will be revealed in his inauguration address on Saturday, of which he is quoted in the article as saying:

"It's really just gonna be about my vision, about how we, the city, can work together," Ferris said. "It's an opportunity to lay out a vision and a road map to find ways to bring the community together, to collaborate and work together as one."

According to the article, however, Saturday's event will not provide the information of interest to many Hudsonians: Who will be appointed to the Planning Board? (There are three vacancies, and the mayor also names the Planning Board chair.) Who will be Ferris's mayoral aide? Who will be the city attorney and how many attorneys will there be? 

An interesting bit of history about the mayoral aide: The position was created back in 2000, when the office of mayor was a part-time position that paid $11,000 a year. Ken Cranna was the mayor then. Cranna's full-time job was being a lawyer, but he wanted to ensure that when people called City Hall seeking to speak with the mayor, they got someone who represented the mayor and could make them feel their voice had been heard by the mayor. What scandalized many at the time was that the mayoral aide, who kept regular office hours at City Hall, was paid more than the mayor.

Ferris's ceremonial swearing-in takes place at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 3, at Hudson Hall.

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