At tonight's informal Common Council meeting, a resolution was presented authorizing the mayor to appoint Michael Chameides as the community member of the Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
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| Michael Chameides |
The position of community member on the IDA didn't always exist. Up until 2020, everyone on the IDA served ex officio, that is, they were on the IDA because of the office they held: the mayor, the Common Council majority leader and minority leader, the city treasurer, the city assessor, and the chair of the Planning Board. The seventh position was for a representative of the Hudson City School District because, as a taxing entity, the school district is impacted by the decisions made by the IDA.
In 2020, after several years of HCSD declining to send a representative and two years of seeking someone from the community to serve on the IDA, Richard Wallace volunteered. He was appointed the community member of the IDA at the beginning of 2020.
The community member is appointed for a three-year term, and although Wallace expressed willingness to serve a second term, in 2023, Charles Millar was appointed to the position. At the beginning of this year, when Millar's term was up, Jonathan Spampinato was appointed to replace him. Now that Spampinato has now taken over Mike Tucker's job as president and CEO of Columbia Economic Development Corporation (CEDC), the IDA needs a new community member.
In the resolution recommending Chameides' appointment, Mayor Joseph Ferris notes that Chameides served as mayoral aide to Kamal Johnson for the first year and a half of Johnson's six years in office and also that he served for four terms as a county supervisor representing the Third Ward. It describes his work on the Board of Supervisors in this way: "[H]e managed complex operations, conducted financial and data analysis, and delivered practical results--including chairing the County's Public Transportation Committee, where he expanded service, identified new revenue, and grew ridership." The resolution doesn't mention that Chameides was one of two Hudson supervisors (Abdus Miah was the other) to vote in favor of the County's acquisition of 11 Warren Street. (Of the other three supervisors, Claire Cousin was absent, Linda Mussmann left the meeting before the vote was taken, and Rick Scalera recused himself because of his affiliation with Galvan.)
At the Council meeting tonight, it was noted that former Fifth Ward councilmember Vicky Daskaloudi had also submitted a letter of interest in serving on the IDA. It was decided that both Chameides and Daskaloudi would make presentations to the Council at its meeting next week, and the Council would decide which of the two would be appointed to the IDA.
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Mayor Ferris's resolution praises Chameides's "financial and data analysis" and "practical results."
ReplyDeleteChameides works hard, and he has been responsive and collaborative with supervisors from other towns. (Compared to other supervisors, they are all paid roughy $20k per year for the part time role)
Yet the resolution and note omits that Chameides was one of only two supervisors who voted to take 11 Warren Street off the city's tax rolls. The others were not present.
Why leave out the one vote most relevant to a seat created to protect taxing entities?
The sort of person appointed to the only "independent" IDA seat would have, we posit, expressed his dissent, voted in good faith against it on the record, even if the majority Supervisor vote would still prevail.
Or was Chameides in favor of the 11 Warren St sale to the County (taking it off the tax rolls)?
And how many millions did Galvan profit in that sale? Was it $1.5m or $2m?
Source on the vote: gossipsofrivertown.blogspot.com/2023/08/about-11-warren-street.html
Full editorial later this week:
www.HudsonCommonSense.com/subscribe
p.s. Can Michael B jump in with some clarifying errata for Michael C?
p.p.s. Why this matters...
11 Warren Street could have been a mixed-use property: tax-paying housing, retail, and restaurants, with about 90 underground parking spots. On the very spot now tangled in the County parking dispute.
It could have been a bridge between the 1st and 2nd Ward communities, and help repair the Urban Renewal scars in that part of town.
Throwback Monday, the original proposal and renderings for 11 Warren St. If you are new in Hudson, check these out.
benchmarkdevelopment.com/in-development/11-warren/
Maybe not everything should be narrowed down to one issue (11 Warren St), especially when considering that five Hudson supervisor in the aggregate couldn't muster up a single nay vote.
ReplyDeleteWhat Michael contributed as part of him sitting on the Transportation Committee is not nothing. The shopping shuttle is probably not something most of us here use much but I believe it has had a very positive impact and Michael Chameidis was quite instrumental in getting that done.
Then Chameides could start a transportation company, or get a job at a public transport authority, if that is his forte.
ReplyDeleteThis is about independence.
Why not appoint you to the IDA? You don’t earn a living from partisan dark money groups and you are independent. You are not a City Hall insider. As an engineer you can math and finally tell us exactly how many millions of USD we are gifting hotel developers and bard (where Chameides worked) that will eventually be paid by property owners.
The IDA role is about independence and the IDA’s mission. Also the wisdom and discretion of tax breaks via PILOTS.
The bigger issue is Mayor Ferris is now getting a crash course in why he originally supported charter reform before he became mayor.
Who runs Hudson?
[My comment wasn't actually written as a response to yours - both comments overlapped and mine accidentally looked like it was a rebuttal to yours when it wasn't]
DeleteWhat is confusing about this story is why the appointment of Michael happened when it did. Evidently, the council was asked to weigh in although it would not actually have the power per charter to make that final call.
It seems the mayor took a shortcut here and decided to pick Michael over Vicky who would have been just as fine of an appointment.
To answer the question of who runs Hudson: It's clearly Mayor Ferris. He's making decisions. Some of them seem unpopular here but at least he is acting. And he is consistent.
The council in my opinion so far hasn't been.
When presented with an awkward piece of legislation, it decided to toss it over to the Planning Board which likewise doesn't know what to make of it.
When tasked with deliberating the sale of the Dunn Warehouse (an agenda item with a significant impact on Hudson's tax roll), two citizens masquerading as members of the HDC were enough to derail and postpone that vote. The Mayor responded sharply with a well-deserved scolding.