The Word on Absentee Voting

If you think you will not be in Hudson and able to vote at the polls on November 3, by all means take advantage of the opportunity to vote at the Board of Elections before election day. Any day next week, from Monday to Friday, you can walk into the Board of Elections office at 401 State Street at any time between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and fill out an application for an absentee ballot. If you are eligible (eligibility is having reason to believe that you will not be in the county on November 3), you will get an absentee ballot and can vote right then and there. 

If you can't make it to 401 State Street between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. any day next week, the Board of Elections will be open these additional hours for absentee voting: 

• Thursday, October 29, from 4 to 7 p.m.
• Saturday, October 31, from 9 a.m. until noon
• Monday, November 2, from 4 t0 5 p.m.

Your vote matters. Elections are won and lost around here by very narrow margins. Don't be the person whose vote (or lack thereof) costs a good candidate the election.

Courtesy Hudson FORWARD

For more information about absentee voting, click here.
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X Marks the Spot

In June, Berkshire Bank introduced its new logo, which will eventually replace the leaf in all its signage. The press release announcing the rollout explained that the new logo "builds on its America's Most Exciting Bank® brand and creates a new, modern look and feel that reflects the company's growth and positions it for the future."

Berkshire Bank, which is headquartered in Pittsfield, started affixing its new logo to buildings and signs at the eastern edge of its territory and has been moving west. On Friday, the plans to the attach the new logo, with its "new, modern look and feel," to the 1922 bank building on the southwest corner of Warren and Sixth streets, now occupied by Berkshire Bank and famous for the central role it played in the 1959 film Odds Against Tomorrow, came before the Historic Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness.

Of the logo, HPC member Phil Forman quipped, "It looks like the Michelin man was run over." The HPC could do nothing about the design of the logo. All they could do was request that the logo, which is to have a matte gold and black finish and be illuminated internally, be installed a little lower on the east facade of the building, to center vertically between the bas-relief medallion and the ground floor window. The applicant agreed to the request.
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Music at Christ Church This Afternoon

At 4 p.m. today, Diamond Opera Theater inaugurates its new concert series called Voices at Christ Church with a concert entitled "Wanderlust: An Evening of Adventurous Music," featuring mezzo-soprano Mary Deyerle Hack and baritone Martin Mansfield, accompanied by pianist Noah Palmer.

Wanderlust will take the audience on a tour of Europe and home again, exploring the richness of love and our instinctual desire to explore the world around us. The concert includes songs by Maurice Ravel, from his cycle about Don Quixote’s quest for the love of  Dulcinea. French impressionist music continues with the pianist’s performance of "Reflections in the Water," from Claude Debussy’s Images. The vocal soloists move to German music, two songs by Johannes Brahms and Songs of a Wayfarer by Gustav Mahler. The far-reaching program will conclude with two songs from the American songbook: "The Impossible Dream," from Mitch Leigh's Man of La Mancha, and "Take Me to the World," from a little known musical written for television by Stephen Sondheim.

There is a suggested donation of $10 at the door. A reception with the artists will follow the one hour concert.
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It Was Predictable

On Tuesday, October 20, the Common Council passed a resolution authorizing a referendum, to take place in November 2016, on the weighted vote. The proposed referendum was the first step toward achieving in Hudson the constitutional standard of one person, one vote. A simple majority--1,015 affirmative votes--was required to pass the resolution. The resolution passed with 1,104 affirmative votes.

Today, Mayor William Hallenbeck, in his wisdom, vetoed the resolution. Click here to read his veto message.

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The Evolution of a Civic Building

After the single bid received for the adaptive reuse of 701 Union Street as the new City of Hudson Police & Court Center set the cost of the project at almost twice as much as had been anticipated, the plans were subjected to further cost analysis and value engineering to bring the price down to where it would be considered affordable to the City.

It was clear that reducing the cost would alter the proposed design for the building, and this morning that new design came before the Historic Preservation Commission for review.

Gone is the lobby with the gabled roof, meant to mirror the gables of nearby historic houses and contextualize the building into the neighborhood. Gone is the faux parapet, meant to uplift the building and give it some presence. After the HPC had unanimously given its blessing to the new design, HPC chair Rick Rector opined, "My gut says it's better looking now than the original design."

At the Common Council Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday, Council president Don Moore, who was with Joe Rapp at the HPC meeting to present the revised design, said the project would go out for bid again the first week in November, and he anticipated that the bids would be back the second week in December. "Then," he said, "we will know if we can proceed."
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Hudson's Fiscal Health: Reality or Myth?

On WAMC's Midday Magazine today, the story about the Hudson mayoral race made reference to Mayor William Hallenbeck's claims to have maintained a balanced budget, kept taxes low, and increased the fund balance by more than a million dollars. In the debate on WGXC a few weeks ago, Hallenbeck boasted that, on his watch, the City not only decreased taxes and increased the fund balance but also "made many purchases" (a new firetruck, two new police cars, two new dump trucks, and a new street sweeper) without incurring new debt. How is it possible to both save a lot and spend a lot without an increase in the principal source of revenue--namely, property taxes? The term "voodoo economics," coined by the first President George Bush back in 1980, springs to mind.

Some clarity about the actual state of things was provided at the Common Council Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday. The information presented there reveals that, two thirds of the way through 2015 (the year-to-date numbers are "August actuals"), the City seems to be lagging a bit behind what was anticipated in the 2015 budget for all revenue streams other than property tax. 

• For Parking Revenues (parking permits and quarters dropped into the meters, as well as parking fines), $707,434 was anticipated; so far, $494,168 has been realized.
• For Building and Plumbing Permits, $96,000 was anticipated; so far $68,206 has been realized. (In the October 14 debate, Mayor Hallenbeck, responding to a question about alternative sources of revenue, cited building permits, stating that the income from building permits had doubled last year, and indeed they had. In 2013, fees for building permits totaled $51,519; in 2014, they were $112,430. But so far in 2015, although $96,000 was anticipated, only $68,206 has been realized.)
• For Sales Tax and Mortgage Tax, $1,452,000 was anticipated; so far, $1,113,608 has been realized.

Then there's the matter of the fund balance and the claim that it was increased by "more than a million dollars." That may be true, but so far this year $846,200--the better part of a million--has been spent or committed to various projects. Here are the details, from the report presented at the Finance Committee meeting.

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Fourteen Easy Pieces

If you have a short attention span, no time to sit and listen for a whole hour, or just want to hear what the two mayoral candidates had to say about an issue dear to your heart, the Tiffany for Mayor campaign has made the October 14 mayoral debate available in fourteen parts.

At the Tiffany for Mayor website, you can review the candidates' opening and closing statements and hear their views on Transit, Affordable Housing, their First 100 Days, Police, Youth, Business, Sidewalks/Citywide Contracts, Truck Route, Vacant Properties in Disrepair, Alternative Revenue Sources, Crime, and Gentrification.

Reminder: There's another mayoral debate coming up next Wednesday, October 28, at 6:30 p.m. at Montgomery C. Smith Intermediate School.
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Turn Your Radios On Today at Noon

At noon today, Hudson mayoral contenders William Hallenbeck and Tiffany Martin Hamilton will be on WAMC's Midday Magazine, speaking about the issues that face our fair city. WAMC can be heard at 90.3 and 97.1 FM or online at wamc.org.

A New House of Worship for Hudson

In 2008, the Hudson Islamic Center announced a plan to build a mosque on the northwest corner of Third and Columbia streets. Raising the money, which was anticipated to take five years, took longer than expected, and there was some issue over acquiring a needed parcel of land (the site is actually three parcels) from HCDPA (Hudson Community Development & Planning Agency), but now it seems all the hurdles have been cleared, and the project is ready to move forward. Tonight, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted the project the needed setback and parking variances.

At the public hearing, which preceded the ZBA's decision, the plans for the mosque were presented by the architect for the building, John O'Connell. O'Connell is familiar to Hudson. He designed the interior of Mexican Radio and was involved with the proposed but never realized plans for Galvan Quarters at State and Sixth streets and early on with the plans for the adaptive reuse of 701 Union Street as the Hudson police and court building.

At the public hearing, no one spoke in opposition to the plan, and, although maybe thirty or more members of the Hudson Islamic Center filled the room, only one person, John Matthews, spoke in support of the project, attesting that "Hudson embraces a diverse community." 

Following the public hearing, the four members of the ZBA present—Mary Ellen Pierro, Kathy Harter, Theresa Joyner, and Myron Polenberg—voted unanimously to grant the needed variances.
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Contemplating the Common Council

It has become commonplace to criticize the Common Council--as a body and certain members in particular--for incivility and lack of decorum. At the informal meeting last week, a high school girl, who betrayed her naivete about city government structure by asking who had appointed the aldermen, felt emboldened to scold our elected officials for bullying and being disrespectful. John Mason, in an article on Monday ostensibly about a resolution to come before the Council the next day, couldn't resist seguing into an account of the author of that resolution's brash responses to questions from his colleagues and audience members. In his closing statement at the mayoral debate last week, Mayor Hallenbeck riffed on his challenger's campaign slogan, "Government that respects you," calling her to task for the rude behavior of an alderman candidate, running on the same party line as she, reciting a litany of the alderman's offenses, and claiming that these examples of another's alleged disrespect made her campaign one of hypocrisy.

Without condoning uncivil behavior, it is certainly possible to sympathize with the frustration and impatience expressed by Council members when, after extensive consensus building efforts, aldermen break ranks at the last minute and withdraw their support for initiatives; when a resolution is opposed by an alderman who is a member of the committee that brought it forward because he was absent when it was discussed in committee; when an alderman with a clear interest in maintaining the status quo questions the motives of those wanting to amend a possibly unconstitutional policy.   

Criticism is sometimes directed toward Council president Don Moore for failing to run an orderly meeting and for not keeping the aldermen in check. The notion that Moore could run a tighter ship brings to mind Mim Traver, who was Common Council president during the last decade of the 20th century. Back then, there was no informal meeting of the Council at which resolutions were introduced and discussed. The Council met once a month and voted on resolutions, many of which the aldermen hadn't seen before that evening and which the public never got to see. A memorable feature of the Council back in those days was the requirement that members of the public get permission from Traver prior to the meeting to be allowed to address the Council.

Sam Pratt shared this memory, from the spring of 1998, of seeking permission from Traver to speak at a Council meeting. He went to her house to make his appeal. (She lived on Allen Street, just below Third, in the house that is now the Country Squire B&B.) Opening the door only a crack in answer to his knock, Traver quizzed him about what he wanted to discuss and then said, "Young man [Pratt was 29 at the time], do you really think you know something that the Common Council of the City of Hudson does not already know?" Thinking quickly, Pratt replied, "No, I doubt that I do, but I would be grateful for a chance to speak anyway." Permission was grudgingly granted.

The council meetings presided over by Mim Traver may have been more "civil" than some of the raucous meetings that have taken place at City Hall in recent years, but on the issue of respect for the citizens of Hudson, it can be argued that more respect was shown by Moore last week when he patiently explained the nature of representative government to a high school girl and then listened with acceptance as she scolded him and the aldermen for bad behavior.
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Providing for Our Golden Agers

Toward the end of every year, as departments shuffle funds from one account to another to meet their obligations, a flurry of budget transfers comes before the Common Council for approval. At last night's Council meeting, there was such a resolution from the Youth Department. Here are the details:

Reviewing the resolution, which appeared on the aldermen's desks for the first time last night, Alderman John Friedman observed, "A lot of this money is coming from senior programming. We already took $100,000 from next year's programming. The seniors are taking it in the teeth twice."

City treasurer Heather Campbell explained that money had been allocated in the 2015 budget--$10,000 to be exact--for Senior Program Development, but no Senior Program Development ever happened. The recreation supervisor at the Youth Department, who retired earlier this year, presumably with a pension from the City, had been rehired as the bingo caller for the seniors--a job that pays $6,500 a year or between $12 and $12.50 an hour. Money from Senior Program Development had to be transferred to an account that didn't exist in the 2015 budget--Senior Assistant--to pay his salary. The rest of the money meant to develop programming for seniors that went beyond bingo and yoga--$7,906--went to "Youth Center--Personal Services," in other words, salaries for Youth Department staff, an account to which $177,709 had originally been budgeted.
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Of Interest

In today's Register-Star, John Mason reports on last night's vote on the referendum to amend the Council's weighted vote system: "One person, one vote squeaks by in Council." Of greatest interest in Mason's value added coverage of the vote is a quote from the mayor, contacted by Mason after the meeting, who says he's going to have to read the resolution "to look at exactly what they passed," before deciding if he will sign it or veto it. The resolution has been available to all on the city website for more than a week.
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The Outcome on the Weighted Vote

So tonight, a resolution to take the first step toward correcting the inequities of Hudson's weighted vote system, which is probably unconstitutional, came before the Common Council. The resolution did not propose a solution. All it did was resolve to put the following question on the ballot in the 2016 general election:

Shall the Common Council of the City of Hudson amend the City Charter to replace the current ward method of weighted voting utilized by the City with voting districts of equal population such that every resident of the City of Hudson is equally represented on the City Council and the County Board of Supervisors?

Pretty simple language. Pretty noble goal. Let the people of Hudson decide if the inequities are to be amended or not. Here's what happened in the roll call vote.

President Moore (190 votes): Aye.

Alderman Delaney (364 votes): This is a democracy--government of the people, by the people, and for the people. I vote aye.

Alderman Donahue (364 votes): I believe the wards are fine as they are. I vote no.

Alderman Friedman (180 votes): Aye.

Alderman Garriga (185 votes): No.

Alderman Henry Haddad (180 votes): Aye.

Alderman Nick Haddad (95 votes): Aye.

Alderman Keith (95 votes): No.

Alderman Miah (185 votes): [After some comment the gist of which was he thought the issue required more study] No.

Alderman Rector (95 votes): Aye.

Alderman Stewart (95 votes): No.

The resolution passed with 1,104 affirmative votes (1,015 are required for a simple majority) and 924 nay votes.

After the clerk had tallied the votes, and the outcome was announced, Fifth Ward alderman Robert "Doc" Donahue asked, of no one in particular, "Why would I want the wards changed? I have a weighted vote."

The hero in the struggle for equity tonight was Fifth Ward alderman Bart Delaney, who recognized that fair is fair and voted his conscience. It's understandable why Second Ward aldermen Abdus Miah and Tiffany Garriga voted no. Their weighted votes are second only to the powerful votes of the Fifth Ward aldermen. But why did Fourth Ward aldermen Alexis Keith and Ohrine Stewart, whose votes are among the least powerful on the Council, vote against taking the first step toward correcting the inequities? 'Tis a puzzlement.
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Useful Information

On his blog, Sam Pratt shares some very useful information for people who have had the unpleasant experience of finding a parking ticket on their car on the morning and who would like to use the City's online payment site to pay the fine promptly and thereby avoid the possibility of forgetting about the ticket and risking further monetary penalties or, at some future time, having their car booted or towed: "That's the ticket."
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Watching Our Shores

This morning, Virginia Martin, ever vigilant monitor of the legal notices that appear in the Register-Star, discovered this notice of an application filed on October 16 with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation by A. Colarusso & Son. What is proposed is "to stabilize approximately 170 feet of eroded Hudson River shoreline with large rock rip-rap at 1-foot on 2-foot slope" and "to replace approximately 75 feet of deteriorated concrete bulkhead within a lateral side berth with new steel bulkhead that will be placed in the same location as the existing structure." The entire notice can be viewed here.
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Another Political Event Tomorrow

The Hudson mayoral candidates don't debate again until next week, but if, in this election season, you don't like to let a week go by without witnessing a debate, you are in luck. Operation Unite is hosting something like a debate, which they are calling a "meet the candidates forum," tomorrow night. The principal candidates at the event are Ken Golden (Democrat) and Paul Czajka (Republican) who are vying for the office of Columbia County district attorney.

According to the proposed format, both candidates will make an opening statement, answer questions from the audience, and make a closing statement. The event takes place tomorrow night--Wednesday, October 21--at 6 p.m. at Hudson Lodge, 601 Union Street. This is a great opportunity to hear from these two candidates.
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A Second Chance

If you missed watching the feature about River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning, you can now watch the video online: "Art show with something old, something new."

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Last Days

Today is the last day that Earth Foods, the family owned and operated restaurant at 523 Warren Street, will be open and serving. After seventeen years of nourishing hungry Hudsonians and visitors to our city, Sal and Duffy Sanchez, the patriarch and matriarch of the family (and the restaurant), are retiring, and Earth Foods is closing. John Mason reported all the details on Saturday in the Register-Star: "Earth Foods, a Warren St. staple, closes Monday."

Today is also the last day to vote for The Hudson Standard, Hudson's own maker of small batch shrubs and bitters, in the competition for the Martha Stewart American Made Audience Choice Award. The Hudson Standard is a finalist, but your votes are needed to make it an award winner. The voting ends at midnight today, October 19. So, show your support for this local entrepreneurial business by clicking here to cast your votes.
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Watch It Again: The First Live Mayoral Debate

The two candidates for mayor of Hudson, incumbent William Hallenbeck and challenger Tiffany Martin Hamilton, will be debating again next Wednesday, October 28. Meanwhile, if you missed the debate last Wednesday, or if you just want to see it again, the Tiffany for Mayor campaign has made available a video of the debate, which can be viewed here.

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"If It's Me Reading the Signs"

Incumbent aldermen Abdus Miah and Tiffany Garriga are running for reelection in the Second Ward. They are running unopposed. No one else's name appears on the ballot, although Miah's name appears three times. Unless someone in the Second Ward decides to mount a fierce and successful write-in campaign, Miah and Garriga will be re-elected. There's no question about it. Still, the Second Ward is studded with campaign signs for the two of them.

What's curious about the signs, aside from the fact that they would seem to be totally unnecessary, is that, although Miah and Garriga were both endorsed by the Hudson City Democratic Committee, the design of their signs is different from the design of the signs for the HCDC-endorsed candidates running in the Fifth Ward, Justin Goldman and Ken Hollenbeck.

Instead the design of the Miah/Garriga signs matches that of the signs for Fourth Ward alderman candidates Alexis Keith and Lauren Scalera.

Scalera, it will be remembered, was not endorsed by the HCDC but primaried the endorsed candidates and bested Rich Volo by 8 votes. Volo, however, with the endorsement of the Working Families Party, is still in the race.

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