How Much Did We Spend To Be Told What We Already Know?

As you likely recall, the City of Hudson recently hired a parking consultant to assess our parking situation and suggest improvements.  The Parking and Mobility Planner, John Forster, from the Michigan-based company Fishbeck, offered his extensive findings and recommendations at a public meeting about a month ago.  The distracted Hudson mayor and a few attentive City Hall employees attended the presentation in person, as did I.  

As I stated in my March 1st article on this topic, I couldn't help but think at the time of the presentation that the consultant was telling us all sorts of things that City Hall should be well aware of.  Nearly everything John told us should not come as a surprise to anyone in City Hall paying attention.  Such as:  We need more parking capacity; consider building a parking garage; get rid of the outdated meters; create a Parking Bureau that handles all aspects of parking; replace the "tired" and "confusing" signs; simplify parking rules; and, improve parking enforcement.  How much do you suppose the City of Hudson paid to be told all of these obvious things?

If you guessed $31,500, you would be correct.  From the invoices, it appears that the city was originally given a quote of $35,000 from Fishbeck, but the final tally was 10 percent below that amount.  

Notice, too, that this portion of the bill from Fishbeck is addressed to Peter Bujanow, the Hudson DPW Commissioner.  Bujanow does not have an office in City Hall; he does not live in Hudson; and, he rarely has anything to offer at Informal Common Council meetings.  I believe Mr. Bujanow attended the consultant's presentation via Zoom. 

One wonders if Mr. Bujanow is the person at City Hall who will be responsible for implementing the recommendations offered by Mr. Forster, how long it will take him to do that, and if Mr. Bujanow was already aware of all the recommendations that the City of Hudson paid $31,500 to be informed of.  If not Peter Bujanow, who at City Hall will finally make the much needed improvements to all aspects of parking in Hudson?  Will the mayor make good use of the $31,500 he spent?  Or will this just be more money spent on a consultant that winds up being flushed down the toilet at City Hall?

The easy part is finding, hiring and paying a consultant.