The Coup At City Hall Is Upon Us

I have been regularly attending Hudson Common Council meetings for the past 7 years.  I try to attend in person, and I rarely miss a meeting.  I almost always ask questions of department heads that need asking.  Here is how the public comment process works, or, at least, has worked, even prior to our current Council president:

After a department head concludes with their monthly report, the Common Council president asks out loud if anyone from the Council has a question for the department head, whether it has to do with information in the report or not.  It is usually announced as "Anyone from the Council want to speak?" or, simply, "Council members?"  When there are no more Council members interested in speaking up, the president asks if anyone from the public would like to make a comment or ask a question.  It is usually announced as "Anyone from the public?"  This is how I have seen and heard Tom Depietro, as well as his predecessor, invite public comment and questions at meetings.  That is, until last night.

At last night's Informal Common Council there was a frightening omission that should concern us all.  Tom Depietro decided that there would not be any opportunity for anyone from the public to speak or to ask questions at the meeting.  Not after the Fire Department's report; not after the Youth Department's report; not after the Treasurer report; not after the DPW report; and not after the HPD report.  During the entire meeting, Tom Depietro, the so-called president of the Hudson Common Council, did not give anyone from the public the opportunity to speak.   After each report, Mr. Depietro asked the Council members if they had anything to say.  But he never once followed with an invitation for the public to speak.  This is a first, and it is nothing anyone should be proud of, especially Mr. Depietro and the mayor.  The two of them appear to be closing ranks.

It is true that the Council president is under no obligation to invite the public to speak at Council meetings.  But, on the Common Council's own webpage, under the Rules of Order, it states:  At the discretion of the Chair...non-members may address a question before the Council. The Chair has the authority to limit the number of speakers and the time allocated to each person.

I think I witnessed evidence of a silent coup last night at the Informal Common Council meeting.

If you haven't read the recent NY Times article regarding conduct from the public at public meetings in a small town in Massachusetts (and the country as a whole), I suggest you do so if you can find it.  It has striking similarities to what went down at last night's Informal meeting.  All it takes is one person at a municipal meeting to ask too many uncomfortable questions, to be critical, or be a little too persistent and loud to allow the powers-that-be to do their best to shut the entire public forum down.  The article, titled Residents Right To Be Rude Upheld By Massachusetts Supreme Court, was in the March 17th edition of the Times.

Let's not forget that just 4 or 5 years ago, Tom Depietro physically attacked a council member during a recess in a Council meeting at the library.  He attacked one of the most outspoken council members Hudson has ever had, if not the most outspoken -- that being John Friedman.  Friedman's language could be rough and vulgar at times, he minced no words, but he was smart and observant.  His tone and approach, perhaps somewhat similar to mine, is the type that Tom Depietro has no interest in hearing from anymore, it appears.  More concerning is that he now doesn't want anyone from the public to speak at meetings.

The authoritarian regime at City Hall will be likely sworn in this coming November -- no one is opposing them.  Not yet, at least.