An Important Committee That Has Trouble Getting Together For One Hour Every Month

The last time the Parking Study Committee held one of their monthly meetings was on October 24th.  Their November 28th meeting was cancelled, and now the scheduled December 26th meeting has been cancelled as well.  5 of the 6 committee members are returning council members for the next two years.

The committee was first convened in February when the parking consultant hired by the city gave a very detailed presentation of his parking study.  Since then, little to nothing has changed regarding parking, though all 4 parking enforcers now make $20 an hour, a raise of $5/hour as I recall.  One of those enforcers can still be seen using his personal vehicle to maintain the meters and empty them of quarters.

The only thing accomplished at the committee's most recent meeting was a presentation by a representative of a meter company pitching their smart meters to the committee members.  After that presentation ended, Council President Tom DePietro said that the committee needed to hear from 2 more meter manufacturers before making a decision on which new meters to invest in.  That was 2 months ago!  Maybe January?  

Our City Clerk Tracy Delaney was in attendance at the meeting, offering information about the city's present meters and the meters offered by the company, as she seems to be the head of the vaguely structured Parking Bureau, until recently known as the Parking Violations Bureau.  Yes, our City Clerk is in charge of parking meter maintenance issues, a responsibility that was thrust on her years ago in desperation by, I believe, the Rick Rector administration.

Perhaps the parking consultant's most important suggestion was for the city to create a Parking Department with a supervisor whose sole responsibility shall be parking matters -- to create a properly functioning, centralized Parking Department as is done elsewhere.  Because right now there are too many cooks in the kitchen AND IT AIN'T WORKING!  One wonders at what Parking Study Committee meeting the committee members will even discuss this critical issue (if ever), let alone try to act on it.  It's rather difficult to accomplish much of anything during consecutive cancelled meetings when you don't meet for three months or more. 

Who knows, maybe Hudson City Hall isn't truly interested in creating more efficient, functional, accountable and transparent government.  When businesses and governments are poorly structured or supervised, often someone or some group inside has an interest in keeping it that way.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Meanwhile, we still have this treat...

Broken meters indicating a broken system

...in a municipal parking lot at noon with the lights on under blue skies. 

Why is no one held accountable for this?