Or is he considered an independent contractor, explaining his lack of uniform while working from his personal vehicle on any day of the week collecting city revenue in the form of thousands of quarters? Would a municipality, even Hudson, ever need to hire an independent contractor?
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| Collecting meter quarters on a recent Sunday |
Regardless of what day of the week it happens to be, is this the way revenue collection is typically handled in municipalities? Or is Hudson the exception?
About 2 years ago on a weekday, while he was emptying the meters of quarters on Warren Street, I asked the employee -- the bureau's sole quarter collector --why he wasn't wearing a uniform. (As I recall, he was wearing a blue NY Giants sweatshirt that day.) He responded, "Because I'm not required to." I then asked the City Clerk if what the employee stated was true. She said that it was true, explaining that a uniformed employee collecting quarters in public would only attract "unwanted attention." (You know, attention from the people needing a partially filled bucket of quarters to pay for drugs or fill their parking meters.)
About three years ago at a Common Council meeting, I asked then Police Chief Ed Moore why the city employee repairing parking meters and collecting quarters from meters was doing so while using his personal vehicle and not using a city-issued vehicle with the city logo on both its doors. Ed responded as if the issue had been previously considered, saying that there was "no money in the budget for a vehicle" for the meter maintainer/quarter collector and that the employee needed to use his personal pickup truck because "the buckets of quarters were too heavy and the worker had back pain issues." (It was yet another one of those "answers" from Ed!) The meter maintainer/quarter collector employee then is still the same person now, although he no longer owns a blue pickup truck.
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| Two old "dumb" meters behind City Hall, each offering free parking for over a year! |
By my estimation, the Hudson Parking Bureau (or, depending on who you ask, possibly the City Clerk's Office) is responsible for the maintenance and emptying of approximately 500 parking meters throughout the city. Our 4 parking lots alone have close to 160 of them. 2 of those meters have been out of service and wrapped in blue painter's tape for well over a year. You can find those two broken and unsightly meters DIRECTLY BEHIND CITY HALL where both the City Clerk's Office and the Parking Bureau are located. Of course, the Mayor's Office is located on the second floor of that building as well!
Unlike our parking enforcers who wear uniforms and work for HPD, the city employee responsible for maintaining meters and collecting quarters does not work for HPD and is not required to wear a uniform in that capacity. For that position, as I understand things, he works for the Parking Bureau but reports to the City Clerk. However, he also works part-time as an HPD parking enforcer -- in uniform, of course. He has been working both positions for a long time and, as far as I know, he does a terrific job.
Nonetheless, organizations -- be they governments, departments within governments, businesses or charities -- that portray at least a hint of financial impropriety are often suspected as corrupt, and rightly so. Many of them turn out to be completely corrupt (take the National Rifle Association, for example). Smart, well-structured organizations -- even the corrupt ones, I suppose -- tend to make sure there is not even a hint of financial shenanigans for anyone to see and question. Why bring on the scrutiny even if there is nothing there and especially if there is something there? Why would any organization want to give the impression of not being on the up and up? Why would any municipality allow an employee to collect quarters from parking meters while dressed in street clothes and utilizing their personal vehicle? I guarantee that this was not the way things were done even in Mayberry where everyone knew one another!
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| 2024. More free parking and one less meter to maintain and empty of quarters. Where are the" smart" meters? |
Meanwhile, once a month or every other month, the Common Council Parking Meter Something-Or-Other Committee is earnestly discussing upgrading the city's parking meter system to do away with all of our parking meters. Whether the Common Council approves the implementation of new "smart" meters or a kiosk system, getting it all done isn't going to be cheap, easy or quick. One wonders if there will be any money set aside to invest in an official Parking Bureau vehicle and a uniform or two for the person responsible for maintaining and collecting money from the "smart" meters or kiosks. What do you suppose the chances are of that happening? You know, like all other cities and towns would consider necessary and find the funds to make happen!
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| Parking Enforcment Officers can regularly be seen jaywalking as if it doesn't matter, even after DPW spent money last year to buy and install more than 20 CROSS ONLY ON GREEN signs along Warren Street and South 3rd Street! |
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| Cross where and when? |
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