A DPW Water Plant Operator Injured Himself WHERE Last Year? Doing WHAT? And WHY Exactly?

Early last year, HUDseen had planned on publishing a piece about the 18 reported workplace injuries suffered by City of Hudson employees in 2023.  There was so much to write about that I was never able to get it all together properly.  Today, I begin a less comprehensive effort to focus on injuries to city workers which occurred last year that the city was required to include on OSHA Form 300, which the Hudson City is required to fill out annually and keep in its records should OSHA come knocking to perform an investigation about workplace safety at any or all departments at Citry Hall.  If someone is hurt and requires more than first aid, that injury, and a description of how and where it occurred, must be included on the form.  If any days of work are missed, that number must be indicated.  Fairly standard stuff.

To make things simpler (and shorter) for me and for my readers, I will begin by focusing on one or two of the injuries which stand out most to me and which I think are worth delving into with the little information that is on the form.  Future articles may focus on other less puzzling, but still interesting, injuries.

Accidents will happen, but some of them are preventable, and some are just plain bizarre.  And suspicious.  And worthy of an investigation of some sort, if only to ensure that that type of "accident"/injury never happens again.  If you don't learn from your mistakes, you will have difficulty succeeding.

Let's start with the first injury of 2024 to a City of Hudson employee -- it is a real head scratcher. (HPD Sergeant Chris Filli's on-duty death on January 12th (in the "HPD locker room") was actually first on last year's OSHA injury list, but that was no injury.  As far as I know, Filli's cause of death has never been revealed publicly, but rumor has it that he suffered a heart attack, yes, at the police station.  One wonders if he shot himself, though I hope not.  I think it's weird and suspicious that Chief Franklin has never mentioned Finn's specific cause of death (unless I missed it).  If he did die by heart attack, why not mention it?  Put any speculation to rest! 

I will do my best to relay what last year's Form 300 (available this month) has written on it. The words written in bold are taken directly from the form.  If there is one thing I have noticed from Hudson's three most recent annual Form 300's, it's that proper grammar and sentence structure are not too important at City Hall.  I'm just transferring what I see on a form full of typed entries in small rectangles.

On February 8th, a WATER PLANT OPERATOR at an OLD HOUSE injured himself because the day before was helping to clean out an old house, sharp pain in back, suddenly, strained back.  According to the form, the injured worker did not miss any days of work. Hmmm... how badly did he injure his back?  And exactly how?  We may never know.

OSHA's Form 300 is titled Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. It is obviously reserved for injuries and deaths while performing duties as an employee while on the clock!  OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, not Spare Time Safety and Health Administration. Injuries sustained once you leave work for the day or the weekend do not count and OSHA doesn't want to know about them!  Rob Perry knows this.  February 8th, 2024, was a Thursday.  The only conclusion one can make is that last February a Hudson DPW water plant operator was injured while "cleaning out an old house" and being paid by the City of Hudson to do so.   How on earth is this possible???

Rob Perry never mentioned this injury (nor any others) during any council meetings last year.  Not one mention, even though 7 of the 11 injuries to city employees last year were to DPW workers under Perry's watch.  Here is another:  On June 10th, a LABORER in an unspecified PARK was picking up fence at the Park, bending over and pulled muscle in back.  That employee missed 134 days, or four and a half months, of work, the longest stretch of injury-related time off of any worker last year BY FAR.  According to the form, just one other injury to a city worker resulted in days off from work, just 5 days.  That injury, to a DPW laborer (!), took place on the ROAD (literally) while the worker was unloading a truck, slipped off side of truck, strained left side of back, road.  (That last word is not a typo on my part.)  What type of injury to a DPW worker (or Perry himself) would it take for Rob Perry to feel the need to mention it to the council as soon as possible and give a detailed account of the circumstances?  Does a worker of his have to be in a coma first before he opens his mouth?

On at least one occasion in an email to the entire council a year or two ago, I suggested that there was no reason that Rob Perry shouldn't give a monthly injury update during his DPW report.  I did this after reading somewhere that working for any public works department, particularly on the sanitation crew, is the most dangerous civil work of all.  Yes, it is more dangerous than police work, because of injuries large and small.  All the work done by our DPW workers is far too labor intensive and full of hazards for our DPW Superintendent not to inform the council and the public right away when his workers are injured, especially severely injured and those that have to spend time away from work (four and a half fucking months and not a peep!) or in the hospital.  It's a no-brainer for a council full of mostly no common sense.  Information related to workplace injuries at DPW or anywhere else should not have to be pried out of department heads' brains!  Period!  Exclamation point!!!  The words accountability and transparency come to mind, don't they?  I don't know about you, but stupidity and graft come to my mind, too.

I guarantee that not one of our eleven council members is aware that seven DPW workers were injured last year (and nine the previous year!), one of them hurt while apparently on duty "cleaning out an old house," and another who spent four and a half months recuperating at home from a back injury after a fall off of a truck.  The real problem is that none of the members have any interest in any of this.  If Rob Perry doesn't have to explain to the council how a water plant operator injured himself while "cleaning out an old house" while on duty, why would he bother to offer the information on his own?  ("No one never told me I had to keep the council informed of workplace injuries!").  He's never been the most forthcoming person at City Hall to begin with, that's for sure.  If a DPW worker of Rob's breaks his finger, arm or neck while doing something really, really stupid and careless, Rob probably thinks that the council doesn't care that it even happened, how much time the worker might be away from work, how it impacts Rob's staffing levels and hiring process, as well as how it impacts the city's bottom line.  (Is the city being sued for the injury?)  "Whatever," they all think, "it doesn't matter."

The message Perry gets from the council, especially our so-called Councill President, Tom Depietro, is loud and clear:  WE ARE NOT INTERESTED TO KNOW HOW MANY DPW EMPLOYEES ARE INJURED OR KILLED, HOW MANY OF THEM ARE INJURED OR KILLED, OR EVEN HOW LONG THEY HAVE TO MISS WORK BECAUSE OF THEIR INJURIES.  IT'S NOT INFORMATION WE NEED OR WOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH.  WE TRUST YOU TO KEEP AN EYE ON INJURIES IN YOUR DEPARTMENT, EVEN THE MOST BIZARREE AND UNEXPLAINABLE ONES, AS WELL AS COMMON INJURIES THAT MIGHT HAPPEN OVER AND OVER WITHOUT YOU ATTEMPTING TO PREVENT THEM.

(Mishanda Franklin likely gets the same message.)

So, Our Great Communicator On Zoom, making over $117,000 a year, keeps his ZOOM mouth shut.  Why wouldn't he?  Why shouldn't he?  Do you think that OGCOZ would bother mentioning anything if four of his workers were to be injured during the course of one month (perhaps on the same day!) and all of them were forced to stay at home for months?  How about six injured DPW workers, including Rob's foreman?  What would he say, if anything, to the council?

The fifth column, full of yellow, shows a worker who did
not work one day in all of July 2023.  Perry offered no
explanation, not at the August meeting nor at any
subsequent meeting while that employee of his was
out with an injury for 4 1/2 months.  (Screenshot of the 
graph Perry showed the council in August!)

During his DPW report at August's informal meeting last year, Perry (on Zoom, of course) showed a picture of a graph he had compiled based on all of his DPW employees' time sheets for the month of July.  I forget what his point was in showing this, but what's interesting to note is that one of the nine laborers has a yellow box for each day of the month he was supposed to be working.  Perry explained that the yellow-colored boxes "means that they're not there, whether it's a vacation, a holiday, or they're sick," but, apparently, not out of work recuperating from an on-the-job injury for the past month and a half or more.  Of course, not one council member noticed this detail at the meeting or afterwards, and so no one asked Rob why one of his workers did not work one day for the entire month of July.  If one member had noticed and asked Rob what was going on with an employee out for the entire month, it would have been fascinating to hear Perry's response.  "Oh, that?  Yeah, well, um, yeah, so here's the story.  One of my veteran laborers injured his back in June picking up a fence by himself in the park when he should have had help and he hasn't been able to return to work yet.  I meant to tell the council about it, but it slipped my mind.  Now you know.  He didn't have adequate assistance because we are often short staffed."

What fence, and in which park, Rob?  What were the circumstances that caused the injury, Rob?  Tell us all how severe his back injury was and if it was preventable.  Did he follow safety protocol while picking up the fence, and when do you expect him to return to work?  How long have you been short staffed and how are you so comfortable keeping us in the dark about this serious issue?  And what is this I hear about a water plant operator injuring himself six months ago while cleaning out an old house?  Is that true?  Is this common work for your employees during the work day, cleaning out old houses?  Did you order him to clean out the old house, or was this his idea?  Was he keeping an eye on the water in the water plant while simultaneously cleaning out an old house full of hazards?  Did he step on a rotten floorboard and fall through the floor?  Was your worker following proper safety protocol when he injured himself cleaning out the old house?  Whose fucking old house was it, anyway?  Yours?

Several months ago one weekday morning, likely in July, I came across something so peculiar at the corner of 6th & Columbia that I had to stop and ask a few questions.  I noticed that National Grid was preparing to do some utility pole work in the area, with several of DPW's orange NO PARKING signs freshly posted along the truck route.  At one of those signs was one of Rob Perry's DPW clerks from the DPW offices on the second floor of City Hall a half block away.  She had a stapler in one hand and several 8x11 pieces of white paper in the other hand.  She was stapling paper to each of the signs indicating the hours and days that the NO PARKING rule was in effect.  The DPW clerk was doing this, not a DPW laborer or the foreman, or even Rob Perry himself.  I asked the clerk if what she was doing was part of her job description, to which she told me to buzz off.  The clerk was on the sidewalk (and sometimes off) stapling paper to wooden signs, by herself, talking to a Grid worker and I'm pretty sure she was not in sneakers or work boots.  She probably had the fashionable shoes she typically wears to work that I can only imagine would be really uncomfortable after about ten minutes of walking on concrete (especially Hudson's concrete!).  I honestly could not believe what I was seeing.

On July 17th last year, at 520 Warren Street (Hudson City Hall), an Account Clerk (unspecified department, but likely DPW!) injured themself after their foot slipped off edge of sidewalk, fell to ground on right side bruising right hip, hand and wrist.  Somehow, according to OSHA Form 300, that employee did not miss any days of work.  I have a hard time believing that, as any reasonable person should. 

Did our new 5-foot wide sidewalk in front of
City Hall, half as narrow as it was forever, 
have anything to do with the injury to an 
Account Clerk last year???  How would we 
ever know since Rob Perry isn't required or
expected to reveal any information regarding
injuries to workers of his as soon as he
is able to, like at the following meeting? 

Of the 27 reported injuries to city employees over the past two years, I have heard mention of just one of them, maybe two, at informal council meetings.  How many were you aware of?  None?  DPW was responsible for 9 of the 18 injuries in 2023.  I am almost certain that Rob Perry never mentioned even one of the 16 injuries sustained to his employees in the past two years.  Not one!  No surprise there from our Great Communicator On Zoom, right?

I will leave you with the most WTF injury from 2023's OSHA Form 300.  It may rival the perplexing and concerning plant operator cleaning out an old house story.

On May 1st, while on an inspection, a Code Enforcement Officer injured himself while climbing a ladder from attic to roof for inspection, while on ladder putting roof latch cover back right leg twisted, right leg pain. 

I wonder if that house was the same old house that injured the water plant operator 9 months later!  Surely it couldn't have been, right?!  Don't be so sure, Hudson's an awful small city and strange things are happening all the time!

Well, so much for keeping things concise!  The problem HUDseen has is that reporting about activities in a dysfunctional government can reveal so many unseen connected parts at play that focusing on one issue often include so much more than meets the eye, particularly as I attempt to answer the question of WHY things happen.  

I think of Hudson City Hall as an octopus on LSD that can't get its brain and 8 arms to coordinate with one another to get anything properly and easily accomplished.  Anything the octopus is able to accomplish is a mess that just needs to be cleaned up, redone when the acid wears off, or swept under the rug or coral so no one knows about it.  Now that I think of it, it is time to get rid of the city's childish, dumb-ass SMILING WHALE logo in favor of a more appropriate and accurate image for our little dysfunctional city:  an upside-down SMILING OCTOPUS wearing a tie-died bandana with its arm tangled in a knot!  What's the difference?  The Hudson River has never had live octopuses swimming in it, either!

Enjoy your weekend and do not hurry!