Do you recall the NO PARKING ANY TIME sign which appeared on the lamppost out front of City Hall over a year ago near the end of the renovations to 520 Warren and which HUDseen mentioned a few times late this past summer and early fall? It was the sign situated directly between a metered parking space and the new ADA ramp and accessible parking space big enough for a tractor trailer that might get used once a year that also took away half of the width of the sidewalk in front of City Hall. There might as well have been an additional sign below it reading, WELCOME TO HUDSON. ARE YOU CONFUSED? HA! YOU DON'T KNOW THE HALF OF IT! INQUIRE WITHIN ON THE SECOND FLOOR TO GET ALL THE SORDID DETAILS. THAT IS, OF COURSE, IF ANYONE WILL TALK TO YOU OR HAVE ANY CLUE OR INTEREST IN WHAT YOU ARE ASKING ABOUT. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME ASKING TO SPEAK TO THE DPW SUPERINTENDENT WHO MAKES OVER $117,000 A YEAR, THE SAME CITY OFFICIAL WHO HAD THE ABOVE SIGN INSTALLED. HIS CLERKS WILL TELL YOU IN A STRAIGHT FACE THAT HE IS "NEVER" IN THE DPW OFFICES.
That was the sign no one could make sense of, including every driver that read it, as well as the four friendly, aware and very smart ladies inside at the Clerk's Office and the Parking Bureau on the first floor. (We all had a few laughs about that sign one day a few months ago!) Of course, that simple sign had to have made all the sense in the world to at least one person who works for the city, presumably DPW Superintendent Rob Perry! For some odd reason, though, someone -- presumably a DPW employee or three, and likely at Rob Perry's behest -- removed the useless, meaningless and confusing sign sometime in December. DPW giveth and DPW taketh away, and no one knows why. How much time and money did that mistake cost us? Just $50 i labor and materials? Or was it $100?
Rob Perry works in very mysterious ways, made more mysterious and confusing by the fact that he doesn't even have an office in City Hall and he never shows up in person to council meetings! He is as confusing, mysterious and unhelpful as that sign was. Maybe more so! Is it time to get rid of him, too?
Anyhoo, if there is one take away from this puzzling but unsurprising nonsense, it might be the response I received from an email I sent in October to 14 city officials asking what purpose the sign served other than to confuse, why it was still there after so long, why the clerks (and the Parking Bureau employee!!!!) could not make heads or tails of it, and who was convinced enough to put it there in the first place. Here is the word-for-word response I received 5 days later from Lieutenant David Miller over at HPD on Union Street. (I had included HPD Commissioner Shane Bower and Chief Franklin in the email, but only heard back from their apparent spokesperson, Lt. Miller):
Bill,
Commissioner Bower does signs. I've told you at least a dozen times by now. [that number is highly debatable]
Again, it would be a little bit of a conflict if the Police Department approved signs, then enforced them. You could see how that may look to some, right? So, Commissioner Bower, who works for the City of Hudson, not the Police Department, would do signs.
Thanks,
Lt. Miller #30
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| Does Rob Perry miss that NO PARKING sign? Does Shane Bower? How about our "mayor"? (pic taken last week) |
What might be equally or more puzzling than that NO PARKING ANY TIME sign and the dysfunction surrounding it -- including why it took so long to be removed -- is what I have heard and read on several occasions regarding the person we call our Police Commissioner, presently in the form of someone by the name of Shane Bower, another mysterious and puzzling city official, though an unpaid one. I've heard it from former Police Chief Ed Moore (at least twice at meetings), the present Police Chief (also at least twice at meetings), and Sgt. Miller (maybe twice at most, but certainly not twelve). But I've never heard it from Mr. Bower himself, not in person nor by email, and I don't think anyone else has either, including every council member, including "president" Tom Depietro. That may be because Shane Bower NEVER shows up to council meetings to inform the council and the public what he has been DOING lately with, among other things, our signs. And, of course, no one -- ABSOLUTELY NO ONE, including Tom and Mishanda Franklin -- care that Shane Bower is so UNPRESENT AND UNAVAILABLE to the council and the public, also known as "the city." It is as if they prefer it that way. Bower works "for the city," but no one knows much about him or what he looks or sounds like (and likely, who he reports to and is accountable to). Has Shane Bower ever once introduced himself in person to the present common council at a meeting? Probably not. Has the mayor, the city official Bower supposedly works for, ever once suggested to Bower that he show up to a council meeting to at the very least introduce himself and maybe take a few questions from curious members about what he does and how he can assist the council and help THE CITY he works for. (And maybe request that he regularly attend CITY meetings in person so the council members and the public can communicate with him like the human beings they are, and not fucking AI robots!) Heck, Bower doesn't even bother to join meetings by Zoom, if only because he's too busy looking for signs that his pal Rob Perry never should have put up in the first place, or should have taken down years ago but can't because apparently he and his foreman are as blind as a pair of bats. (At least bats have some form of awareness of, AND INTEREST IN, their surroundings!)
But what you will hear at the rare council meeting when a member or two asks Chief Franklin (never Shane Bower, mind you) about traffic control devices (signs, traffic lights, pavement markings, etc.) is always something along these lines: "I'll tell/ask the commissioner about your concern/question and let you know about his response next month." Then Franklin usually repeats the explanation (trope?) of how Mr. Bower "doesn't work for HPD, he works for the city," whatever the hell that is supposed to mean and however that is supposed to be helpful in getting things accomplished and understanding administrative processes, of which most council members are completely clueless about (and probably uninterested in). Without failure, "next month" comes and goes with neither a mention of the issue nor the presence or voice of Mr. Bower, the person who should be answering the questions and concerns directly. Or, almost unbelievably, it can play out like this: He Doesn't Fucking Work For Us! (click on it to read more, though it is a really lengthy article, the last half which mostly has to do with our current issue.)
What I've never heard spoken at a meeting or written in an email is someone explaining that our DPW Commissioner (when we actually have one!!!!) "doesn't work for DPW, he works for the city." Same goes for the Youth Commissioner.
Can we get any more unprofessional and incoherent than this without things completely spiraling out of control?
I'm afraid not! Not as long as there is a mayor at 520 Warren Street who we expect (and pay $75,000 plus health insurance, pension, etc.) to manage things for us here in Hudson. What we need, really, is a Mayor's Commissioner, or a Commissioner of the Mayor. But that person would not work for the mayor -- he or she would work "for the city." And they would know just what TO DO with moronic and unreadable signs in front of City Hall and elsewhere. That person would also be known as our city manager. This is something we need TO DO!!!!
If you haven't already, please do sign the petition for a new and much needed city manager-based form of government to guide Hudson's perilous and busy future with a hotel and spa on every corner and nowhere to park your vehicle or walk on a sidewalk that isn't blocked by an orange cone or twelve. The old system is simply not working properly anymore, if it ever did. Times have changed drastically but the structure at City Hall has calcified to the point of uselessness, complete dysfunction, unaccountability, personality conflicts, AND MONEY WASTING BEYOND IMAGINATION! Just consider that NO PARKING ANY TIME sign DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF CITY HALL that DPW put up and then took down nearly one year later!!!!!! Is there a more apt representation of what is (and isn't!) going on inside that building, particularly on the second floor where the mayor can often be found but Rob Perry never can be?
Someone who knows more about City Hall than you can imagine will even come to your door IN THE FLESH AND BLOOD WITH A SMILE to allow you to sign the petition! Click here to find out more: CHARTER CHANGE! If you are able to, attend their gathering tomorrow tonight at the library and give them your signature and support. Ask questions!!!! There will be knowledgeable people actually present in the flesh and blood (ie, NOT ON FUCKING ZOOM!) to answer your questions and listen to your comments in a respectful manner (unlike, of course, the you-know-who's who do and don't "work for the city"!). You can talk to people that give a crap about the future of this small city we call home, without the threat of Tom Depietro interrupting you and telling you that your time is up and to shut up or the police will escort you out of the building. You can meet people that have grown beyond tired of the dysfunction and bullshit at 520 Warren that is only worsening while Kamal Johnson's eyes and ears are glued to his Facebook phone, where gets all his best (and only) work done.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION IF IT MAKES SENSE TO YOU, because Kamal Johnson isn't going to get it done, even though -- hold on to your hats -- he "works for the city," whatever the hell that means. Even if the proposed charter change never actually comes to be, Kamal Johnson may get the message that too many residents are tired of his poor-to-non-existent management skills and all the bullshit continually surrounding him. We are sinking fast because of him and that position in general. Stop this mayor bullshit before it stops us!
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| Picture taken late last winter, well after the outdoor renovations to City Hall were finished and at least a few weeks after I first noticed the unremovable DPW cone which remained surrounding the base of the pole for at least 5 months after the meter was installed over it. |
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