Well It's About Friggin' Time! What On Earth Was The Delay?

Over the course of the past year or two at informal council meetings, it hasn't been uncommon to hear Police Chief Franklin mention the issue of the city's inability to BOOT vehicles with outstanding parking tickets.  Recently, the discussion has switched to the resumption of BOOTing scofflaws.  I never quite understood what the problem was in the first place, nor why the important activity of collecting much needed revenue from scofflaws -- some of them owing a substantial amount of money to the city -- had ceased.  Recently, though, I think the council passed a new code related to the BOOTing of vehicles, something having to do with regulating tow operators.  Well, whatever progress was made recently regarding forcing scofflaws to pay up seems to have freed up the obstruction keeping revenue out of the city's bank accounts. 

A few days ago, I noticed this BOOTed pickup truck on Green Street.  Yesterday, the vehicle was not there.

Also yesterday, I came across this BOOTed van with Jersey plates parked in the 500 block of State Street. 

I ran the van's plate number through the city's parking ticket portal to see how much the owner owed the city to get an idea of why they got BOOTed. How many hundred$ did they owe us? HOLY MOSES! How about nearly two grand! Double grand theft auto!

And you wonder why our taxes and budgets keep rising!

The first of the van's 37 unpaid and well overdue parking tickets was issued on May 7th of last year (averaging about one ticket per week). A large majority of the tickets were for parking on the wrong side of State Street. When overdue, those $15 tickets rise to $55 and stay there for good until paid.

Around the corner, one wonders when HPD will catch up with this Subaru seen regularly parked on Dodge Street.  The owner of that car, who appears to live on Dodge, owes just $594.00 on only 8 overdue tickets, the first of which was issued in July of... wait for it...2022.  What is it going to take to get that car BOOTed?  Another 29 tickets, accomplished in the year 2030 or so?  (4 of the 8 tickets are for parking illegally in the Amtrak lot!)

All we need are a few more BOOTed vehicles forcing car owners to pay up their hundred$ or thousand$ in overdue revenue so that Kamal Johnson can pay his personal landlord Galvan the money the city owes them for utility bills dating back to 2021 and which caused the recent resignation of the Senior Center's commissioner.  Holy crap what a shitshow that is getting truly frightening!

Any discussion of overdue parking tickets brings to mind our dear mayor's idea -- and ignominious failure -- from two years ago, known as the Parking Ticket Amnesty Program.  The owners of all 3 of the vehicles noted above probably could have taken advantage of Kamal's "program," but maybe they never got wind of it.  Go figure!  Hilariously, even though our mayor's failed "amnesty program" ended on December 31, 2023, it still hasn't been removed from our city code.  The time-limited, dumb, dead, and done "program" that never should have happened in the first place is still found detailed in the entirety of Chapter 306 of the City Code!  It's so comforting to know that it will forever be enshrined there -- Chapter 306, Kamal Johnson's pride-n-joy and legacy!  For $75,000 a year, this is what we get from him.  Garbage that sticks around ignored, like dog shit on a sidewalk no one wants to remove but continues to be stepped in and spread.

The mayor's sorry-ass "program" -- which maybe two or three people took advantage of -- lasted for all of 3 months and ended 13 months ago!  It ended over a year ago!

Perhaps in 50 years future Hudson residents will gaze upon Chapter 306 and marvel at the unparalleled wisdom of a certain Hudson mayor by the name of Kamal Johnson. Or, more likely, someone involved in finally making the effort to update Hudson's City Code 50 years from now will read Chapter 306 and shout, "Get rid of this garbage immediately!  Delete the whole thing! Is this all Kamal Johnson accomplished in his 22 years as mayor?"

As long as Kamal Johnson is hanging around City Hall scrolling Facebook to find his so-called friends' latest videos and comments, it must never be forgotten that HUDseen was the only source which revealed that our so-called mayor feels he is above the law and has no compunction to pay the parking tickets he finds on the windshield of his Lexus that HPD leaves for him to pay.  "I didn't do anything wrong!  I'm the goddamn mayor!"  

The guy supposedly leading and representing Hudson is worse than scofflaws who owe hundreds or thousands of dollars in overdue parking tickets.  He is a moralless weasel who has no interest in paying his parking tickets.  At least scofflaws know they will eventually be forced to pay what they rightfully owe the city if they are found out and BOOTed.

If you haven't already, read about Kamal's approach to his own personal parking tickets,click and read here: Our mayor the weasel.  

If the mayor doesn't give a hoot about city revenue in the form of parking tickets, why is anyone surprised he has to pass an increased budget and more taxes every year while he is mayor?  It's all fun and games to him, obviously.  He is the man-child occupying the mayor's seat.  And if the mayor doesn't care about paying his own parking tickets, why should City Hall expect anyone else to pay theirs?  You see how this works?  The rot on the outside -- including scofflaws, unpaid utility bills for years, deplorable sidewalks, a door leading to the roof and second floor of City Hall unlocked all the time, and buildings which remain vacant eyesores for years, all of which the city is forced to respond to, to react to, to create Codes for, to get the Council and Margaret Morris to deal with -- all develop from deep within City Hall, primarily on the second floor.  Kamal Johnson spreads the toxicity but takes the blame for absolutely nothing.  Nor does he help solve any "issues" which plague the city.  We have an unaccountable mayor.  That sounds like a recipe for success!

"This particular issue was that invoices were being sent to a former employee's personal email, so the city never received them, but we figured that all out now," is how the Register Star quoted our mayor in regard to the recent Senior Center utility bill fiasco.  Does that sound like a person you can trust or a city mayor who is the least bit responsible for, or interested in, what is going on around him?  Doesn't what Kamal said sound like complete bullshit?  

"We figured that all out now"?  What kind of a proper sentence is that, Kamal?  Who the heck is we, and were you part of that we?  How did you allow this gross error ("issue") to take place in the first place, or is it too awkward for you to explain the truth to the council and the public?  Aren't you supposed to be managing the city, Kamal Johnson?  If you aren't, well then who the hell is?  No one?  Lastly, when the heck are you going to hold a State of the City address, perhaps for just 20 minutes without your phone anywhere near you, which you have failed to do in the past 5 years?  Will a simple State of the City address never happen while you are mayor?  Are you not paid enough to offer one?  Are you not interested in letting the residents of Hudson know that everything is fine at City Hall and maybe answer a few questions about what you have accomplished since you became mayor? Or is it that you just don't have the time to do the same thing that takes place annually in the cities of Ithaca, Poughkeepsie and Albany, among many other cities large and small?  Those mayors find the time; why the hell can't you?  What are you so busy doing that you can't take 20 minutes to reassure us here in Hudson that the city is not sinking like a stone in a pond?  Are you afraid that someone might ask you if you are still finding a way to have all of your parking tickets immediately voided? (Well, almost all of them... haha, you goofed and HUDseen came poking around!)

A city manager with some common sense and sense of duty to Hudson is our only hope for righting our ship before it sinks like a stone.  The rot has become vile and putrid, and it is all in the wide open now.  Can you smell the stink yet?  If not, you will soon!