But HUDseen is here to help try to make sense of it all!
A few years ago, the city hired a parking consultant to write us a report on what the city needed to do about its perceived parking woes. We paid a guy named John Forster $24,000 to tell us that, among many things, we needed to get rid of our meters for kiosks, we needed to create an independent Parking Bureau, and we needed to create more parking opportunities for visitors.
The 5 member Ad Hoc Parking Study Committee was soon created -- eventually with Jen Belton in charge and Tom Depietro offering his expertise and constant interruptions -- to do something about the consultant's recommendations. Dewan Sarowar, Mohammed Rony and Dominic Merante were the other parking experts offering their wisdom, mostly in the form of silence.
In the fall of 2024, in the peanut gallery at a Parking Study Committee meeting, I asked the committee what was going to come first, a new Parking Bureau or new parking kiosks. Tom Depietro explained that the kiosks would have to come first so that the revenue generated from them could fund the creation of a parking bureau, including paying for staff. I laughed at them and told them they were nuts. Doing my very best to warn them, I declared, "You are going about this all wrong and it will fail!"
Another parking consultant, this one from Long Island, was brought on board to assist the know-nothings in the committee, though I have no idea how much he was ultimately paid.
In late 2024, the purchase of 16 kiosks was made at the cost $139,000. Delivery of the kiosks was made to a storage shed at the DPW garage on Dock Street in early February of this year.
The committee met monthly, barring cancellation (which did occur at least twice). Jen Belton seems to be doing all the work, making all the decisions and definitely most of the talking. The ambitious kiosk rollout was planned in three phases -- two for the spring and one for the summer -- to get all 16 kiosks in the ground and operating. Lots of time was also spent discussing "branding," how to word the new signs for the kiosks, and what the image of the whale on them will look like, though maybe the whale is the "brand."
A letter was drafted, meant to inform residents of the upcoming changes to parking and parking payment via the kiosks. In the early summer, it arrived in every water bill sent from DPW to property owners throughout the city. At the top is written: Hudson Parking Improvements Coming. Further along, the one-sided letter includes this information: The kiosks will accept both cash and cards. There will no longer be the need carry [sic] quarters with you and you can avoid the kiosk altogether by texting to pay (no app). The City will not have to collect quarters from parking meters and fix continual meter jams and foggy meter windows.
During a Parking Study committee meeting in the late spring or early summer, Jen Belton, in a rather somber and frustrated tone said, "We have to take a step back." She had also mentioned that she was having difficulty communicating with DPW Superintendent Rob Perry. Things were not going as planned, with the first two phases of the kiosk rollout not even near to being implemented. At the following meeting, a new schedule of phases was revealed, with the primary goal being to only kiosk and sign the city's five parking lots and see how that goes before moving forward with on-street parking matters.
In mid-July, 5 kiosks appear on city sidewalks, all covered in clear plastic bags, one at each city-owned parking lot.
A week or so later, the Parking Committee held its final meeting, with Jen Belton saying goodbye and handing things off to two officials at the Hudson Police Department, one being a very pregnant police chief, the other being HPD Clerk Doreen Danforth who will also act as Parking Bureau Supervisor.
Two days ago, on August 11th, solely on the Hudson Police Department's fakebook page, Police Chief Mishanda Franklin made two big announcements. First, she will be out on maternity leave for at least the next three and a half months, "starting on August 18th, 2025, with plans to return at the beginning of early December." Second, the "Parking Kiosk implementation program... will be ON HOLD" (her emphasis). At least one reason Franklin had to put the kiosk program on hold is because of this additional reveal that was old news to certain local blog readers: "We recently discovered that the kiosks do not accept paper money." Indeed, the only currency that the 16 kiosks are able to accept are quarters. This admission -- that a huge mistake had been made by purchasing the wrong kiosks -- was made "public" over 8 months after the 16 kiosks were purchased, 6 months after they were delivered, a few months after the parking information letter was sent out to residents indicating the days of using quarters for parking were near an end, and over one month after five kiosks were installed at city parking lots. And there the five $10,000 kiosks will continue to stand (with the remaining 11 still in storage), unused and covered in plastic, for at least as long as the Hudson Police Chief is away giving birth and tending to her second child since being appointed by Mayor Kamal Johnson just over two years ago.
Hours after Franklin's fakebook announcements, immediately following the Treasurer's 15 minute report during the informal meeting of the Common Council, City Treasurer Heather Campbell was asked a question by a member of the public regarding staffing at her office. She responded, "As of today I am now short-staffed and I only have fifty percent of my staff. So please bear with us if we seem to not be responding as quickly as we try to do. Yes, the senior account clerk in my office opted to take the opening in the Parking Bureau." Apparently, no Council members had been made aware of this minor development.
A fair follow up question or ten, none of which were asked of Heather by Council members, would have been these: "Where in the budget were funds found to pay for this new position at the recently formed Parking Bureau, a position that took a long-time employee of yours away? Weren't the increased parking revenues from the parking kiosks supposed to fund the new Parking Bureau? Given today's announcement from Chief Franklin that the Parking Committee purchased the wrong parking kiosks at a cost of nearly $140,000, do you have any concerns that the Parking Kiosk Implementation Program has been put ON indefinite HOLD while Franklin is out on maternity leave? And when do you hope (or expect) the kiosks to begin producing increased parking revenue for the city to ostensibly fund the Parking Bureau? How much money has the city spent on the kiosk program to date, and when do you expect those costs to be recouped by the kiosks? In the big financial picture for which we rely on you, if you can be frank with us, how satisfied are you with the way things have recently been and are currently being handled regarding all things parking?
Prior to the Treasurer's report, standing in for an absent Mishanda Franklin, was Captain David Miller to give August's HPD report. He made no mention of kiosks, quarters, or anything related to parking. In fact, speaking 4 days prior to the start of his superior's scheduled maternity leave, Miller didn't even mention why he was filling in for Chief Franklin. Could it be that our Police Chief just didn't want to face the council and the public and deal with the awkwardness and embarrassment of explaining why the kiosk rollout was now ON HOLD and how she planned to deal with the big mess now in her hands someday after she returns from maternity leave, likely straightening things out in 2026, if ever?
Well over a month ago, in a HUDseen article on the subject of the kiosks, I made this prediction: No kiosks will be operating this year. Although I couldn't have predicted all the other parking and kiosk related nonsense that has arisen, none of it surprises me one bit. No, not one bit. And it shouldn't surprise anyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment