The Mayor Who NEVER REALLY WAS

On September 11th of last year, HUDseen ran an article that got a lot of attention.  The piece showed how our dear, so-called mayor, Kamal Johnson, had gotten at least eight of his personal parking tickets taken care of without paying for them, having them "voided" or "dismissed."  If you haven't read that article, I suggest you do:  Introducing...  (this is January's reposting of the original article).

Johnson's irresponsible, immature and pathetic behavior only came to light because of one unpaid, well-overdue meter violation ticket which led HUDseen to all the other tickets that had previously been issued to him only to be quickly and quietly voided or dismissed.  But he learned his lesson, right?  He was a better person than that, right?  He changed his ways, now knowing right from wrong, didn't he? How about NO, NO and NO!

One month after HUDseen outed Johnson as the scofflaw that he is, at 1:30 pm on Friday, October 11th, 2024, our dear phony mayor was issued another meter violation ticket by HPD, this time while his Lexus was parked in the 400 block of Warren after either he didn't bother to put a quarter in the meter or, less likely, he failed to fill the meter with enough quarters.   How do I know this and why is it important?  Well, because yesterday, as I did last year, I ran Johnson's license plate number, JJC 6936, through the city's parking ticket portal to see if he had any overdue (by 30 days or more) or recent parking tickets.  Why not?  (Only unpaid parking tickets remain available to view on the parking portal.) 

 And wouldn't you know it, that $10 parking ticket issued to Kamal Johnson's Lexus over 13 months ago is still f'ng unpaid!  For the past 12 months and two weeks, for OVER 375 DAYS, for more than half the length of his last term in office, the so-called mayor of the City of Hudson, New York has owed the City of Hudson Parking Bureau $48 in the form of an overdue and unpaid parking ticket. After the word got out last year that he had gotten all of his personal parking tickets voided and dismissed, he probably decided it was in his best interest to not go that route anymore and just not pay his tickets at all.  (It's comical that HPD issued yet another meter violation ticket to the mayor's personal car during the week!  Why would he park his car in the 400 block of Warren, one block from City Hall, early on a Friday afternoon anyway?  To go shopping, perhaps?)

Next month, thankfully, Johnson leaves City Hall for good.  Perhaps, though, just before he makes his way one last time out the back door of City Hall to get to his Lexus parked in his designated parking space (so that he can drive the 4 or 5 blocks home), Johnson will leave a $48 check on the counter of the City Clerk's Office so that someone else can deliver it to the Parking Bureau Office on Union Street to settle his final personal parking ticket as "mayor" of Hudson.  Or maybe he'll leave $45 in cash with a thank you note for anyone who cares that he is leaving.  Or maybe he'll do nothing of the sort. 

Is it any wonder that Johnson has left us in such a financial pickle as he makes his way ungracefully out the door of 520 Warren after 6 years of doing nothing but making things worse in Hudson?  The so-called mayor of Hudson is leaving City Hall -- leaving all of us, including, if he sticks around Hudson, himself -- with an inevitable revenue and budget fiasco of his own making all the while that he's never felt the need or desire to pay his own parking tickets, also known as city revenue.  It sounds like the theme of a Greek tragedy, doesn't it?

How on earth will we avoid the next Kamal Johnson in the Hudson Mayor's Office?  Because, of course, another "mayor" as useless as him is bound to reappear sooner or later.  Even the ancient Greeks were aware of this.  Now it's our turn. Have we learned anything from what "mayor" Kamal Johnson's tragicomedy farce has been warning us about for the past six years?