What You Can Expect When A Mayor Isn't Interested In Paying Attention!

One of my most lasting impressions of our outgoing mayor -- all of which will likely stick with me longer than I would prefer them to -- occurred over two and a half years ago.  What I saw our mayor doing in a public setting -- or, more to the point, not doing -- was, while shocking in the moment, a huge red flag of things to come.  I witnessed it, I took pictures of it, I wrote about it on HUDseen, and it's pretty clear to me that my concerns then about the future of Hudson have been realized in recent months. 

On the evening of February 30th, 2023, at the Washington Street Firestation, our so-called mayor, Kamal Johnson, his Housing Justice Director (and current or future girlfriend sitting next to him) Michelle Tullo, his aide Michael Hoffman, his Council Dictator Tom Depietro and just one member of the public attended a PowerPoint presentation put on by the parking consultant who had been hired for $24,000 to tell the city what to do about all things parking, including ways to increase parking revenues.  The presentation was basically a summation of the lengthy, well-detailed, written report the consultant had created (it might still be somewhere on the city's website). 

(You can read the HUDseen article here: Kamal On His Phone)

Long story short:  While "mayor" Kamal Johnson, in the middle of his second of three two-year terms, attended the consultant's presentation in person that night, he was as distracted as a 3-year-old.  He could not keep his fucking eyes and fingers off of his phone for the entire hourlong report.  Yes, he often put his phone down, but not for very long. From 15 feet away, I watched our mayor show no interest in what the consultant that he paid $24,000 to fix the city's parking woes had to say to him.  Our "mayor" had no interest or curiosity in the advice of a paid professional trying to help the city figure out how to overhaul and modernize an antiquated, long neglected, inefficient, confusing parking system which would allow us to increase parking revenue.  And he probably didn't care if the others  in the room weren't paying attention, either.  The mayor's body was in the room, but his mind certainly was not.  I was embarrassed, shocked and angry by Johnson's disrespect, and I felt bad for the consultant, who most certainly noticed the fully distracted and smiling (at his phone) "mayor."

23 months later, AFTER HAVING TO HIRE AND PAY A DIFFERENT PARKING CONSULTANT to work with Jen Belton and her Parking Study Committee full of overburdened amateur volunteers with little to no understanding of parking matters, 16 brand-new parking kiosks with a total price tag of $139,000 were delivered to a storage shed at the DPW garage on Dock Street this past February.  Over 9 months later, ten of those $10,000 kiosks have not moved from the shed even though the committee's original stated plan -- in "3 phases -- had all 16 of the kiosks installed on sidewalks and collecting revenue by the end of this past summer.  

6 months after the delivery, this past August, the Hudson Police Department, via its Fakebook page, announced that the effort to switch the city's parking structure from meters to kiosks was "ON HOLD" because, as had been rumored for over a month, the city had purchased the wrong kiosks. "We recently discovered that the kiosks purchased do not accept paper money" was the admission.  In that same post, Police Chief Mishanda Franklin, the person managing parking matters at the time, told the world that she was going to be unavailable for four months while out on maternity leave, her second leave in two years.  (In May of 2023, Kamal Johnson appointed a very pregnant Franklin to the top position at HPD.  A Times Union article referred to our new police chief as "trailblazing."  For the past few months and at least another month from now, parking matters are, in the words of Acting Police Chief Captain David Miller, "in my lap.") 

More recently and more concerning, though unsurprising to me, the city has come to the understanding that it is quickly running out of money and that cutting services and raising taxes are in the offing, an unwelcome situation that anyone could have seen coming as recently as two and a half years ago.  All you had to do was observe what the so-called mayor of Hudson was and, mostly, wasn't doing.  There is most certainly a connection between a completely uncurious, immature, unqualified, distracted-by-his-phone mayor and a city suddenly realizing that it is running short of funds to pay for things and services.  Hello, anyone paying attention?

This had to happen.  It had to happen primarily because a person as unfit and unqualified as Kamal Johnson is able to become the mayor of Hudson and the city has decided that it doesn't need a qualified city manager to make sure quality of life issues don't make life unbearable in Hudson and the city doesn't go bankrupt.  Johnson wasn't just unqualified to steer or right our big, lanky ship full of holes, he had no interest in learning how to steer or right it, getting others to help him do it, or listening to others who might be of help.  He was too busy on his fucking Fakebook phone to do any of that.  He had no business to be anywhere in City Hall, and certainly not for six years!  

The several times that I tried to reason with Johnson in his office at 520 Warren, he reminded me of the character that Mel Brooks played in his film Blazing Saddles.  You know, the cross-eyed, cigar-chomping, clueless "mayor" who couldn't keep his eyes (and head) off of the breasts of his buxom and scantily clad secretary sitting next to him. The infantile "mayor" in his boxer shorts bopping up and down in his huge cushy leather chair who loved to play paddle whacker all day (when he wasn't ogling or fondling his secretary).  The buffoon mayor who couldn't sign anything without the assistance of his aide.  The mayor who spoke nonsense when forced to.  Brooks' satirical depiction of that mayor was pure comedy, and not at all far-fetched.  What our "mayor" for the past six years has left us with is nothing to laugh about.

Kamal Johnson was never, in the true sense of the word, our mayor. He managed nothing but his own interests.  He didn't bother to pay attention to who was doing what, who wasn't doing what they should have been doing or how much money departments were spending and what they were spending it on (ahem... $139,000 of the wrong kiosks!!!).  HUDseen even showed that Johnson had his personal parking tickets expunged!  For six years he didn't care if his city ever modernized its parking infrastructure while increasing parking revenues.  For six years, Johnson was just the same lazy, unprofessional guy he'd probably always been, who sat back and allowed things get worse and worse for the city, making sure that the likes of Galvan, his personal landlord, got their way.  With his mind elsewhere, the "mayor" didn't see (or care to see) a financial crisis coming, nor did he care about any of what we, including his successor, will likely be cleaning up for years (if we are able to).  He might as well have been playing paddle whacker by himself all day in City Hall.  Hell, maybe he was doing just that while at the same time flirting with his conveniently located girlfriend and scrolling his Fakebook page for any kind word from his former high school pals scattered outside of Hudson.  For six f'ng years!

One observation that the FIRST OF TWO PAID PARKING CONSULTANTS made about our parking infrastructure-- which was included in his detailed report to City Hall and in his presentation to a fully distracted "mayor" over two and a half years ago -- was our "tired signs."  He also said that our signs "can be confusing to visitors," even including pictures of a few examples in his report. How many minutes into his tour of the city do you suppose it took him to come to those conclusions?

Three years ago:

Last week, still on a street near you:

Three years ago:

Last week, still on a street near you:

The city's most recent paid parking consultant spent considerable time working with Jen Belton and her Parking Study Committee full of parking experts on the design, purchase and implementation of signs for the 16 new parking kiosks.  (You know, like metal signs on metal poles.)  A common topic of discussion was what the whale on the signs would look like.  We gave city revenue to a consultant to help with this!  And what do we get for the thousands of dollars in revenue we handed him for his assistance in getting things right here in Hudson?  What kind of signs has HPD installed near the six parking lot kiosks that were installed in the ground a few months ago, then covered in plastic bags, and that have been "up and running" for a few weeks?  What kind of whale was decided on?  Was it a sperm or a beluga?  The endangered blue whale or the endangered right whale?  Alive or dead?  Smiling or frowning? 

I have no idea what the whale looks like or if there even is one on the two laminated 8x11 paper "signs" that HPD posted in at least one parking lot a week or so ago.  That's because I couldn't actually see the front of the signs, let alone read them, as it was constantly fluttering in the wind that never seems to stop lately.  Another zip tie, attached to the bottom of the "signs," would have been worth the 15 cents, I'm thinking.  On second thought, maybe not.  Who is going to notice or bother reading the signs anyway?

Certainly not Kamal Johnson.