Is Henry Haddad Of Sound Mind? How About Margaret Morris? And Where is Jason Foster?

 

Margaret Morris' new committee structure for her common council has transformed the way council members try to get things accomplished.  6 months in and I can assure you that it's not going well, though maybe that was Margaret's plan all along.  I can't decide if we have a clown show or a shit show on our hands.  Help me out here.

Take SAFETY Committee chair Henry Haddad, who represents the first ward and is also on (and a vocal part of) the Code & Infrastructure (C & I) Committee which third ward representative Jason Foster chairs.  During last week's June meeting of the SAFETY Committee, a much less hirsute Haddad, speaking directly across the table to police Chief Mishanda Franklin and Captain David Miller (taking notes), said, "We've been talking about signage in Hudson for probably twenty years... I've picked out a few spots that I would like us to have to request Code Enforcement, I'm sorry, DPW where we can put up some no entrance signs for our one-way streets... If we can make this just a short list today and then send it to DPW so next week at DPW and Code Enforcement [meeting] we can just remind Rob that we would love to have them there."  

Yes, folks, this is the new Morris process of getting traffic signs installed in the City of Hudson:  The chair of the SAFETY Committee requests signs of HPD at a SAFETY Committee meeting.  HPD writes the requests on a piece of paper.  HPD then reaches out to Rob Perry at DPW (probably via email since few people can find him, know where he works from or want to be anywhere near him) to let him know where the head of the SAFETY Committee would like new traffic signs.  At the following week's Code & Infrastructure meeting -- typically 7 days later -- Mr. Perry (if he attends) will be "reminded" about the sign requests.  What happens next is a bit difficult to figure out -- remember, this is their first attempt with the new Morris process -- but it certainly is bizarre and concerning.

Haddad then went on to list 3 intersections where he wanted DPW to install NO ENTRANCE signs:  4th & Columbia, 6th & Columbia and 7th & State (to keep wrong way drivers on 7th from entering the intersection where State Street traffic does not stop.  There should have been a pair of DO NOT ENTER signs installed there twenty or thirty years ago!).  He also requested of HPD to request DPW to install one NO RIGHT TURN ON RED sign at 6th & Columbia.  It took Haddad four and a half minutes to get through his requests to HPD for four traffic signs to be installed by DPW. To say the least, it was a little difficult to follow him.  He seemed a bit confused himself.  After the requests, even Captain Miller, the guy jotting down Haddad's requests, had to ask Haddad, "And just one NO RIGHT sign, right?"  Haddad replied, "For now, just one NO RIGHT sign."  

Right!

There aren't any NO ENTRANCE signs on any Hudson streets.  Haddad was likely referring to DO NOT ENTER signs!  Language, people, language!  Are we all speaking the same language?

Within 2 days of Haddad's request to HPD (and HPD to DPW) for the four signs, two of them were installed along Columbia Street.  The intersections at 4th and 6th Streets got their DO NOT ENTER signs quickly because DPW was able to secure them to existing poles (one holding a pair of ONE WAY signs at 4th and the much larger pole supporting the traffic light at 6th).  The new DO NOT ENTER sign at 6th & Columbia is the typical 3 feet by 3 feet size, the same 9 square feet as the two DO NOT ENTER signs one block away at State Street and the few others elsewhere around town.  However, the new DO NOT ENTER sign that DPW installed at 4th & Columbia is 2 feet by 2 feet in area, less than half the size of its brother at 6th.  Apparently, that's all DPW had in stock.  Two DO NOT ENTER signs, one over twice as large as the other.  I'm thinking that the problem of one-way drivers is over twice as bad on 6th as it is on 4th!

Ten days after Haddad's requests to HPD, his two remaining requested signs have still not been installed by DPW.  I think you know why. 

As an aside, a few weeks ago I ran into Henry Haddad while walking on Warren Street.  We talked for several minutes about the state of affairs in City Hall and around town, swapping stories. (I'd love to recount one of his stories to the world, but it probably wouldn't end well for me!)  Our conversation was not positive or encouraging.  Here's one thing I can tell you that Henry told me.  He said that Jason Foster was not going to be able to attend June's meeting of the C & I Committee, and that he would be chairing it himself.

This past Monday at 5:15, as I was bicycling on Green Street to make it home in time to tune into the C & I meeting, I noticed someone who resembled Jason Foster exit a driveway on Green Street with two dogs on leashes.  I stopped to make sure it was him.  It most certainly was. (Foster is the council member who recently made a public apology at a council meeting for having falsely claimed during a council meeting in March that I had been "following people home.")  Jason was walking his dogs 15 minutes prior to the start of his own C & I Committee meeting that four weeks prior he had told at least one person he could not attend.  Jason Foster was leisurely walking his dogs (I have seen him walking the same dogs many times; he was not dog sitting) with no apparent rush to get anywhere, certainly not to City Hall, though he was headed in that direction.  At one point I watched him pick up one of his dogs' poops.  Off to his (virtual) meeting I went.

Still no "NO ENTRANCE" sign. And
not even a DO NOT ENTER sign!

Now on to the next show.

Here is a short extract of what acting C & I Committee chair Henry Haddad and Rob Perry had to say to each other at this past Monday's C & I meeting, 7 days after Haddad's sign requests were made to HPD.

"Last week at Safety, we had a list of four signs for you, and if I'm not mistaken, they were all done the next day. Maybe there's one left, but thanks, that was quick."   ("Maybe"?)

Perry (with arms crossed on his chest): "Sure."

Haddad:  "The one way and the right turn."  (Henry Haddad did not request any ONE WAY signs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Perry: "We had them in inventory and it's just mounting them to an existing sign, that's pretty straight forward."

Not only did Henry Haddad forget what types of signs he had requested of HPD and also thank Rob Perry for doing something that he had actually only completed half of, but Perry did not correct Henry Haddad for his false understandings of the signs he had requested of HPD the previous week.  Perry went along with the bullshit that kept him looking like a true professional, keeping quiet and convincing everyone in attendance that the four signs were installed and there was no longer anything to do with the fully resolved sign requests.  Perry perpetuated the nonsense that Haddad introduced.  Perry just might be the ringmaster at the clown show.  The guy pulling all the puppet strings, if you will.  How the hell he is able to do this with his arms crossed against his chest all the time, I will never figure out.  He's a magician, too, I guess.

Perry knew full well that his sign crew only installed two of the four requested signs, but he decided to keep quiet about it.  Why bother correcting Haddad?  Why bother enlightening anyone with the truth and reality of the situation?  Why spoil the party and show?  Why bother with explaining anything remotely close to the truth?  It's best to keep the lies and disinformation alive!  (Sound familiar?)

Their "conversation" ended with this.

Haddad:  "I'd rather the signs come from HPD.  In small doses, we'll get you fifty." 

Perry (still with arms crossed on his chest):  "I appreciate that."

It's eminently straight forward:  We are screwed!!  Yet again!

Now, when do you suppose those two new requested signs on two new sign poles installed in concrete will appear?  (Should Haddad have requested the poles, too?)  Will their appearance come before Henry Haddad makes his second round of sign requests to Captain David Miller at July's meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee so that one week later at July's meeting of the C & I Committee, Jason Foster -- if he's not walking his dogs instead -- won't have to ask Rob Perry what the hell is going on with the signs that were requested of HPD by Henry Haddad over one month ago?  Of course, Foster will have to notice whether or not the signs have been installed before his July C & I meeting if he wants to keep things from turning into a bona fide fucking clown show.  Or is it a (bull)shit show?

Help me here, it's got to be one or the other!  Or could it be both?  Egad, let's hope not!