A City Hall Farce In Three Acts!

 

What do you say we have a little fun in the form of a (recent) history lesson?  Sure, why not!  Who doesn't love fun historical facts!!!

I am going to once again do my best to demonstrate -- in six pictures and in words taken straight from the mouths of city officials during three committee meetings over the course of four months -- how dysfunctional, wasteful, blind, embarrassing, and full of incompetency City Hall has become.  I honestly think that the dysfunction at 520 Warren is the worst it has been in the past twelve years, perhaps for a lot longer or ever.   It feels to me as if City Hall might implode someday soon from all the things they are dealing with, including the troubles they are creating for themselves.

The subject of today's examination, if you haven't already guessed, is the plastic business signs that made their way onto National Grid's utility poles beginning late last year and mushroomed by February.  I feel as if the signs were a gift to our new mayor.  "Here you go, non-native buddy, welcome to Hudson City Hall.  Let's see what you and your pal Margaret Morris are made of."  First ward council member Henry Haddad first brought the issue of the signs up to our very new head Code Enforcement Officer Nick Fox (NF) at a meeting in May, but we'll get to that later.  To add to the fun, I am going to work in reverse chronological order, starting with what was said at Monday's meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee, which Henry Haddad (HH) chairs. 

Turn off all your distractions as there is a lot to pay attention to here.  Plus, we're in reverse.  Dominic Merante (DM) and Police Chief Franklin (PCF) also make appearances in this farce.  Nick Fox begins the story.

NF:  Last month we talked about a few things; one was the signs on the utility poles.  I contacted Verizon to try to get them to write us a letter on their letterhead saying that we have the authority to remove these as soon as they are put up since it's their property.  They advised us that they [the poles] are co-owned between Verizon and National Grid, so I need to get a letterhead from both of those companies to be able to do that [to remove the signs].  Otherwise...

HH:  Whew!  (The sound one makes when trying to convey that a task will likely be difficult.)

NF:  Yeah! (agreeing with HH.)  Otherwise, plan B on that if I can't achieve this, is I can send them a letter of violation and then the building inspector has the authority to remove them 10, 14 days later, something like that.  That's what we will have to do.

DM:  Is that violation per sign?

NF:  Um... (long pause). Good question.

HH:  Would the violation be on them?

NF:  Yeah.  Send it to Verizon and National Grid and wait for them to respond, which they won't, of course. It'll just end up in a shredder somewhere, I'm sure.  But if they just write us something on a letterhead saying "Yes, if you see a sign on there, take it down.  We're cool with it."  And I'm cool with it; we can do that.

DM: Are you saying, "give us permission, otherwise this is the consequence.  We don't have permission.  Otherwise, you are going to be responsible"?

NF: No. My first course of action is getting a Grid letter from them saying, "Yes, these poles are combined property between Verizon and National Grid, and when you see a temporary sign go up on one these poles, you have the authority to take them down until further notice."  You know, then as soon as we see them... Henry can go around and bring them down. 

HH (chuckling):  Thank you.

That report/discussion lasted about 3 minutes. 

Here is what was said about the plans to remove the signs one month prior at the July 6th meeting of the so-called SAFETY Committee.  Henry Haddad continues our story in reverse.

HH:  I have been reminded of the code saying no posting of bills or advertisements on city property, i.e., streetlamps, street poles and utility poles.

NF:  They're not owned by the city; they're actually owned by National Grid.

HH:  Right. But they are in the city.  The way I read the code -- of course, you are the code master -- the way I read it says they are responsible for...

NF (somewhat sternly and with no smile):  I'm not the code master.

HH (smiling awkwardly):  Okay.  

NF:  Yup, the poles are owned by National Grid; it's technically their property. I can write a To Whom It May Concern OTR [Order To Remedy] at National Grid but I don't think we're going to get much of a response from them. 

HH: It does obstruct vision, especially at 3rd and St. Mary's on Allen Street. 

NF: I agree.

PCF:  Those aren't the new poles, right, but the old ones?  (Has  anyone figured out what our police chief was trying to get at?  Was she intentionally trying to muck up and derail the discussion?)

HH: Yeah.

DM:  They're [the old poles] supposed to be removed anyway, I think, aren't they?  (This was an inappropriate question brought about only by Chief Franklin's attempted derailment of the discussion!)

HH (ignoring DM's and PCF's comments):  Two hundred dollars plus fifteen days maximum in jail.  I'm sure they're not gonna put them back up after that.

NF (completely perplexed):  I'm sorry... What....  Were you...  You're not talking about the regular business signs?  Did we have a business in town in the City of Hudson that has one of these signs on a pole?

HH:  No. Not that I'm aware of. No. No. Just like the moving company, the cars for kids or whatever it is, the clean your house type of stuff.  You know... 

NF:  But they are putting them on... (pause)... private property, which National Grid owns those poles.  Again. So, it's hard for me to enforce these companies about these signs.

HH:  Do they own the pole if we have the mounted light on it?  Is it not our pole now? I guess it's still theirs.  All right. (This is a question for Rob Perry, of course.  It is also a question that no council member should ever have to ask; they should all know by now that the city owns the light and arms and National Grid owns the wooden poles!)

NF:  I've already looked into this.  I'd love for them to get taken down.  I'd love it if somebody would take them down.

HH: Thank you.  

Keep in mind, if you can, that this was the second meeting of Margaret Moriss's so-called SAFETY Committee in which Nick Fox was in attendance.  He first attended a SAFETY Committee meeting in June but did not mention anything about the signs.  Prior to the "discussion" about the business signs during last month's meeting, Henry Haddad announced that it would better serve the city from a safety perspective if the new head Code Enforcement Officer would attend monthly SAFETY meetings rather than monthly Code & Infrastructure meetings.  3 months later, with Nick Fox having been transferred from one committee to another by Henry Haddad and, apparently, with Margaret Morris's blessing, there is still a Code & Infrastructure Committee listed on the Boards & Committees page of the city's website.  In fact, the Code & Infrastructure Committee has its own page on the city's site.  That committee's next meeting is scheduled to take place this coming Monday, but you can bet your life savings that no one from the Code Enforcement Department will be in attendance.  Again.  Ever again!

Now we come to the highlight and beginning/end of the story (yes, it gets even better!) that took place nearly 90 days ago at the May 12th meeting of the Code & Infrastructure Committee, with chair Jason Foster, co-chair Henry Haddad, and Nick Fox in attendance (among others).  Rob Perry had finished his DPW report and had left the room.  (No one -- including Margaret Morris and Jason Foster -- cares that he doesn't bother to stick around for the entirety of the meetings.)  This is when Henry Haddad introduces to Nick Fox an issue he feels quite strongly about.

HH:  I think everybody might have noticed how many -- not to make your days any busier coming up [directed to Nick] -- how many signs we have posted on streetlamps and street poles that are coming... like the Two Guys, Two Movers, Two Brothers Moving, and Cars For Cash.  (Neither of those businesses have posted signs in the city!)

NF:  Okay. 

HH:  Those are, in fact, illegal.  And against code, and we can fine them appropriately.

NF:  So, I'll call the numbers and see if we can get them to come through and pull them out.  

HH:  That would be so much easier.

Then, Henry, with the code book directly front of him, went on to the issue of flashing digital signs.

I did not bring a "letterhead" with me.  I could have
accomplished the task with a letter opener, though.

Nearly ninety days ago, Nick Fox told Henry Haddad and everyone else listening that removing the plastic business signs that are such a blight on the city would be as easy as "I'll call the numbers."  Poof, problem solved! But three days ago, our poorly supported (or completely unsupported) head Code Enforcement Officer's new approach to the removal of the signs has nothing to do with phone numbers and everything to do with letterheads, Verizon, a Grid letter, OTR's and permission to remove the signs.   In other words, with this approach, nothing the fuck will ever happen with the signs this year or next.  Words and time will be wasted aplenty, though!

Excuse me, fellas, I hate to break you the news, but no one needs permission to remove any type of sign from a utility pole or streetlamp pole, no matter who owns or co-owns the poles or the signs.  And, no matter what you might think, it is not "illegal" to remove signs posted on poles, no matter what material they are made of, whoever put them there or when they did so!  Just give Rob Perry a ladder and a sharp box cutter so he can remove the fucking signs so that you can stop talking in circles about them month after month after month, please.  Get your facts straight and stop stabbing in the dark.  Get it over with and move on -- that's what we expect of you!  Then try better to get something worthwhile accomplished without talking endlessly about it every month, will you please?  We're counting on you to do something we can all be proud of, not waste your time and our money that we pay you to get things done to make life better, SAFER and more pleasing to the eyes for Hudson residents!   Those are at least some of the primary goals of the SAFETY Committee, aren't they?

Work smarter, talk less, please!

Visual pollution gone, just like that. No laws
  broken.  No letters or letterheads involved.

Final thought:  Hudson has become a less attractive city of late, and the plastic business signs are only one contributing factor of a huge problem that involves several officials and a few departments (HPD, Code, DPW, and the mayor's office).  We are being failed by City Hall, worse than ever.  Until someone from City Hall acknowledges what is so painfully obvious, the problem of a city getting uglier, unsafer and filled with more traffic by the day will only continue to worsen.

As of last night at 6:00, these parking signs had been untouched by anyone at HPD for at least 36 hours.  It's disgusting what they think is acceptable!  How many parking enforcers walked past them yesterday and Tuesday (do I hear Monday?) only to do nothing but keep walking, scanning every license plate they come across and issuing as many $10 parking tickets as they possibly can?

About two months ago, Henry Haddad told me that in March of this year he had seen National Grid secure a streetlight arm vertically to the base of a new utility pole on the sidewalk in the middle of the 100 block of Union. (He's still working on a house across the street.)  March, April, May, June, July, August, and there it is still.  He couldn't care less, AND IT'S IN HIS WARD!  The friggin' guy is the co-chair of the so-called Code & Infrastructure Committee and he hasn't mentioned anything about this to Rob Perry since March?  Are you kidding me?  Is he still smoking reefer, like all the time?  He can't be this incompetent and unreliable (and possibly forgetful), can he?  

As you can imagine, that portion of narrow Union Street has been rather dark at night for the past several months!  But what does anyone at City Hall care about keeping us safe and alive?  We're on our own!

Henry Haddad is as okay with this as 
Margaret Morris, Gary Purnhagen,
Rob Perry and Joe Ferris are!