The Power Of A Box Cutter, A One-Step Ladder, And Some Common Sense! (And A Little Story About Our mayor And His Aide)

 

It has been three months since our new and very green head Code Enforcement Officer was introduced to the issue of business signs on National Grid's utility poles, an issue that never should have been brought his way. NEVER!  As in EVER!  The Code Enforcement Department is underfunded and understaffed, and Nick Fox has got way too many other critical matters to attend to and get up to speed on. Henry Haddad (or the mayor) should have instead brought the issue regarding the signs to DPW Superintendent Rob Perry's attention, telling him:  WITH THE AID OF A 10-FOOT LADDER AND MAYBE YOUR BUCKET LIFT TRUCK, HAVE YOUR MAINTENANCE CREW REMOVE ALL OF THE SIGNS ON NATIONAL GRID'S POLES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, THEN REPORT BACK TO US WHEN THEY ARE ALL REMOVED.  KEEP THE SIGNS SO THAT SOMEONE -- PERHAPS THE MAYOR BUT CERTAINLY NOT NICK FOX -- CAN CALL THE NUMBERS ON THE SIGNS AND INFORM THE BUSINESSES THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS NOT ALLOWED IN HUDSON.

But what do we get instead from the people supposedly managing our city?  NOTHING!  NOTHING BUT TALK AND WASTING TIME AND MONEY.  NOTHING BUT FOOLISHNESS!

About two months ago, "mayor" Joe Ferris (talk about green!) reached out to me in response to a Hudson Hub request I had made about the proliferation of the business signs on National Grid's poles at 3rd & Allen.  My suggestion was that DPW remove the signs.  Ferris's response?  "It is illegal for the city to remove the signs from utility poles."  He simply has no idea what the hell he is talking about.  He thinks he does but he doesn't.

In January, I made the mistake of knocking on the mayor's aide door on the second floor of City Hall to try to find out why after at least one month a mound of untouched snow two or three feet high was still completely blocking the sidewalk at the CSX crossing on the north side of Columbia (near Lucky's), forcing everyone to walk in the street to get around the mound.  The mayor and his aide both told me that they were aware of the situation but that there was nothing the city could do about it.  Why?  Because, according to both of them, "the tracks are out of our jurisdiction."  

"DPW can't remove the snow on the sidewalk?"  I asked.  

"No," was the response. 

 As I left, I sternly told them, "You don't know what you are talking about."

A few days later, I was issued a NO TRESPASS notice from the mayor, and I have been barred from entering City Hall with the threat of arrest since then.  There is no expiration date on the notice.

In a way, I'm glad I made that visit seven months ago if only because it revealed to me the true nature of the mayor and his aide. It turns out that Joe Ferris and Tiffany Martin are as thin-skinned and full of crap as they come.  Soon after my disappointing visit to the second floor of City Hall, both Ferris and Martin actually made sworn depositions to HPD about my visit, both of them full of falsehoods.  Falsehoods right from the start.  In Ferris's statement to the police, he claimed that he had opened his aide's door to let me in her office after I knocked on the door.  Actually, the fact of the matter is that I opened Martin's door on my own after I heard her say, "Come in."  Ferris was still in his adjoining office and out of my sight when I opened his aide's door; he wasn't even in the room when the conversation began.  And while he may have closed the door when I left the doorway, he certainly didn't open it for me.  In fact, Ferris and I exchanged greetings only after he entered the room 5 or 10 seconds after I had said hello to Tiffany.  And here's the kicker.  Though I never left the doorway while speaking with the two for a minute or so about the blocked sidewalk, Ferris had the audacity to tell the police -- to lie to the police -- that I had walked toward him and was "standing a foot and a half" from him, "yelling" at him.  I never even took one step beyond the doorway, if only because neither of them asked me to have a seat, let alone enter the room.  Such grace and hospitality from our management team!  In fact, Tiffany Martin sent me an email soon after my visit telling me not to return to City Hall because she was concerned for her safety, writing first that I had been "blocking egress" by standing in her doorway, then listing other concerns.  She actually wrote this! And our dear mayor even told the police -- in a sworn statement that can lead to a felony charge if false statements are made -- that, "he was stomping his feet and screaming" as I was leaving the second floor of City Hall.  Is there a surveillance camera in the hall of the second floor of City Hall?

It's so discouraging that we have yet another mayor who is a liar, an amateur, misinformed, and so unwilling to get anything accomplished for the residents of Hudson.

We all deserve so much better than Joe Ferris.  And Tiffany Martin, too!