There will be a lot of discussion between now and November and I look forward to some hopefully positive changes and discussions between now and then. We need to look at ourselves before we decide what kind of leaders we need.
In spite of what you hear on places like this, and at great personal risk of repetitive attacks for my position, I rate the satisfaction level of Hudson with the Prevost government to be at least in the high 80’s to low 90’s. Before the viper pens launch hordes of verbal drone attacks, that’s not my opinion but what I can only call the “Perceived Satisfaction Rate”.
The totality of the consistently vocal opposition is less than 200 people in a town of 5100, those who are really angry number less than 100. These scattered opposition groups are not cohesively organized to a common voice, and because most are narrow focused they do not have a complete vision of the problems, current situation and possible solutions.
If the dreamers and idealists really want change in Hudson after November, they will have to find balance and a cohesive platform from the subset of the possible reduced to a further subset of what might work in Hudson and that appeals to a large majority of Hudson’s taxpayer voters.
The proper running of a town, day to day, is not the Mayor or Council’s task. Their task is to consult, guide and oversee rather than do.
The Prevost government inherited the net results of not just a criminal insider, but of decades of inadequate oversight by a succession of councils. That crook took us for $1.1 million over a decade, but lack of oversight and guidance by successive Councils cost us many millions more in dollars and the ensuing gridlock to find the depth of the swamp and drain it.
Inexperienced Mayor and Council, a bad choice of hangover DG from the last Council, and thin skins within our town employees and on Council quickly devolved into some form of legal hell piled on top of the legal hell we were in already. The tar usually boiled for Council caught fire and there wasn’t enough water in town to do anything but mostly contain the flames to monthly Council meetings.
I’m proud of the Prevost Council for enduring and soldiering on, accomplishing much along the way and surviving intact save one that I’ll never opine on the whys of. Bringing our accounting to audited standards from the criminal double booked accounting we had was no easy feat. They’ve aimed too high on a strategic plan and not focused enough on JUST FIX IT, but hell that they aimed high is endearing to me. Failure is the price of progress.
The biggest problem that any government faces in Hudson is that we have about 90% Ostriches scattered everywhere and only a few noisy Grackles. I wrote in a column years ago that if you’re an ostrich with your head in the sand, it’s only a matter of time before someone kicks you in the ass. Ostriches in the sand don’t say anything, the Grackles make almost all the noise.
“Don’t change my Hudson, it’s perfect” is the repetitive call of Hudson’s Ostriches.
“We hate everything about your Council and want you gone” is the call of Hudson’s Grackles who have no options but to wait noisily.
When queried about satisfaction, Ostriches pull their head up momentarily and say “everything’s fine” and go back to the warm comfort of darkness. Watch out for Ostriches, when awakened suddenly to really awful news they can get nasty, lash out and kill. This year’s tax bills didn’t wake enough of them, our worsening crumbling infrastructure didn’t wake enough of them, our massive expansion in legal fees didn’t wake enough of them, our growth in bureaucracy didn’t wake enough of them so it’s easy to presume they’re content.
So, as we look forward to November we must seek the toughest and best damned loud mouthed Ostrich herder we can find to awaken the Hudson Ostriches, bring them up to date on how bad the situation is and what needs to be done and get started rebuilding our community vision and involvement.
What I do know is that Grackles can’t herd Ostriches and Ostriches can’t herd Ostriches.
I think we need a a very rare bird call a “Thick Skinned No Bull Eagle”, either the bald or the hairy kind and gender is not important. Eagles fly above the noise and have developed a vision and confidence based in intelligence. Eagles are respected by the Ostriches and feared by the Grackles at the same time. We’ve tried hummingbirds and chickens and failed, so please no more hummingbirds or chickens.
All I want for Christmas is seven Thick Skinned No Bull Eagles to JUST FIX IT.
thousandlashesdotca 
Sometimes when it gets the way Hudson is now you just need pluggers , nothing fancy, just nose to the grindstone people who see the basics and set out to fix them one at a time. No soaring visions or mission embracing rhetoric. Just jack up the car and change the flat tire. Eke out unspectacular small victories in front of you and try to be sensationally marvelous somewhere down the road. And OK , Peter, none of them should feather their own nest.
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Great comment Brian. I’ve missed your presence recently.
Old Hudson was always good at keeping it simple. Volunteers often shamed the town to positive action, I’m thinking of the now ancient playground equipment we wouldn’t publicly buy for one of our parks where ordinary people, mostly Hudson mothers raised the required money and then the town was shamed and town workers were finally offered to install the equipment.
Don’t mess with Hudson Mothers, I’d invite a few of them to talk to town employees once a week over coffee about what needs fixing around town.
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