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Publication Date: October 28th, 2025.
Graphic taken and remixed from The Economist.
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Summary: A month before Hudson’s Primary Election, City Hall looked idle. A FOIL request revealed that the Mayor’s official calendar (released after months of delay) was nearly blank. Few meetings, fewer outcomes. Then, months later and just before the General Election, the story flipped. Suddenly, the Mayor’s office sent the Common Sense Editors new calendars packed with meetings, calls, and events, transforming an image of inactivity into one of tireless motion. But a closer look shows little more than busywork. Even at his supposed peak, the Mayor logged at most, twelve hours of meetings a week.
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Judge for yourself: You can download the mayor’s calendar below and see what an $80k annual salary pays for and judge for yourself. Maybe you will agree with Kamal’s priorities and how he spends his time? Perhaps you can do it better and ought to run for mayor in two years?
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In May 2025, Hudson Common Sense filed a FOIL request for the Mayor’s schedule. The result: a nearly blank calendar: few meetings, fewer outcomes, and long stretches of nothing. No department head briefings, no check-ins with public works, police, or fire. For a man paid to manage the city, there was no sign he was managing anything**.**
Then, months later (and just a week before the general election…) the Mayor’s office released a new set of calendars. Suddenly, every day was crammed with meetings, calls, and ribbon cuttings. The same Mayor who’d logged twelve hours of meetings in May now appeared busier than the Governor.
Look closer, though, and it’s all activity, not outcome. The “packed” schedule shows no meetings with local businesses, investors, or employers; no infrastructure briefings; no oversight of public safety, finance, or public works. In five months of records, no meetings appear with DPW, Fire, the Assessor, or the Treasurer [and if they do - tell us where!]. Former staff say monthly department head meetings, once standard practice, were repeatedly canceled by the Mayor himself. What remains is a calendar stuffed with nonprofit check-ins, housing advocacy groups (some tied to his own circle), and ceremonial appearances that make him look busy without producing results.
Even the management structure mirrors the emptiness: his aide attends nearly every meeting with him, suggesting duplication, not delegation. The Mayor isn’t leading; he’s tagging along. The pattern reinforces what many in Hudson already suspect: that City Hall runs on inertia, with each department acting as its own fiefdom, unsupervised by the man elected to oversee them.
So while the calendar may look full, the city itself runs empty. Hudson doesn’t have an executive in charge of its departments, infrastructure, or safety…it has a mayor performing the role of one.
The pattern is clear: before he lost the primary, he barely showed up; after losing, he staged a comeback of appearances. Hudson didn’t suddenly gain a hardworking mayor. It got a desperate one.
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Show Me Your Calendar, I’ll Show You Your Priorities
An old management maxim rings: “Show me how you spend your time, and I’ll show you what matters to you.” If the Mayor’s calendar is accurate, his priorities are clear…and misplaced. Weeks filled with nonprofit roundtables and ceremonial events, but none with the city departments he’s paid to lead.
If the calendar isn’t accurate, that raises a different problem: why not? In 2025, every functioning organization relies on shared calendars for coordination. If the Mayor’s real meetings are missing (or kept private) then either City Hall doesn’t know what its own leader is doing, or the record is incomplete by design.
Either way, the result is the same: a city with no visible management. Hudson’s government drifts on inertia, its executive detached from the machinery he’s supposed to direct. This is why many residents now talk seriously about creating a professional city manager, someone who would actually run the departments and ensure continuity where politics has failed.
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In May 2025, a month before Hudson’s Primary Elections, Hudson Common Sense submitted a FOIL Request to the City of Hudson, requesting the following:
…A single PDF. One document, co-mingling the Mayor and his Aide’s schedules, for one month only.
When our Editors pointed out that the City’s response lumped the Mayor’s and his aide’s schedules into a single, blurred PDF, our editorial team asked (politely but firmly) for proper separation. A combined calendar makes it impossible to know who actually attended which meetings, or even where they took place.
It’s the bureaucratic equivalent of handwriting your receipts in invisible ink.
A few days later, we followed up with a broader request. This time, we asked for detailed professional calendars from June through September for the Mayor, his aide, and the Housing Justice Director. We clarified that a proper response should show individual entries, complete with locations, participants, and agendas. Producing such documents, we noted, takes roughly fifteen minutes… at least, it does in any office that’s run efficiently and lawfully.
And then: nothing. No reply. No denial. Just silence from City Hall.
That silence speaks loudly. With elections around the corner, voters deserve to know whether the Mayor’s “busy” schedule truly reflects work on behalf of Hudson, or just the performance of it. The May calendar we did receive shows large blank stretches, few public events, and more canceled meetings than commitments. There’s time for a “Duckworth Rally,” yet somehow not for regular check-ins with housing staff, small-business owners, or the departments keeping the city running.
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“Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” — Confucius.
The municipal election in Hudson, NY is just around the corner. In an era of information and disinformation, of claims shouted and facts neglected, honesty in public office matters more than ever. We’re launching an “Explosive Stories Every Day” series until Election Day, digging into what candidates say, what they mean, and what the record shows.
Our newsletter is now more crucial than ever. Click the button below to sign up (and you can opt out anytime). Each issue will feature a Mayoral Candidate Fact Check where we take any bold statement or claim from mayoral candidates, debunk any falsehoods, and link to the actual source of truth.
Stay informed. No fluff, no spin. Just the facts Hudson voters deserve.
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Months after that silence, the Mayor finally blinked. The Mayor’s Office released the full schedules we requested: for the Mayor, his aide, and the Housing Justice Director, covering June through October 2025, a mere week before the Mayoral Elections. Coincidence? The files arrived as dense PDFs, packed with color-coded blocks of meetings, calls, and events. The difference is striking. The once-empty calendar is suddenly overflowing, at least by Mayor Kamal’s standards.
At first glance, the update looks like vindication. The Mayor wasn’t idle at all; he was everywhere. “HHA Core Team,” “HudsonUP Advisory,” “Climate Mayors,” “Financial Wellness Week,” “Comprehensive Plan Feedback.” Each month shows a steady rhythm of calls, check-ins, and ceremonies, with loyal Aide Justin Weaver [**so loyal, in fact, that he hosted a campaign interview with Mayor Johnson on City Hall roof… and is coordinating paid canvassers with 501c3 Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition**] version matching nearly entry for entry. If public service were measured in Google invites, Hudson would be the most productive city in the Valley.
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FYI: What’s the Difference? FOIL vs. FOIA
The Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) is New York State’s version of the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Both are built on a simple principle: government data belongs to the public.
FOIL was created in 1974 after Watergate, as part of a nationwide movement to make public records accessible to the people who pay for them. The law flips the presumption of secrecy: everything the government creates or collects is public by default, unless specifically exempted for reasons like personal privacy or active investigations.
In other words, you don’t have to prove your right to know. The government must prove its right to hide.
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But activity isn’t accomplishment. The substance behind these entries is hard to find. Most appointments are labeled only as “Meeting” or “Check-in,” with no notes, outcomes, or follow-up sessions recorded. Projects discussed months ago, from housing initiatives to infrastructure repairs, remain stalled in the same bureaucratic sludge.
Across five months of records, there isn’t a single meeting with a local business, a nonresident investor, or a regional employer. To his credit and to his fault, the Mayor focused almost entirely on housing groups and allied nonprofits (including several linked to his partner) along with the same small circle of special interests. But the real story is what’s missing: meetings with the people he actually manages. There are no department head sessions, no check-ins with DPW, Fire, the Assessor, or the Treasurer. Former staff confirm that monthly department meetings were once routine but have been repeatedly cancelled since he took office. The result: a city running on autopilot, each department a small fiefdom with no oversight from the elected chief executive. For many residents, this confirms what they already suspect: that Hudson’s government is largely unmanaged and badly adrift.
The Mayoral Aide’s calendar mirrors this pattern almost line for line, suggesting a striking overlap between the two. In a competent administration, a chief of staff manages separate processes and shields the executive from overload. Here, both attend the same limited meetings: a sign not of coordination but of redundancy. What should be delegation looks more like duplication, and what should be leadership reads as accompaniment. It raises an uncomfortable question: are taxpayers funding two salaries just to send the same person twice? A capable Chief of Staff could attend on behalf of the Mayor, freeing him to meet with department heads, residents, and the people who keep the city running.
June and July show heavy coordination around Climate Mayors and housing meetings, yet no visible progress on the ground. August bursts with ribbon-cuttings and “project close-outs,” celebrating work launched under previous administrations.
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And if Mayor Johnson really was a “climate mayor” - why does the city of Hudson, arguably the most walkable city in America, have a car for every city employee, guzzling gas? Our next FOIL Files touches on exactly that. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive notice of new FOIL files, and everything else campaign related: from the banal to the bombshells.
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September and October follow the same rhythm: internal meetings, photo ops, and a few community events, with little evidence of new policy or measurable impact.
After months of waiting, transparency has arrived (conveniently, just days before the election), but accountability hasn’t. The public can now see where the Mayor spent his time - on Zoom, at small gatherings, and in circular meetings - but not what those hours achieved. The pattern suggests performative governance, a city mistaking attendance for leadership.
The larger lesson is about management. A mayor is a city’s chief executive, not its publicist. Hudson doesn’t need more ribbon-cuttings or nonprofit panels. It needs a manager who meets with the people running its departments, tracks progress, and keeps the city on course. Right now, Hudson doesn’t have that. It has a man with a calendar full of meetings that look busy but achieve nothing.
Mayor Kamal Johnson’s Schedule
Mayor Kamal Johnson’s Schedule
Mayoral Aide Justin Weaver’s Schedule
Mayoral Aide Justin Weaver’s Schedule
The Housing Justice Director’s Schedule
The Housing Justice Director’s Schedule
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A (Few) Note from the Editors
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📖 Read More: