What’s going on with Phase 2?

At last week’s meeting, Ward 2 Councilman Chris Foster read the following motion into the record for us to consider and vote on: “…a motion that we table for discussion the market research related to Phase 2 development to the December 14th workshop.”

The initial reason he gave for this motion was that we are on the cusp of an election that will elect, at minimum, two new Council members. This council that will be seated subsequently in December will be around for at least 2 years and he would like to have them “deal with the entire question of what we should be doing with the downtown property and/or needs for the broader community that would come out of the research project.”

He also mentioned that the survey hasn’t moved along the way we thought it should. There seemed to be some consensus amongst the members of Council that the consultant need to be replaced. 

There was also discussion about how to select any future consultants – whether to craft a new RFP or use the same one we used before. Staff expressed that, in order for them to move forward in the most efficient manner possible, Council needs to give them more/better direction. They also expressed concern at going through this entire process only to have new Council members come on board and not be in agreement with the direction we have taken.

Following some discussion, Councilman Foster amended the motion, “…to terminate the relationship with the market research company and initiate a new relationship to begin discussion in mid-December.”

Some clarification on this was requested, and the clarification was that this motion terminates the relationship with the current consultant and tables any further discussion on research on the matter (downtown development/Phase 2) until December

After a few more comments on the matter, the motion was voted on and passed 7-0.

This is an extremely important topic to our community that will eventually shape our downtown which is the core of our city. I encourage everyone to watch the discussion for themselves, which you can do so by selecting the “Council Comments” item from the agenda below the video to be taken directly to the conversation.

My Take: I was very outspoken on this topic. I stated that I have heard this argument to wait until the “next Council is seated” for at LEAST two elections – leading up to the 2019 ward elections as well as leading up to the election last year in November of 2020. I do not believe this is a good reason to stop working on such an important issue, and I stated this on the record.

In Hudson, the at-large Council members and ward Council members/Mayor hold 4-year terms in which the elections for these offices are staggered so that we have an election to this governing body every two years. By this logic, once each new Council is sworn in and ready to work on the big issues, Council would have ≤2 years to go from start to finish on any project. I do not believe that is realistic or possible for many projects. Just because we have an election coming up does not mean we get to stop doing the hard work that the people of Hudson elected us to do. 

To me, a desire to wait until “a new Council is seated” feels politically motivated. I see those same colleagues of mine on Council ready to move forward with projects they know have majority support on Council.

My objection to the motion was to waiting until December to continue conversations about Phase 2, but I have been assured that this motion will not prevent us from having more discussions on the future of our downtown development. Only on discussions about conducting a survey. I look forward to that actually happening. 

Since before I was sworn in, dating back to when the concept of a survey was first proposed, I have not thought that a survey was the best way to get valuable feedback on this issue. I have stated before that I believe Council is too reliant on surveys. Each of us were elected because the public believes we represent their best interests. We were elected to make decisions and exercise discretion. If we continue down this path of needing a survey in order to ever move forward on any project, we risk turning into government by referendum.

We already have a lot of data that I do not want to ignore. I would like staff to prepare a report that encompasses all the feedback from over the past few years, including public comment, emails to Council members, and the feedback from the citizen-focused sessions following the May 2019 vote. I then want Council to examine if there are any significant trends or learnings that could help Council move forward on this issue. 

So, some who watched felt confused that I was so outspoken yet voted “YES” on the motion. The reason for that is simple, I do not want to fight for Council to do a survey that I never thought would provide us with the answers we are looking for in the first place. Therefore, I have no real issue with terminating the contract with this consultant, especially since I have been reassured we can continue to focus on this issue in the short-term. 

I am concerned, however, that we will not make meaningful progress on the issue because some on Council have stated that they feel it is necessary to do a survey in order to move forward with making decisions on downtown development. While I was not supportive of doing a survey, for me, it was always a compromise in order to get my colleagues and I on the same page (or closer to being on the same page). Because we are not moving forward with a survey, my fear is that the issue of downtown development is dead for now. 

I take serious issue with this and plan to keep pushing my colleagues to continue this conversation.

Have questions? Want to share your thoughts with me on Phase 2? As always, I would love to have a conversation! Email me directly at nkowalski@hudson.oh.us.