BOMBSHELL REVELATION – Councilwoman claims information deliberately withheld from her
April 1 ,2015
Boyd A. Loving
11:15 PM
Ridgewood Nj, During Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session, Councilwoman Susan Knudsen revealed selected details of official correspondence related to the Village’s hiring practices, including a document in which a Village employee was reportedly directed (by an attorney employed by the Village) not to release publicly available information to Ms. Knudsen.
Councilwoman Knudsen also revealed that an unnamed employee or representative of the Village supposedly corresponded with the NJ State Civil Service Commission in February of this year to advise the Commission that several open positions (jobs) would not be filled until after Village Council members voted to change an ordinance related to preferential hiring treatment for Village residents (the plan is to remove any preferential hiring treatment for Village residents except applicants for public safety jobs – this ordinance change will be officially voted on during the Council’s April 8 Public Meeting).
According to Ms. Knudsen, Village Council members were reportedly never told that open positions (excluding pubic safety jobs) would not be filled until after the ordinance was changed.
Catch the full action/complete bombshell discussion beginning at 23 minutes 54 seconds into the linked broadcast below:
https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/60629688
What this all about? If true, why isn’t that employee and the attorney who gave them the advice now fired?
First Councilwoman Susan Knudsen was told to recuse herself from a closed meeting on this subject at the suggestion of the Village Manager and now information was withheld from her about this same subject.What the hell is going on in Village Hall. Who is the employee that contact Civil Service and who directed this employee to do this, Why can’t Councilwoman Susan Knudsen have that information. Why didn’t the attorney contact the Councilwoman and speak to her about this issue instead of directing another Village employee to withhold the information. WHO IS RUNNIG THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD.?
Well 7:29 I suspect that if they were fired then we would know who really directed them to this. Good Governance my ass.This place is a train wreck and all the time the Council and the “Breath of Fresh Air ” Village Manger pat themselves on the back.
Thank you Ridgewood Blog, for the link added to Council meeting segment of the session, so quickly.
This was great for me and for those that couldn’t attend or failed to view on TV.
Thank you.
The circumstance described by Ms. Knudsen demonstrates that public matters are being discussed, and decisions made, by a majority of the council in advance of the public meeting during which the discussions and decisions are supposed to take place on the record. This reduces the public meeting to the status of a charade, because the result desired by the majority has already been determined in advance! As we all had suspected, it now appears clear that the Sunshine Law has been violated. Violations of the Sunshine Law don’t just happen–they are usually undertaken when the majority wants to avoid scrutiny for something they wish to do that the public might find odious. We all owe Ms. Knudsen a debt of gratitude for sticking to her guns and airing this issue out publicly.
I wonder in the Mayor Press Secretary Chris Harris will report this in the Record.
Its ok folks. The Mayor will just have another meeting on CIVILITY and all will be forgotten.
Looks like the Deputy Mayor was taking his meds last night. He was all jovial mostly silent, compared with his outbursts last week. But Gwenny girl, well, she just had to go at it. She is the quintessential queen of mean. Angel face and devil’s heart.
Just watched the 15 minute portion of the video relating to this issue, and…WOW!
What an utter mess our well-meaning and diligent public servants have made, in absolute good faith, with all appropriate due diligence, and deserving of no blame or negative consequences of any kind, with the exception of a nearly unintelligible but unmistakably nasty and inappropriately personal and emotion-laden tongue-lashing of Ms. Knudsen by Ms. Hauck! (/s)
This is a perfect example of how abruptly the rules of civility will be tossed out the window when the righteous scorn is to be delivered by one of the Three Amigos to a non-Amigo.
After you listen to Susan – and to Gwenn’s idiotic response……then slide ahead on the UStream to public comments and listen to Boyd’s comments at 1:24:34. He very emphatically ripped into them. And then our mayor had the audacity to attack Boyd (which he quickly backed off on) and then Paul went on to attack Susan during Boyd’s comments. Wow, Susan really struck paydirt and the dirty secrets are being revealed. THANK YOU SUSAN
The APPOINTING AUTHORITY is the Village Manager. Under our form of government she is responsible For the day to day running of the Village.
WEll, 9:28, the APPOINTING AUTHORITY has made it clear that she does not understand civil service, and she has also hired someone to manage human resources. Does she really know how to do her job?
Congratulations to Councilwoman Knudsen. She is articulate and assertive. The VM looked to coverup, mailander babbled, and Hauck missed the point. Incompetence. Aronsohn attempts to invoke the phony accusations civility line, but to no avail. Boyd stuck to his point and Aronsohn retreats. What a mess this is.
Come election day we should vote new colleagues for Ms. Knudsen into the Village Council who will respond appropriately, meaning in a way that upholds the best interests of the Village as a whole, when situations like this arise in the future. Kind of like normal people would do when put in a position of public trust…?
Can’t wait to vote the three amigos out.
Hauck should be ashamed
The Mayor and chief Amigo is amusing and ever-so-predictable in his behavior when information comes to light that paints him and his friend/allies in a particularly poor light. Funny, isn’t it? that according to the Mayor, things that ordinary residents and voters are finally beginning to see clearly, suddenly become “unclear” and “confusing”, and just at the right time for potentially blame-worthy people to avoid scrutiny!
I saw it live last night. Hauck sounded like a rude child who got caught doing something they shouldn’t have been doing. He Hauck, did you miss the point of the entire discussion; certainly seems like it. I love it when Susan says “well, just let me address that” repeatedly. And then when Roberta says “well. I hate to do this to you Susan” and then throws out a nothing-burger and Susan shoots her down with a solid response. . PRICELESS.
Susan comes to the meeting well informed and well prepared. I agree she is articulate and assertive in a polite and meaningful fashion.
And Boyd, you keep doing Boyd.
Yes Boyd–keep up the good work. We’re lovin’ it, like Micky D’s!
Message to Ms. Sonenefeld: The hiring and firing of Village employees is certainly within your purview, but that in and of itself is no excuse whatsoever for not keeping the ENTIRE Village Council informed of your plans with respect to holding positions open in expectation of an ordinance change. Personally, I’d like to see the complete list of job applicants for those open positions, now on hold, to find out exactly who it is from Ridgewood that you don’t want to hire.
Does anyone understand why this is even happening? Who is it that they are trying to avoid hiring?
Ms. Roberta:
1. You are not an elected official. You should not insert your opinions and commentary incessantly. We are not interested in your opinions. What are you, the fourth AMIGO? Your gratuitous swipe at Ms. Knudsen last night was completely uncalled for. Councilwoman Knudsen conducted a calm and fact-filled discussion. At the end of it, you had the audacity to state that you had prepared a joke but now you didn’t feel like it. That was insulting and unprofessional. You were clearly stating that you did not like Councilwoman Knudsen’s discussion. That is just tough luck for you. You are not, I repeat YOU ARE NOT an elected official. Your opinions are not germane to any discussion. Keep them to yourself and just try to do your job.
2. You need to stop interrupting when one of our elected officials is speaking. Watching the tape, it is so distracting when you keep interjecting. Stop it. We did not elect you to represent us and we do want to hear what our elected officals have to say.
Here is an ironic twist. Aronsohn speaks of TRANSPARENCY and CIVILITY until the words have lost their meaning. And yet we have NONTRANSPARENCY and INCIVILITY under his reign of terror. Knudsen and Sedon are doing their level best to restore transparency and civility – but until we get rid of Aronsohn that won’t happen.
Did anyone notice that the VM said last night that her busy staff will have to stop replying to every request from …. from…..well she didn’t say it, but clearly she meant from Councilwoman Knudsen. Are you serious Roberta? You work for them, not the other way around. You are going to have the shortest tenure in history. You will be gone when the terrible trio is broken up next election day.
“Does anyone understand why this is even happening? Who is it that they are trying to avoid hiring?”
Thomas Landers, perahps?
As a 22 year Ridgewood resident I am disgusted by these three and Roberta. Cleaning the leaves is not a measure of good management. VM stated she doesn’t understand civil service so what are we paying her for? The love fest with these three and Roberta has crossed the line and has got to stop. They are uncivil to councilwoman Knudsen and treat her terribly. I am grateful for her decency and hard work. Knudsen should have the full support of Village residents and the three with Roberta should feel the wrath of the people.
Councilwoman Knudsen is so gracious she never reacts to their bashing. Seems the four should take some lessons in manners and professionalism from her.
let me get straight, Knudsen asked for information over a month ago and was ignored. how is she supposed to do what we elected her to do. they don’t need her vote since they have everything locked up and do exactly what they’re told. some time one of the three amigos will eventually figure out it would be a benefit to align with knudsen. The people love her which is why one of the three will try to get in her good graces? bets on who will try to be her friend first?
Are Ridgewood residents not smart enough for jobs in our Village that our tax dollars fund? These three nincompoops can’t figure out they represent the people of this community. I am sick to my stomach thinking we are stuck with them for another year.
What’s wrong with Ridgewood residents working for the village? Nincompoops.
pucc was pretty quiet last night. did he finally have a moment of clarity. looks like the inmates are running the asylum and only susan gets it. maybe there’s hope for big al the developers friend.
This isn’t the first Village Manager who seems to have convinced Village Council members that the Council works for the Manager and not the other way around. Someone needs to give Roberta a swift kick in the butt, but quick.
Are you kidding me 4:30 pm. you can’t change the spots on a leopard. Rev. Al was nice because he was blasted on this blog about the last meeting. Don’t kid yourself they read this blog and sometime post or their surrogates do.
Knudsen asks for information, our contracted labor attorney tells Ridgewood staff not to give it to Knudsen, so Knudsen makes a few calls directly and gets the information NECESSARY for our elected officials to make an informed decision on Knudsen if the bad guy???? And under just what authority was a contracted attorney issue directives to Ridgewood staff?
4:30 There is no hope for PUCC. Bullies are always contrite after beating someone up. He went nuts on Knudsen the week before, so now he is ultra contrite. His true colors will be back, we have seen this cycle too many times. What do they say about a leopard’s spots?
Last week Councilman Pucciarelli told Councilwoman Knudsen that “It’s not always about you” and “Don’t flatter yourself.” I look forward to hearing how this was civility at its best. In fact, that was a rude, condescending, contemptuous way to speak to anyone, much less a fellow council member on the dais during a council meeting. That arrogant, narcissistic misogynist MUST GO if he is so foolish as to run for reelection to the Village Council next spring. His outbursts are pointless, counterproductive, ego driven, and embarrassing both to him personally and to our Village government.
It’s great to see hypocrites undo themselves in living color, with nothing but the truth to fight against as their reputations really start to tank.
Thank you Susan for having the courage to ask questions and stand up to gather the information you need to make an informed decision. Gwen should be embarrassed that she wants to let the “professionals” decide. If that is the case why do we need her??? Keep up the good work Susan.
Pretty amazing how the Mayor accused Boyd Loving of making accusations, when Mr. Loving clearly wasn’t.
What’s the deal with hiring a Ridgewood resident. Can’t they move out of town once they have the job?
START THE RECALL START THE RECALL
START THE RECALL START THE RECALL