file photo by Boyd Loving
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Mr. Kaufman appeared to drop the ball at Monday nights Ridgewood Board of Education meeting when failed to ask for a motion to drop the trustee term lawsuit.
Board observers say that a motion to dismiss the lawsuit would have put
BOE members on record supporting or opposing term extensions.
The recent controversial law suit by the BOE in an attempt to extend their terms has raised many eyebrows in the community . While the BOE claimed the suit was the sole decision of Dr. Fishbein inside sources suggest the whole incident is being masterminded by longtime board member Sheila Brogan who according to sources has done this before by managing to stretch out her term on the Ridgewood Historical Society from 2 to 7 years.
The lawsuit appears to many as a blatant attempt to hold on to power and offers no net benefit for taxpayers or students.
The shortest honeymoon on record.
It’s all about getting power, starting with a seat at the table. Disappointed.
Kaufman is new. He has the best of intentions. Please, give him five minutes to catch his breath.
We didn’t elect a robotron. He heard the lawyer and voted as he saw fit. I for one am glad. When a strong group puts you in office, it doesn’t mean they own you. We didn’t know him that well when we voted for him and we still don’t know him.
I heard that Kaufman is not returning phone calls to some of the people who heavily supported his bid for office. No excuse for that my friend.
He didn’t return phone calls when he was running either and I agree ,” No excuse for that.”
If you watch Kaufman at BOE meetings, on TV or in person at meetings, before meetings start, you will see him schmoozing with some of the BOE members who are engaging him in conversation. Kaufman is good at schmoozing but not at thinking. He may very well be influenced by those who schmooze with him. He has a BIG SMILE on his face while he is schmoozing.
After all he proved at the debate that he doesn’t have a thought in his head, has no knowledge of what the BOE is all about. He lost the debate but won your vote. But hey, like he said, he has kids in the school system.
If all this is accurate, it’s just a beginning of another nightmare!
It takes a lot of character and strength to go against the old foxes at BOE. I voted for him but he never struck me as a game changer. I hope I will be proven wrong in the long term.
Kaufman is better than Loncto, just remember that. And he is the ONLY one who stepped up to the plate.
Stepping up to the plate for what, to be elected. How do you know he is better than Loncto? Because he said so. We shall see. The fact that he is not answering phone calls belies his spiel about how OPEN and TRANSPARENT and CARING about the residents he would be, about how IN TOUCH he would be. Ha ha ha ha.
When you vote for someone you assume they have “a lot of character and strength.” I would guess that certain BOE members already have their talons in him and that he will never disappoint them. I could be wrong, hope so.
Sad more people didn’t run.
Well he may or may not be better than Loncto, that remains to be seen. But sure as hell the public wanted him a whole lot more than Loncto, the numbers were pretty clear about that.
Same old tune. We don’t get leaders in BOE or Village Council. We get ‘nice’ folks with mediocre experience and certainly not people who will drive change or rock the boat. Ask yourselves, have ever been in a room when a real leader who is innovative and problem solver speaks and takes control of the situation, deliverers what they say, confronts obstacles, and keeps moving forward. Do you get that when Kaufman speaks? Sedon? Fishbein? Gorman? Knudson? All nice folks who can not lead, drive change, or provide solutions. Imagine any of them entering a board room and trying to influence a $110M budget in a corporate environment. They would not last 5 minutes. let alone years of continued weak non existent leadership.
Wake up folks.
Historical Society needs experienced leadership for the board. They probably won’t let Ms Brogan leave.
I supported and campaigned for Kaufman and I think we need to give him some time. He was trapped by the working method of BOE. This has been the standard operating model of Dr Fishbein and BOE. They bring in an expert for presentation, and post presentation declare everything is good.
They did exactly that on Monday. They went into a closed session – without a published agenda, breaking OPMA rules, they threatened all board members that the sky will fall if they voted to withdraw the motion, and then came out at public meeting and repeated their scripted presentation. This is their response for EVERY question raised to them. Presentation and then declare themselves GOOD/Winners.
Kaufman did not get enough time to process that information and to respond/put the motion. The BOE really need to adopt same format as the council. They need to discuss difficult topics at woerk session and then vote at the next meeting, so board members get enough time to think through those topics.
You can’t expect Kaufman to become fighters like Knudsen and Sedon on day 1. It probably took them some time too to understand the tricks being played by the majority.
Chris thought through and decided what he believes is right for the community. That’s his job.
Let’s leave him to do his job.
Also this was his second meeting…
Sounds all too familiar. Wasn’t the wool pulled over our eyes with council person Jeff voight and Ramon? Who cares about Bernie
Is it politically incorrect to say that Kaufman isn’t up for the job? Haven’t seen many signs that he is.
It makes no difference the whole board needs to be replaced and thats the goal
The angry bully mob in town prevents good people from running. Kaufman was ill prepared at the debate and continues to be in catch up mode. This job and a $110m budget is not easy and this notion to vote for the opposite candidate as revenge hurts us all in the long run
The “bullies” you mean hans the bigot ,halabooby,winggrad ,jan somebody ,gwen,al and little pauly
All sitting boe members will be voted out
Taxpayer, I agree he was ill prepared and he still does not seem to be preparing before coming to the meetings. Notion to vote for the opposite candidate however is not wrong. All these current BOE members are given enough opportunities to fix their ways of working. They don’t seem to understand this is their DUTY. They are still taking direction from Dr Fishbein, instead of directing him. So, they all need to be replaced, even if the new ones are less prepared.
Less prepared individuals with clean track record are better than the existing group we have on the board, who have refused to follow the rules and procedures.
Lots of dept need to be cleaned out. Start with parks and rec and that horrible engineer. At least the future is open for Kauffman. But for the rest of the town we have dead weight. Bigos fricke and rutishauser
Kaufman is a good man. I am glad he won.
The angry bully mob and their jackass candidates have not won in three elections now, count ’em, three.
They haven’t won but their garbage remains behind ie some token employees in high places. Time to clean house