>Repost…IT IS BOTH — BEING RELATED AND BEING CONNECTED.

I find it very hard to believe that out of 200-300 applicants not one but two brothers will be hired (whether its the RFD or RPD). No wonder our little village is all f–cked up.

>There are not hundreds of applicants combined for the entire village let alone the police and fire departments. Even when there is an opening, only the top scoring test takers have the possibility of the job. Hopefully, the young Mr Bombace will take the fire test and based on his veteran status (gained for overseas wartime service in the Marine Corps) will be number 1 on the civil service list as per the guidelines of the State of New Jersey. By the way if any of the complainers would like a rewarding career in public safety for the village, feel free to take the tests for the fire department or the police department. Check the NJDOP website for test dates and applications at
http://www.state.nj.us/personnel/public_safety/index.htm

>okay we get it. mark bombace’s son is a war hero and will become a firefighter in ridgewood. the bombace dynasty will live on for ever and ever. hoo hah.

>Do the fire and police departments teach to the test? Are their friends and relatives shown old tests? In other words, are they coached? Do they have an unfair advantage over other applicants who know no one or aren’t related to some one in the department?

>How many businesses around have friends and family members working for the same company? How many readers of this blog have been asked to “help out” a friend or relative by passing on a resume? Why should public service be any different?

The problem here, and anywhere for that matter, comes when these friends and family members are “direct reports.” This is where there is a conflict of interest that most businesses prohibit. While many businesses allow fathers and sons, husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters to work in the same company, they would not allow them to be Lieutenant and Patrol Officer, or Chief and Captain. This is where Ridgewood needs to reevaluate its hiring policy.

>Families tend to share interests, and, even in the 21st century, relatives sometimes stick around in the same area and live near each other.

It’s a positive element of our nation’s culture that would be sad to lose.

Families can’t be expected to be randomly spread out all over creation and to all have different careers.

So you have to be careful when accusing anyone of nepotism.

>Considering that it’s well-known that almost half of the Ridgewood PD and Fire Department employees make six-figure salaries, the number of applicants per year must easily number in the high hundreds. Hell, I’m tempted to apply for a job that pays six figures for you to hang out in front of the occasional road work/utility crew and give tickets to motorists for failing to give right of way to pedestrians. Of course, you do risk the occasional beatdown from some teenager selling drugs behind Starbucks.

>This is an absolutely pointless debate that has degenerated into name-calling and character assassination. What’s the point, other than to give a miniscule percentage of the village workforce a chance to take a free (and anonymous) shot against the Village? Life? Please get one.

>My mother’s father was a fireman. My uncle was a fireman. His son is a fireman. They all grew up in a culture of public service. Each generation was expected to continue that public service. A family tradition based on public service is something to be very proud of. Many in this monied enclave do not understand the meaning of public service. How many in the Village can be proud that their child or children are doing what their country asks by joining the military? We can probably count them on one hand. The monied class does not and never will understand or encourage public service in their families. It was self service that got them rich. Right on, PD and FD. Keep up the good work!

>With a six figure salary, retiree medical, a large pension and little higher education requirements – aren’t the PD and FD part of the monied class?
Also, I don’t think anyone is malinging police officers and fire fighters – instead it seems like a suggestion that there may be a few hundred other people who would like the chance to do the job.

>I do recall reading a published letter to the editor of The Ridgewood News from a longtime resident by the last name of Ballesteros who had applied for a police position. If I’m not mistaken, in his letter he was #1 on the written and had passed his psychological and any other tests with no problems. He was upset because he was passed over.

>Unfortunately, New Jersey has a long history of questionable (trying to be nice) government practices. The concept of home rule above all else doesn’t help. If you surveyed the 560-odd municipalities in this state, you would probably find a lot of the same thing. Add to that school districts, regional school districts, agencies, utility authorities, counties, state gov’t, etc…..

>The hiring practices are being attacked here. Those who got their jobs because they knew the right person or had a relative to help them get the job are upset because we are all talking about it. Get over it.

>BTW – how did the wife of the RBSA president get picked to run the new community center? Was that job even advertised? Or is it that she’s connected?

>How is it an “attack” to discuss family members working in our town government and for our town services? My taxes PAY the salaries of these people and I’m supposed to not talk about how they got their pension packed jobs. NJ has more public employees per capita than ANY STATE IN THE NATION. WE HAVE A HUGE PENSION BILL THAT WILL BANKRUPT FUTURE FAMILIES.

Get real. Get a thick skin or get a job that’s not dependent on your brother, sister, father, mother, aunt, uncle, etc.

Pray, let the conversation continue Public service is not a holier than thou activity. It’s just a job with a very nice pension, health care, vacation, sick days, etc. that we (taxpayer suckers and union hostages) kill ourselves (in the private sector) to pay for.

>”there really are more important things going on on Ridgewood besides this crap.”

What? Fixing the horse farm dam? Replacing lampposts in town? Controlling our geese? Selling a liquor license? Purchasing a new sign for the courthouse/police station?

>2:09, you couldn’t be more off-track. I would bet if you went down to the high school, you’d have the same number of applications when you left as when you arrived. With the emphasis people in this town put on being “formally educated”, civil service is probably the last thing on young people’s minds. 2:17, there is no way to use “old” tests to help candidates, they change it every cycle. It’s administered by the State, not the RFD and has to be approved by the Department of Justice. On top of that, there’s pressure from minority groups to make sure the tests are “fair and balanced”. In addition, there are preparation courses available for both the fire and police tests to help candidates do better. Bottom line is that the candidate that wants the job will go the extra mile. That means, more time at the gym, more time cracking the books. 3:41, your ignorance is some of the worst on this forum. Yes, the salary is certainly nice but it’s also based on what is involved in the job. It’s more than “risking the occasional beatdown” as you so intelligently put it. It’s walking into domestic disputes, which are far and away the situation where the most police officers lose their lives. It’s dealing with the stress of the job day in and day out. You may think this is just the perfect little town, but it’s got just as much filth as any other. Have you ever had to tell a parent their child is dead of a drug overdose? How much would you want to be compensated each year for that responsibility. What would you charge to spend a career worrying about frivolous lawsuits from people pissed about getting a speeding ticket or DUI? How about the fact that firefighters are more prone to heart failure, and sometimes don’t live very long past retirement? 6:33 – Monied class? It’s earned with years of hard labor protecting strangers. It’s earned by missing countless family events and working in the worst conditions. Stop biting the hand of the ones who watch over you while you sleep. And that goes DOUBLE for slandering a young man with his butt in the sand helping to liberate a nation that endured DECADES of tyranny. Don’t punish the brave young Marine (not soldier) because you don’t agree with his father or uncle.

>Further down on this blog someone posted, “Last year, the RFD had to hire from an out-of-town list because the list of residents was too short…”

Do Ridgewood residents have top priority for RFD jobs?

Do you have to be a Ridgewood resident to work at the RFD?

Is the same true for our police officers?

>We would not be discussing nepotism today had it not been for Fire Chief James Bombace and Fire Captain/BOE President Mark Bombace. James came to a board of education meeting in full uniform (glad he left the axe back at the station) speaking at the microphone defending his little brother Mark (cute when you’re 12). He then shows up at a math chat to make sure no one speaks badly about his little brother Mark (again cute when you’re 12).

For anyone out there uncomfortable with this discussion on nepotism, you can thank the Bombace boys (the Brothers Grimm)for bringing it to the forefront.

>10:53 you are seriously off the deep end. no one “slandered” (your?) son. No one. Making such unfounded accusations over a conversation on this blog renders you a defensive nut. Obviously, you are part of Ridgewood’s public service family and can’t stand being called out on it.

>Why do some people in public service think only their jobs are hard and somehow believe that only they are making sacrifices? That is the height of hubris.

–if you didn’t spend countless hours getting a college degree, then go look up the word.

>10:53 p.m. Please give one example where Mark Bombace’s son the Marine has been slandered.

>hubris: wanton insolence or arrogance resulting from excessive pride or from passion.

That’s a good SAT word.

>10:53 PM you say “Stop biting the hand of the ones who watch over you while you sleep.” I suppose we could turn that around and tell you to stop biting the hand of the ones who pay your salary.

>11:24 there you go again. How can allegations of family relations in the PD/FD be “baseless” when such relations actually exist. It’s either a fact or it is not. Since you know firsthand about working with members of your family in the FD, perhaps you can enlighten the discussion as to why saying so is a “baseless allegation.”

Such nonsense and name calling too. Jonathan Swift could have a field day with you and your twisted logic.

>Some people just don’t know how to correctly use those big words like “slander” and “baseless allegation.” Get out the dictionary boys.

>You keep raising your voice like that 12:15 PM and you’ll have a heart attack so chill.

>According to the first post on this blog (1:35 PM) if you want preferential treatment or a promotion you need to get tight with a council member. No thanks. None of them do it for me. Well, maybe Jacques Harlow.

>That is a disgrace to the uniform…

It’s also a disgrace to the firefighters he leads. In addition to being pathetic and simple minded.

>James Bombace just may show up at the next board meeting with his axe …or dressed like Colonel Klink heheheheheheh…

>Nah. James will want to speak and their paperbag has no hole for a mouth. I’m thinking he’ll come as Cousin It.

>10:07 be careful or I may die laughing……

>The Bombace brothers outed themselves into this discussion.

Most Village residents didn’t know the BOE President was a firemen and had no clue his brother was the chief. If they had kept quiet, the town would not know they were related and in the same business.

The Bombaces are like the Kennedy’s in Boston…

>hope they are better drivers than Teddy

>Dear 8:02
You must have missed the information provided on this blog that Bombace, aka boe president does not have a college education. That may explain why he’s so insistent that our children become dumbed down with TERC.

While Regina Botsford and Deborah Ives do have a college education, they were, unfortunately, victims of the Marxist pro-egalitarian and feminist agendas of Montclair State and Rutgers, middling schools with much to be middling about.

I would hardly call that an education.

>Good question 9:42, but I’m sure its not something those who benefit from are willing to talk about.

It would help to know how/why a #1 candidate would get trumped for a “minority” or a vet.

I’m sure the person defending special circumstances for Vets on this blog would know…will they tell?

We’ll see.

>Uh oh … Starbucks is unhappy with their recent bad publicity. I’m heading over to The Ridgewood Coffee Company for my daily fix of caffeine.

>Veterans serving overseas in wartime are placed #1 on list over every other test taker. Minorities and females have no preference and just have to do the best they can.

>IF Vets are #1 no matter what, do they even have to bother to take the test?

>So if a Vets is placed on the top of the list, he can work anywhere…like the beautiful Jersey Shore or ritzy Red Bank.

How many other towns in the area have full time fire departments? Can’t one of the many Bombaces go work somewhere else if they are so fully qualified?

>3:37 did you mention teachers college at Columbia because you are in the know, or because it has the Columbia name attached to it?

Teachers college is perhaps the best known bastion of feminist propaganda training. They just have higher SAT scores,which gives them a somewhat better chance of withstanding the leftist training.

Hugo is up for a speaking gig. He’s going to bring his buddy Sean Penn along to opine on the evils of capitalism.

There is no such thing as an “expert on education.” One would have to be an expert on something more specific, like math, languages, science, technology, etc. One can have education management expertise, but even that is too vague to make much sense…these are more skills than anything else. And education pedogogy is the worst of those.

>There is nothing wrong with women in administration or any position of authority as long as they perform their duties as the position requires using a well thought out, balanced and intellectually defensible reasoning. What we have here are radical feminists trying to destroy the educational system for all while advocating for leftist radical experimental feminist programs that have no basis in scientific fact. They make no bones about teaching to the girls. Unfortunately, this also contains, “the boys be damned” as well. I find this marally repugnant that the very people we have given the responsibility of educating all of our children have decided not to do this. Instead they lie and obfuscate. This scandal is alot bigger than Ridgewood. We are all damning ALL of our children if we let the advocates rule because these crapola programs work for no one, not even the girls they pretend to be designed for. These idiotic “programs” come out of the misandroid programs focused in the women’s departments in the colleges driven by grant money. The only ones who benefit are the recipients of the grants. No one else.

>What are the chances that there will be a job opening at the fire department when the young Marine arrives home? I can’t imagine that there’s a huge turnover at the fire house.

>Aside from your well thought opinion, can you point to some outside source that that supports your argument? Since we are clear that you are not an expert on education, maybe you can back up just one of your comments. How about explaining “leftist radical experimental feminist programs that have no basis in scientific fact.” This information is not on the web site at Columbia or at Rutgers. Assigning negative sounding labels to people and institutions does not further your argument.

This blog is interesting, but as commenters move from reasoned debate to angry name calling the blog no longer provides any useful information. We are allowed to post as “Anonymous” but we should try to post as if the whole town knows who we are. Let’s raise the bar.

>I think someone should audit the school system and see how many boys have IEP versus girls. I think you would find that the boys are “classified” three times more often than girls.

Expectations are set lower for the boys and the schools get funds for those boys with IEPs. Since the boys have some sort of learning disability, their test scores might be weighted differently and certainly expectations of their academics is lower…

Poor parents aren’t told what most educators know … that boys are naturally behind girls in language but usually excel in traditional math and science. So they think their boys are slow since they read late and write little.

There may not be a feminist agenda in the district but there is an anti-boy one.

>Is this particular site about nepotism or education? I’m confused.

>remember to get out and VOTE come APRIL

and if the candidates are running unoppose than use the ability for a write in and put “PJBLOGGER”

>11:47am

This site is about a town where the Board of Education President is a Fire Captain who works for his brother, who the Fire Chief, and the Captain wife is the payroll clerk in the town. The BOE President\Fire Captain’s son wants to be a firemen too when he gets back from Iraq.

The education piece is that the BOE President agrees with the Assistent Superintendent of Curriculum(who is not related to anyone, just in case your confused) who bought TERC2 and CMP2 in spite of the fact that parents were complaining that they hated TERC and didn’t want CMP.

So this site is about the Village of Ridgewood, with its nepotism and education problems.

If you tune in next week there will be a chapter on the Valley Hospital Expansion. The Hospital is lobbying with the Town Council to get a huge construction project approved after the traffic was so bad at the current site that a school janitor was hit by a hospital worker. Ironically the janitor needed to be helicoptered out of town because the hospital whose employee hit him couldn’t serve his injuries. This of course is an arguement for their expansion…if they just had the space for a trama center they could have saved that man hit in front of the building by their employee…

At least Ridgewood is not boring…we are not that.

>Hey 2:28 PM — If you don’t give a hoot about this topic, choose one of the many others on PJ’s blog. There’s something for everyone.

>7:04 PM Your defensiveness by “SCREAMING OUT” in your post gives you away. Deep down you must think it is wrong for someone to trump a top candidate for a position.

I would not want the “Vet break” if it meant that I would be given a job in our police or fire departments over someone more qualified. How degrading.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but in the Armed Services, don’t only the best get promoted? Why should it be any different for a job in our police or fire departments?

>Young Bombace should go find a job in some other fire department if he can’t score high enough on the test to land one here. Further, he should at the very least be sensitive to the negative appearances of working for his father and uncle.

If he’s not, then he deserves to be critized on this blog for his sense of entitlement at the taxpayer’s expense.

Joining the military is a choice and it’s a job. Yes it’s dangerous, but so is mining and being a stunt pilot. Also, he’s paid for his service; it’s not a gratis service to the community.