Month: May 2012

Village Council Election: Which Candidates are Pro-Valley Expansion 

Ridgewood voters need to decide which issues are most important to them and choose which candidates will address those issues the best. Here are your choices:

Hauck = Pro Valley Expansion
Pucciarelli = Pro Valley Expansion
Shinzouka = Anti Valley Expansion
Killion = Status Quo is Fine
Forenza = Pro Valley Expansion
Aronsohn = What ever is best for Aronsohn

Unfortunately if the issue that is most important to you is not addressed above, you are out of luck. Not one of these candidates has demonstrated any understanding of the fiscal challenges facing the Village. Not one has shown any ability to unify a very divided Village without selling out their own special interest group.

If Valley is your issue then your mind was made up a long time ago. Valley supporters need to realize that until Valley backs down or offers real compromise, the rest of the critical issues that confront the Village will go unattended to. Those opposed to the Valley expansion need to realize that the candidates that they endorse on this one issue may not have the skills to address the other issues that we face.

In the end, the real issue may be Valley itself. Valley is a business that gains nothing from enhancing the quality of life for Ridgewood residents. An overwhelmingly small percentage of Valley’s patients live in Ridgewood and an even smaller percentage work there. While your taxes are going up again this year by 7% Valley continues to pay no taxes to the Village. Shouldn’t the Village benefit more than it does from having Valley here? Might this be the biggest issue of them all?

What’s Become of Ridgewood

As a lifelong resident of Ridgewood, I find it sad that there is a new era of “partisan politics” in our midst. This Village Council election should be about serving the residents and taxpayers of Ridgewood not about how to “seize control” of the Council. My observation from the sidelines has been that those who step up to serve do so with the best intentions, usually at much personal sacrifice. They give their service and move on back into private life. I find this new era of outside money and paid for shills on street corners in tee shirts quite disturbing. We are bombarded daily with disgusting political maneuvering at the national level and now it seems it has crept its way into our Village.

I have carefully listened and observed the tactics, the words and the actions of those who are running for Village Council. Once you clear away the smoke, both Keith and Jane appear to stand alone for all of the right reasons. Ridgewood has seen the effects of a partisan Mayor who dreamed of a Freeholder position. That wreckage took years to recover from. I urge you to not let history repeat itself. Vote for Keith and Jane tomorrow so we may protect the future of Ridgewood from the nasty ways of party politics.

Christie reaches agreement with largest public workers union

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the state’s largest union announced a tentative four-year contract agreement that increases pay, reduces clothing allowances and recognizes a new law raising workers’ benefit costs.

Specifics of the tentative deal will be released next week by the administration and the Communications Workers of America, Christie said in a statement today. The union represents more than 35,000 state employees.  (Servetah, Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-04/christie-reaches-agreement-with-largest-public-workers-union-1-.html

Ridgewood blog endorse Keith Killion and Jane Shinozuka for Ridgewood Village Council

PJ Blogger and the staff of the Ridgewood blog

May 7, 2012

( Ridgewood, NJ ) This election pits the forces of destructive “urbanization” against those who wish Ridgewood to remain “a Village” embracing all the reasons and values people move to the Village of Ridgewood to begin with. Whether it be the enormous Valley hospital expansion or the construction of more tax payer funded “monstrosities” like the Village Hall . “Citizens for a Better Ridgewood ” and people of that ilk represent nothing more than a group looking to make large sums of money financed by the tax payer bringing with them all the ills of over development and the huge debt burden that would accompany it.

The Villages character would be lost forever as standards and quality of life would continue to suffer decline. The disappointing and discouraging part of this election given how long each candidate has lived in Ridgewood , is how few of the candidates seem to really grasp and appreciate the value “the Village” brings . Whether its is personal political ambition or a hidden agenda driven politics of urbanization the “value of “the Village ” is under attack and seems to be over looked and written off by almost everyone .

People come to the Village of Ridgewood for the insulated and protected environment that offers the best of everything. An easy commute to the city , a top notch schools system with very high standards , plenty of grass fields, loads of recreational activities , opportunities for worship and a vital down town all make the Village a very special place . A place where young people can be free to grow up and experiment in a safe environment. The Village is all about class and understatement and very high expectations fall on everyone. Whether you are a CEO of a fortune 500 company or making local pizza delivers Ridgewood expects more. The Village of Ridgewood is not Newark or Paterson.nor is it meant to be nor will it ever be.

We do have one candidate who does understand how special the Village is and looks to balance fiscal responsibility with the new realities of the current economic environment rectifying years of fiscal mismanagement that has been the hall mark of the the Village sine the late 1990’s ; the Mayor Keith Killion . This was so clearly demonstrated during the long and arduous Valley Expansion hearings where Keith led the Village Council through some tough and comprehensive testimony leading to a unambitious decision by the Village council. . Keith is all Ridgewood born and bred and sees the Village as his home . he is not here looking to make a buck and move on. He also has the experience and long term prospective that make him able to lead “the Village” like no other .

Along with Kieth we like Jane Shinozuka ,even though she does not have that much experience she has been steadfastly opposed to the Valley Expansion which is the single most daunting challenge facing the Village. It also helps that she comes from an area in town that seems to often be over looked ,the Glen School area . This gives Jane a unique prospective given the disturbing trend that ,many would gladly sell out or have sold out parts of the Village in order to protect their own little enclave and curry special favor .

At the is time the Ridgewood blog endorse Keith Killion and Jane Shinozuka for Ridgewood Village Council, to fill two of the three open seats to be decided on May 8th 2012.

N.J. court says cap on school administrators’ sick pay valid

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that regulations limiting the amount of back sick pay that public school superintendents can collect are valid, reversing a lower court’s decision.

The state legislature passed measures in 2007 in an attempt to lower property taxes and to address the issue of excessive benefits for high-level school administrators, including a $15,000 cap on accumulated unused sick leave payments to certain officials upon retirement. (Dolmetsch, Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-03/n-j-court-says-cap-on-school-administrators-sick-pay-valid-1-.html

Arianna Huffington’s wings clipped at AOL
Published May 04, 2012
FoxNews.com

The good news for Arianna Huffington is that she gets to keep her share of the $315 million that AOL shelled out for her website. The bad news is her duties as editrix of the once-mighty Web conglomerate are being scaled back.
Way back.

When AOL boss Tim Armstrong announced he was adding the Huffington Post to the company’s stable of websites, he crowned the liberal doyenne editor of all properties, including TechCrunch, Patch.com, MovieFone and MapQuest. That announcement rubbed several longtime company journalists the wrong way, as Huffington has never been known for her diplomatic skills.

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/04/arianna-huffington-wings-clipped-at-aol/#ixzz1u8oVqFQu

Breaking : Arosohn truns on Puccarelli and Haulk

Paul Aronsohn is spending Sunday evening calling around Ridgewood and telling his subjects NOT to vote for Albert Puccarelli or Gwenn Haulk.

He’s suddenly realized that by alerting the Villagers of his dispicable ways; he’s in danger of not being elected himself.

Nice move Paul!

Aronsohn : No Real Friend of the Ridgewood Public Library 

Regarding Mr. Aronsohn’s call to fully fund the library from next year’s budget, he hardly ever attended the library board meetings as liaison from the council (maybe 4 times in 2 years). He made his required committee reports during council meetings only a couple of times in that period.

Now, with the election looming, he wants to be the library’s hero when he could have been working for them all along.

Idea: why not check out a book on accessibility?

Seriously, how hard is it to tell people you support the library and accessibility for the handicapped? Who doesn’t?? But Paul’s also claiming fiscal responsibility. Infrastructure and shade tree maintenance aren’t as sexy, but they both require the VC attention and money. The big problem is they don’t have deep-pocketed supporters that can vote for you. Take your special interest politics, Paul, out of Ridgewood and back to Washington

As countless novels, plays, poems, and films–not to mention actual history–have attempted to teach us, ambition alone is not enough.

Mr. Aronsohn has treated us like dopes who won’t notice that he is both for and against the Valley expansion. He believes we’ll applaud him as a heroic promoter of accessibility but not recognize that he does no research and gives no thought to how it will be accomplished as long as his picture can be in the paper. Grants from the county, state, and federal government are NOT “free”–we all pay for them. Isn’t the waste of money one of his complaints?

On Wednesday morning he can finally go to work and finally spend some time there because after June 30 his Wednesday evenings will be free.