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Were NJ Civil Service rules circumveneted to hire VOR HR Director?

Village_Manager_Roberta_Sonenfeld_theridgewoodblog

July 18,2015
Boyd A. Loving

Ridgewood NJj, During Wednesday evening’s Village Council Meeting, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld disclosed that the Civil Service title for our new HR Director is actually “Confidential Secretary to the Village Manager.”

Huh?  Is this person a Secretary or a Director?  Quite a difference in job responsibilities, isn’t there?

I believe Ms. Sonenfeld indicated that “secretarial” title was chosen in order to “circumvent” certain NJ Civil Service Requirements.  I am not clear on exactly what requirements were being “circumvented,” but I now am left wondering exaclty why the Village can’t play by the rules and what liablity taxpayers are being faced with as a result of this little game.

Also, what is the Civil Service title being held by Beth Spinato, who is Ms. Sonenfeld’s “Confidential Secretary?”  Is it legit that the Administrator of a muncipality with only 25,000 residents have two (2) “Confidential Secretaries?”

I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit concerned over the apparent total disregard of Civil Service guidelines in this case, and I wonder what other shenanigans they’re playing at Village Hall and how much taxpayers will wind up paying in fines once the State gets wind of this nonsense.

22 thoughts on “Were NJ Civil Service rules circumveneted to hire VOR HR Director?

  1. What about the Friends and Family policy in the police and fire departments? And retired police?

  2. up top they think they can do what ever they like.some things don’t change.

  3. Oh man, it was so weird, very awkward. Bernadette Walsh was questioning and questioning and questioning what the title is for the HR director. Roberta was hemming and hawing and Aronsohn looked like a trapped animal….finally they had to admit that she has this totally different job title. Confidential Secretary? Seriously? She is not a secretary. This just smacks of total illegality. Why are they not calling the job what it is? And why were they so reluctant to admit the real job title. Go to 1:21 on the U-Stream, an hour and 21 minutes into it. You will see a completely flustered Roberta who cannot figure out what to say and she finally has to say….get this….the TRUTH

  4. Truth and transparency define this administration – the complete lack thereof

  5. can you say that it’s a made up job , we all think so, well another job will be gone when the power switch in may. o well.

  6. Guess the topic of.suing Valley over their not for profit status and potential $4+ million in annual property tax tevenues isn’t enough to excite this crowd

  7. Someone seems hell bent on getting the state to fine the Village for any rumored wrong doing they can spread. What’s the agenda there please apart from pure idiocy?

  8. Looks like Sedon was lied to and misled by Sonenfeld and she should resign or be terminated. Will the three amigos just ignore VM unethical and possibly illegal behavior? Will Haliby demand sonenfeld be fired now that Sedon was right when he said he was misled? Astounding to hear the audible ustream clappin in support of misrepresentations and lies.
    How did the three potatoes cast those yes votes?

  9. We are all awaiting the Rurik Rantings on this one. You were wrong on this Rurik. Do you know how to say so?

  10. people in may they all will be gone, it will be a new time for ridgewood. mike will be mayor. the people don’t like any of the three , they need to go. and the other’s will go with them. and all the ass kissers that been kissing and you know who you are right ‘ yea you will be lost, just like the suck ass’s been sucking frank’s moritz’s ass , they are lost, I love it.

  11. Who will run next may? Why would anyone want to open themselves up to the ranting’s of the lunatic fringe? The job pays bilge water, and all you do is get ruthlessly criticized from all directions. As much as I think these 3 amigos are horses**t the next group will be cannon fodder for the miserable souls who do nothing but complain incessantly, because someone has something they don’t have, or they don’t think they should have, or maybe they’re just unhappy and they want everyone else to be unhappy too.

    1. lets stay on topic can we ??

    2. yes the mayor and his supporters will say or do anything to get over

  12. Looks like Mailander threw sonenfeld under the bus. Left the title of the day question wide open for knudson and sedon. Under the bus.

  13. “Looks like Mailander threw sonenfeld under the bus. Left the title of the day question wide open for knudson and sedon. Under the bus”

    Pay back for Sonenfeld throwing Mailander under the bus’ wheels a few weeks ago regarding a report dealing with the number of Village employees.

  14. This really smacks of something underhanded. The position was created through unofficial channels. The person was hired before the job actually existed. Roberta defended her actions by saying this was all just a cleanup of an existing condition. Wrong. It did not exist until she created it last year. She tried to act like this was a long standing contradiction and it is not. She made this Jo and then she got the law changed. This was not an emergency. Why. Pinot follow official channels and get the Code changed before posting the job opening? Seems that this was slipped though under the radar, but thanks to Mike, Susan, Bernie and a couple of others, the radar detectors started squawking.

    Make this right Ms. Sonenfeld. better yet, make it right Mr. mayor. This is outright government corruption as it stands now.

  15. Just watched the UStream. I count four titles for this one job. 1. senior Personnel Assistant. 2. director of Human Resources. 3. Senior Human Resources Professional. 4. confidential Secretary to the Village Manager. The way they were getting testy with Bernie really gave the appearance that they were hiding something. Roberta was tap dancing all around, Albert went onto his high horse and said he was not in a deposition. Susan stayed the course and asked them what the name of the job is as of that moment. Roberta actually asked her “do,you mean as of today?” This whole thing does not pass the smell test.

  16. time to clean up top out of village hall.to many scams going on.we need trump to run the village, oh he talks and says what we are thinking of, right.

  17. Boyd,

    Please OPRA all related to this hiring and post the documents and findings. Im sure there are a ton of emails on the topic between staff that are discoverable.

  18. What title did our VM hire the Village’s construction official under? Last checked that is a competitive position in Civil Service. Why wasn’t that job posted and tested for by Civil Service; before his hiring? Was Mr. Yotka also appointed a confidential secretary by our V.M to bypass Civil Service regulations.

  19. Thank you Bernie. Just watched the UStream. Fascinating. The hired this person through a non-competitive position (confidential secretary) but then promoted her to a competitived position (Director) . . . what the heck is going on? Sure sounds like someone is playing very loose in Village Hall and we, the residents, are going to pay for it when the Village gets sued.

    And thank you Susan for asking the difficult questions . . . “What is the name of this position as of today”? I almost died laughing when you asked that and Roberta couldn’t answer.

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