>During a recent Long Range Planning Meeting, Village Council members and the Village Manager discussed several ways in which to cap the growth of various municipal expenses. Some options discussed included the closure of one firehouse, disbanding the Fire Prevention Bureau, elimination of rear yard garbage pick up, layoffs in the central garage, and much more.
Full details of this important discussion may be found here:
https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/minutes/06LRPMAUG16.pdf
>Village Council & Village Manager discuss ways to cap the growth of various municipal expenses
24 thoughts on “>Village Council & Village Manager discuss ways to cap the growth of various municipal expenses”
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>Now, if we could only get the BOE to seriously discuss getting their budget into check.
The ultimate Holy Grail!
>By the way why can’t we take our garbage out to the curb like 99% of the rest of the county?
>I am sure you’ve done this before… but can you explain how someone goes about contacting you or mentioning a “new subject” that might be of interest to your blog and the taxpayers of Ridgewood?
>Ridgewood is starting to look like NYC in the 1970’s. Out of control spending, rogue employees and elected officials, failing education system and lack of maintenance in the town.
NYC cut police officers and firefighters also in a effort to cut spending. The results of that remains in the minds of those who had to travel to NYC to work during those frightening years. Crime rose 60% in just 2 years. Burned buildings were everywhere. Even today the city still hasn’t recovered from the population loss from those years. It took a good 15 years and federal help for the city to control its spending. They realized the problem lied in poor spending habits, non-working employees and outside political influences.
Im not saying RIdgewood is going be as bad as NYC was, but it could very well be a smaller version of it. Do the residents a favor, instead of cutting essential services such as Police, Fire, EMS, Sanitation and other quality of life services, look at things that we either don’t need or need to cut back on. Example: Rear yard garbage pickup. We also need to stop several projects that we CANT afford. Example: Parking Garage, Bank Ban. I would much rather have a second firehouse instead, i like my house not charred.
If you look at how the finical collapse of NYC started, you will see a smaller but similar problem that Ridgewood has today. But lets not make the same mistakes they made when stabilizing the budget.
>A question comes to mind: Do the members of the governing body expect the taxpayers to swallow such a line of garbage as “it is impossible for the Village Council to know what is going on in every department”? Let’s get a grip on reality here, it’s not like this is a bustling metropolis. If they are so serious about slashing budgets everywhere, maybe salaries and perks for high ranking village officials should be on the itinerary…..
>Is it just me or does Kim Ringler Shagin seem to have something against the “EMS Department”. By the way “Councilwoman”, Ridgewood does not have an “EMS Department” as you kept referring to in the public meeting. The town has 3 public safety departments, the Ridgewood Fire Department, the Ridgewood Police, and the Ridgewood Department of Emergency Services. EMS is the main branch of the Department of Emergency Services, and is made up of primarily VOLUNTEER staff and a handful of part-time employees. She stated that the Village is a “service based/personnel heavy operation” and “people need to justify their positions” in order to make cuts and save money. Well councilwoman, should we ask a group of volunteers to justify why they DONATE their spare time to provide an essential service to residents of this town for a cost of $0.00 an hour every night and every weekend? Should we replace the handful of part-time EMT’s that cover weekday EMS shifts with the fire department for on average $15.00 an hour with additional full-time salary firefighters to cover the ambulance calls? Would that save the town money? And Councilwoman, you stated that the council “has to decide whether they really need items like top of the line ambulances”. Do you do any research before you make statements to the public? If you simply made a simple call to the Department of Emergency Services you would find out that the oldest ambulance that needs replacing is almost 15 years old and is not starting or running properly despite multiple trips to the Village Garage for maintenance and repair! You could have made that call, but you stated earlier in the meeting that, “It is impossible for the Village Council to know what is going on in every department”. I wonder how the Council in a larger community is able to do it if the Council in a small town like Ridgewood cannot. What is your responsibility to the Village if not to manage, improve, and simply BE AWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND YOU.
As far as the other part of the “EMS Department”, the VOLUNTEERS on that side of the department provide services that the police department and fire department CANNOT provide with ther staffing levels and resources. How about we have these volunteers, who cost the Village NOTHING in salary and are willing to respond to an emergency any time of the day or night, to justify their jobs. I’m sure the families of these volunteers would rather they spend the time at home. I’m sure their bosses would rather they come to their ‘day jobs’ having had a full night sleep. But these selfless people are willing to show up to a house fire at 3 AM, close roads to free up the 4 police officers that are working, provide lighting and traffic control so that the signal department does not have to come out on overtime, and provide medical aide to victims and firefighters at the scene FOR NOTHING. Maybe we could replace that free service by combining these services into the police and fire department. Lets hire MORE paid employees and get rid of those pesky volunteers. That would save the town money!
Look…what you have with the Department of Emergency Services is equipment and vehicles that virtually operate and maintain themselves, because you are not paying for the labor! Sure, there are administrative costs, equipment costs, and vehicles that need replacement. But compare the Emergency Services budget to the police and fire budget. Look at the payroll, equipment costs, maintenance costs, and administrative costs. There are no duplication of services that can be cut or “rolled into” one of the paid departments without compromising the level of service and increasing the required minimum manpower and thus increasing the payroll. Why not look at what you have, and what other communities around you DON’T have, and just say “Thank you”, and “What can we as a governing body do to help you recruit and retain more dedicated volunteers that cost us so little?”
>Here’s an idea. How about top ranking village officals stop giving there friends 116,000 a year jobs to hang out at the train station. As a tax payer and commuter it makes me crazy to see this!
>What ever happened to that police Sergeant used to stop by the station and speak with the commuters and answer questions. You would even see him on his police bicycle riding along the platform. He was always very friendly.
>There seems to be a lot of new high paying jobs recently created out of the blue, for friends of our top ranking & ellected officals, while the council has been reudcing the size of our public safety and public works departments. I pay high taxes, and I expect to see more cops on the streets and to have enough personnel to provide the services that my family and a neighbors deserve.
>As the minutes from the coulcil meeting “there are fewer volunteers in the Fire Department now than ever”. Perhaps money well spent would be a local recruiting campaign for the fire department? And how are the volunteer levels currently with Emergency Services? Maybe a combined recruiting effort by the town would benefit these essential services. Perhaps money could be spent to provide additional local training for residents willing to volunteer? Perhaps the council could look into solutions other local communities have used, such as the Lo-sap pension program for volunteers or property tax cuts for Village residents who actively volunteer? Shouldn’t cost the town much, and could greatly increase long-term membership in these 2 very valuable resources.
>It amazes me how public safety is the first place these clowns look to rob valuable dollars from. Yet there is nary an eyebrow raised at the idea of hiring “consultants” for the evaluation of the sports fields in the village….
>I WILL SAY THAT THE TOWN WILL NEVER STOP REAR YARD PICK UP , SO THATS THE WAY IT WILL BE .RIRGEWOOD IS NOT A DUMPY TOWN THAT WE NEED TO START, HIF YOU DO NOT LIKE IT MOVE TO A TOWN THAT PICKS UP AT THE STREET .DUM.DUM.
>Was there not a survey of public safety done by consultants a few years ago? If I remember correctly, the Village spend a decent amount of money having this done, then chose not to abide by many of their recommendations. Anyone have any specific info on this, or what the recommendations were back then? I wonder if the NEW survey they are planning will just recommend the same things as the last one…might just be another waste of money to mask the council’s inability to accomplish anything. “Look, we’re hiring consultants…see? we ARE concerned!!!”
>TO SLOVE ALL THE B.S. JUST HIGHER MORE WORKERS. AND YOU WILL SEE .
>I SAY THAT ITS A JOKE THAT THEY ARE LOOKING TO CUT THE CENTRAL GARAGE. NO GOOD WE NEED MORE WORKERS GO LOOK FOR YOUR SELF. AND YOU WILL SEE
>Walk into the Central Garage during any weekday and you will see 2-3 guys just sitting on the benches doing nothing. I doubt they are under staffed. The problem with the garage is not a lack of manpower, it is poor management, or managers that do not care that workers are doing nothing. With the size of the Village and the number of vehicles the town has, the turnaround for routine maintenance and minor vehicle problems is rediculous. If my car is overheating, I take it to a local mechanic and it is back in my posession by the end of the day. Why is it that a police car that is overheating is at the garage for up to a week for the same problem? The staff is not too small, they are just unmotivated and poorly trained. Why is the management not looking at quality of work and turnaround time of vehicles? A more efficient garage would probably save more money than simply adding more staff.
>2 or 3 men on benches i dont think so you fu/.,/.,jerk. i dont see any benches in the garage,and hoo is your mechanic,your local bum
>With language and grammar like that…you must be a Village civil service employee.
>no I AM YOUR DAD.YOU BUM.
>The intelligence of some of these comments are HILARIOUS. Keep it up you BUM.
>How come Ringler Shagin didnt justify her positon when the Village Hall fiasco happend?
>she needs to get into something that she knows, and stay out of ridge woods biz,#2.is about the lay offs its all a, load of bull sh/.,.,/.mr rummer started.
>the bottom line the council needs to no that the town needs to higher more workers.to meet with the work demand,that is in the townits no joke. they must go to all the depts to talk with the workers and then they will no whats going on in the town they must high now and aprove the funds thats needed.thank you verymuch a store owner for 30 years.
>They have more than enough workers, they are just managed so poorly and the priorities are so far off base that it APPEARS that they don’t have enough personnel. If the existig work force did the work they are supposed to do, it would be evident that there are too many employees.