Sunshine Law Violations at the center of the Controversy
Tensions rise at Ridgewood council meeting
Tuesday February 5, 2013, 3:36 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — Festering tensions between village council members exploded during a recent meeting with a flurry of accusations that ranged from parking ticket fixing to secret meetings.
The meeting, which included more than an hour of heated exchanges between Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh and Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli, caused several council members to comment on the contentious atmosphere in village hall. Mayor Paul Aronsohn even jumped into the fray when he alleged Walsh tried to have a ticket expunged.
Aronsohn criticized Walsh for emailing a parking ticket she received to the village manager and police chief because she believed it was given inappropriately, calling it a misuse of staff.
Walsh defended the move, saying she wanted officials in the village to know that the police were issuing tickets to cars with permits. Walsh also said she paid the ticket.
Pucciarelli, who had traded barbs with Walsh earlier in the meeting, then suggested all citizens “send an email to Village Manager Ken Gabbert if you get a ticket.” Walsh said the deputy mayor was acting “ridiculous.”
“You are the one who sent us down this dark road,” Pucciarelli said, before telling the governing body that residents watching the meeting at home through the village website were texting him, asking, “Please put an end to it [the bickering].”
The allegations erupted following a lengthy discussion last week on this year’s budget. Walsh was inquiring into several meetings last year about development in the village that were attended by some members of the governing body.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/Tensions_rise_at_Ridgewood_council_meeting.html
Class Clowns.
Strikes me that Mr. Pucciarelli is a bit of an idiot and the mayor not much better.
You got that right.
What does Hauck bring to the table? She has a great professional photo on the villge website – but what the heck is she doing on the council??? Maybe the good news is that she is not a complete idiot like her runnngmates. “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
I have to disagree with #2 & #3. I just watched the rep[lay today and thought that it was inappropriate for Walsh to present this her complaints in the manner she did. It was totally unprofessional. Pucciarelli was obviously aggitated, with good reason. However, he did seem to lose his cool and could have responded with more decorum. Aronsohn did not need to bring up the story about Walsh complaining about her ticket to the Village Manager, even though she should have followed the procedure that all of us must follow. Other than that, I thought Aronsohn handled the situation very responsibly. However, Hauck was far an away the most professional of all of them. Her comments were spot on and I saw nothing from her that was “idiotic” or inappropriate in any way.
I know Walsh, and she has a well deserved reputation for misleading her colleagues (not just the Village Council members) and setting them up in public to accomplish an undisclosed agenda. This looked like another instance of her doing just that.
Thats funny, all complaints about the mishandling of village business should be done in private. Shame, shame Walsh for trying to let us the residents know whats going on.
#4, you are so off…Walsh, misleading? No thank god, this town has her as our watchdog, She’s doing the checks and balances for the others dirty politics! Thank You, Bernie! Going around the full council system with meetings with the developers, two by two, to make it just legal? Dirty, Dirty, Dirty. BTW: We are paying the town lawyer many dollars for these meetings
Someone explain why Riche and Walsh are being shunned from these developers meetings? We all thought this town council was divided 3-2 ! Now it’s been proven, in a very public manner. Horrific, pathetic actions against Walsh about a parking ticket and permits. She’s pointing out a problem thats not just hers and due to her council position they claim she went about it in the wrong way? Paul you would have done the same-hypocrite. Pretty lame and I worry for this town. Can you smell Valley lurking again here or did Pascack Valley make them truly go away?
““You are the one who sent us down this dark road,” Pucciarelli said. Is this like Hamas saying that Israel has “opened the gates of hell”. How exactly does he plan to retaliate? Maybe he will just talk over her at every council meetying just to drive her crazy.
He needs to apologize or resign. I prefer that he resign.
Follow the money….
There are some very cozy relationships between the developers, their attorneys and Ridgewood. Also there is Mr. Bolger’s influence and philanthropic overtures to be considered when it comes to Chestnut St. development. The storage facility proposed years ago may have actually been a better ratable!
Didn’t David Rutherford do a lot of workon Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli election campaign. What happens when Mr. Rutherford appears in front of the Planning Board as he does regularly.
such a tangled web
WOW and the band plays on!!!!!!!!!!!