Ridgewood names new village manager; first woman to hold the post permanently
THURSDAY MARCH 6, 2014, 10:33 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD – It has been six months since former Village Manager Ken Gabbert’s unceremonious dismissal, and in that time, the village council has been vetting candidates for his replacement.
That search ended earlier this week with the selection of Roberta Sonenfeld.
Sonenfeld, 59, will likely be formally appointed as Ridgewood’s next top administrator when the council meets next Wednesday night.
Sonenfeld, a village resident for 17 years with three decades of experience as upper management for a number of different financial institutions, said she is “ecstatic” about the new post and ready to hit the ground running March 31.
“My primary motivation is rooted in the desire I have to enhance the town and its financial stability,” said Sonenfeld. “I came across a posting on Facebook this week that said ‘It’s a beautiful thing when a passion and a career come together.’ That pretty much sums it up for me.”
Wish you well with the new job.
Living in town is a huge +.
We used to have Police Officers and Firefighters who lived here and we all knew them, which was a +.
A good policy would to be require employees to live in town, not just be a resident to apply for a job.*renting a room suffices for this purpose*
If employees live here, they CARE and its not ‘just a job’.
Qualified and she has an interest in making the village a great place to live! Great choice
No experience in municipal government? No experience negotiating labor contracts? I am thrilled to have someone who cares about Ridgewood and I wish her well but I am a bit concerned about lack of government experiences time will tell. And, I know this will sound awful, but at age 59, is she in it for the longer haul?
The Aronsohn team (Aronsohn, Pucciarelli, and Hauck) is touting this as a huge win strictly because Ms. Sonenfeld is working for cheap – read the press release and Aronsohn’s column in today’s The Ridgewood News – mention of her paltry salary, her use of other medical benefits, and the lack of travel compensation. No governmental experience at all, but will work for cheap. What a bunch of morons. I guess they never heard the old proverb – you get what you pay for. RECALL NOW.
A great choice, for a change. Wish her every success.
Great choice. I wish her well!
where did she live 18 years ago?
Is the tiger team report available to the public?
Huge win for Ridgewood. For years Ridgewood has employed Village Managers with lots of Municipal experience and look where it got us. Christmas trees littering the streets in March, overly generous union agreements, and a bloated upper management structure. Change in the basic philosophy of how the Village operates is long overdue and who better to accomplish that change than a seasoned financial executive from the private sector.
The LAST thing we need is a career government bureaucrat.
She can get advise on labor contracts from the Village attorney.
Its a great choice to have someone who’s not bouncing around from town to town like Gabbert,. How did HIS prior govt experience work out for us?
Who cares where she lived 18 years ago.
Everyone talks about the value of private sector experience, until we hire a person with this experience. Some people are never happy.
She will be eaten for lunch by the slackards who report to her within 6 months.
I believe some people talked about the value of having some private sector experience, not an entire career spent in the private sector. Get your facts straight.
You forget that the Village Manager reports directly to the Village Council, it is not a dictatorship role. If things don’t go well, it’s the fault of the Council not paying attention to how the Manger is running the operation. The buck stops at the dais, not in the Manager’s office.
I’ve already received 2 mass e-mails in support of her appointment, both sent out before any news articles were published on line. Never before have I received mass e-mails in support of a village council appointment. Makes me wonder why the sales campaign is necessary here. Buyer’s remorse on the part of those who are voting for her?
Let’s see if she can deliver a flat tax increase for the second year and maintain services to the residential taxpayers. I think that’s how the “private sector” works. Do we really need recycling? Summer day camp? Recreation? Paid fire services? Outsource and cut? Let’s see if she can deliver the flat tax increase or better yet the tax reduction.
#17 the current council delivered a no tax raise budget, but you can’t say services did not suffer.
A mix of government and private experience would have been nice.
It is outrageous that they are spending our money by hiring someone with no experience, no credentials, and no training in how to run a village. For pete’s sake, this has disaster written all over it.
They could have hired the most brilliant manager and financial mind in the country and not make everyone happy.
Some of you people have nothing to do but complain.
I’d guess that if you won the NJ Lottery you would bitch about having to drive to Trenton to pick up the check.
https://mods.ridgewoodnj.net/pdf/manager/2013FinancialAdvisoryReportFINAL.pdf
What is your agenda please #4 ? This is a great choice. Are you part of the “Group of 8” 100K pensioners from Ridgewood Village ?
now now …the posters agenda is very clear RECALL NOW
Please stop revising history. Village services have suffered because we cut our Village workforce by 10% in 2010 to pay for 4% annual wage increase + pensions & healthcare for police & fire…. look at your annual budget newsletter and tell me where the growth is coming from ? It’s not Parks & Recreation. It’s not Sanitation. Please stop with your negative, revisionist agenda.
This post is a clear “Group of 8 $100K VoR Pension Club” smear job…. nasty. Disaster is what we’ve had. This is progress.
Finally the foxes are no longer in charge of the henhouse.. Best of luck to Roberta, we need her clear approach to Village governance. Haters will always be hating…
Wasn’t our current mayor on the council at that time and didn’t he vote for the workforce reduction?
Mayor Aronsohn has served on the Council for almost 6 years now. So I guess he can be blamed for the disaster to an extent.
I have received several emails about this appointment within the last day. All three emails had the same general message. Why so much spin? This town is beginning to feel like House of Cards.
Is it true that the 3 amigos first choice was Audrey Meyers, but she turned them down?
Insiders say the following municipal services are likely to be on the chopping block:
Rear yard sanitation service
Graydon Pool
Career fire department
Most parks & rec programs
Ridgewood Water
Village operated waste water treatment
Municipal garage
Yes, as did Riche and Walsh. What’s your point ? They had to pay for the pension & healthcare cost increases somehow. The current Mayor did vote against retroactive 12% pay rise for the then Village Manager, in the depths of recession. That was passed by Riche, Walsh, and the previous Mayor, despite the 10% WORKFORCE REDUCTION.
Foxes running the hen house is exactly what we have now. Mr Gabbert stood up to our Mayor and his Axis of Incompetence and look what it got him.
I’m sure our new Village Manager been successful in the past but let’s face it – she never would have gotten the job were it not for her personal relationship to our Mayor. Unfortunately, the mayor and his other two stooges have lost so much credibility over the past year that anything they do has to be looked at cynically. Hence the e-mail blast.
Needless to say she takes on a tough position at a very difficult time and is working for 3 individuals that have very personal agendas. Should be interesting.
Let her get started in the job before you judge her performance.
I do not know her but I hope that the is successful. It is in all of our interests to wish her great success.
None of the above would save any significant amount.
Now lets cut through the bullshit. If you want to save, CUT at the BOARD OF ED
You can cut the Board of Ed my kids are in the schools
I hope she stops the b o e, and she sees that we don’t need a paid fire dept. if other big towns can do it we can to , well she will look into that, it will be big savings .
The Board of Ed is separate. VM has NO sway, but she is pals with Sheila Brogan.
Let the cyberweasels have fun with their cheap shots. Her background is in the business and finance sector with a focus on administration. It’s just what this town needs. For the “anonymous” people that have an issue with her, have enough spine to post your name or stop by village hall and state your thoughts. Or stay in your fetal position with your smartfones.
then post your real name lol
Question regarding competence especially given her supporters touting her political affiliations , are spot on!
She maybe competent , she maybe not ,either case people have the right to ask questions and come to their own conclusions .
You seem as usual to be the only one doing any name calling
James- Hate to tell you, this is my real name. And people of course have the right to question her competence. My question is why hide in anonymity? Her opinion letters from the past have been posted and she wasn’t afraid to put her name on them. Why wont people attach a name here?
while I do agree anonymity gets abused , unfortunately we live in a world where differences of opinion and self expression are not respected and often attacked ie the so called Christie bridge scandal or in Ridgewood when the “math moms” raised objections to the math curriculum they and their children were attacked and harassed ( including late night crank calls). While there were good enough to meet the President of the United States they were not good enough speak to the BOE .
who cars about a name. my name sol, and how do other towns do when they don’t have a paid full time fire dept. how do they get by. I don’t get it. I know the crew runs to met call,s ok . why do we send out a mill dollar fire truck to an met call.
James…I TOTALLY understand your point… I was raised where you face someone that you have an issue with… I wonder how many of the opponents to this prospective town manager will come to the village hall and voice their opinion… or continue snipe in anonymity…
And what is your “very personal agenda” #35 ? You’re dismissing the new Village Manager even before she starts. You also must be joking about how people get jobs in the Village, surely ? I suspect you are part of the Gang of Eight stooges who draw +$100K pensions from the Village. We know your MO: discredit, discredit, discredit. That’s a personal agenda. Hopefully the new Village Manager has the guts to stand up to you, and your amigos.
What does the Village Manager have to do with the BoE ? They have separate Governing bodies. You forget Central Dispatch on your list above. Gabbert already gutted Parks & Rec which is why we have problems maintaining shade trees, and Sanitation which explains leaf, Christmas tree and snow removal. Maybe you should be asking why we need to cut services ? To pay for pensions & healthcare for a bunch of guys who can retire after 25 years at age 50 and live off property and state tax payers for an average of 30+ years. Those fixed costs never disappear and they demand more and more of our Village budget every year. It’s called generational theft; these pensioners have, in reality, promised many of these incredibly generous benefits to themselves when they represented the Village, the PD of the FD, and now they want us to pay more in taxes than they did when they were working just to make good on their country club retirement and Cadillac healthcare.
Hopefiully the new Manager will get the Village to stop paying for free Viagra for Ridgewood Village retirees – they seem to enjoy screwing tax payers too much.
#48( Charlie ) those benefits were negotiated and contributed to and earned. The village suffered when the state cut back on money returned to the municipality’s coffers, If you don’t like the services offered by the village move, somewhere else. Don’t ask the resident to give up service or the employees to give up compensation so you can pay less tax.
#50, that poster said nothing of the sort. Why are you trying to divert attention away from the truth ? The new Village Manager cannot cut the BoE budget, that’s not her mandate. Give her a chance. Our previous VM had experience running a Municipality and I don’t see people saying what a great job he did running Ridgewood. What agenda are you pushing, always trying to deflect attention away from the facts ?
#51 I think your talking to the wrong post #, I made no reference to the BOE? The poster stated the village cannot afford a shade tree and parks because of pensions and health care , those are facts in the posters opinion. T
I don’t think that’s what the poster was referring to, and they were’t asking anyone to give up services or employees to give up compensation. It’s more about what choices will have to be made to pay for all of these promises that have been made. What choices to you suggest ?