Readers say , “no money need change hands for a conflict of interest to exist. It even looks worse when you see it all in writing. NJ Law states that a conflict of interest need not be financial in nature but merely a perception of partiality to the issue in question. This is clearly more than a perception, it is a reality. Gwenn morally should have recused herself but since she hasn’t , the Council should have asked her. It is their right and also protects the reputation of the governing body.
Ms. Fraser was more than an employee of Valley, but also an officer. And yes, she was already an officer at the time of the donation.
Can anybody donate to a cause they approve of? Sure. But Ms. Hauck was running for a representative elective office that was going to make important decisions about the hospital. Even merely to protect her from any taint of a conflict (political donations are in the public record), most people would not donate to the campaign. The fact that that happened was one of many indications of how confident they were about being immune.
Regarding Bernie Walsh, I don’t get it. Any candidate can express an opinion. That means she never pretended to be neutral. or lied to get votes, unlike some. And no money changed hands.
Ms. Fraser is of course entitled to her opinion but would have done better to protect her favored candidate by not donating to her campaign. Council members of a different stripe might have urged such a person to recuse. The killer is that recusal is entirely a matter of conscience.
As for Mr. Albano, why do you think a call was made (in my opinion, not an email message) to Mike Sedon’s employer claiming a “conflict of interest” (which did not exist) to try to force him choose between his job and his council candidacy, leaving the field open to candidate Albano?
What can we do about this?
From Pfund to Hauck and many inbetween we have had conflicts of interest that have gone unchecked. Now we will pay the price.
What governmental organization can we report them to? How do we get things going with an outside investigation?
This may be the only way to slow down the overdeveopment of our town.
So much “stuff” going on in Ridgewood – Why is Gurbir Grewal’s office ignoring it? The Bergen County Prosecutor is our neighbor, lives in Glen Rock, he must have heard about this stuff?
All fingers point towar Gwenn Hauck for,the Valley VIctory. She is the worst thing that ever happened to,Ridgewood.
Ahhhh I see some shake ups in the works. Perhaps all of the votes will be nullified. The conflicts within this town are coming out. Hard to stop it when it starts rolling down hill like this…
this shit has been going on for a long time. in the past the mayor and council had a hand around the press, NO MORE.
Nothing is going to happen except a lot of complaint on this blog valley will have its way and the garage will get built and the tax payer will get the shaft.
People have been screaming about conflict of interest for a decade in this nothing ever gets done because people just insinuate and cast aspersions but no one comes up with hard evidence:i.e. A recording , an e mail, or any other type of documentation. For Petes sake we had mayor fund voting on valley when his dad was involved as an office with vally and now he’s the municipal judge