May 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Mayor and the Village Manager have persistently and knowingly mischaracterized the Village Council’s decision to call a $ 40-45k special election as being required by the terms of the petition.
The special election is NOT required and the Mayor, the Village Manager, The Village Council and now the taxpayers know it.
The clear and compelling evidence of this is that the language of the special election Resolution #16-110 which was passed by the Village Council on April 27 th incorporates the very statute (NJSA 40-49- 27 otherwise known as the Home Rule Act) that specifically provides the option of waiting until the next General Election in November,or if the municipality desires it may call a special election.
This statute was included in the Resolution, according to Matt Jessup, bond attorney for the council since Matt Rogers recused himself (little known fact), “to protect the Council from any litigation.” That says it all right there. Matt Rogers recused himself because he had done some pro bono work for the church, & felt that if he counseled on the petition, it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.
The Mayor, the Village Manager and the rest of the Mayor’s customary voting bloc desire a special election because:
1) It creates a diversion from the fact that to date they have wasted $ 415,000 on the design process. They were so arrogantly confident that they could shove the original Plan A and its looming 12 Foot encroachment into Hudson Street through the Council, that they ordered $295,000.00 worth of construction documents BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS SELECTED. They subsequently issued a $120,000.00 change order to try again and we are not done yet
2) They bootstrap a false claim that the petitioners don’t support building a Hudson Street garage at all and are anti -everything. This is false and can be verified as such by any number of Council Meeting recordings and correspondence
3) They can falsely claim that the petitioners are causing the Village to incur the roughly $ 40-45k in expenses, thus smearing the petitioners, when in fact, the Council is deciding to call a special election
4) It puts the election on the calendar when they will be still be using the bully pulpit to misinform the public
5) It fits with their overall victim narrative. They are claiming to hostage to the demands of the petitioners when it’s clearly the Village that is being held hostage to the agenda of the other way around. All the petitioners want is either a more reasonable garage or the residents to make an informed decision Mayor, please stop making stuff up. It hurts the Village you claim to Love
Who voted in favor of the special election?
All except Councilwoman Knudsen.
Spite is such a childish emotion..easy to see when nakedly displayed.More wasted money…Time for Change..Get out and Vote this week.
So let me see if I understand this: Mike Sedon is part of “The Mayor, the Village Manager and the rest of the Mayor’s customary voting bloc” that desires this special election? 5-0 vote to bond. 4-1 vote for special election. When even your supporters on the council vote against you, what message should you take away from that?
Read point 1 very carefully to understand the duplicity of the VM, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and CC: It creates a diversion from the fact that to date they have wasted $ 415,000 on the design process. They were so arrogantly confident that they could shove the original Plan A and its looming 12 Foot encroachment into Hudson Street through the Council, that they ordered $295,000.00 worth of construction documents BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS SELECTED. They subsequently issued a $120,000.00 change order to try again and we are not done yet.
And they want to keep Roberta? Let’s remember who she works for folks. Bye bye.
10:44 Knudson and Sedon do not vote as a block.
Two people and two reasons for voting.
For what has happened here, reread Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck” (with Paul Aronsohn and his handlers as the fox and Ridgewood residents as Jemima). Will Kep the collie (Coghlan-Walsh, Hache, and Voigt and thousands of up-in-arms residents) find her in time to save her from being roasted and eaten?
10:44…um…he is smarter than you are?
Face it – – if you want to solve our parking issues in a rationale and sane manner, vote for Voigt, Hache, & Coughlin-Walsh. They want to build a garage and make other parking improvements that address Ridgewood’s needs.
Fact–the 3 noistas will NEVER build a garage. They will study it, vote on it and never build anything. Ramon may think he wants to but the others will never go along–hence no garage for another 2 decades.
1:23 pm – the FACT is that if our Mayor did not play games with the garage – if he did not lie – then many of the petitioners would have never opposed it. If honest candidates are elected, many of us will step back and let the new council build whatever they want. Many of us oppose the projects because or the arrogance and lies – we can’t trust this government and their proxies (i.e. Wetiz, Willet and Brooks) with our 12M money.