the texting Mayor
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in April of 2013, the Village Council unanimously adopted Resolution 13-87, “Village Council Meetings and Communications Protocol.” This document, which was developed by the council with the very best of intentions, is a list of “dos and don’ts” for the five elected council members to follow when discussing, investigating, or preparing for deliberation of municipal business.
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Item No. 4 in this list reads as follows: “Telephonic or electronic communication between or among Council members or between a Council member and a member of the public during public meetings is prohibited.” In the 2013 public work sessions at which this document was edited, the clause prohibiting contact with members of the public was specifically inserted.
At the Wednesday January 11, 2023 Village Council Public meeting, a member of the Council announced that all members have agreed to not use their phones during meetings except if there is an “emergency” or a “calculator is required.”
The only way you’re going to stop that bunch of Bozos from receiving and sending texts during official meetings is to jam the cellular network, which is illegal in the USA.
Never going to happen.
Fat chance.
What is an emergency? The dog-Walker is rescheduling? The kid left his homework folder at school? The wife wants to know whether to wait up? No phones. Period. It is dead wrong that they should be secretly communicating with the outside world during meetings.
Do VC members have to undergo training? They should be required to read and understand the rules of behavior.
Rurik is probably texting Siobhan to tell her what to say.
“Or to use a calculator”
These Bozos can’t even do simple math in their head and we are supposed to trust them with multi-million dollar budgets????