Allegations made over Towing Irregularities at Village Council meeting
During Wednesday evening’s Village Council meeting, the owner of Village Auto Body on Chestnut Street, who reportedly has a contract to tow and repair VOR owned vehicles, alleged that there are serious irregularities with respect to invoice payments in connection with towing services and motor vehicle repair work provided to the VOR by other firms.
Mr. Frank Thissen claims towing bills submitted by Bergen Brookside Towing were padded in excess of contract approved rates, and that VOR taxpayers were billed for OEM replacement parts that were never installed on repaired vehicles.
According to Mr. Thissen’s allegations, made during a public comment section of the Council meeting, Village Police Chief John Ward and Lt. William Amoruso were made aware of the invoicing irregularities and an investigation is underway. However, neither Acting Village Manager Heather Mailander, nor any member of the Council, nor Village Attorney Matthew Rogers admitted to knowing anything about the alleged misappropriation of taxpayer funds.
If the allegations are proven to be true, i.e., unauthorized charges were indeed billed and paid for, Ridgewood’s taxpayers will surely question the effectiveness of the Village’s financial check & balance system. Additionally, the question of why the Acting Village Manager and members of the Council were kept in the dark about an investigation into the possible misuse of tax dollars needs to be fully investigated and answered.
In house news stories move slowly………. who handles the PR at the Village level ?
Who is watching the budget? Maybe the budget is transparent just like the mayor ‘s government, in which case you can’t actually see the budget.
none of us will ever now how much money is put a side. do you think the village has no money. ok would you like to by a big bridge, they even know how much money was taking right from the coin room. big money, and beleve me it hurts the budget. and that was money from the meeters. boy they are not saying to much about that. talk about a deal in the works. just like the police officer who took 180 grand ,what ever happend to him and that story,hummmmmm.yea hummmmmm.
Let see if” Big Al the Developers Friend ” new best friend at the garage had anything to do with this.
hey just for fun how much money is one of those meeters.
More ethics issue for the Aronsohn bunch.
In case you missed Wednesday evening’s meeting, here’s a video broadcast of the event.
The allegations begin at 4 minutes, 29 seconds into this recording.
https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/39489209
If you think this is an indictment of anyone but the (thankfully) former village manager you have no idea how this village is legally organized.
I just knew someone would blame Gabbert for this. What a riot.
Right # 9 Mayor Paul Aronsohn spin doctors fast at work.
Big article in Tuesday, 10/8 The Record regarding this. Hope James posts it here when it is available on line.
they seem to be hiding it at the moment
Any updates on this James ?