file photo by Boyd Loving
What school of management did this woman go to?
August 24,2016
the staff of the Ridgewod blog
Ridgewood NJ, In an undated e-mail obtained via a recent Open Public Records Act request, Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld refers to taxpayers’ comments about the proposed Van Neste Memorial Park revitalization project as being “ridiculous” and “malicious.” The e-mail was sent by Sonenfeld to all members of the post July 1 Village Council.
The genesis of Sonenfeld’s bizarre, inappropriate, and offensive remarks can be traced to comments made during the Council’s August 3 Work Session by taxpayers Saurabh Dani and Jaqueline Hone, who both questioned a request by Sonenfeld for Council members to make an overnight (literally) decision with respect to applying for a Bergen County Open Space Grant in connection with the proposed Van Neste project in advance of any public hearing about the initiative.
In questioning the planned project at Van Neste and the need for an immediate decision from the Council regarding a grant application, Mr. Dani and Ms. Hone both cited the way in which “after the fact” public hearings were held during the Fall of 2015 in connection with Schedler Field and Healthbarn USA initiatives. In fact, in the case of Schedler, the grantor was falsely advised that a public hearing had been held, when in reality it had not.
The full text of Ms. Sonenfeld’s e-mail follows:
I would like each of you to get back to me individually as to whether you agree with submitting the attached intent. It is due by 4:00 tomorrow. A Council resolution is not needed to submit the Intent to Apply. A Council resolution will be needed once we submit the formal grant application and after we hold a public meeting on the subject. That submission is due in mid-October.
Additionally I would remind you that two residents referred to this grant process as unethical and/or fishy* I would expect that once you are behind this grant that you would publicly end such ridiculous and malicious speculation.
Thanks, Roberta
Best regards,
Roberta Sonenfeld
Village Manager
If she’s doing her job correctly, there should be no need for last minute votes or approvals. She obviously dropped the ball!
Roberta has overstayed her welcome, as have so many others. Time to clean house at Village Hall of all these personal fiefdoms.
If Roberta is telling the council that ‘here are three proposals, and you need to make a decision “now”‘,
either
1. The council knew about those proposals before hand and the act of telling them about these proposals in a public meeting was a “drama”.
OR
2. Roberta was trying to create an artificial pressure by telling them to ACT now.
In either of these two cases – it’s Fishy.
Time for the Queen Bee to move on.
“I would like each of you to get back to me individually…”
.
A nice divide an conquer strategy…
Don’t talk to one another… only I will know everyone’s position…
.
Sounds malicious and ridiculous to me… also a little unethical and/or fishy
.
“I would like each of you to get back to me ”
” I would expect ”
.
She is showing them who is the BOSS here. Go Roberta.
Don’t leave Janet Fricke out of this fiasco.
Best gig she’s ever had. You will need to carry her out without letting her grab hold of the door jamb.
Yes 5:52 Fricke is fully engaged with the park fiasco.
When you’re done with the fiefdom of RW please move on to BCC where the Directors and Deans have run a muck!!! Oh a tangled web indeed.
Yes Janet is Robertas little elf and must go too She is equally a nightmare. But let’s start with the head honcho and work our way down!!! Clean house!
I walked through the park a month ago and thought to myself how beautiful the footworn brick paths were…
Don’t touch it!
She is the most ignorant person with too much power. She really needs to go and I would love to have that discussion face to face.
OH my God, Roberta is so rude, so freaking full of herself. She is telling the council what she expects them to do? Excuse me? You work for them, Roberta, not the other way around. Roberta, you need to go. Now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. NOW.
what is BCC 8:30pm?
FWIW, and IIRC, according to the Open Public Meetings Act and the Sunshine Law, for any of the five Village Council members to hit Reply All and begin conveying his or her opinions about what should be done, they would arguably be doing what is only supposed to be done during a public meeting.
BCC = Bergen Community College
You are all up in arms about this … Can someone please explain what the proposal is? Thanks