April 10,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, In a recent biased article by Northjersey.com, formerly known as the Bergen Record , the “Record “once again attacked the Village of Ridgewood Mayor Susan Knudsen and the hiring of her sons on the Ridgewood police force .The article by Deena Yellin goes out of it way to quote dubious sources such as “Rurik Halaby” who has no standing on the issue what’s so ever and Councilman Jeff Voigt who resorts to name calling of residents from the dais and is more well know for his outburst at council meeting than any serious policy discussions .
The article reads ,”In Ridgewood, tempers flared over Mayor Susan Knudsen’s support of a 2014 ordinance that retained residency preferences in police and fire department hires. That ordinance allowed her sons to be bumped up ahead of other candidates, said Rurik Halaby, a longtime resident and banking executive.” Omitting the fact that Susan was not the mayor at that time and represented only one vote out of five .
The simple fact is “Ridgewood is a state of New Jersey Civil Service municipality,” ,meaning candidates are ranked based on standardized test results. The list exists and any one can access it . Not knowing her sons were on it is meaningless. In Ridgewood the village manager is the hiring authority for the village and is required to adhere to state hiring regulations. Council members are prohibited from any involvement.
The article goes on to say “Shortly after Knudsen’s vote, she helped swear her children in.” Shortly after was 2017 her vote was 2014 , 3 years is shortly after ??? ,not in the New York Metro area.
A state ethics panel recently rejected a complaint against Knudsen, saying it was a Civil Service matter, end of story and is not dependent on Don Delzio , or Rurik Halaby point of view.
The article failed to mention that former Mayor Paul Aronsohn and his side kick former Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld were found guilty of ethics violations. The article also failed to mention the phone call to Mike Sedon employer ,the former Manager interfering with a lawful petition drive and the former manager hiring her friends and giving a preferential commercial lease to friend of hers as well as making a mess of the park mobil deal.
The article did quote Village Attorney Matt Rogers “There are standards used,” said Ridgewood Borough(Village not Borough) Attorney Matt Rogers. “The mayor can participate in discussions of the department budgets, but cannot participate in discussions pertaining to her sons’ raises. She had nothing to do with their hiring.”
Then the article goes totally off the rails once again attacking the Village Police Department and it personnel , “But questions linger. Councilman Jeff Voigt wondered how a fire chief or police chief would be able to properly supervise the mayor’s kids, even if she is not directly involved in overseeing the department. It raises thorny issues, he said. And again letting Voigt make fallacious assertions , “That puts them in an uncomfortable situation,” he said. “They [the kids] may even get preferential treatment.”
No Councilmen what makes people uncomfortable , is see you throw away you political career siding with a bunch of failed ethically challenged losers.
Can we get rid of this idiot?
What do you expect from this group of self loathing, wannabe Ridgewoodites- – this is the same group of people attacking the Catholic Church in town by claiming it paid a cash bribe to the Mayor to stop the town from building a six story garage in the in the middle of Hudson street. These people have no moral decency or moral core.
These vicious attacks by the Willet / Harwin puppet masters detract us from the real issues. Read the first post about Valley wanting to rezone all of its properties as housing projects. Where do the candidates stand on these substantive issues that threaten our housing prices and will drive up our tax payments?
I would like each candidate to state where they stand on turning all of Valley’s current properties in Ridgewood into apartment projects. Or any other substatnive issue for that matter. I don’t need to hear them attack (throughout surrogates) the ability of our police and fire department employers to run into a burning building or tangle with a burglar.
Jeff is a disgrace. He doesn’t even know the law on residency for our police and fire. He’s not even a useful idiot.
Ekected official suggesting that the chief of police and chief of fire can’t do their jobs. Matt Rogers can we get rid of Voigt??????
In this day in age how can crap like this happen if she knew her sons were applying for these jobs she should have stepped down. The village has a no nepotism policy which is rarely adhered to (Moritz and sons Ward and sons) it’s nothing but a joke.
Wow what a big mouth he is .whats up.
I hope no-one takes seriously Jeff’s quote about Police and Fire Chief’s lack of ability to properly supervise Susan’s sons. That is really a ridiculous statement if any one knows the two officers.
Small man big mouth. It’s a thing!
“Deena Yellin” – her twitter profile says that she covers – Tenafly, Alpine, Elmwood Park, Saddle Brook, Fair Lawn.
How did she reach out to Rurik and Jeff for her article and how did she pick Ridgewood’s image as her article’s main image?
This news paper probably took money in some form to publish this story. She is not even Ridgewood reporter.