the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, This is what some of The Ridgewood Blog’s loyal readers and others have to say about Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos’ insistence on taking part in discussions about a matter that directly impacts his restaurant business (expenditures associated with dining corral safety):
“How did Ridgewood mayor Paul Vagianos, owner of its Greek to me restaurant participate in this discussion? Isn’t that a conflict of interest if he is opining on the cost/expenses that he will have to pay as a restaurant owner?”
“It is COMPLETELY inappropriate for Mayor Paul Vagianos to opine on this topic since he owns a restaurant that erects a dining corral every year.”
“Wait. What? The mayor is involved in this discussion and he directly benefits from the dining corrals? This is unbelievable.”
“Vagianos said that the 30-mph bollards are EXORBITANTLY expensive (his words) and (in his words) the cost could “kill the program.” So better to kill a member of the public vs. his shi*tty corral program, which benefits his businesses and pockets directly?”
“Now the restaurant owners, led by a certain mayor with an extreme conflict of interest, expect to benefit indefinitely by expanding their serving areas into the street at no increased rental cost.”
“Thank you Councilwoman Reynolds for trying to put the brakes on Vagianos’ cheapskate ideas for public safety”
“This ain’t about dining corrals, this is about extra commercial space for Mayor Pau-lie and friends (CBD landlord) to up charge rent on restaurant owners. Look what happened to Pearl restaurant.”
“It’s never about doing the right thing for this Mayor, it’s about what’s right for him and his pockets.”
“Paul Vagianos, What an unethical man! Always profit over people with this guy!”
“As a restaurant owner himself, should our mayor even be involved in this particular decision making process?”
“Not only is he involved in the discussion, but he is claiming the safer ones are too expensive for the restaurant owners.”
“He should have no part in this discussion. He wants the cheaper ones that are unsafe. Nothing has happened yet and let’s keep it that way.”
“Not sure why this egregious conflict of interest isn’t bothering folks.”
“Conflict of interest! What can we do?”
“Question: Village of Ridgewood Mayor is a restaurant owner and landlord to many of the restaurants (within the CBD) benefiting from dining corrals. As such, should our Mayor Paul Vagianos be involved in this particular matter or recuse himself?”
“Definitely a conflict of interest! I can’t even believe he wouldn’t take it upon himself to recuse himself .”
“Business is politics. Politics is business. All corrupt. Sick of it all.”
“A wider question is should a businessman be a politician? Obvious conflict of interests.”
“Conflict of Interest. Recuse because as a Mayor, he cannot be impartial to the decision a Mayor makes.”
“The mayor needs to recuse.”
Of course, we know what the mayor’s response to all of these comments will be – “The Village Attorney told me that it’s okay for me to participate.”
It may be legal Mr. Mayor, but it just isn’t right. Do the right thing and stay out of it, please.
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Pee Wee is relentless.
He is such a snake
Vote him out
Your idiot neighbors will never vote him out.
He KNOWS this.
That is why he will NEVER CHANGE.
I would vote to abolish voting and make him Emperor for Life, if I could.
The only work Paul has done in four years is focused on CBD and his real estate benefits.
The only work Siobhan has fine us related to get hubbies soccer business aka Schedler.
The only work Paul’s puppy Keith Kazmark is doing is increase taxes to please everyone so Paul can get reelected!!
Well Matt Says it’s Okay, it must be Okay
“It may be legal Mr. Mayor, but it just isn’t right.”
In that case you should also consider the converse: “It may be illegal, but that doesn’t make it wrong.”
If you don’t like the law, change it. Unless we all just ignore the law when it doesn’t suit your private morality, which I’m sure would gratify you immensely. But until that time …
It is the opinion and observation of many that there seem to be many things that this mayor has allegedy done that touch on an unethical pattern. These are condoned and nothing is done to curtail this behavior.
1) Feed the frontlines and relationship with Healthbarn
2) Mortgage loan to his friends, the Chair of Ridgewood’s Conservation/Parks & Rec boards able to influence decisions and his wife , a named partner of the lawfirm handling the LED digital display billboard encouraging businesses to advertise on the sign in order to drive business to Ridgewood.
3) Discussions on topics that relate to the Central Business District where this mayor owns many properties in addition to a franchise restaurant where he can directly benefit.
4) irresponsible spending of taxpayer dollars for special interest projects when safety projects and other important initiatives are not prioritized—–please do not forget that Ridgewood just last year was set to furlough village employees who provide essential services, because the village had no money to pay them yet money was earmarked for the construction of a large sports field to satisfy promises made to his special interest groups who may re-elect him.
These are just the things residents are aware of, what other things exist that we have no knowledge of?
“Unethical” “irresponsible” — what’s left? Crimes of moral turpitude? Paper tigers, all.
What other things exist that we have no knowledge of? I don’t know, extra-dimensional entities that harvest the fear and negative emotions of this planet the way a farmer collects hen’s eggs? Maybe.
In response to “what other things…” the thing here he doesn’t appear threatening, smiling, understanding, yet is doing things that only benefit some not all of the residents of Ridgewood. Our town is suffering and if you don’t see that, then you should get out of your house and walk around and see what is happening. Real problems are not being addressed, which I would think any intelligent person would find concerning and the use of tax dollars for special projects is outrageous.
pa·per ti·ger [ˌpāpər ˈtīɡər]
noun, paper tigers (plural noun)
a person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual.
“[A] person or thing that appears threatening but is ineffectual” fits your incessant morose moralizing — our town is SUFFERING! — to the proverbial tee. And what are you going to do except kvetch about it on your white horse?
FFS, who cares? Even if he recuses himself, they have the votes. Let it go.
And that’s why he is providing the pavilion the success of Healthbarn’s clients in the summer. Up to 90 kids possible all summer long. Thanks Mayor
Listen you people voted him in
What happened to Pearl?
New owner.
“Thumbs down” to an innocent question?
He is gross. To the folks who voted for him the first time, Please don’t re-elect him. So sad the state our village is in
He truly is gross. Dripping with false sincerity
Can we please recruit more people like Loraine Reynolds and Mike Sedon? Too many pet projects and personal agendas.
His legacy will be…
2023 historical tax hike
Furloughs/Layoff threats
Fields over people
Dining Corrals over people
4mil Healthbarn debacle
Destroying Open Space
PFAS/PFOS $$$ over children/people
Pathological Liar/Swindler
Mismanagement
Puppet Village Manager #keithkazmark
Worst ever!
What did I forget?
You forgot what he did before becoming mayor. He built a wall in front of his restaurant and co-opted parking spaces while making the sidewalk a walking hazard with too many dining tables. This went on for a long time. And despite being asked/told to remove the wall numerous times, he did it only when an ordinance changed to make it truly illegal.
I think you forgot that Mayor Vagianos connected with Primavera through an introduction of close friend Gail Price and later hired him to come up with creative solutions for the historic property. Additionally, the mayor made a substantial mortgage loan to Price/Brooks which sparked some controversy with residents as one is heading up several Ridgewood committees as a chair and his wife is the named partner of the application for a very controversial digital billboard that has been presented to Ridgewood’s zoning board for at least the last year+. Unfortunately our village attorney has a conflict of interest haveing had worked for same law partner’s firm.
Truly illegal! There’s “illegal” and then there’s truly illegal! So, i.e. while what he was doing may have been obnoxious (to you, at least) it wasn’t actually illegal, and when the practices were subject to an actual law, he complied. Nothing to see here except your little tantrum.
“Nothing bothers me more than the glorification of stupidity”
quote by Carl Sagan
“Expressing your intelligence only through borrowing the words of people you think are smart has the opposite effect of what you intended.”
quote by Probably Not Keith Kazmark
Looks like Kazmark is posting here
I did not love everything that Susan Knudsen advocated but I do believe she ALWAYS has the Villages best interest at heart. The Vag, not so much..
Doesn’t vsfianos own 4 restaurants in ridgewood? Which ones?