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Former BOE Trustee Defends Shelia Brogan

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The editorial you ran today regarding Shelia Brogan is a distortion of the facts. It demonstrates that the Ridgewood Blog is unable to be a constructive voice in Village issues. Specifically, you said:

“She used taxpayer money to file a lawsuit in 2018 and got her term extended” – Untrue. When the Village Council switched the school Board election to April, it was uncertain under state law how existing Trustee terms should be treated. The state offered conflicting advice on the subject. To clarify the matter, the Superintendent (not the Board or individual Trustees) went to court seeking guidance. The court considered the matter and ruled how Trustee elections should be scheduled. Had this ruling not been made, future Trustee votes might have been challenged on the grounds that their election used incorrect procedures.

“She signed the One Vote petition and campaigned for the one vote” – Besides being a Trustee, Sheila is a citizen of Ridgewood and has a right to sign a petition. She also has a right to campaign for the petition’s passage and vote for it. Her actions in this regard are proper and legal. To imply otherwise is untrue and fails to recognize her rights as a citizen. Over 59% of Ridgewood voted to return the BOE elections to November.

The characterization that Sheila somehow improperly used her position as a BOE Trustee to extend her term is a malicious misrepresentation.

I served as a BOE Trustee with Sheila for over eight years. We frequently disagreed, sometimes forcefully, on many issues. During all these debates, I never questioned Sheila’s commitment to the Ridgewood School District and the children it educates. Your attack on her service and character is cowardly and unjustified. The Ridgewood Blog staff should be ashamed of these comments.

As always when dealing with The Ridgewood Blog, I require my name to be signed if this letter is posted. I also request that any comments in response to my thoughts be signed. The publication of anonymous comments erodes the values of free speech and public discourse.

Jim Morgan

140 Bellair Road

Ridgewood, NJ 07450

10 thoughts on “Former BOE Trustee Defends Shelia Brogan

  1. Gasbag.

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  2. Bravo!

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  3. Oh puleeeze Mr Morgan. Give it up

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  4. Mr Morgan the comments are from readers (I am one of them, you remember the people you sold out ) not the staff (who ever that is) , PJ ie… James posts under his own name, and Sheila has pulled this stunt before with the Ridgewood Historical Society , and she is a huge fan of tax increases  , at one time she even sat on a NJ state committee that looked at ways to raise taxes yet not cut spending…

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  5. Well, she is a resident too, but if she is campaigning for an issue which benefits her (increasing her term by one year), then that’s called “conflict of interest”, and she should not have done that.

  6. Well said and entirely accurate.

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  7. Hey “wood” – historical society? what’s up with that? is she taking donations away from the little school house? that would be shameful

  8. Lets be clear about what happened in 2018. The BOE elections were returned to April starting in 2019 and the BOE filed an injunction to stop the upcoming BOE trustee elections in 2019 for the first time ever in Ridgewood, effectively lengthening the sitting board members’ terms by an additional 6 months on top of the original 6 month extension they afforded themselves a few years prior. They made a decision to use taxpayer funds to extend their terms for a second time. And if the BOE vote is moved a third time now, that will mean an additional year and a half altogether added to Sheila Brogan’s three year term.

    And really, the claim that someone could have challenged the 2019 election results after the fact, costing the taxpayers money is even more absurd now than it was then. Basically did just that before the election. What private citizen is going to fund that type of litigation from their own pocket?

    As far as Sheila Brogan’s rights as a private citizen are concerned, those rights do not take precedence over her duties as a member of the Board of Education.

  9. Get your facts straight. The BOE did not file an injunction to stop the upcoming election.

  10. 🙂 if BOE did not file the injunction, who did?

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