the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, After all the postings about Graydon we went back and watched the previous Council meeting. It was completely obvious that the parks director Bigos and the Village Manager Heather Mailander. do not want the pool to open. All their remarks were completely negative. Excuse me, but isn’t running the pool a major part of the job of the Ms. Bigos? She is already free from the summer camp program, and now she wants to kill the pool.
We recommend that the SALARY OF NANCY BIGOS SHOULD BE REDUCED, with these major responsibilities being killed. Everywhere we turn people have lost their jobs, their businesses, have been furloughed, or have taken significant pay cuts. Many people have taken pay cuts even though they are still working their full jobs. Ms. Bigos’ salary should definitely be reduced since the camp is closed, and it should be reduced even more if the pool remains closed. Everyone who works for Ridgewood Village needs to participate in cost saving measures. Certainly those who are still working their full jobs should remain at full salary. But people who are not?
#1 – Who is “We” – you do not speak for everyone, if you are speaking for a group of people please identify the group.
#2 – If you listen/watch the meeting without PREJUDGING, you will hear the pain in Nancy’s voice. She is not happy with all of the restrictions being put on the pool by the GOVERNOR! She wants want what we all want, an open pool for residents who have been cooped up in their houses.
#3 – The company who was going to run the concession this year BACKED OUT, the village did not decide to close the cafe.
#4- Again, listen without PREJUDGING and you will hear that best case scenario – Graydon will lose $50,000 this season. Heather and others are considering that this may not be the best idea, going into a season knowing that there will be a money drain.
time for some serious pay cuts at Village Hall
Do y’all remember when Roberta Sonenfeld created a full-time position with benefits for her friend from NJ lEADS? Ms. Sharyn Matthews was brought in as Director of Human Resources, and her entire job was to do a major portion of Roberta’s job. Councilman Sedon asked at that meeting: “So, is the Village Manager’s salary going to be reduced accordingly in order to reflect a reduction in her work load?” It was awesome. Sonenfeld was spitting nails. The audience was cheering Mike.
time to cut the dead wood
Is this the time to lose money on Graydon so a few people can socially distance without any amenities?
Bigos and Rooney painted a picture of a money losing, risky enterprise for this summer. It costs $85,000 to open Graydon. Is that the best use of that money now when, ‘everyone is hurting’ per Mrs. Kim?
The best case scenario here has Village taxpayers LOSING $50,000.
What’s the worst case?
It is irresponsible of the Village Council to burden Village taxpayers with these costs when they will only benefit 60-100 residents per day.
Yet again, governance is nonexistent.
Fact check: Roberta’s annual salary was $70,000 less than Heather Mailander’s salary. Did Mike mention that Sue?
yes no experience , no qualifications, oh except being Aronsohns a$$kisser
Guess you never looked at Roberta’s resume? You’re an Angela or worse, an Amy Cooper. Slither back under your rock.
Roberta had ZERO qualifications
Except she’d managed a budget and balance sheet bigger than the Village’s at Citibank, was a Six Sigma blackbelt, and was willing to work for only $150,000 a year.
The difference between her salary and Heather’s huge pay would be enough to open Graydon!
Fact check yourself James, please, for the sake of transparency and honesty.
Six Sigma blackbelt that is the one that always makes me laugh
so now she was the CFO of Citibank?
James looks around you, the Village budget is out of control, property taxes are out of control, the CBD looks like crap, Valley is relocating to Paramus, the current Council voted to build the garage, the current Council filed lawsuits to block citizens groups opposed to the high density developments, contaminated dirt was dumped at Schedler which gas absorbed untold sums of taxpayer funds with no transparency, etc, etc.
Please explain why were you defending this clear self-dealing and poor governance by a bunch of self-interested narcissists on our Village Council?
no $hit welcome to New Jersey
Man, keep fighting the excuse after excuse after excuse fight James. Must be tough constantly defending a castle made of diarrhea that will soon come tumbling down as all corrupt scams do. Power corrupts. It’s only a matter of time before some self-dealing narcissist on our Village Council slips up. Too bad you refuse to question this.
promoting high density Paul Aronsohn and the destruction of the Village of Ridgewood
wax on wax off
lol
That attitude doesn’t work in this new normal post CV-19 world. Cut the crap.
narcissist = paul aronsohn and his $hit head supporters
All venom aside, there is some validity to the original post. Why should the public sector be immune from what the private sector is already enduring? Layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions are rampant in the private sector now. In some cases pay cuts are accompanied by an INCREASE in workload. If Graydon and the camp don’t open, all salaried employees that have any responsibility or authority at Graydon or the camp should have their salary reduced.
Roberta was a legend in her own mind. And she was constantly cosseted by Paul, Albert, and Gwenn
If you want to focus on money losing risky enterprises, check out the new parking garage on Hudson Street. Now that’s something to really concern yourselves with.
Get real, this is all about DM Knudsen delivering for her supporters so then they can call in at public comment and praise her brilliance, if they can figure out how actually call in, oh technology!
Nancy Bigos was not crying. She was whining.
My salary was cut by 40%. And I am still working the same job from home. It was that or lose my job. Nancy Bigis and anyone else who has reduced responsibility should take pay cuts for now.
Why are the roads so dirty in the CBD. Are we not sweeping any more. Filthy.
Oh Boy this is so embarrassing for upper management. Who’s running this town because it’s going to shit. Talk about a lack of experience across-the-board.
Now the Governor is allowing camps to open July 7. What say you now Queen Bigos?
Did you hear the PAIN in Nancy’s voice?
She’s sad.
.
That makes it all OK….
.
I think it’s July 6 but close enough. One month to get ready–do it!
Fewer.
It’s amazing what’s going on in the village. So many of us never seen the day-to-day operations because we would leave at six in the morning and come home late at night. Now that we’ve been around for the past 90 days because of this virus this town is screwed up. I live across the highway, the forgotten territory. Talk about streets being filthy what’s going on. I think my street is swept maybe once A year. What is going on and it’s not just by my house it’s all over town. Filthy ,it wasn’t like that many years ago. Is there a change in supervision because it shows . what the hell is going on in town.
Time to cut ties with the water department. The new mayor and council better buy a real strong broom. Because the bullshit that’s going on with upper management is a joke.
Sweep the damn streets already. I’m a professional runner and the streets of need to be cleaned.
I think it’s time to retire. The writing is on the wall. Especially political. Remember the old saying oil and water don’t mix. Sometimes it’s better to retire before they push you out . In the end they do not care about anyone. Only their bullshit image.
Over and out for us to0 , see ya .
I thought they were going to reconstruct the bathrooms at the pool. Whatever happened to that
What the hell is that smell coming from Leaf compost recycling yard on Lakeview Drive .I live on Goffle Road in Wyckoff. The smell stench is blowing right into our neighborhood what the hell is going on over there. Something is rotting out.
Stinky isn’t it ! It smells like some kind of landscaping Clippings ?
I think we should change it up a little bit this season and Turn the pool into natural lake with fish. And have fishing lessons.That would be fun
Do you think you could send the sweeper over to William Street it needs it. Sometime next week , My neighbors and I will appreciate it thank you
Congratulations to two long time employees of the Parks Dept retired today after over 30 years of service. Your knowledge and experience will be missed.
Good luck to you too time too enjoy yourself.
Not good.
Rome is burning
“Time to cut ties with the water department.”
Yes! The Water Department *is* a joke! For example, they require the form for smart water controllers to be NOTARIZED. Why?!? So that a notary public can feel important.
It’s 2020. Docusign would work perfectly for this use case.
I agree that “important” documents (e.g. mortgage documents, business loans, etc.) should be notarized. But forms for smart water controllers? Really?!?
That is a complete waste of the taxpayers’ time and, more importantly, the Village employees’ productivity! We (the taxpayers) are paying for ridiculous workflows like these. We must address and eradicate inefficiencies such as this! After all, these Village “employees” are civil SERVANTS. They work for us and must be held accountable for poor decisions!
Really who retired. Wow two people at the same time
I’m walking through the CBD with my girlfriend tonight my God the sanitation department couldn’t come out and run the sweeper through the business section, what a joke. It’s Saturday night and families walking through the CBD and it’s filthy.
Yes the water department should be separate from the Village of Ridgewood. All the employees that work for the word appointment should be utility workers not villager Ridgewood workers. There’s a scam going on. And it smells
Yes we had two village employees retired from the Parks Dept product. Supposedly they had each of 30 years of experience. Good luck to them don’t look back enjoy your retirement.
Nancy Bigos – Get the pool ready to open. Now. It is your JOB to do this.
To the wannabe fisherman above: you could never get fish to live in the mud hole. Too toxic. Think about that for a while.
Cabin fever??? These people have been working while we have been hiding in our homes. Think about that….exposure?
As gross as Roberta is and was, Heather certainly does not deserve a dime more that she was earning as clerk. She is terrible. She needs to check her employees like bigios and that engineer. Clean house
Bigios is a waste of space. Lazy and full of shit. She isn’t sad about anything except missing a glass of wine with her healthbarn friend in a Friday night
And the engineer is a bully and Heather is not as smart as she thinks she is
Cut salaries and save the town one pay cut at a time
Fire Bigios a third grader could do her job
According to publicly available data, Nancy BIGOS has an annual salary of around $115,000 per year:
https://govsalaries.com/bigos-nancy-a-32637621
This does not include the lifetime pensions that government employees are entitled to (pensions are worth significantly more than 401k plans over the long-term, assuming average life expectancy).
It’s no surprise that we, the taxpayers, are funding large salaries for Village employees. Nancy’s salary is simply one data point.
It’s June 2020. We’re in the midst of a global pandemic. The unemployment rate in the U.S. will likely be reported near 20% in a few days. The number of job losses will be reported near 35 million. These are numbers that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression.
Due to the economic carnage, the private sector is tightening its belt. The public (governmental) sector should do likewise.
There are two choices:
a) Hold compensation steady and demand significantly more productivity from each Village employee, or;
b) Lower compensation for Village employees
Which do you prefer? Lower salaries (= lower taxes) or more productivity?
@Residents of Ridgewood — let’s hear your opinion!
Both. The excessive wages, defined benefit pensions and platinum health insurance benefits for public sector employees need to be diminished, and they need to contribute more than 7.5%~10% of their wages towards their own pensions. They shouldn’t be allowed to collect their defined benefit pensions until after age 55. And they need to trim the fat and make the everyone more productive by firing unproductive workers who’ve been shown to be redundant through this pandemic. Then the survivors will hopefully work harder.