the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, an article hit the news this week that, among other things, highlighted the relationship between Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos and Jason DeAlessi, the franchise holder of TapInto Ridgwood, a local online news outlet. It was initially reported in the New Jersey Monitor, and then re-posted on “X” by The New York Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Politico, NJ Spotlight and others. The article appears on the front page of The Star Ledger on Friday October 11.
The synopsis, as it relates to Ridgewood, is two-fold:
1. Jason DeAlessi, the franchise holder of TapInto Ridgewood, is closely aligned with Ridgewood Mayor Paul Vagianos to the point that he was managing Mayor Vagianos’ official Facebook page in 2022 and 2023, during which time residents’ comments that the Mayor did not like were hidden. Yes, hidden. Via Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests by a local citizen, which Vagianos delayed fulfilling multiple times, it was eventually determined that numerous resident comments were “hidden” by either The Mayor himself, or Mr. DeAlessi, who was the FB page administrator. Moreover, at least one citizen was known to be completely blocked from seeing the Mayor’s FB page. This was (and is) unlawful. When an elected official engages in online discussion about government matters, NO ONE CAN BE BLOCKED and NO COMMENTS CAN BE HIDDEN. Doing so would alter an official public record. So Mayor Vagianos (or his designated administrator), who claims to be the king of “transparency,” controlled citizens’ comments on his FB page when government matters were being discussed.
2. The same Jason DeAlessi represented candidate Vagianos during his failed 2017 bid for State Assembly and his successful 2021 Ridgewood Village Council campaign. So, articles published in TapInto Ridgewood are controlled by an individual who is closely linked with Mayor Vagianos. Every single article about Ridgewood is, therefore, completely suspect as being pure propaganda.
The Ridgewood Blog feels that we MUST NOT RE-ELECT an individual who has a history of censoring resident feedback and maintaining a dubious relationship with the publisher of a local media outlet.
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Let’s not forget the Tap Into did a smear campaign on Susan Knudson when she was running for Council. It was truly awful.
And that Siobhan’s FB page Ridgewood Mom and Dad’s FB page (she was the administrator and had not been elected yet) when “providing voter information” sent you to Tap Into and a slew of Vag ads instead of the Bergen County Voter website. The same webpage that blocks anyone who opposes to PV, PP, SW and EW. Hell, I am so blocked I cannot even see the page at all anymore..
Vagianos guy has money! He owns the village manager and other four council members. He’s funding their campaigns. Look at the ELEC reports. He has raised 54k so far and some others have 2k, while they are all sending multiple mailers and running online ads. Each mailer costs a minimum of 5k.
Village manager Keith Kazmark was Vagianos campaign manager before being hired for 300k+ job (plus he has a new full time communication person who goes with him everywhere and posts his pictures as if he’s a politician, which he is, not for for this paid job)… So they all OWE to Vagianos and they are ALL his puppets. He has paid them all and none of them can oppose his ambitious downtown projects, which eventually benefit HIS personal properties in the downtown. He owns multiple downtown properties under hidden LLCs!!!!
bullet vote Kwak
The only way to be sure of eliminating him is to bullet vote for Kwak
Five bullet votes for Kwak from my house!
Pee Wee is a dangerous dirtbag.
And the parks guy Richard Brooks does not pay his taxes in the tens of thousands. Yet he makes recommendations to the council
on expenses for the parks. Vagianos loaned Brooks $47,000 to pay his taxes and still the taxes don’t get paid. Another shady situation.
Brooks, Chairman of Parks & Rec and the Conservation Board in Ridgewood is married to Paul’s college bestie, Gail Price the law partner of the firm that tried to bring the billboard to Ridgewood, right next to the Paramus church. While zoning shot it down for now, just you wait until after the election that thing will pop up again. So was the $47K for Brooks/Price as a loan or something else? Still no answers? Village attorney, Matt Rogers, who also worked at Gail Price’s law firm, wrote a letter that the mayor read saying he did nothing wrong. Hmmmm, the tangled webs we weave.
Can we get lawn signs that say pay your taxes please!
Can we PLEASE not disregard the 4 million dollars of tax payers money that was given to Healthbarn at the gatehouse which is NOT where the NON profit division of Healthbarn is!!! Our Mayor Paulie and Ramon Hache were BIG BIG part of this. Where is the money????
In someone’s pocket I am guessing.
yep. I am sure a few main players
Was Becky one of them?
BULLET VOTE KWAK!!!
We will need a full breakdown of how much each spent. We know the mailers are expensive and there should be an audit trail to see how much was spent and if Paul paid for Mortimer’s mailings and Perron’s mailings. It all should be public information.
Mortimar’s mailer had a print saying “paid for by mortimar” – while his campaign did not have that type of money when the mailer was sent and when the paperwork was filed!
So he is not only a greenwasher but is not being truthful that Vagianos may be footing the bill for his mailers. Also, didn’t Donna Abene work for Jason D’Alessi from TapInto. I think that is who is listed as treasurer of Vagianos, Mortimer and Perron campaigns of record.
He’s a marketing guy, so you see, Vaginas gives him the dough and he then pays for the mailers, see, see. spin, spin. that’s what marketers do, they spin.Is it a lie, technically yes, but he can talk around it. he will leave your head spinning when he tells you he is mr. no mow may voting for turf.
We had another crooked mayor named Paul a few years ago. Paul Aronsohn. He is the one who brought partisan politics into our non-partisan form of government. He also tried to control the media and the message. He was known to hang out at the Ridgewood news office back in that day, and preview any articles about the Village council. We also know of one confirmed time when he had a resident’s opinion letter pulled because he didn’t like what it said.
Now we have a new crooked Paul, who is controlling the message on Facebook and in online news sources. Vagianos is dragging our town into the gutter, into the sewers below the street. We must vote him out. He is no good for Ridgewood. The only way to do this with four candidates for three slots is two bullet vote Hyun Ju Kwak.
Any affairs yet with this Paul? We all know about the other, just sayin’
What about Jeff Voight? He’s part of the club too. Up and moved out of RWood but sticking his nose in everybody’s business (just like I’m doing right now).
I think he had affair issues too. No linger married I heard
Stop it. There are strong arguments against him. This is just stupid.
Yes, exactly, there are strong arguments against voting for Paul Vagianos. Really a bad guy and not an effecrice mayor who cares about this village. He cares about votes, about politics, about the sports folks who have donated to his campaign or his business ventures. Pavilions for his friends who kept him rich during COVID. Yeah that is what he does. Wine, dine and pocket …..you got it, line!
The Mayor of mal·fea·sance
[malˈfēzns] noun
Dubious is an understatement. This is outright wrongdoing, especially by a public official.
The article above has been forwarded to The New York Times’s tip “line” (email).
Facebook is not used by all. Public announcements by an elected official do not belong there unless they are copied from a more universally available place, such as the Village website.
I have never had a Facebook account and never will, for example, and I know plenty of other Village residents who could say the same.
All such announcements must cease immediately.
Tell that to Winograd and others like Keith Kazmark who use social media as a means to commicate.
Peewee doesn’t look well.
Vagianos win three years ago was largely propelled by Laurie Weber or bender or whatever her name is. She posted poison and gave him the win. Ain’t going to happen this time.
Don’t blame Ms. Weber. She hates Paul as much as anyone and did not give him the win. But she felt others needed to know the other candidate through her lens. I believe she heard what she heard. And since no one believed.her, how could her allegations have impacted the outcome of the election?
The other candidate lost all by herself…..was all over social media fighting with neighbors in the streets, providing details of her ongoing bad relationship with the ex-husband, pics of drunken nights. As she has the support of Susan K udsen which was hurting her in many circles. She lost all by herself. I would love to see her run again as I think she would make an excellent councilperson
PV had a huge amount of supporters….why do we always attempt to diminish this. He won the election with a majority of votes. like it or not.
I remember that. Horrible
Whoever said stop it is just ridiculous. The mayor brought this upon himself. He is an egotistical selfishly driven prick. Ridgewood needs to be done with him.
Paul is now using trump slogans of unity and creating videos wearing red. He thinks he can fool the republicans in this town that he’s not a corrupt New Jersey Democrat.
Paul is promoting the “unity” thing to gain all Perron’s votes so he can claim to be the Mayor. He’s not running against Kwak – he has enough votes to win A SEAT on the council.. he’s running against Pam Perron to get more votes than her, to retain his Mayorship!
Jesus, can’t we be done with the dickwad. He has almost ruined Ridgewood.
Be careful what you wish for ppl
Vagianos is going to lose. Mark my words. People all over town have grown to despise him and his dirty dealings
Vagianos is not going to lose. There are enough people in town that will vote for him to give him A seat. His fight is with Pam Perron to retain mayorship, and that’s why he’s posting everywhere WITH Pam, to gain Pam’s voter’s votes.!!
Please no. Everyone should hate him for what he is doing. So self serving
One can only hope VAGIANOS IS THE WORST MAYOR EVER!!! I just became a voter and do not plan to vote for this guy. Ewwwww.
why is Paul V all over my sons you tube????
Say what?
He is all over you tube. I don’t watch it but my son said hey that mayor everyone hates is all over my you tube feed
Yeah, that’s not how it works. My YouTube feed is filled with videos featuring “muscle mommies” and horror film trailers — because that’s what I watch on YouTube. So, either your son (or someone in your house) has been binging on Paulie V’s greatest hits.
He could be running local ads. I don’t think that sounds like too much of a stretch. They are probably really phony just like he is.
Out of the mouth of babes. I have heard the same thing from teens too. They think he is slimy. I guess they are tuned into to what is going on more than we know.
What do you mean, the mayor that everyone hates? Do you ever look at your neighbor’s lawns, the ones peppered with Vagianos/Perron/Mortimer/Walz Obviously signs? Do you ever see signs for anyone else?
What has he done except promise a field? What just list out what he has done? Sidewalks and street paving? residents kicked and screamd for this. The footbridge-still undone, but a $350K pavilion for his friends is underway-money for that. Go ahead list out what he has done. I will wait. If you have a vested interest in getting something and not just seeing a balanced approach to governing, then it means nothing that you have a lawn sign
That’s not the point. It doesn’t matter what he has or hasn’t done. (It really only matters what he’s done for the right people, first and foremost, but that’s a different story.) Most people in town don’t have an inkling of what’s going on and actually don’t care to — their perception of what he’s done is what matters, and all it takes to influence that perception is a few impressive sounding bullet points on a promotional flyer. Most people do not hate the mayor; they’re either ignorant or don’t really care. The tiny little echo chamber you reside in; the very tightly controlled propaganda bubble you’ve built around yourself and your fellow co-conspirators, does not reflect the actual reality. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I’m just saying don’t fool yourself.
Vagianos FLAUNTED THE LAW by building a permanent installed wall outside his restaurant on the public sidewalk. He did not give a shit. He is such an awful person
In a nutshell, this is how I understand it.
D’Alessi, owner of TapInto that is supposed to be an independed online news outlet is in tight with our very own, Paul Vagianos and helped his campaign to get elected.
D’Alessi becomes the administrator of the Mayors Facebook page and blocks comments or people who presented ideas that didn’t show said mayor in a positive light.
Authorities were called to report the mayor for this unethical and illegal behavior (dare I ask where Matt Rogers was?)
Vagianos and D’Alessi must then restore the original posts and unblock comments and individuals.
Special favors might have been bestowed on said mayor in terms of published articles showing Ridgewood and his time in office as positive all the while steeped ina shitstorm of controversy.
This behavior is deemed highly unethical along with other commenters who have pointed out other behavior not befitting of a mayor.
Campaign contributions may be suspect as special favors seem to be high on the list of priorities being headlined by this mayor, and many feel that it is time for him to step aside and let a real municipal leader who can handle fiduciary responsibilities in the most ethical and transparent way possible to regain the trust of residents who do not believe that Vagianos is fit to hold the position.
Did I get this right?
It goes back further than just 2024…. D’Alessio was Vagianos campaign manager when Vag ran for NJ State General Assembly back in 2017. His office manager was the finance manager of Vagianos campaign. They have had a very, very long relationship dating to when Jason was working out of his parents basement in Kinnelon.
Further, in his initial bid for Village Council Siobhan Winograd and her Ridgewood Mom and Dads FB page were directing traffic to TapInto where you were bombarded with Pro-Vagianos ads and articles and anti-Knudson articles. When it was pointed out by a poster that she was de-facto violating her “no politics” policy by promoting Vagianos via her Tap Into links (it was so obvious it was insulting), she immediately took that comment down and posted her own …”As always, we do NOT allow promotions of candidates on our Forum. Please refrain from promoting a candidate, and simply stick to an issue” yet she failed to take down the links to Vagianos ads.
Vagianos has to go. And the only way to do this is to BULLET VOTE KWAK. Just cast one vote, even though you could cast three. Just vote for Kwak. For the good of the town.
The Richard Brooks Gail Price thing is so weird. They are in debt tens of thousands in back taxes and they also owe Vagianos for an earlier bail out. And yet they have gardeners at their property every damn week. PAY YOUR TAXES.
Agree that it is really weird.
Most folks realize he is a fake and a phony but they don’t care, they’ve either donated and expect something or they just are out of it and have no vested interest to hold him accountable.
What ever happened to Vagianos dubious relationship with pasta Primavera? What ever happened to him.