the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewod NJ, Mr Vagianos delivered an Oscar-worthy performance at the candidates’ forum on October 16, as he spoke so passionately about how he hates bullying. What a two-face this man is. Let’s review:
1. When a senior citizen at a council meeting was assaulted, had her phone knocked out of her hand, and was then harassed by this man taunting her, what happened? The very next week, the mayor laid blame at the feet of the senior citizen, saying that the man thought that perhaps she was trying to take his picture with her phone. (as if holding a cell phone is an unusual or aggressive action). So he allowed somebody to do this, and then he blamed the victim. The assaulter, by the way, is a heavy donor to Mr. Vagianos‘ re-election campaign. Follow the money.
2. As that incident unfolded, did Mr. Vagianos stop the meeting to see what was happening? No, he chastised the people in the back of the room, and then instructed the speaker at the podium to continue talking as if nothing had happened.
3. When citizens posted comments on his Facebook page in a discussion about the Shedler property, he purposely hid the comments that didn’t fit his narrative. Online bullying.
4. When a citizen filed an OPRA regarding his Facebook account, he repeatedly delayed fulfilling the request, and then allowed the village council attorney to write a letter with a very snarky characterization of the citizen. Bullying. Intimidation.
5. Until very recently citizens were required to give their home address when they came to the microphone. (thankfully Boyd Loving made it clear that this is unlawful and it’s no longer required.). But prior to this, the mayor repeatedly would interrupt a citizen who started to speak by having them give their full address. For people who weren’t accustomed to come to meetings, and who were nervous about public speaking, this always threw them off their game. Instead of letting them speak, he played Big Brother and interrupted them, when he could’ve simply asked for the address at the end of the person‘s comments. People found this very intimidating, which is a form of bullying.
6. On more than one occasion, when citizens in the room of a council meeting have applauded, or laughed, or otherwise expressed any emotion about what was being discussed, Mr. Vagianos has interrupted and sternly said that people are not allowed to smile, to Laugh, or to make any faces. Again, another form of bullying. And intimidation.
7. At the candidates’ forum this past Wednesday, Mr. Vagianos came armed with misinformation to attack one of the candidates. He berated HyunJu Kwak saying that the student:teacher ratio was worse now than before she took her seat on the board of education. This was a lie, as the student teacher ratio is actually improved. Moreover, this has nothing to do with Village Council business. This was just a lie that was plucked out of the air in order to intimidate Miss Kwak. Fortunately, Miss Kwak is cool, calm, and collected and did not succumb to his attempted bullying.
8. At the same candidates’ forum, he falsely accused HyunJu Kwak of financing artificial turf, when in fact all members of the board of education had authorized repair (not new installation) of an existing turf field. He knew this, but he chose to present it in such a way once again to intimidate or bully a fellow candidate. Moreover, he conveniently and purposely did not mention that one of his chosen running mates, Pamela Perron, also voted to finance repair of a turf field.
9. When there has been a topic of widespread concern that has brought many citizens to a meeting, Mr. Vagianos has pulled rank and stopped people from speaking after 10 citizens have had their say. Even if there is a long line of people still waiting to speak, he refuses to allow them to do so. Even when councilwoman Reynolds publicly stated that she wanted to hear what everyone had to say, Mr. Vagianos has not allowed public comments to continue. This is extremely intimidating to people, as they have to arrive as much as an hour early for a meeting and jockey their way into line ahead of fellow residents, just in order to get a chance to speak. This is very divisive for people who are neighbors, and in many cases friends, who simply want a chance to speak at a meeting. This is bullying and intimidating from the very man who claims to despise such behavior.
These are just some of the incidents that Illustrate that he himself is a bully and tries to intimidate people with whom he disagrees.
Please do not vote for Paul Vagianos. He is bad for Ridgewood.
Once a dirtbag, always a dirtbag.
He doesn’t care.
He knows that we will vote him back into office because we are
RICH and STUPID
You need to produce a line of hats and t-shirts with that slogan.
The ki g of bullying. VOTE VAGIANOS OUT
Laughing all the way to the bank…it’s the greek way.
Imagine approving comments and coming across this and thinking “yes, this is appropriate to post on my blog”
He is probably not even Greek, F*ckin Phony!
He’s obviously not Greek.
Telly Savalas would be ashamed of PFAS Paulie.
Yeah but Telly was actually Greek.
Vagianos allowed a well known bully affiliated with sports in Ridgewood and a person who donated money to each of his multiple campaigns, to menace someone in village hall….and did….nothing. As in NO THING. He could have told that person to stop the abuse, which was not the first time the individual got into it with people. But he did nothing. But his new campaign ads tell residents that he will work to unite the residents and put a stop to this. LIES.
Are you talking about DD, the Slapping Champion…?
An absolute blow hard.
Donnie DBag
I think d-bag is already assigned to Jeff Voight.
Wow! Bullying in today’s world covers a vast area of activities! Similar to anti-Semitic and racist. What nonsense.
This man is just awful. He needs to go
Pam is not a strong speaker, she lowers her voice almost to a whisper and Frank Mortimer, the new voice for Ridgewood, just seems to be bumbling through his speech to get to the end. Awful. On top of that, Vagianos is a class A, liar, so there’s that. It is a combined sh*tshow that will end up costing tax payers.
When was the last time you heard of a town named one of the best places to live, ruled by a mayor that almost furloughed essential staff working for the village and with the worst morale in village history?
Smallest little man in stature and empathy, uses his power to pick on women and others in vulnerable situations. What an absolute POS.
Conducting my investigation, The mayor or manager are covering up for the ex manager and Director of engineering. they knew what was going on with the contamination soil. Oh yes. We are on too them real heavy.
Hybrid access is a failure
Increase kids in school due to the mayor voting yes for all of the new apartments in town.
He raised taxes more than any other mayor
He hasn’t fixed the flooding.
He hasn’t fixed PFAS
He hasn’t finished Schedler
He bought an EPA site
And the downtown traffic is low
No vote of resident confidence
Don’t forget about Paul’s pedestrian plaza epic fail, cutting off many businesses from shoppers.
The guy is a dope. He needs to go back to slinging has in his diner.
Is it an amazing how when the story came out with the contamination so many employees got so quiet. Why is that, are they running scared they don’t wanna ruffle someone’s edges, what a shame, no balls, no guts, not even looking out for their fellow employees, Health. Amazing they become. That’s OK we know who you are .sneaky. backstabber, they think they’re smart unfortunately we are 10 steps out of you. I love it. remember, what comes around goes around do you think management gonna protect you again they’ll drop you like a sack of potatoes, enjoy because We are., We win, village loses