MAYOR’S OFFICE HOURS FOR RIDGEWOOD RESIDENTS – Saturday, March 1
Mayor Paul Aronsohn holds office hours for Ridgewood residents the first Saturday of every month from 9:00 a.m. to 12 Noon in the Council Chambers (Sydney V. Stoldt, Jr. Court Room) on the fourth floor of Ridgewood Village Hall. The next session is Saturday, March 1st .
For an appointment to meet with the Mayor, please call the Village Clerk’s Office at 201-670-5500 ext. 206. You may come to the Mayor’s office hours without an appointment, but those with appointments will be given priority.
RECALL
Who cares?
Start showing up and wasting his time so that at least he can’t do any harm during those hours.
RECALL is a serious process to remove public officials who are inept. Look around this once beautiful Village…yup RECALL!
how would we actually go about a recall? Is it possible?
Look around this once beautiful village…yup, still beautiful.
Clean your glasses 6 and stop drinking the kool aid .
#6 are you by any chance selling rose colored glasses?
#6 is the only sane person on this thread
I remember when there were cobblestones on some of the streets in town. I didn’t live here, but worked nearby, and it was kind of quaint. I was reminded of this recently when I saw a pothole on Franklin under the trestle and thought “Oh yeah! The whole street used to look like that! What a pain to plow though…”.
Then I wondered if there was an uproar about “preserving the sacred village” when the proposal was made to pave with asphalt, and thought of this blog.
We’re having a rough winter, the whole of north jersey looks like shit. Spring will come and the place will fix up just fine. Yep, I’m #6.
Amazing we can’t get better governance in Ridgewood – the previous Mayor thought it was okay to hand out a 12% retroactive pay raise to the Village Manager along with 4% annual wage increases to his old buddies during a recession; one of our Council members still thinks it was okay to do business with the Village – and entities that are majority funded by the Village like Central Dispatch and Ridgewood Water – while service on the Planning Board and Council; and, now we have total paralysis. Just look at how offers were made to two legacies by the RPD before they even informed the council, in direct conflict with the Village’s nepotism policy. There hasn’t been a Democrat in the 5th District of NJ since Percy Stewart in 1933, and Garrett is going to eat any 2016 challenger for lunch.
good points but you missed the mark on a few things , first the 12% raise still but the then village manager below the pay of the previous Village manager (the one that crashed a bunch of village vehicles ), the previous mayor and council did create this lower entry point for new hires at the PD which we will start to realize savings as the older officers retire , the council member doing biz with the Village was well know and Ok when it helped the Village out , but not OK when the new council decided to put all there friends in place to dine of the public troff .The two aspiring officers we sent letters of expectance with promises of employ but suddenly when it was discovered who they were related to ,it was first claimed the dept could not hire , then the nepotism policy was suddenly enforced , go check the names of village employees there are like 5 major last names for all village staff . But you failed to mention a former mayor who omitted he had a relative on the Valley Board of Trustees and you omitted all the waste like the golden $550k toilet for vets and the $9million Village hall fiasco amongst many other money wasters the last 15 years
The Council knew about the new hires and approved the money. They also new about one candidate relation with his police officer father. It wasn’t till they found out the other candidate last name that this became a problem. Watch the Council meeting ” Willard” Some posters have made accusation of something unlawful going on or interference by one candidates father. I would caution you as you may find yourself in court. No, I’m not him before you go down that road.
Just a reminder of Blog Policy , “anonymous posts” do not protect you from law enforcement , you are not a “protected source” ,your IP and comments will be turned over immediately upon request . Those IP’s can be traced back from the very founding of this blog .
Law enforcement would of coarse need some type of probable cause , to deter information “fishing expeditions” . Attorneys understand they would need a court order in most cases , unless we notice a pattern of maliciousness and inaccuracy by a certain poster. Another words if we know you and we do and think you are acting like a “Jerk” , we will turn over your information no questions asked.
Remember “Anonymous posts” are available to well meaning individuals looking to disseminate information , voice there opinion and avoid retribution , not to hide bad behavior .
True that #13. If you watch the Council meeting the Acting Village Manager and the Police Chief both said that the Council was aware of every step taken. The Police Chief call for an investigation on how he acted by The Prosecutor Office. If there any wrong doing it fall on the Council on how and why they act this way. It will all come out in court.
Defamation
Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person’s reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.
Defamation may be a criminal or civil charge. It encompasses both written statements, known as libel, and spoken statements, called slander.
Well,well lets see how many village employes are post while they are work.
Just to clear this up again…. The nepotism policy does not bar any legacy from join the police force. I simply states that the vc must be notified by the vm of the legacies background. More specifically to the police dept, if the legacy candidate skips another candidate who is not legacy the vc has to give a reason why to the council.
So lets break this down…
The vc admitted that the vm notified them of the two legacy candidates background ( yes both have family in the dept… But I guess killion gets special attention for some reason)
No non legacy candidate was skipped by a legacy ( accusation of list adjusting by the chief… Who called for an investigation to prove no wrong doing) and this a civil service list…. Not a chiefs test.
And the kicker… The top three on that list are legacies!!! As stated by the vm in the council meeting.
Man I guess that is just a perfect storm of bad luck for those two kids huh?….
Bad luck my rear end.
So the article below is slanderous and defamatory ? I don’t have an issue with leagcies on the RPD or RFD. I have an issue when Village policy is ignored, or when one of our representatives acts in direct conflict with the spirit of the Local Government Ethics Law. This was the source for the comments above. If it is wrong, please let us know. {https://www.northjersey.com/ridgewood/Chief_admits_Ridgewood_police_hires_violate_code.html}
Thanks James, I’m still confused why we had to raise the new guy retroactively though… the previous guy made X, so the new guy should get X, too, retroactively ? During a recession ? How about working hard for a raise (not retroactive) after a peer & performance review, like in the private sector ? Could it have been that the previous Village Manager went to the Council after handing out pay raises to his Police & Fire Chiefs, and claimed he should get paid more than those reporting to him ?
#18 you are incorrect a legacy candidate was passed over. I’m not sure how that figures in your post, but one of those passed over comes from a long line of cops, firemen, and politicians, so, #19 that’s another example of how the accusations of nepotism are pure bullshit.
According to this article, “There was nobody who was chosen for any other reason than where they stood, based on civil service scores and who responded. Many people [on the civil service list] didn’t respond.” https://www.northjersey.com/ridgewood/Chief_admits_Ridgewood_police_hires_violate_code.html
What I don’t understand is, if you have the highest police wages of almost any municipality in NJ (and therefore the country), plus a lower crime rate than most municipalities, why don’t have we more non-legacies on the civil service list responding to the RPD ? These positions should be highly sought after by everyone on the civil service list, and yet four of the top six candidates on the civil service list who did respond were legacies ? Is there any chance that offers were only posted in Ridgewood, so only candidates who live around Ridgewood saw the offers and were able to respond in time ? Am I the only one who finds this odd ?
Ridgewood is the Goldman Sachs of Bergen County police departments, and yet 67% (4) of the top 6 candidates on the civil service list who responded to offers from the RPD were legacies. This was an offer for a high paying job, in a Village with less crime – and likely less risk – than many surrounding communities. If Goldman had seven openings like the RPD, you can be sure that 67% of their top six candidates wouldn’t be legacies. To paraphrase Buffet, that’s like choosing your 2034 Olympic team from a pool of athletes where 67% of them are the kids of gold medal winners in Sochi 2014. I have nothing against legacies and agree they know the community well, but something doesn’t quite add up here.
To 23 and 24 Careers in public safety seem to run in family’s. many of the RHS. graduates are not interested in Law enforcement or fire careers. To some families, many of which post here, a career in Law enforcement or the Career fire service would be a let down to the parents who’s expectations were much loftier, You can opine all you want but the facts are what they are, hiring is too closely regulated, and the penalties for violations way to severe to risk a violation of the civil service rules and regs. The reason this seems odd is that your not familiar with the rules and regs and the process as a whole.
#22 that is what iam saying. I think you misunderstood my post. I said no non legacy candidate was skipped over. All the candidates in the top three are legacies.
The vc would have to be notified by the vm if a non legacy was skipped over by a legacy. Which didn’t happen…
23 and 24 it is not a conspiracy…. You need to have residency in ridgewood to apply for the police dept. you can not live in another town and apply…. With that being said once you have sometime on you can move as you please..
So with that said why is it so odd to see so many legacies in ridgewood? It’s not that hard to figure out. It’s a big risk to move to a town like ridgewood with rents being so high just to maybe have a shot of getting on. If you look at towns like Paterson (which granted needs more police ) hire 23 cops at a time and ridgewood hires one or two every so often it becomes clear to see its a gamble for outside residents.
The other reason as stated it runs in the family. Kinda like fire and ems…. It just a way of life. It is a shame more people that grew up here or currently live here don’t take the test. But you cant say to the people that do because your father, sister, mother, or brother works here you can’t because the ratio is off… Hell tell your kids to take the test…
And 24 we are a CIVIL SERVICE town for the 9 billionth time… It’s not like Goldman Sachs…. No one person is hand picking or choosing based on a pool… It’s a certified list, that is complied based on test scores from the entire state…. We also use the rule of three in Ridgewood.
It’s like you want the dept to be corrupt?
Got it now 26 , and I agree some posters want to see corruption for some odd reason or another no matter how things are explained they continue to scream foul. I’m not sure if it’s agenda, petulance, or ignorance.
Cities and towns have always had to properly regulate and control cronyism and nepotism. Rules and procedures that determine the hiring apply to everyone equally and in civil service as long as a candidate meets the standards they are eligible for hire. Excluding someone from going through the process just because they are related to someone already employed by a city or town is a bit draconian and foolish. If this rule was applied to our military I bet those complainers about legacy employees would not be complaining about that anytime soon
Also just to clarify more. You take the test not really knowing who is hiring. You check off the positions you would like to be reviewed for while filling out the test application. So you can test for corrections or for local ext ext. however, it’s all the same test and you can check off as many positions as you want.
Once you take the exam… You wait and wait months at a time till the scores are calculated. Once the scores are out departments can call for a certified list when they want to hire.
Now a list is good till the next test scores come out. Yes, some dept do offer some hint of a hiring window … Most of the time you sit and wait till you get a call, email, or a letter. You don’t even know if you will be drafted that time around. It is not rare to take the test multiple times with out a call.
Even after that you typically have multiple interviews to go through with more waiting while a background check is being done. You have to handover your transcript from high school and college and get letters of recommendations.
If you make it through that you have to go through a physiological test, physical test, and drug test.
It’s a process that can take a very long time. This is a commitment of stress, time, money and sleepless nights. So with caution, think before you type. This is all general info that can be found out with a google search.
Thanks #25, didn’t realize there was a residency restriction. If my son is a Weehawken legacy will that help in Ridgewood ?
Thanks #26, not looking for corruption and not opposed to legacies, just confused on the ratio given I didn’t understand the residency restriction – so many of our current RPD and RFD don’t live in Ridgewood.
#30… as stated being a legacy does not help or hurt your chances. If your son is a current village resident and has taken the last civil service test he could be called based on his scores.
Thanks #32
NP 33.
The new scores should be out before June I believe..but you never know due to set back! Hope it works out!