Political signs in the village-owned planters and in the sidewalk cutouts (for the shade trees) in the Central Business District were unheard of in Ridgewood until someone (as yet unidentified) paid to have the “Vote Yes” signs printed, assembled, and distributed around the Village last Fall in time to influence the Parking Garage vote. And now we are told that there is some kind of regulation in place for political signs that permitted these kinds of signs to be put up in this manner?
What is the text of that regulation as it appears today? How did it appear last fall when the “Vote Yes” signs were erected? What earlier iterations of that regulation existed by which these kinds of shenanigans were completely prevented in the past? Or are we just now seeing the results of a creative interpretation on an old, unchanged regulation by an enterprising new election lawyer or cynical political operator? If that regulation was changed in such a way as to permit or encourage this kind of nonsense, what was the “before” and “after” of this change, and exactly how and when did it occur?
The guiding hands of Councilwoman Hauck, Mayor Aronsohn, Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli, and the Village Manager so clearly appear to be behind this unfortunate development that nobody should ever accept an explanation that does not implicate them. If we want to revert back to a non-partisan form of local government, which we are supposed to be guranteed under the Faulkner Act, nobody that supported the Three Amigos in their misbehavior in recent years, or who is currently receiving political support from them, should ever be elected to Village Council, even by mistake.
