August 16,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in a recent letter , “Don’t disband Ridgewood financial committee” https://www.northjersey.com/story/opinion/readers/2017/08/14/letter-dont-disband-ridgewood-financial-committee/564698001/ Evan Weitz former chair of the FAC lays out his reason why the Village should maintain the committee.
Beginning in January the Ridgewood blog published a host of articles starting with, the “Financial Advisory Committee Must Meet Professional Standards ” https://theridgewoodblog.net/financial-advisory-committee-must-meet-professional-standards/ , in that article we laid out the case that the absence of financial standards creates a legal liability for the Village.
We also accused the FAC of playing politics many times and questioned its relevance and professionalism .
Recent research into the FAC has opened a whole can of worms and here is just a summary of our findings:
We found Evan Weitz was WAY overstepping his boundaries; where Bob Rooney tried to remind him and others that the FAC was strictly advisory; where Evan wanted to get in on contract negotiations with the Police and Fire (for real?!>!?) and then of coarse is Nick Whitney’s resignation letter where he confirms all the Ridgewood blog claims as to the Ridgewood Financial Advisory Committee not meeting commonly accepted standards, over stepping its boundaries, leaving members open to significant legal liability as well as the Village and of coarse interjecting politics into the committee.
Whitney’s resignation letter confirmed our fears and spells out in no uncertain terms the damage the FAC did and could have done to the village and implies it was nothing more than a committee to push former mayor Paul Aronsohn’s agenda .