Tag: Gwenn H. Hauck

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Reader says If the Aronsohn projects go through, Ridgewood downtown may never recover

CBD high density housing

RE: October 4th,the Ridgewood Planning Board will be discussing the Conflict of Interest complaint
Get out and speak up. No, get out and shout. If the Aronsohn projects go through, our downtown may never recover and the Aronsohn blight will spread through town over the next decade. We’ve all spent a lot of tax dollars to maintain this town, let’s not give it up to a handful of land speculators who have to be laughing gleefully at the stupidity of the Aronsohn council majority.

More importantly, the conflict issue raised by these citizens calls out to all of us. Is this how we want our local government to be run? If these allegations are true, we need to put that truth into the light of fay and take appropriate action. If we don’t, what message do we tell the next generation? Just as importantly,, what message do we send to the next round of land speculators who want to take over another section of town for their own profit? Do we want that message to be: “Sure, get some friends placed on our planning board and walk all over us.”

So,email or call your planning board representatives. Show up at the meeting. Write tot he town council, especially those we just elected and tell them you want action.

Please also consider sending the following note to the Planning Board and our Mayor via email:

Dear Mayor Knudsen, Chairman Joel and Planning Board Members,

I am aware that a group of concerned residents delivered a Motion of Complaint to the Ridgewood Planning Board, under By Law Sections 2.13 and 7.21, dated September 16th. Their motion brings to light a series of conflicts of interest and unacceptable mistakes that impacted the high density housing votes. It spotlights the truly defective process by which these highly unpopular ordinances (3489, 3490, 3491 and 3493) were passed. It is not right for Ridgewood residents to have such important decisions made, and the future of our village impacted, by a forum influenced by potential personal conflicts and/or mistakes. Preventing such actions is clearly the intent of the Planning Board’s own By Laws.

Therefore, I fully support the motion made by these residents. I ask that the Board stop all current high density site plan reviews and promptly begin a complete review of the residents’ complaints. Should any conflicts or mistakes be found, the Ordinance votes and Ordinances themselves should be rescinded and reevaluated via a proper and untainted process.

Secretary Cafarelli, please forward/print this email to all Planning Board members.

Thanks for considering this request.

EMAIL TO:
Mayor Susan Knudsen, Mayor (sknudsen@ridgewoodnj.net) Michael Cafarelli, Planning Board Secretary (mcafarelli@ridgewoodnj.net)
My email address: (leeda325@gmail.com)

 

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Reader says it always appeared that Aronsohn sold Ridgewood out to developers and other profiteers with whom he wished to curry favor

Ridgewood 3 amigos

In my humble opinion, it always appeared that Aronsohn sold us out to developers and other profiteers with whom he wished to curry favor. Its shameful Yes, we have parking issues. They were never addressed by the Aronsohn administration because his focus was on those who seemed to want to profit from government largess and not Village residents. Distribution is probably our main “problem” – – and its good to see the new council recognizing that and attempting to address that issue before spending millions on a new garage. Yes, we may need a new garage, but let’s see what some of the other solutions are first. I thought Voght laid it out very nicely a meeting or two ago. Yes, let’s spend a few thousand on signs, parking and street re-alignment and then see if we need the garage. Keep up the good work!!

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Readers Not Fond of Ridgewood’s Sore Losers

jill-greenberg-crying-photoshopped-babies-end-times-17

September 20,2016

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Reader says , “You know when Keith Killion lost by just 6 votes to that dimwit Gwenn Hauck, he exited with great grace and dignity. These three who were unelectable in any possible was are going out with absolutely no grace and no dignity. They are all so pissed off that their three replacement candidates were trounced and that their garage to save the world was voted into oblivion. Sore losers hardly describes their behavior. They should take a lesson from Keith, and other very fine council people who left office, and be classy about it.”
Definition of sore loser

:  a person who becomes very upset or angry when he or she loses a game, contest, etc.

I don’t remember Tony, Rurik, et al trashing Paul/Al/Gwenn during their tenure. Sore losers just throwing mud. And yes, Tony is petty because no one chose him to be part of ANOTHER team. If I remember correctly, he couldn’t play nice with the COC so he left to start the guild. Never thought that him as president of the guild would be a lifetime gig.

To be fair, PSEG has been a pain in the azz this summer. That said, Rurik is stirring the pot and is coming across as the latest village troll. TD is a triple sore loser with the garage being voted down, the 3 amigos no longer on the council and now, he can’t play “historian”. All very petty.

Fool us once…Let them just go away. They will never return despite them still hanging around? Chamber of Commerce etc. Sore Loserman ran and lost and they eventually went away. So will these 3. The new Council is awesome and out of the ordinary issues will be attributed to those 3….so we will overcome. They are already off to a great start repealing Pfundwood! Can we get rid of that Gyro Wall next? Tell the sidewalk Nazi he may be next after the wall fall…wasn’t he responsible for the $750,000 coin guy? People have to be held responsible. Thank you 1st amendment…

Aronsohn’s recent op ed piece in The Record and Pucciarelli’s letter to the editor in The Ridgewood News suggest that their plan is to lob hand grenades into the Knudsen administration’s agenda with the hopes of inflicting casualties of some sort. SORE LOSERS.

Clearly, he is the sorest of the sore losers. The two websites, his and Gwenn’s, are pitiful testaments to their longing for a return to power. Good riddance to bad rubbish, the both of them.

He is just an angry sore loser.He needs a hobby.

Clearly, the sore losers are now out in force trying their best to disrespect (got that Gwenn?) those who were able to successfully bring their 4 year reign of terror to an end.

What a bunch of sore losers. Where were all of you when the dirt bag mayor, nit wit Gwenn, fatso Roberta, and full of himself Albert thought nothing of calling Susan every derogatory name in the book? You’re a bunch of losers who just can’t let it go

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Readers say the new council has not gone far enough to come to grips with the damage done by the prior Aronsohn council majority

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

file photo by Boyd Loving

I don’t think this council has gone far enough to come to grips with the damage done by the prior council majority and what needs to be done to right that damage. No one wants to beat a dead horse. But we need to acknowledge the damage that was done in order to move on and in order to prevent the revisionists from painting the wrong picture. Pure and simple, the Aronsohn regime was riddled with bad decisions and actions. Let’s identify them, correct the problems and then move forward. But it does us no good to stick our head in the sand out of some misguided sense of gentility.

Roberta continued to work there because she had to put in some time to build a case to then be able to sue the village. She resigned, in writing, as of Sept 6th, yet all her supporters (Weitz, Pucciarell, Halaby) are assisting in building her case with terms and fake outrage on how she was pushed out, mushandled, ‘unjustly removed’, “abrupt firing’, ‘offer to resign’. This has been the plan all along since they lost the election. Another sleazy move by the ‘wrong side’.

Her dislike for some some council members was displayed in public. Her disagreement with the vision of the new council was public.

I was surprised that she did not resign the day after the election. Why would she continue to work there? The “contentious” environment was of her making.

The fact that it was reported in the Record that she sited a “contentious” environment is enough reason for her to be removed. No professional resigns with a letter accusing anger in her environment. Of course the thought would be she might steal confidential files or even worse…,,,,

I think Roberta wanted to be escorted out. Who knows she may have feared losing control. Knudsen performed the right, safe, professional action.

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Reader says Roberta was a time bomb waiting to explode left behind by the Aronsohn conglomerate

Village_Manager_Roberta_Sonenfeld_theridgewoodblog

file photo by Boyd Loving

Roberta was a time bomb waiting to explode left behind by the Aronsohn conglomerate. Good she’s gone. She sealed her own coffin by submitting a nasty letter of resignation, and then behaving badly immediately following its submission. No supervisor in their right mind would have let her stay on. Mr. Pucciarelli wrote in her defense only because he’s one of those who hired her. He’s only trying to save his own face.

The outgoing (gone) Village Manager, the right thing to do is tell the counsel that you think they’d be better served by someone else, and that you’d be happy to stay on and enable a smooth transition to the new Manager. If she was asked to leave anyway, then at least she looks professional. Instead, she took a figurative dump on her boss’ desks, then started emailing around the office to tell people about it. So she was escorted from the building! Think about it. How else is that scenario going to play out? How high in the corporate world could she have risen, really? I’m genuinely curious.

Albert Pucciarelli letter was just plain ridiculous.

Let’s talk reality, not nonsense:

Show me a leader/manager who would allow any employee who submitted a letter of resignation in which he/she expressed his/her utter dissatisfaction (in writing) with working conditions, and also plainly acknowledged (in writing) a complete disagreement with management’s philosophies, to continue his/her employment with complete access to the employer’s computer network, telephone system, accounting data, and confidential personnel files, and I will show you a leader/manager who is a big a-hole.

Susan Knudsen did the right thing by forcing that condescending bitch with the fat ass out of her office and out of the building.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

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Reader says supporters of the former Village Manager are no better, their display of loyalty to the dishonest, lack of integrity regime that is gone is pretty pathetic

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

What’s really concerning is that these supporters of Roberta, et al is their acceptance of government that proclaims transparency yet goes to great lengths to lie and trick residents. Regardless if you really want a garage or high density apartments, tolerating the lies, deception and trickery makes you compliant. Actually, many of these supporters went to great lengths to assist Roberta, Paul, etc. because they wanted to ‘win’ the garage issue, etc. These supporters are no better, and their display of loyalty to the dishonest, lack of integrity regime that is gone is pretty pathetic. Thank goodness the majority of people are not like these supporters. Good prevails.

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Reader says Bye Bye Ridgewood Garage

Hudson Street Parking Garage

We ALL know that there is ample parking. Even Sonenfeld says so. The problem is that PROMISES WERE MADE to certain key people that a garage would be built near their properties and businesses in the business district. What Aronsohn, Saraceno, Pucciarelli, Vaggianos, Sonenfeld, Hauck and company failed to consider is that the town if full of very smart people. And the people rose up and ran a petition drive and stopped the insanity. Bye Bye Garage.

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Former Ridgewood Council Attempts to Advance Failed Agenda

Ridgewood 3 amigos

August 12,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Why would the former council members, who were defeated resoundingly, come to the meetings to attempt to advance their failed agendas? Are they just spiteful? Do they need to grow up?

Clearly, this was an attempt on Ms. Winograd’s part to generate a newspaper headline that the current Council was seeking to limit public comment.

According to the Ridgewood News which slept through the entire election Winograd was “compelled” to speak looking “to relieve the contentious energy that has been brewing for months”. The “contentious” energy was voted out of office and their agenda was resoundingly rejected . Perhaps if the Ridgewood News would have posted a few per election letters to the editor they would know that.

Once again Paul Aronsohn and the “3 amigos” show a limited understanding of Ridgewood and how things work. Hint : its considered very low class and disrespectful for failed council members to attempt to undermine the new far better ,more open , independent thinking council.
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Paul Aronsohn Allies Push to Curtail Public Comment at Ridgewood Village Council Meetings

3 amigos
August 11,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, an odd occurrence at the Village Council meeting last night  Siobhan Crann Winograd who has recently joined the League of Women Voters along with some other notables including Paul Aronsohn. Asked to curtail public comment at Village Council meetings . Given the former mayor and his cronies tried engineer the turning the Village into Union City despite the public out cry . The 3 amigos were famous for presenting done deals to residents then ignoring both their questions and objections. Siobhan who was involved with the horrible “civility committee ” also spoke in praise of Roberta as well as Rurik Halaby.
Jim Griffith also spoke about the garage and some ambiguities in Susan’s position but the new mayor handled it very well.  One other thing of particular interest was when the council was going over bills and the one for the garage video came up Mike and Susan both stated that they had never been informed of the decision to pay for the video and voiced real discomfort about. Jeff Voigt also voiced his concern and Bernie abstained from voting without comment. It was 4 yeses and one abstain but with vocal criticism.
Anne Loving asked whether the authorization of this video should be investigated and that those responsible should foot the bill.  Boyd Loving also spoke about not reducing public comment.
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What Mr. Aronsohn failed to say

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file photo by Boyd Loving

Editor, The Ridgewood Blog:

On July 20, 2016, The Ridgewood Blog posted a link to an Opinion Editorial written by former Ridgewood mayor Paul Aronsohn in which Mr. Aronsohn endorsed the construction of additional multi-family housing in Ridgewood, and also defended his active involvement in promoting the erection of a now contentious, multi-level parking garage at the intersection of Hudson and South Broad Streets in Ridgewood’s Central Business District.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Aronsohn’s editorial failed to include several key facts with regard to his tenure in office as they relate to multi-family housing and the proposed parking garage.

Firstly; public records available on line from the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission reveal that in 2012, Mr. Aronsohn accepted an “in kind” campaign contribution from a local real estate developer, Mr. John Saraceno, whose firm (Onyx Equities, LLC) has applied to construct new, high density, multifamily housing in Ridgewood.  Undoubtedly, Mr. Saraceno, will profit handsomely once construction is complete and all units in his building are rented.

Secondly, Mr. Saraceno’s firm owns a large commercial/retail establishment located within the very block as the parking garage Mr. Aronsohn and his supporters wanted to build (exact address is: 54 East Ridgewood Avenue).  In my opinion, the value of Mr. Saraceno’s property would have increased substantially if a several hundred space parking garage had been constructed within the same block as his property.

Finally, if you think that all of this wasn’t enough to raise the eyebrows of Ridgewood’s voters this past Spring, may I remind you that on July 3, 2013, Mr. Aronsohn, along with four (4) members of Ridgewood’s Village Council, attended a $1,000-a- head campaign fundraiser for Governor Chris Christie with free tickets to the event provided to them by Mr. John Saraceno.  This incident subsequently became the subject of a lead editorial in The Record on July 17, 2013.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/ridgewood-council-criticized-for-accepting-complimentary-tickets-to-christie-fundraiser-from-developer-1.716990

https://www.northjersey.com/opinion/the-record-pay-to-go-1.564876

Personally, I’d had enough of Mr. Aronsohn many, many months ago, and the results of a local election held in May, in which all of the candidates supported by Mr. Aronsohn for election to Village Council lost heavily, suggest that the vast majority of Ridgewood’s voters who cast ballots agreed with me that it was time for a big change in local government.

Boyd A. Loving

Ridgewood Resident

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Reader say Former Mayor Aronsohn and his Gang are looking to Undermine the New Council

3 amigos

file photo by Boyd Loving

Sore Losers plotting a come back?

Aronsohn’s recent op ed piece in The Record and Pucciarelli’s letter to the editor in The Ridgewood News suggest that their plan is to lob hand grenades into the Knudsen administration’s agenda with the hopes of inflicting casualties of some sort. SORE LOSERS.

DSCF9602

Fool us once…Let them just go away. They will never return despite them still hanging around? Chamber of Commerce etc. Sore Loserman ran and lost and they eventually went away. So will these 3. The new Council is awesome and out of the ordinary issues will be attributed to those 3….so we will overcome. They are already off to a great start repealing Pfundwood! Can we get rid of that Gyro Wall next? Tell the sidewalk Nazi he may be next after the wall fall…wasn’t he responsible for the $750,000 coin guy? People have to be held responsible. Thank you 1st amendment…

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Readers say Time to Target the Targeters buy Boycotting businesses that Support the over development and Destruction of Ridgewood

Itsgreektome theridgewoodblog.net

Reader says ,Without the blog there is political retribution. Several residents have been TARGETED with tickets, summonses, investigations, and more because they spoke out at meetings or on facebook. On the blog you can speak your piece without fear of retaliation from Aronsohn-Pucciarelli-Hauck-Sonenfeld. Of course they try like hell to guess who the anonymous posters are, but they are never sure. And of course the four of them post often, and we can always identify them.

Since so many have felt the sting of political retribution perhaps its time to share the pain ?

Reader says , “I’m boycotting our central business district over these stupid signs and the chamber of commerce.village is a mess and I refuse to support them any longer”

Since so many have been targeted ,some think its time to target back by Boycotting “Its Greek to Me” . While some readers think “Boycotting Its Greek to Me won’t do anyone any good. It won’t change the minds of people, it won’t stop Paul from living his everyday life. That is beyond childish. If you want to speak up and say something go to the village hall meetings, ask questions, get involved. And PLEASE make your OWN decisions. Stop listening to articles that don’t have the best interest for the reader nor the actual people involved.”

while others say, ” Boycotting the Greek place is easy for the simple reason that the food is certainly nothing to write home about, As for the rest of the CBD, more than 50% of the time it looks like it’s already being boycotted, so you probably won’t even see much of a difference if people did. But moving a few homeless folks into the garage should help with that issue.

Wake up, Ridgewood ! These clowns, just like those at Valley, are nothing more than opportunists trying to capitalize on fulfilling their business fantasies at the expense of an entire town. The very least one could do is get out there and vote against people who are going out of their way to wreck the great things Ridgewood has going for it.”

Others say “No boycotting just don’t go, period. Let the council know that you are not going to spend your money in a town where your concerns are not being addressed.The out of town people will have to subsidize the CBD.
No signs, no formal making a scene. Just stop going. And let the council know through e-mails why and how you feel.
Money always talks.”