Mass Email Blast in Support of New Village Manager Raises Eyebrows
From: Nancy Johansen
Date: March 6, 2014, 5:24:39 PM EST
Subject: Ridgewood’s New Village Manager
Reply-To: nancy.johansen@optimalpartners.com
Good evening! You may hear through the grapevine that Ridgewood has offered Roberta Sonenfeld the position of Village Manager. Here’s a link to a Bergen Record story on her upcoming appointment:
https://bit.ly/1hR4MbJ.
This is a bold pick for Ridgewood and one that may get some discussion in the coming days. I have gotten to know Roberta well and I wanted to share some facts about her so you can make up your own minds.
Roberta has incredibly deep professional experience improving organizations by focusing on customer service and streamlining operations. At one point in her financial services career she had a team in excess of 2,000 people reporting to her. She has managed budgets five times greater than the budget of the village. Often during her career she was asked to take on new challenges and always excelled.
Success in that career has given her the flexibility to apply those skills in public service.
If you volunteer your time in Ridgewood chances are you know Roberta too. She is Vice President of both the Ridgewood Education Foundation and the Volunteer Center of Bergen County. She is also on the Board of the Ridgewood Historical Society. She participated in Bergen LEADS a premier civic leadership program for adults who live and work in Bergen County and as a result has a broad network throughout the county. I have worked closely with her on the Financial Advisory Committee where she has served as the vice chair. She is engaged in our community in a way that demonstrates her commitment to keeping Ridgewood great.
Finally, Roberta is one of our neighbors. She and her family have lived in the village for 17 years, she pays taxes in the village and her daughter graduated from Ridgewood schools.
These are challenging times for towns in New Jersey that will require strong leadership and creativity. We need someone who can improve services while staying focused on the budget, someone with an open mind without preconceived notions on solutions, someone that knows the village and the people that live here. Roberta is the right person at the right time for Ridgewood village manager.
Feel free to pass this email to anyone that you think would like this information and please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Nancy
