The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
file photo by Boyd Loving Ridgewood Deputy Mayor Michael Sedon and Mayor Susan Knudsen
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Ridgewood NJ, The word is that Ridgewood Deputy Mayor Michael Sedon (Democratic ) will run for State Senate in the 40th district against incumbent Kristin Corrado.
Continue reading Ridgewood Deputy Mayor Michael Sedon to Run For State Senate
Councilman Voigt may be confused because liars are being outed and that is not supposed to happen in the Aronsohn playbook. Did anybody hear what Matt Rogers said about refusing perpetual troublemakers the right to speak unless they applied for reinstatement in writing and said they wouldn’t do it any more? Halaby and Lehmann should be so censured. Nobody has the right to appear at meeting after meeting and harangue the council out of personal anger and spite. It sets a dreadful tone for the meeting and serves no purpose except to gratify the hysterical whims of those who are unhappy about who won the last election. Halaby and Lehmann should have that rule applied to them immediately. They have more than earned it. It’s embarrassing that they (Halaby in particular) are permitted to continue to appear time after time and spew their vicious bile. That is most assuredly not what the public comment section of the meeting is for. As for allowing Mr. Lehmann to be on a very important board, much less preside over it, he absolutely must be removed. He must know he was risking that with his email and mailer of hate and lies. I can’t imagine letting him stay. He should be barred for life from membership on any appointed committee, commission or board. I hope the council will do this right away.
file photo by Boyd Loving
Matt Rogers blew it when advising the Village Council regarding the grave legal implications of approving third party displays on municipal property based on the content of the message that third party is trying to convey. More specifically, the Village Council deliberately voted to approve the display of the six-color flag/banner on municipal property because the five voting councilmembers personally supported so-called “gay pride” or “gay rights.”
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Acccording to black letter federal Constitutional law, this is a huge no-no. (For a concept to be considered black letter U.S. Constitutional law, the related issues will typically have been long since been resolved by one or more precedential decisions by the federal Supreme Court such that they are no longer seriously being questioned by the legal community.) This remains true, despite the recent overwhelming onslaught on our secular and religious institutions, led by former president Obama, intended to promote sodomy as a valid lifestyle choice, and, in true Alinskyite fashion, condemn detractors, however well-meaning, to cruel social isolation.
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Village Attorney Matt Rogers had plenty of time to consider the relevant issues, and was paid plenty of money to support the legal work that might be necessary to formally convey to the Village Council the foolishness of imagining that it is free to consider the merits of the social or political message being conveyed in the process of deciding whether or not to allow a proposed third party display to be erected on municipal property. It is not now, nor has it ever been free to do so, and for his part, Mr. Rogers should know this fact like the back of his hand.
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In light of the above-described professional failure, and others in the past, such as the proposed (unconstitutional) law intended to ban signs bearing political messages on signs erected on the property of fee simple residences outside of election seasons, the Village Council at its meeting tonight should quietly decline to appoint Matt Rogers to another year as the Ridgewood’s Municipal Attorney.