Tag: Mayor Paul Aronshon

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Note From the Ridgewood Blog Editor Turning Ridgewood into a Dump , will Cost a Fortune and do Nothing to enhance property Values

Ridgewood Water

Reader said, “Nice to see that ya’ll are finally taking your head out of your asses and realize that you have been getting screwed for years. And James, stop with the Union City crap. It’s getting old. We don’t need “massive upgrades” to anything. Do we need extra capacity to bring the town into the future? Sure. But your doomsday predictions because a few developers understand what the towns future residents want is classic of the Ridgewood NIMBY attitude that keeps anything from moving around here. Including how the municipal govt. works. You want change or will you continue to bitch and moan anytime anyone takes action. We can’t move forward if you insist on remaining in the past.”

Best for you to take your head out of the sand ,

Ridgewood as a nice place to live was virtually destroyed by the prior council or the 3 Amigos. The push to turn Ridgewood into Union city , with high density housing creates a need for massive upgrades of the Village infrastructure . This will take a decade , water, sewer, traffic, schools ,police , fire and so on all need massive taxpayer funded upgrades thanks to the actions of the 3 amigos and Roberta . The Villages ability to increase revenue has also been curtailed by giveaway contracts and bad leases . So no one with any sense will stop blaming the Paul Aronsohn , Gween and Uncle Albert as well as their side kick flunky Roberta

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Reader says Never Again Will Ridgewood Officials Act Like “Dirtbags”

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

file photo by Boyd Loving

Aronsohn, Pucciarelli, and Hauck went after Tom Riche publicly and aggressively and in the most disgusting meeting I have ever seen. Matt Rogers told them to manage this in closed session but they wanted to have a public flogging so they went against the recommendations of our village attorney and they were like the bullies in Lord of the Flies that night. Riche did NOTHING underhanded. Everything he did for the Village was above board and with the full knowledge of the Village Officials. They treated Riche like a criminal and it was just a taste of the things to come from the three dirtbags. They went on to do the same to Bernadette Walsh, John Ward, Heather Mailander, and others. They should have been taken out in handcuffs the three of them. Their names and their faces should never hang in village hall. They were a plague, the three of them, and their toxic germs are still scattered around town. Never mind sweeping them out the door….we need to completely sanitize everything and everyone that ever had contact with them.

Remember, these are the same 3 dirtbags who accused former Police Chief John Ward of violating a local ordinance (the BC Prosecutor’s Office cleared the Chief of any wrong doing), allowed the Village’s former labor attorney to defile the reputation of Susan Knudsen during an open public meeting, claimed that Bernie Walsh tried to fix a parking ticket (all she did was to have a conversation with the then Chief of Police about the supervision of parking enforcement agents), and called Bernie Walsh a liar in public after Ms. Walsh stated that she’d observed Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld and former Mayor Paul Aronsohn shouting at then Councilwoman Susan Knudsen in a hallway at Village Hall (which did happen).

As I stated previously, every single bit of trash they talked was bullshit. The biggest bunch of dirtbags ever.

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Reader says Outgoing Ridgewood Council Members openly critical of the newly elected, and not yet sworn in, council members

Ridgewood 3 amigos

file photo by Boyd Loving

The outgoing threesome were completely unelectable. That is why they did not run again. They will tell you that they CHOSE not to run, but get a reality check. They did not run because they did not want the public humiliation of losing big time. The three they supported so heavily lost in an epic landslide, a tidal wave of a statement against the HAUCK-ARONSOHN-PUCCIARELLI machine.

Now they have the audacity to be openly critical of the newly elected, and not yet sworn in, council members. Letters, videos, facebook postings, etc, they are finding ways to slam Ramon and Jeff and Bernie every chance they get. How the hell dare they criticize Ramon, Jeff, and Bernie. Give them a chance for heaven’s sake. Aronsohn, Hauck, and Pucciarelli are so low class it is disgusting. They have left the biggest mess in their wake, and we look like fools thanks to their antics. And oh, yes, what was it that blondie stated the other day? I HAVE NEVER DISRESPECTED ANYONE. More accurate would have been for her to state that I HAVE NEVER DISPRESPECTED ANYONE IN THE LAST THIRTY SECONDS. Gwenn has been the nastiest most uncivil elected officer imaginable, well, so has Albert and so has Paul. Good riddance to them. For awhile they were like herpes, always lurking and causing outbreaks. Thankfully the voters found a cure for this disease, and we are almost rid of them.

Vote NO on Tuesday. Let the new council make the wise decisions regarding parking solutions. Thank you

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Reader says , The way the Council Majority have disrespected the church and ALL Ridgewood residents is shameful

Ridgewood 3 amigos

file photo by Boyd Loving

I don’t understand how supporters of the majority council don’t have a problem that these 3, plus Roberta lied to residents to get that November vote. That is telling and shameful- all residents whether you want a garage or not should have no tolerance for such trickery.

Telling residents nothing has been decided with respect to design when indeed, the design has been decided, and we are not disclosing that our chosen design is 12 feet in the street was wrong and horrible leadership. Contracts to begin specs for design A were signed on October 28th – before the vote!!! It was deceitful and despicable, with no accountability and cost taxpayers $120,000 in change orders.

I can understand and be sympathetic to mistakes but not deliberate and deceitful plotting and scheming to get what you want. The current design is still too big. It is 5 feet in the street and 60’10” tall…not 46′ that they keep saying -which is frickin ridiculous they don’t count the towers when discussing height. Mt. Carmel (FYI is 50′ tall) will be here a lot longer than any restaurant or business. The way these people have disrespected the church and ALL residents is shameful, and to defend that behavior or turn a blind eye because you want a garage….what? Why?

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Ridgewood Mayor Desperate for a “YES” vote to spring trap for incoming Council

Vote No Ridgewood

A review of Village Council Resolutions and related contract documents expose the plan

June 17,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Mayor Paul Aronsohn and Village Manager Roberta Sonnenfeld may be so desperate for a yes vote because, despite their promises to turn all design decisions over to the incoming Council, they have figured out a way to control those decisions from beyond their political graves. Most upsetting is that this comes on the heels of a carefully choreographed set of theatrical performances at the last Village Council meeting designed to give the impression that the outgoing Council was going to take a hands off approach. Of course, the very next morning the Mayor launched his illegal media blitz, which has already drawn an official ethics complaint and a lawsuit. Hardly an act of graceful stewardship on his way out. More like giving the new Council the back of his hand for delivering an election thrashing to his hand picked slate of successors.

The Council has hired an Agent, Barr & Barr, in a no-bid process as their representative to solicit bids from construction firms to build the garage. Further, they recently spent $ 20,000 more dollars asking for a Guaranteed Maximum Price contract, which not only is not the norm in NJ municipal construction (by the Village Engineer’s own admission), by its very definition it is only possible when the construction documents are at least 70% complete. So clearly in the minds of the lame duck Council Majority they are committing additional money to make sure Design D is built.

Finally, in the Mayor’s illegal propaganda video, created at taxpayer expense, Tim Tracy of the garage design contractor, Desman, indicates there is a 12% contingency fee to account for design changes. A cozy interesting side note is that Barr and Barr was referred in by Desman and the Village Manager indicated at a Council meeting that the Village did not even interview any construction firms that were not referred to them by Desman.

That’s right, we turned our largest construction sourcing decision in years over to an outside contractor in a no-bid process based only on the Village Manager’s undocumented opinion and her cozy relationship with Desman. The same Village Manager who has expended over $500,000 creating multiple sets of construction plans before a design is even finalized. The first set was commissioned even before an initial design was vetted with the Public. One of the plums falling from the taxpayer tree was a $295,000 contract with Desman that ballooned again when virtually every one who saw Garage Design A threw up on the idea as a grotesque monstrosity jutting 12 feet out into the street. To this day the Council Majority says that if it was up them they would have built Design A. I know the local architect had an unreasonable client, but he couldn’t have been happy designing what essentially looked like an upscale jail right in the middle of the CBD.

The net of all of this arrogance and gross mismanagement is that the new council may wake up theoretically owning the design decisions, but finding out the Mayor left them a contract that is booby-trapped with excessive design changes or cancellation penalties.

The ONLY way to derail this plan is to VOTE NO.

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Village Council Candidates Wietz , Brooks, Willett and their supporters play the “Gabbert Card”

Paul_Aronsohn_theridgewood blog

May 8,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Mayor Paul Aronsohn  and his coalition Village council candidates Wietz , Brooks, Willett  are trying to play the “Gabbert Card”once again but don’t be fooled.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn voted yes to every single budget from the day he got on the council until now. And was there during Tom Rica theft and never noticed parking utility discrepancies until then.

While Bernie Walsh’s record is far more thoughtfull, she didn’t vote in 2011 and voted no in 2012. Voted yes in 2013 and no to operating budget but yes to Capital budget in 2014.

During Bernie’s tenure the Police contract was renegotiated saving Ridgewood $250K for the lifetime of each new officer hired. and the Village reduced to one Captain and two Lieutenants.

The Ridgewood news reported that the Village Council at a special public meeting on Monday will lower the starting salary for officers coming into the department after Dec. 1 to $32,000, down from the previous starting salary of $49,273, according to the ordinance.

By the way unlike some current candidates and council members Mayor Killion ,do to a “30-year distinguished career” in the Ridgewood police department,recused himeself from all police contract negotiations .

And if they really want to play the Gabbert card maybe they should remember how many new people Queen Bee Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld hired  help her do her job such as the HR person for about hundred thousand and that not counting her platinum health care and pension. In hind sight Gabbert’s raise does not bad compared hiring a new HR person. It is important to note that even after Gabberts raise he still made far less than his predecessor and far less that the new combo of Village Manager plus HR person .

According to the Kelly Ebbels of the Ridgewood News an article Paul has on his own website , the “Incentive bonuses can be awarded from a total pool of more than $80,000, Gabbert said. He estimated that the change from automatic raises to incentive bonuses could yield more than $40,000 a year in savings”, which then Councilman Paul Aronsohn voted against the proposal.

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Notice of Complaint Village of Ridgewood

Village_Manager_Roberta_Sonenfeld_theridgewoodblog

Ms. Hone,

I find your email to be threatening, highly inaccurate and defamatory; as such I will not respond to it.

 

Roberta

Roberta Sonenfeld
Village Manager
201-670-5500, ext. 203

From: Paul Aronsohn

Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 2:49 PM
To: Matt Rogers; Heather Mailander; Donna Jackson
Cc: Roberta Sonenfeld; Janet Fricke
Subject: Re: Notice of Complaint Village of Ridgewood

Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 6, 2015, at 2:45 PM, Matthew Rogers <msr@mrogerslaw.com> wrote:

This should be shared with Heather/Donna because of the allegations of improper notice of the meetings.

 

From: Paul Aronsohn [mailto:paronsohn@ridgewoodnj.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2015 1:52 PM
To: Roberta Sonenfeld; Matt Rogers; Janet Fricke
Subject: FW: Notice of Complaint Village of Ridgewood

 

​Roberta, Janet, Matt —

 

FYI

 

Paul

 

Paul S. Aronsohn, Mayor

Village of Ridgewood

@paularonsohn

From: Jacqueline Hone <jhone201@yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2015 1:48 PM
To: Gwenn Hauck; Paul Aronsohn; Susan Knudsen; Michael Sedon; Albert Pucciarelli
Subject: Notice of Complaint Village of Ridgewood

 

Mayor and Council Members: 

 

In regards to the Schedler Park Project, I would like to file a complaint and draw your attention to the following for scrutiny and disciplinary action. 

On 9/8/15 and 9/16/15 it was brought to your attention, that the applications used to obtain approximately $2 million in Open Space grants, were completed with intentional omission, false and misleading information, without municipal endorsement, and without public notification as required.

Village Manager and Counsel quickly diverted attention and dismissed the matter saying submissions of incomplete applications, to Bergen County, is acceptable and common practice.  This is not a matter of submitting incomplete applications. The applications are fraudulent and were submitted with the intent to receive funds. If the facts were known, the site plan for Schedler would be in violation of County and State provisions. Thus, the Village should not proceed with the Schedler plan as is. 

1) Village Manager, Roberta Sonenfeld, submitted an application, on or about 9/1/15, seeking $100,000 of Bergen County Open Space Funds. This application was submitted with blatant, intentional, false and misleading information, without Council endorsement and public notification as mandated. The application shows the Village Manager committed $100k of municipal funds (tax payer’s money) without Council approval. What authority, if any, does the Village Manager have to authorize and commit tax payer’s money without Council approval? Under what authority was this done?

When confronted about the allocation of municipal funds, Village Manager stated the 100k would eventually come from the Ridgewood Baseball Association (RBSA) via gift donation. However, since the RBSA money was yet to be received, municipal funds were allocated in its place. Once the gift is received, it will be moved into the municipal funds account. What authority does the Village Manager have to front tax payer’s money and act as a temporary lender to the RBSA? This accounting practice is suspect and I believe also constitutes commingling of funds, which is prohibited. If this was done for the RBSA, why wasn’t this preferential treatment extended to the Friends of the Historic Zabriskie House. 

2) Land Use Restriction: The State and County have strict provisions regarding Open Space, Green Space, Historic Preservation and full disclosure of threatened wildlife, vegetation and environmental impacts. As such, development at Schedler would have strict limitations, regulated land use and mandated historic, wildlife and vegetation preservation. 

-Site Plan: The initial Open Space application, used to acquire the Schedler property, stated the land would be used for 60/40 active/recreation use and no lights. It was under this plan that the Village was granted Open Space funds. Violating the County Deed of Conservation Easement, the Village of Ridgewood revised and adopted a new plan showing 70/30 active/passive recreation area, lights, and a two-story concession building with recreation hall. 

-Revenue/Profit: This park will generate a substantial amount of money…concession stand, hall rental, field time, uniforms, player enrollment fees, membership fees, field rentals etc. Additionally, site plan includes two-story building. Full second floor to be used as meeting room or rented for sports related functions (possible discrimination). RBSA involvement is an arguable breach of contract with the County and in violation of Open Space and Green Space guidelines. 

-Historic Structure/Features /Elements: Historic house, features and elements were not fully disclosed to County. In some circumstances they were completely omitted. The preservation of the home and parcel was abandoned by the Village. Proper disclosure would mean strict preservation and limitations of park development and use. (See attached NJ DEP National Register of Historic Places, 2009, 2015 grant application). 

– Environmental/Wildlife/Vegetation: Adverse environmental factors, threatened wildlife and threatened vegetation were not disclosed on applications. Full disclosure would mandate preservation and impose strict site limitations. This omission is how the Village is proceeding with Phase 1, demolition and clear-cutting of the last green acre parcel in our area (7 acres), which will expose hundreds of residents and wildlife to noise, pollution, Route 17,  high volume traffic, dangerous conditions and irreversible damage.

– State and County Clearance: This property, directly on Rt. 17. North, within feet of an interstate commuter Park & Ride, is the last green space in the area. All this is being done without expert studies and without notification to or clearance from Bergen County, New Jersey Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Historic Preservation. 

3) Public Meeting Notifications: The Village has demonstrated a pattern of questionable omission and secrecy (see attached). Now, out of the blue, a meeting has been scheduled (10/7) to accept a second 100k donation form the RBSA and to present another revision of the Schedler Park plan. The agenda was just posted to the Village website. The general public has not been notified these matters will be discussed on this date. As such, again residents are being robbed of their right to participate, review the process, verify gifts and prepare for public comments/questions prior to the meeting. This matter must be tabled until all of the above is addressed. County Open Space Guidelines States: 

      As part of the application submission, the municipality shall hold a Public Hearing on a proposed park development project before it submits its application. The applicant shall publish a notice of the public hearing in the official newspaper of the municipality. The hearing must be advertised as a display ad at least 15 days before the hearing. The hearing notice must specifically reference the proposed Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund Municipal Program Park Improvement application. The public hearing must be held in the evening, and may be held as part of a public meeting, as long as the hearing is properly advertised. 

Council has a fiduciary obligation to cease and desist the Schedler Park Project, until this matter is investigated and cleared of wrong doing.  Continued dismissal of the above, is gross negligence and an act against public good. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.  Failure to act and proceeding with Phase 1, intentionally permits irreversible damage to public health, safety, general welfare, public land and historic/vegetation preservation. 

I believe State/County provisions and the Deed of Conservation Easement prohibits most of everything the Village is proposing at Schedler. We want due process, expert studies and a park which represents the true needs and desires of our neighborhood residents. Please allow us to present the facts before it’s too late. 

We look forward to hearing from you and moving forward in the right direction. In the meantime, thank you so much for your attention.

 

Respectfully,

Jacqueline Hone