Tag: Mayor Paul Arosohn

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Ridgewood Mayor puts an end to personal attacks during the pubic comment period

Village Council -Halaby

photo by Boyd Loving

May 4,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Mayor puts the hammer down on personal attacks during the pubic comment period . After a bitter attack by Rurik Halaby on the council praising former Mayor Paul Aronsohn and former Village manager Roberta Sonnefeld .Halaby called the council unprofessional amateurs at the same time praising the Financial Advisory Committee .Halaby questioned weather the FAC was invited into the village budget discussions.

Once the Ridgewood blog reminds you that in order for the Financial Advisory Committee to be an effective part of the Village governance the following criteria must be met:

Publish clear and realistic by-laws
Post agenda’s of all meetings
Post minutes of all meetings promptly
All members must sign Financial disclosure forms  
All members must sign NDA’s or non-disclosure forms

These are professional standards that are used and commonly accepted everywhere in the world.

In the real world this is how you run a financial decision body. It is also important to fill the committee with people who have some experience in finance, not failed or “wannabe” politicians who are promoting their own secret agenda.

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A fact based rebuttal to the Ridgewood Mayor’s smear campaign against the garage petitioners

BCIA petition OLMC
May 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Mayor and the Village Manager have persistently and knowingly mischaracterized the Village Council’s decision to call a $ 40-45k special election as being required by the terms of the petition.
The special election is NOT required and the Mayor, the Village Manager, The Village Council and now the taxpayers know it.
The clear and compelling evidence of this is that the language of the special election Resolution #16-110 which was passed by the Village Council on April 27 th incorporates the very statute (NJSA 40-49- 27 otherwise known as the Home Rule Act) that specifically provides the option of waiting until the next General Election in November,or if the municipality desires it may call a special election.
This statute was included in the Resolution, according to Matt Jessup, bond attorney for the council since Matt Rogers recused himself (little known fact), “to protect the Council from any litigation.” That says it all right there. Matt Rogers recused himself because he had done some pro bono work for the church, & felt that if he counseled on the petition, it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.
The Mayor, the Village Manager and the rest of the Mayor’s customary voting bloc desire a special election because:
1) It creates a diversion from the fact that to date they have wasted $ 415,000 on the design process. They were so arrogantly confident that they could shove the original Plan A and its looming 12 Foot encroachment into Hudson Street through the Council, that they ordered $295,000.00 worth of construction documents BEFORE THE DESIGN WAS SELECTED. They subsequently issued a $120,000.00 change order to try again and we are not done yet
2) They bootstrap a false claim that the petitioners don’t support building a Hudson Street garage at all and are anti -everything. This is false and can be verified as such by any number of Council Meeting recordings and correspondence
3) They can falsely claim that the petitioners are causing the Village to incur the roughly $ 40-45k in expenses, thus smearing the petitioners, when in fact, the Council is deciding to call a special election
4) It puts the election on the calendar when they will be still be using the bully pulpit to misinform the public
5) It fits with their overall victim narrative. They are claiming to hostage to the demands of the petitioners when it’s clearly the Village that is being held hostage to the agenda of the other way around. All the petitioners want is either a more reasonable garage or the residents to make an informed decision Mayor, please stop making stuff up. It hurts the Village you claim to Love