I agree with 7:16, it is a slippery slope to be accepting gifts from people/companies whose business is coming before the town for decisions.
Building and fire inspectors have long been prohibited from accepting even the very smallest of gifts from merchants whose businesses they inspect, so that they can’t be accused of accepting something in exchange for a favor, even when such a favor isn’t asked or expected.
Mr. Bolger has done a great deal for this town and it is clearly appreciated. This ordinance has nothing to do with him personally, it is to protect in general.
>Bolger Foundation may sever donations to Ridgewood Thursday, August 26, 2010 Last updated: Thursday August 26, 2010, 1:04 PM BY MICHAEL SEDON The Ridgewood News Staff Writer
The Village of Ridgewood may have lost the support of one of its major benefactors due to its current regulation structure regarding gifting.
Local philanthropist David F. Bolger, president of the Bolger Foundation and president of the former Marion and Silfred DePhillips Foundation, has indicated that he may settle his outstanding gift obligations to the Ridgewood Public Library and then stop making charitable donations to the Village of Ridgewood.
“As the president of The Bolger Foundation, I hereby notify The Village of Ridgewood that, under the existing rules and regulations and other than the outstanding commitments to the Ridgewood Public Library to fund the extension of the security system at a cost of about $3,500, The Bolger Foundation will no longer make any gifts to The Village of Ridgewood or any organization which is connected to the Village including, but not limited, to The Ridgewood Police Department and The Ridgewood Fire Department which have also been major beneficiaries of The Bolger Foundation’s giving in the past,” wrote Bolger in an Aug. 19 letter addressed to the mayor, council and village manager.
The council briefly discussed gifts and how the village goes about accepting them at the Aug. 4 work session in light of a gift offered by Wyckoff-based Terraclean Power Washing, which it did not accept, to power wash the sidewalks on East Ridgewood Avenue. The company paid a $100 ticket plus court costs in Ridgewood’s municipal court a few days before making the gift offer. Several gift offers from The Bolger Foundation were included on that same agenda.
The discussion took place because of Ordinance 3132, adopted Aug. 13, 2008, which prohibits anyone with business currently before any of the village’s boards or agencies from offering a gift or donation for 90 days until final action has been taken. A person or business cannot make a gift or donation offer to the village until 90 days after final action on a request for relief or application is finalized.
The council agreed at the Aug. 4 meeting to “tighten up” some of the language in the ordinance, which would be discussed further. The council will revisit the ordinance and hold a “general” discussion at its Sept. 1 meeting, said Village Manager Ken Gabbert in an e-mail. He also expressed the village’s appreciation for Bolger’s generosity.
>I actually saw the same thing. Not to state the obvious, but it’s been raining nearly nonstop for days. Why would anyone, Valley or otherwise need to water. Seems rather wasteful.
That said, I want to commend the Village workers for the prompt and wonderful job they did removing the huge branch from in front of our house. I had called the Ridgewood Police when it occurred, but was told that if it fell from a tree on our property, it was our responsibility. Not so much.
We did call a tree service, but before they even returned our call, the Village had already sent someone over to take care of it!
RIDGEWOOD – Newly appointed Police Chief John Ward will continue at his current 2009 salary of $160,623 until a new salary is approved by the governing body, likely by October, according to Village Manager Kenneth Gabbert.
The 27-year veteran of the department will start Sept. 1.
Ward, 49, has been serving as the senior officer in charge since last month, when Chief John LiPuma announced he was retiring.
Ward joined the department as a patrolman in 1983 and was promoted to sergeant in 1998. He became a lieutenant five years later and a detective captain in 2009.
Police Chief John LiPuma is receiving a terminal leave payout of $15,882 for 2010 and compensation for unused sick time at a 50 percent rate. That amount of $96,223 will be paid out over three years, bringing the total received by LiPuma to $112,105, according to Gabbert.
LiPuma, 50, who was appointed chief in January 2009, is a 1978 graduate of Ridgewood High School and a 1983 graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. State records show he received a pensionable salary of $165,059 in 2009.
Ward, the married father of two grown boys and a teenage son, serves as an adjunct teacher at Bergen Community College teaching police administration, criminal justice, crime prevention and public administration. He has commanded every position in the Ridgewood Police Department.
The Planning Board heard a conceptual idea at its last meeting that would require re-zoning a portion of the village’s property that abuts Route 17 for commercial use.
No formal application has been submitted to the board, but Attorney Thomas Wells discussed the possibility of re-zoning block 4807, lot 1 to allow a variety of possible commercial uses on the property and add ratables to the village’s tax rolls.
Wells requested a meeting with the Planning Board attorney and the village planner to discuss the next steps in this process, said Planning Board Secretary Barbara Carlton.
“He [Wells] may want to know that this is not inconsistent with Blais’ [Brancheau village planner] contemplated proposal for the redevelopment corridor, but he wasn’t that explicit,” said Planning Board Vice Chairman Albert Pucciarelli. “Route 17 is almost unrelenting retail from Suffern to Lyndhurst but for this stretch, which seems to be a green break in that unrelenting retail, to which Mr. Wells replied that his client should not be required to dedicate his land to green space.”
A broader discussion took place at the Planning Board months ago to re-zone Ridgewood’s portion of the Route 17 corridor to allow commercial development, but those discussions were “preliminary,” Pucciarelli said. That discussion will have to basically “start over,” since the makeup of the board has changed, he added.
Board members at the meeting had concerns about the topography of the property and how the steepness of the slopes would affect rain water runoff, and buffers between this property and its neighbors, Pucciarelli said.
Some commercial uses that would be considered are offices, a hotel, self storage, car wash, cell towers, retail and many other possibilities, according to information from the Planning Board. This particular property has been in the news previously as one of the lots considered for re-zoning in the plan was the site of the controversial Baker Residential townhouses, according to conceptual drawings and the village’s tax map.
>yes. originally the NJEA was dead set against the Race for the Top application
yes. originally the NJEA was dead set against the Race for the Top application, but there was a backlash because they looked obstructionist to the public. so they went to bret schundler (christie’s education head) and tried to get schundler to agree to submit an app with some key changes, and then the NJEA would support it.
christie was pissed that schundler was going to give in to the demands of the union (i.e. the union was dead set against merit pay for good teachers, which christie supports). so christie said no giving in to the union.
the union pulled their “support”, and NJ was dinged (union support counts for something in the scoring process).
the union never supported the race to the top. they were only going to support it if NJ didn’t propose to change things the NJEA didn’t like.
and now the NJEA’s d’bag head Barbara Keshishian had the balls to say Christie “….owes students and taxpayers an apology for undermining a process that could have brought much-needed resources and genuine reform to our state’s public schools”. That’s a laugh!
if you listened to the NJEA in the past (including up to the application for the race to the top), everything’s fine. No need for reform!
11:50 am Wednesday. When its been pouring for 4 days now Valley has its sprinklers firing away. Not sure if the water restriction is over, if not, they’re flouting the law, but even if it is over – its been raining for 4 days now!!! I just had to pull over to take this picture. Ridiculous.
>NJEA: good job teachers union. due to your lack of support for the Race to the Top improvements, NJ is not getting any federal funds to improve the system.
Good job teachers union. good job teachers union. due to your lack of support for the Race to the Top improvements, NJ is not getting any federal funds to improve the system. NJ finished ranked #11 (out of the money). they would have made the cut if the union supported it.
NY is getting up to $750m to help fix the education problems in the state.
way to go teachers!!!
-Thed NJ finished ranked #11 (out of the money). they would have made the cut if the union supported it.
NY is getting up to $750m to help fix the education problems in the state.
>The Ridgewood Y is introducing a Youth Fencing class
The Ridgewood Y is introducing a Youth Fencing class for 8-14 year olds. Fencing is the ultimate cross-training program! Participants will learn to dodge, parry, and thrust from Coach Vitalii Druzhynin. Coach Vitalii has over 30 years of fencing and coaching experience.
Contact Chris at 201-444-5600 ext. 339 or [email protected] for more information or to sign up!
>There is a problem when only like 2 teachers got canned for poor performance in the whole state in the last two years(out of 116,000 teachers)
I agree. you know there is a problem when only like 2 teachers got canned for poor performance in the whole state in the last two years(out of 116,000 teachers). that’s 0.0017%.
something is definitely wrong. there’s no way that that there aren’t bad teachers out there. the system needs to be fixed.
i’m tired of teachers hiding behind the tenure by scaring the public that the positions will be affected by political pressure if tenure is eliminated. i’ll tell you what — there are political pressures in every job, public or private. but everyday, job decisions are made based not only on job performance but relationships, who you know, etc. don’t you think that people happen to lose their jobs because of changes in administration at companies? it happens all the time. especially when companies merge, etc.
so, let’s expose teachers to the same forces the rest of the country face.
there is no free lunch. we are paying for it with our taxes and our childrens’ education.
>Kyleigh’s Law : parents, especially of women, think the decals can alert perverts to young drivers.
Cop out: 6 months study of red decals
Young drivers must continue to put red decals on their license plates under legislation approved by the Senate. Many parents don’t like the decals which are meant to show police there is a young driver in the car subject to curfews and special rules regarding number of passengers. But parents, especially of women, think the decals can alert perverts to young drivers. Instead of repealing that section of the so-called Kyleigh’s Law, lawmakers voted to have the Attorney General’s Office and others conduct a six-month study. That’s a cop out from lawmakers who can’t admit they screwed up the first time. Want to bet how that study turns out? “We don’t need a six-month study to do what is plain common sense and the will of the people,” said Assemblyman Scott Rumana who sponsored the repeal.. (Ingle, Asbury Park Press)
>Anna Little campaign poll shows GOP challenger within striking distance
The Anna Little Campaign this evening released the results of a poll that show the Republican mayor of Highlands trailing U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) by six points in the 6th Congressional District. (Editor, PolitickerNJ)
>Senate approves bill eliminating 40 inactive, outdated N.J. agencies
TRENTON — The Senate unanimously approved legislation today that makes good on Gov. Chris Christie’s promise to shrink the state government bureaucracy by eliminating more than 40 inactive and outdated boards and commissions. (Livio, Newark Star-Ledger)
The first bills Gov. Chris Christie signed after taking office in January enacted state pension reforms, but the system remains underfunded by tens of billions of dollars.
The settlement with the Security and Exchange Commission makes it official: For years, New Jersey had been cooking its books and neglecting to tell investors it was grossly underfunding pension plans.
The SEC calls that securities fraud, because $26 billion worth of bonds, issued between 2001 and 2007, probably were worth less than investors were led to believe.
With a cease-and-desist order, the state is admitting no guilt, of course, and the SEC (thankfully) won’t make matters worse by assessing hefty penalties that would be paid by unsuspecting taxpayers and not the irresponsible public officials who allegedly bamboozled investors.
The action was historic: New Jersey is the first state targeted by the SEC for securities fraud. But with pension funds crumbling everywhere, other states probably will join us in shame. But from this day forward, cross our hearts and hope to die, New Jersey has agreed to tell the truth about its grossly and dangerously undernourished pension funds
