the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, a reader said the ,Financial Advisory Committee was created by the mayor solely as a breeding ground for future council members willing to live in his shadow and image. It didn’t work. Disband it!
The leadership of Financial Advisory Committee is there just to stamp the Village Manager’s decisions. So she can say ‘an expert panel has looked at it and they agree with my approach”. She comes from the corporate word and knows how to put everything on outside ‘consultants’.
Its beyond funny that the Chairman of FAC, a candidate for the council election, Weitz is not even a finance guy. He is an attorney and we have seen how good attorneys are on the council (Albert). Try asking him some finance questions. May be he will do better than the CFO?
Inorder to save the committee the FAC needs to have bylaws and minutes and a clause that prohibits members from running for public office while serving. THe VM needs direction, goals and an evaluation after a specified time. She needs to be held accountable for the administration and operations of the Village. There can no longer be selective ordinance enforcement. The Village Attorney, PB attorney should be evaluated and if necessary replaced. The assistant VM should be evaluated and if needed replaced. The new Council needs to be prudent but decisive in their actions. Let’s not replicate the mistakes of the past.
The election is over. The new council needs to stabilize the governance of the municipality by vesting the village operational authority in the VM where it belongs by law and holding her accountable for the execution.
