Tag: Village Council Elections

Posted on

Reader says Best of luck to the new Council – please remember the grass roots organizations that helped get you elected

VillageHall_floods_theridgewoodblog

Congratulations to the winners and condolences to the losers. In the end, I’m not even sure that Mr. Weitz and Ms. Willet even wanted to be in the race. Mr. Brooks is a nice guy and a good neighbor. He campaigned hard but was just on the wrong side. Next up: Revoke the Pfund ordinance the afternoon the new Council is inaugurated. Valley – fight the lawsuit and sue them to revoke their non-profit status in town. The $4.5 million that their Linwood Ave campus will generate in taxes will pay a lot of legal bills. Apartments – 18 units per acre seems reasonable. If developers can’t make it work with a 50% increase over what’s been on the books for decades that shouldn’t be the residents’ problem. And if they sue us, so be it. Garage – how about a nice 2 or 3 level commuter lot? Keep it small enough so that no developer can incorporate it into his plans for oversized apartment buildings. Schedler – outside of the RBSA brass, I haven’t heard any support for a baseball field there. Plus what’s the hurry to cut down all the trees? Best of luck to the new Council – please remember the grass roots organizations that helped get you elected.

Posted on

Election signs in Village of Ridgewood non-residential areas

Village Council election signs
May 11,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, As per Village Code 190-122 H 6:  Election signs. Temporary signs for elective office shall be permitted in nonresidential zones. Such signs shall be removed no later than 10 days after the date of the election to which they pertain. In the case of a primary election, the signs of all candidates who fail to remain as candidates in the ensuing general election shall be removed no later than 10 days after the date of the primary election. Such signs may be freestanding or attached to a building wall

Posted on

Landslide Victory Signifies Major Shift in Village of Ridgewood Politics

village Council Elections
photo courtesy of Melanie McWilliams
May 11,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood
Ridgewood NJ, the victory for Ramon Hache, Jeff Voigt and Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh it was nothing more than a total reject of Mayor Paul Aronsohn’s entire agenda . The new trio will begin their four year terms on July 1, joining Susan Knudsen and Michael Sedon.

Now the hard work has to be done restoring the luster to the tarnished reputation of the Village and building on the unique nature of the Village of Ridgewood and moving forward.

Congratulations to Ramon Hache, Jeff Voigt and Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh and all there supporters and all the volunteers who put in countless hours and faced down both threats , physical and personal attacks to do the right thing .

The Ridgewood blog would like to say thank you. Now lets move forward and build a positive future .

2016 MUNICIPAL ELECTION RESULTS – UNOFFICIAL

FOR COUNCIL

Jeffrey Voigt – 3839 – 67.37%

Janice M Willett – 1803 – 31.64%

Evan Weitz – 1736 – 30.47%

Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh – 3611 – 63.37%

Richard S Brooks – 1656 – 29.06%

Ramon M Hache – 3867 – 67.87%

Total Registration – 16,740
Votes Cast – 5,698
Percentage – 34.04%

Posted on

Council Women Gwenn Hauck Takes a Parting Shot At Ridgewood Residents

gwenn hauck

The unsubstantiated, unhappy comments above are designed (as usual) to further confuse the public and upset good people.

Ask any/all seniors that I spend time with if I have ever told them who to vote for, or if I have ever distributed any
campaign fliers to them. They will tell you the Truth.

It was Voight, Hache and Walsh campaigners who targeted senior citizens leaving my non-political luncheon at the last one
I would ever have (already a sad and poignant day for me) with their campaign literature as they boarded their senior bus.

I treat senior citizens as people, not as votes. I would not target senior citizens as a voting block, like they did.

A few days ago I refrained from commenting on the total fabrications written on the blog about who really behaved poorly during my luncheon, but the insults cannot go undefended when they just keep coming, and coming, and don’t relent.

You can bet that the anonymous comments posted on the Blog are ghost-written by the same mean and angry people – and worse than being unkind, they are also untrue.

Posted on

Councilwomen Gwenn Hauck Says High Density Housing will Increase Class sizes and “significantly augment our tax base”

CBD high density housing

May 10,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ , picked this up off of the It takes a Village Facebook page in a post by Marty Smith, In a post to Ann Loving today, Gwenn Hauck wrote “$50,000 of Independent Studies approved by all five council members confirmed (confidently) that the multi-family housing will significantly augment our tax base and will help our schools decreasing enrollment. Class sizes are diminishing so much that teachers are actually being laid off causing (ironically) higher class sizes!”

I thought the proponents of higher density housing were saying don’t worry, the apartments won’t be attracting a lot of new students. Now it seems they will be, and that the additional enrollments are what we need. Did I miss something? Dare we say vote of Hache, Walsh and Voigt .Poles are open till 8pm!

Posted on

the fly has learned the Ridgewood Mayors Tirade at the Senior Luncheon was Not the First

fly-on-wall_theridgewoodblog

…”The Fly” has  confirmed that The Mayor, on a previous occasion, prior to starting a closed session, went from being pleasant and in an instant starting screaming and calling another Councilperson a “f’n piece of “sh..t” This was witnessed by the Clerk The Mayor and the Village Attorney. July 1st can’t come soon enough!!!

Posted on

BREAKING : Ridgewood Blog Discovers Impostor Attempting to Post as Council Candidate Ramon Hache

Ramon Hache ridgewood NJ

May 8,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, here we go again the Ridgewood blog has discovered an impostor attempting to tilt the Village Council election results by posing the Village Council Candidate Ramon Hache . The blog comment scanner picked up the fraud .The Ramon Hache campaign immediately disavowed the email address and  the comments made .

After last year when an “anonymous” email was used to interfere with the election process and attempt to sabotage Mike Sendon’s job and and his candidacy the voting public is notable touchy about these types of deceptive tactics .

The nature of the comment was to look like Ramon was changing his position on Valley Hospital expansion.

Why you should vote next week for Ridgewood Council
2016/05/06 at 8:37 pm
Ramonhache@google.com
173.3.54.254

No vote for Valley and it becomes Death Valley. Sorry but the
crumbling infrastructure of that facility needs a major revamp to come
close to being the reliable health center it once was. Population has
doubled, medicine has changed and improved and it no longer meets the
standards of a viable facility.

Why you should vote next week for Ridgewood Council
2016/05/06 at 8:37 pm

173.3.54.254

If there are not adequate changes to Valley hospital it will become
Pascack valley: EXTINCT! I personally like having a reliable health
care facility minutes from home. Valley is not and cannot be a valued
facility using a 1960s infrastructure.

Funny how several individuals on the “It takes a village” Facebook page “spent most of a Saturday evening complaining of censorship on this blog for not posting every comment no matter how false ,stupid, racist or bigoted .

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” ,Spending an entire Saturday night till 1 am repetitively restating the same nonsense makes you look very guilty.  Too frequent and vehement attempts to convince others of some matter of which the opposite is true, thereby making themselves appear defensive, insincere and in the the Village is the hall mark of wrong doers like the “meter thieves”.

So here is a quick review on how comments get approved on this blog . First unlike the Village Council majority we do not publish threats . We do not publish racist or bigoted language . In general we try to minimize the name calling but there is some wiggle room on this one . If your willing to call people names be willing to be called names , alot of people have trouble with this one . Some times a rephrasing of a comment is all that’s needed to get it published . There is a lower standard for attacking public figures and politicians than there is for ordinary citizens. And remember even in Ridgewood there are a few “crazies” out there.

Open Forums depend on a certain level of honesty of their posters so “Trolling” is strictly forbidden .

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion,often for their own amusement.

If you IP gets branded as a TROLL most of your comments will go directly to spam and we will never see them .

Repeat commentators are another issue , this is where a comment gets repeated for every post whether its relevant or not . The system will block these comments and they will end up in the spam folder as well.

Other issues ; often comments on police business are delayed. Sometimes a comment can  inadvertently disclose police business  and these are also held up for the sake of the officers safety and to not tip off the perpetrators .

Posting comments with links are also delayed , the links must be checked for viruses.

Sometimes comments are approved out of order , nothing diabolical just difficulty reading them on a mobile device.

The blog generally does not post comments on peoples personal life ,such as allegations of adulterous relationships, underage lovers ,drug or alcohol binges , teen issues and so on . Like everything there are odd exceptions.

Anonymity is an option and is and will remain available for readers protection.

And finally for editorial purposes sometimes comments are held because we think they will make a interesting posts ie Rurik Halaby’s insane diatribes.

The Ridgewood blog is an organic news source . News items are sprinkled among reader opinions continually generating more opinions and discussion . Like it or not the Readers are the blog and the editors operate more like a referees. Sometimes we weigh in too much and sometimes too little ,it not an exact science and it takes a lot of effort to balance freedom of expression with over the top name calling. Frankly we think its gotten better and better over the years with broader discussions and greater participation.

Thank you all for your support !

Posted on

Reader says forget the East-West Divide There has been no better opportunity to unite all Ridgewood by Voting for Bernie Walsh, Jeff Voight and Ramon Hache

Vote Ridgewood

There has been no better opportunity than now to unite all Village neighborhoods. Citizens for a Better Ridgewood has its roots on the West Side and favors slower growth in high density housing. The Concerned Residents of Ridgewood is based in the Travel/BF/Somerville neighborhood and favors a smaller-scale modernization effort by the Hospital. Friends of Schedler are in the neighborhoods east of Route 17 and favor preserving the woodlands on that property. Most recently, a group of tax payers from all over town that favors a 4 level garage over a 5 level garage has successfully petitioned to bring that issue to a vote. After 4 years of a “Council majority” that has claimed to know what’s best for the rest of us and has insulted anyone that has disagreed with them, it looks like we might actually be able to take the town back from special interest groups and Council members with personal agendas.

Candidates Bernie Walsh, Jeff Voight and Ramon Hache have the very unique opportunity to unite these neighborhoods in our quest to preserve our property values and the charm of our Village. Please vote for them on May 10.

Posted on

On May 10th, please vote for Jeff Voigt, Bernadette Walsh & Ramon Hache, and let’s get Ridgewood back on a path of trust in our local governmen

Vote Ridgewood

This is our Letter to the Editor, Ridgewood News today (April 22, 2016)

Merriam-Webster defines TRUST as “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something”. In this upcoming election for Village Council, we believe finding candidates worthy of resident’s trust must be the priority, as they will be the representative stewards of our Village at this most critical time.

Jeff Voigt, Bernadette Walsh and Ramon Hache are candidates we believe meet that test. Each has a deeply rooted connection to the Village and is running for Village Council for their own, personal reasons. Each has an independently developed vision for the future of Ridgewood, and each has expressed a willingness and desire to work alongside the continuing members of the Council to improve resident input and the transparency with which our Village Council operates.
We have clearly seen the negative results of a unified political bloc’s agenda running roughshod over the normal give and take of municipal government. Let’s go for something better this time around.
Ridgewood is in desperate need of a comprehensive, long-term vision for the future. We need candidates who want to be a part of leading a Ridgewood that will progress and grow without sacrificing everything we all love about this town-the charm, the friendly atmosphere, the excellent schools and the safety for our families. We need council members who will put resident’s interests first.

On May 10th, please vote for Jeff Voigt, Bernadette Walsh & Ramon Hache, and let’s get Ridgewood back on a path of trust in our local government.
Thank you.
Jim & Gail McCarthy

Posted on

I am voting for Jeffrey Voigt, Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh, and Ramon M. Hache they will exercise independent judgement in the best interest of Village residents

Vote Ridgewood

To the Editor:

I was relieved when three members of our Village Council decided not to run for another term, hoping that we would finally see a change from the consistent voting bloc and divisiveness that has occurred for the past four years within the Council.  Now we have six new candidates, but three are already calling themselves “a team”.  Should we be encouraged to vote for them and endure another 4 years of sniping within our council? Are we continuing the pattern of “our side vs. theirs?”

I am voting for Jeffrey Voigt, Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh, and Ramon M. Hache.  They are NOT a team, but rather will exercise independent judgement always in the best interest of Village residents.  They probably will not agree on every issue, but they are dedicated to community engagement that allows residents a voice in their future.  And most critically, these candidates share the concerns of many Village residents that growth and progress be balanced with preserving the character, size and scale of our Village.

The election is May 10…every vote makes a difference!

Carrie Giordano
Posted on

Reader reports unwanted Ridgewood Council Candidate Brooks, Weitz and Willett “Robo” call blitz

362319-robocall

The robo phone calls blitz starts. Got a robo message on answering machine tonight from R.Brooks saying to vote for him, Weitz and other for council, and that he paid for this message. Caller I.D. says 201-345-4962 Ridgewood, NJ.. Report call as Spam. Following same tactics as someone else we all know who’s used robo calls, signs in CBD planters to vote yes for garage, signs in tree wells. I will Not vote for them.

Rather, I am voting for the candidates who will put Ridgewood and the residents in their best interest – Voigt, Walsh and Hache. Matter of fact, concerned citizens and supporters of Voigt, Walsh and Hache, went respectfully door to door in neighborhoods today with flyers to remind people to vote on May 10th. Thank you, well received.

Posted on

Reader says , “Paul Arohnson, just leave – you have been self serving and a disaster for this village”

Paul_Aronsohn_dunking_theridgewoodblog

I have been a Ridgewood Resident for the last 22 years and bought into the town because of the schools and quaintness of the village.

I would like to know why Rich Brooks and Gail Price have not openly discussed how they plan on handling what is an obvious Conflict of Interest of being married and the effect if will have on decisions for the town.

Secondly, Evan Weitz has only lived in town for around 3-4 years but manages to become the Chair of the Financial Advisory Committee without even serving previous time on the committee? That makes no sense to me except that he was put there for political purposes.

With regards to parking. The height of the current Plan D eliminates much of the parking on Hudson Street. Maybe if the parking stayed with the original estimates as were expressed to the voters before being voted on in November our community would not be going crazy over the height and girth of the current Plan D. It should be the current size of the footprint and Hudson street should stay the same as it currently is designed.

I believe one of the worst offenses is that all of this seems to be coming from politicians in town who seek higher offices in Bergen County. They take their lead from the Democratic Chairperson, Lou Stellato, who is a Lyndhurst resident. So I ask you, why is it we would ever want a Lyndhurst resident influencing our town. Follow the political trail and make your own decision.

As far as Roberta is concerned her allowing 600 tickets to be handed out for leaves in the street is ridiculous. Also her involvement in the local politics of the garage should never be tolerated by town counsel or our residents. She should be reprimanded or asked to leave. It is not the town according to Roberta!

And as for Paul Arohnson, just leave – you have been self serving and a disaster for this village.

Posted on

Ridgewood Mayor Aronsohn Attempting to Divert attention from the Real Issues

ridgewood village manager

Paul,

It has been a while since this group has communicated – I hope everyone is doing well.  I received your email below and wanted to respond.

I respect Roberta. I think she has done a great job overall managing this Village.  It’s not an easy job by any means.  I personally know Roberta…she is a good neighbor and I like to consider her as a friend.  She is smart, quick, effective – I respect her and admire her and from what I have heard she has done a better job of executing than previous VMs.  However, I was shocked to see the full page ad in the news.  I was even more shocked when I read your email and was targeted with a mass email chain from someone in my neighborhood (how she got my personal email is quite a mystery).  I guess I am confused…why are we making this election about her or any village staff? Shouldn’t the election be about the issues at hand – high density housing, doubling the size of Valley hospital in the middle of a residential area? When did we turn this election into village hall staffing?  You work for a corporation so you know very well that a new boss is entitled to evaluate the existing talent pool. So why is this even a concern? No company will hesitate to bring in the right boss for fear of cleaning up the existing talent pool.  We shouldn’t either.

We have to remember, this election isn’t about any Village Hall staff.  It’s about whether we trust the people we elect to represent the town fairly and responsibly.  It’s about where they stand on the issues that we each find important to our families, to our property values, to our future, to our way of life.

It saddens me that you are trying to turn this campaign around and divert the attention away from the true issues.  Not to mention make up deceitful lies.  Not one candidate has made any statement about Roberta and her role.  It’s simply not part of this election, nor should it be.  It’s a non issue.  It saddens me that we are not able to campaign with dignity and respect for one another.  I hope that changes.

Respectfully,

Bonita Shimpfky

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Paul Aronsohn <paul@paularonsohn.com>
Date: Fri, May 6, 2016, 9:04 PM
Subject: Vote for Brooks, Weitz and Willett
To: <paul@paularonsohn.com>

Dear Neighbor,

Last week, I endorsed council candidates Rich Brooks, Evan Weitz and Janice Willett in a letter-to-the-editor, noting that they have solid experience, uncompromising integrity/ethics and a proven commitment to Ridgewood.  I also noted that they are right on issues important to me, such as the budget, the parking deck, the special needs community and the Village Manager.

This week, several additional community leaders – past and present – have also endorsed Rich, Evan and Janice – community leaders who have helped shape Ridgewood’s traditions, while moving Ridgewood forward.  And importantly, a group of residents took out a full-page ad in the Ridgewood News today, noting that “only 3 candidates are committed to keeping Roberta Sonenfeld as Village Manager – Rich Brooks, Evan Weitz and Janice Willett.”

Please see the attached list of endorsements and the full-page ad.

Needless to say, many of us believe that this year’s election is especially important, and as explained by the Ridgewood News Editorial Board, every vote matters.  Remember, in 2012, there was a difference of only 15 votes between the 3rd and 4th placed candidates.

If you have any questions, about this year’s election, please feel free to email me.  If you want to learn more about Rich, Evan and Janice — and their positive, inclusive vision for Ridgewood — please visit their website – www.Ridgewood2020.com.

Thank you for your consideration.  Thank you for voting on Tuesday.

Best,
Paul

Posted on

Why is the Mayor and his 3 Candidates fighting so hard to keep the Village Manager?

Village_Manager_Roberta_Sonenfeld_theridgewoodblog

file photo by Boyd Loving

May 6th 2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Why is the Mayor and his 3 Candidates fighting so hard to keep the Village Manager. Why are they getting so involved with this when the entire council Majority is not running for reelection. . Reminds me of the following definition :

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” is a quotation from the 1599/ 1600 play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. It has been used as a figure of speech, in various phrasings, to describe someone’s too frequent and vehement attempts to convince others of some matter of which the opposite is true, thereby making themselves appear defensive, and insincere.

In rhetorical terms, the phrase can be thought of as indicating an unintentional apophasis—where the speaker who “protests too much” in favor of some assertion puts into others’ minds the idea that the assertion is false, something that they may not have considered before.

The Village Manager has no contact and serves at the pleasure of the Council. If the 3 amigos wanted to keep her so bad then maybe they should have run for re election.

13100959 10206692392644268 5092621493496943916 n

In the Village Hall it was observed Roberta proudly displaying the full page advertisement that appears on page A-11 (about retaining her) of Fridays Ridgewood News to staff members gathered in the waiting area outside of her office.

How inappropriate was it of her to conduct a forced discussion about politics with her people who report to her.

By the way, that ad was paid for by the following families:

Richard & Carla Fels, 227 Sunset
Michael & Amy Greenstone, 122 Sunset
Sommer (first names & address unknown)
Taylor (first names & address unknown)
Peter & Allison Von Halle, 48 Clinton

Posted on

Village Council Candidate Ramon Hache Responds to Village Manager Rumors

Roberta
file photo of Village Manager, Roberta Sonenfeld interfering with petitioners in the CBD
May 6,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood blog has uncovered an email going around from a resident named Cornelie Ladd regarding the retention of the Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld , It seems the Brooks, Willlett, and Weitz is already conceding defeat and are making one last desperate plea to maintain the mayors ie..developers power grip on the Village of Ridgewood .  The May 10 election is about candidates and the candidates vision for future direction of Ridgewood .

 

the email :

Dear neighbors, friends, and friends of neighbors,Without wishing to interrupt dinner / game / bath time, it’s time to find a moment to contemplate the electoral landscape ahead of the impending municipal elections next Tuesday, May 10th.

As many among us are probably aware, although elections for Village Council in Ridgewood are non-partisan by tradition and by nature, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, not unlike our national politics, this year’s elections have become polarized to a rather exponential degree.

As a consequence, although typically individual candidates are running for individual seats, this year’s candidates have coagulated into two slates of three:  Brooks, Willlett, and Weitz versus Hache, Voigt, and Walsh.

I am writing to urge you to consider that, beyond the hot-button issues, there is only one slate, the one of Brooks, Weitz, and Willis, that will offer steady support to the excellent work of our Village Manager, Roberta Sonenfeld. If you value the labors of a responsive, responsible and accountable Village Manager, I ask that you support her by voting Brooks, Weitz, and Willis. You will find the positions of Brooks, Weitz, and WIllis articulated on Ridgewood2020.com.

According to the grapevine (which never lies … !) the other slate will seek to replace the Village Manager.

If, after having done your due diligence, you find that you subscribe to the views of this message, please share the gist of it among your friends and neighbors (and encourage them to go to the polls!).

Thank you for your consideration,
with best wishes for a vibrant Ridgewood,
Cornelie Ladd

Village Council Candidate Ramon Hache Responds

Hi All,

Thank you for sharing this.  I did see the Mayor’s letter to the editor. Based on the email from your neighbor, it seems that Mayor Aronsohn is now pushing this idea through residents as well. There really is no basis. Neither Jeff, Bernie nor I have ever gone on the record to say that we have any plans of replacing the Village Manager.  I have now attended a few “coffees” with Bernie and Jeff, including the one on Wednesday night (coincidentally next door to Ms. Sonenfeld’s home) and there was no mention by us of Ms. Sonenfeld in a negative light.I will share my personal view. I have an enormous amount of respect for the position of Village Manager. It is a very demanding job. The Village Manager is under constant scrutiny while dealing with a wide range of issues on a daily basis. I see the Village Manager as a direct extension of the Council. If I am elected, I plan on sitting down with key Village employees, including the Village Manager, to evaluate them in their current role. This is no different than what a new CEO would do at a company in the private sector.  As with the way I have always treated my employees, I plan on conducting a fair and objective review. It is incumbent upon the Council to ensure that key positions in our Village, paid for by your tax dollars, are filled with the most competent and qualified people available to us. I do not know Ms. Sonenfeld personally. I think for any candidate to make a determination regarding her retention, whether pro or against, is extremely premature at this time. That would not be fair to either the Village Manager nor residents.

Unfortunately, this ugly rumor seems to stem from some political angle. Unfounded rumors such as this one only add to the divisiveness in our community. It is very unfortunate.  Thank you for sharing your concern.  I will certainly pass it along to Jeff and Bernie for their views since I cannot speak on their behalf. I would be more than happy to speak to your neighbor and answer any of her questions.  Thank you also for your continued support.

Best
Ramon
201-960-4977