Ridgewood NJ, The Village of Ridgewood is suing the Bergen County Board of Elections for rejecting 710 ballots from May’s vote-by-mail election, demanding the county review the tossed votes, which could have substantially changed the election results. Ridgewood residents cast around 5,400 ballots last month. The Village claims that voters were not notified if their ballots were rejected, and village authorities were not informed about the disqualifications until June 5, three weeks after the election.
…the fly has learned that Village officials form the building department have been walking around the central business district and threatening all the restaurant owners that they will send the cops over if you don’t have their permit hanging in their place of business . Meanwhile permit processing is very slow and backed up , yet the Village still has time to walk the downtown to badger restaurant owners ?
Ridgewood NJ, Late last week, we were made aware that 710 ballots in the May 12, 2020 Municipal and Board of Education Elections were rejected and, therefore, not counted in the results. There is not a lot of exact information available at this time as to why so many ballots were rejected. I can tell you that the Village Council and the Ridgewood Board of Education are exploring our legal options to determine why such a large number of ballots were rejected and determine if there is a remedy. Currently, based on the defeated budget, the Village Council required and the RBOE accepted a $630,000 cut from the proposed 2020/2021 budget due to its defeat. Additionally, we have been informed that we will have at least a $440,000 reduction in state aid for the 2020/2021 school year. We will work to make all necessary cuts to have the least impact on the student experience as possible.
Ridgewood NJ, In response to an Open Public Records Act request I recently submitted to the Bergen County Clerk’s Office, I have just received a list containing the last name, first name, middle initial, and street address for every Ridgewood voter whose mail in ballot was REJECTED in connection with the May 12, 2020 Board of Education, Board of Education Budget, and Village Council General Election.
The list contains the names of 710 voters. That is, 710 of the ballots submitted for the aforementioned election were rejected/not counted. The reasons for rejection are not specified in the document I received. However, many appear to have been received after the specified cut off date of Thursday, May 14, 2020.If my calculations are correct, approximately 15% of the total ballots submitted were rejected/not counted. Wow! That’s alarming, to say the least. I do not know whether the County Clerk’s Office has a notification process in place for rejected ballots. Thus, some of these voters may not know that their ballot was rejected.
Ridgewood NJ, Ms. Kwak shared that the BOE Budget Committee has had constructive, collaborative discussions with the Village Council on the defeated budget. They are thankful to Dr. Fishbein and Ms. Kelly for identifying opportunities that will allow us to continue to deliver programming and address the curricular needs of the students. She thanked everyone who has been involved in this process. Ms. Brogan noted that the Village Council will be discussing the budget at their meeting on Wednesday. Dr. Fishbein added that some of the areas identified for reductions included capital and maintenance. Since some of the maintenance budget would have been used for the additional expenses related to the reopening of schools, other areas of the budget will need to cover those costs.
On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember those who sacrificed their lives for “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who are grieving. May we, as Abraham Lincoln famously said, “highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain–that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Ridgewood NJ, Your ballots will be coming soon. When it comes to The Village Council, DO NOT VOTE FOR PAM PERRON OR MAHMOUD HAMZA. Pam Perron in zoom meetings has stated that she is (1) in favor of high-density housing (2) in favor of moving all elections to November, in which case citizens would no longer be able to vote on proposed Board of Education budgets (3) in favor of combining the Village Council and the Board of Education (educate yourself, Pam, this cannot be done at the local level, it has to be done by state legislators) (4) in favor of giving big money to the library. Somehow she also thinks she could be a negotiator for police and fire contracts, something that Village Councilmen do not do. Mahmoud Hamza is in favor of high density housing and he believes astro turf is safe. Worst of all, both of these candidates are backed by the worst of the worst – Halaby, Aronsohn, Sonenfeld, Hauck, Harwin, Winograd, Phillips, Willett, Lehman and more have signed on for them. If you want to see our village go all the way downhill on the course that Aronsohn started, vote for them. If you want to preserve Ridgewood with sensible development and smart, informed representatives, vote LORRAINE REYNOLDS, Sergio Alegre, and Bernadette Walsh.
The Concerned Residents of Ridgewood (CRR) is pleased to announce that Pete McKenna has been elected as the new President of CRR, a grassroots non-profit organization committed to maintaining the residential character and the quality of life of the village of Ridgewood.
Ridgewood NJ, the Village Council’s Regular Public Meeting will be held on April 15, 2020, beginning at 8:00 p.m. The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube as well as on Swagit on the Village website. It will also be broadcast live on Channel 34 for Verizon Fios and Channel 77 for Optimum. During this meeting, the Public Hearing and final adoption of the 2020 Village budget will be held, in addition to other matters of business. Please see the agenda on the Village website for complete details at: ridgewoodnj.net, by clicking on Agendas and Minutes, and then clicking on Village Council.
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Board of Education Election (to vote on the Board of Education budget and elect one Board of Education member for an unexpired 1-year term and two Board of Education members to three-year terms) and the Ridgewood Municipal Election (to elect three Village Councilmembers to 4-year terms) will be held on the same date, May 12, 2020. These elections will be a Vote by Mail election only. There will be two separate ballots in the envelope sent to you, one for the Board of Education and the second one for the Village Council. Vote by mail ballots will be mailed to all registered voters, no later than April 24, 2020. The Vote by Mail ballots must be postmarked by May 12, 2020 and received at the County by May 14, 2020. Therefore, please vote your ballot and mail it back, as soon as possible so that your vote will count. The envelopes included with the ballots are postage paid.
Ridgewood NJ, so the Village Council joined the digital age and used the ZOOM app to conduct the Village Council meeting . What could possible go wrong with that? They quickly learned that the digital age comes at a price , someone hacked into the ZOOM meeting and started showing porn . Yuup the Village may never recover .
