This my personal opinion on last nights public meeting.
1. A delay of almost 50 minutes before beginning the scheduled agenda to hear a “personal grievance”statement by the employee labor attorney for the Village.
2. It was not on the agenda and a matter that should have first been discussed in a closed meeting.
3. Sadly, the Mayor permitted the “employee” to make her statement at the public Village meeting hoping to “clear the air” and be helpful. “which was a BIG mistake.
4. I have lost all confidence our Councilmen (for now) on the public behavior of these matters.
I have been a residence in Ridgewood since 1948 and have seen “many meetings” — that one was the worse..
The Ridgewood blog was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger . Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .
Ridgewood NJ, – Oct. 26, 2009 – RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — The Ridgewood blog ( https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/ ) was founded in March of 2006 by James J Foytlin aka PJ Blogger .[1] Mr. Foytlin was born and raised in Ridgewood ,New Jersey and is a graduate of Ridgewood High School .[2] [3]
After many years living in New York City[4] Mr Foytlin returned to Ridgewood after a divorce and the tragic events of 9/11 . Once he settled in he noticed a lack of sufficient news coverage of local events . One day a friend from Brazil[5] showed him her home town on the internet and to Mr. Foytlin’s great surprise when he tried to reciprocate he was utterly dismayed at the absolute lake coverage of his home town. After all Ridgewood is only 18 miles from midtown Manhattan[6] the media capitol of world and there was not a single picture of Ridgewood to be found . How could this be? Ridgewood is a picturesque upper middle class village of around 25,000 located in Bergen county in northern New Jersey[7] . Founded by Dutch settlers before it became an English colony[8] . The town or village as its called is steeped in rich history and tradition .Known for a large amount of Victorian era housing , a quality school system and a family friendly atmosphere.
Though busy getting reacquainted with his home town the fact that the Village of Ridgewood was so under represented on the internet continued to disturb Mr. Foytlin. Mr. Foytlin had been writing news letters for his job in financial services since the mid 1990’s . The popular flip, off beat investment strategy news letters had become email blasts with the advent of readily accessible internet.[9] By 2004 the email blasts were converted into blog format for the One Small Voice blog (https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/ ). [10]
Around that time the Village of Ridgewood had finally completed it’s much anticipated and long delayed renovation of the Village hall which has been flooded out due to Hurricane Floyd.[11] The renovation was marred by huge cost over runs and lengthy delays. In 2005 it opened with great fan fare , was once again flooded with the very first rain . Mr. Foytlin was more shocked by the abject lack of responsibility taken by elected officials than the fact that the $9 million dollar renovation had to some extent been a failure . That was the breaking point and Mr. Foytlin had had enough so he decided to give , citizen journalism a go and created the Ridgewood blog in March of 2006. [12]
The birth of PJ Blogger .By this time Blogging its seems had become quite the rage and mainstream news anchors such as Dan Rather had questioned the validity of information from non professionals sitting around in their Pajama’s blogging.[13] Mr. Foytlin not a fan of Dan Rather or any of the mainstream media decided to blog under the name PJ Blogger as a play on words and to plant himself firmly in the camp of the new digital media.
Innovations by the Ridgewood blog to citizen journalism.
“The Fly” is a column on the Ridgewood blog the originates from the expression ,”I’d like to be a fly on the wall “ . The idea is that every citizen has both a unique perspective and experience and these two factors can be used to gather news and opinions about local issues. Originally only of handful of people in town participated but with time the Ridgewood blog can now count on 20–40 semi regular contributors. These post are both anonymous and signed and are largely opinion as well a breaking news.[14]
The Ridgewood blog brings a free market lassie fare point of view to local issues . Mr. Foytlin aka PJ Blogger has stated that for local issues there are only two kinds of people ;the ones who say spend what every you want because I will not be around to pay the bill and the second group which are more focused on the ,”be careful this is my money your spending” . The Ridgewood blog is dedicated to the interplay of there two groups.[15]
[1][12] the Ridgewood blog website https://theridgewoodblog.blogspot.com/
[2] Birth Certificate born in Valley Hospital , Ridgewood 04/09/1962
[3] Ridgewood High School Class 1980
[4] 444 East 86th street ,530 East 72nd
[5] Monica Rocha
[6] Mapquest
[7] United States 2000 Census, the village population was 24,936.
[8] https://www.americantowns.com/nj/ridgewood/organization/vi…
[9] Fahnestock & Co. now Oppenheimer & Co.
[10] https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/
[11] https://www.ridgewoodlibrary.org/localhistory/lh_vh_pease.htm
[13] https://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110005611
[14] [15] James J Foytlin
04/07/157:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting – Village Hall Court RoomAvailable 04/08/158:00PMVillage Council Public MeetingAvailable 04/14/157:30PMBoard of Adjustment Public Meeting 04/21/157:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting – Village Hall Court Room 04/22/157:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session 04/28/157:30PMBoard of Adjustment Public Work Session 05/05/157:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting – Village Hall Court Room 05/06/157:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session 05/12/157:30PMBoard of Adjustment Public Meeting
In a broader sense, this issue is like many others in that we have a Council majority that meets separately from the entire Council and outside the public eye. They come to each Council meeting with their own agenda and publicly humiliate any non-majority Council member that questions or disagrees with their agenda.
Whether these 3 violate the Sunshine laws is a topic for another post. Or maybe a special prosecutor. Regardless, the sad truth is that Ridgewood is being run by 3 individuals that think they know better than the rest of us. They preach transparency while they exclude their constituents and Council mates from the governing process. They preach civility as they engage in petty name calling and public condescension. They insult our intelligence by acting this way and thinking that nobody notices such blatant hypocrisy.
Let’s hope that Ms. Knudsen and Mr. Sedon have the courage to stand up to these 3 every step of the way. At this point, every agenda item that this Council majority brings to the table is worthy of a second look
Does anyone thinks it’s a coincidence the human resource and village manager are both from Bergen leads and this residency requirement is being changed when the hr person isn’t from ridgewood. Old friends from the bergen county program . Ridgewood owes a debt of gratitude to councilwoman knudsen for standing up for ridgewood residents when aronsohn, pucc and hack don’t care about the people they represent. What’s wrong there’s no one from ridgewood to fill these jobs.
Regardless of what the law might become, the fact is that these people are not willing to hire anyone now under the current law. That is outrageous. Holding off on hiring until they can change the law. Sounds like a massive lawsuit to me.
There he is Chris Harris the Mayor Press Secretary / Record Reporter writing another article for the Mayor. I was wondering what was taking him so long.
Looks like Mr. Harris didn’t even have the courtesy, nor did he take the time, to contact Councilwoman Knudsen for her side of the story. The Record’s local news coverage is getting to be as big of a joke as the Village Council is.
The article by Harris is a disgrace since the councilwoman made it clear it’s all about civilian titles. Looks like Paulie’s lackey is willing to do anything for Aronsohn and we should all be sickened by it. It Harris wants to be a real reporter he should have the decency to be honest in his reporting. The change has nothing to do with the police or fire department. I don’t know much about all of this but is seems everyone on council agreed the change was to civilian titles and Mailander agreed. No one disputed Knudsnes statement it was about civilian jobs. The inferences Aronsohn makes are despicable Harris wants to be part of this lie he should be ashamed of himself and he should be fired.
We’ve seen lots of nepotism in the village and now we are seeing Schonenfeld’s cronyism. Schonenfeld should be fired because she said doesn’t understand the basics of the job she was hired to do.
So, based on the diligent detective work by Councilwoman Knudsen, we learn that the current hiring scheme provides that Ridgewood-based applicants are to be preferred when all of the top candidates are equally qualified. This sounds reasonable. Accordingly, the burden of persuasion on whether or not to change the law should be on those who are in favor of a change.
Up until now the proponents of change have been saying that according to the current hiring scheme, the Village has not been permitted to hire better qualified candidates who live outside of Ridgewood if at least one local applicant is deemed at least minimally qualified. Now we learn that was not true. In fact, it does not take an enormous leap of faith to conclude that we were being LIED TO.
It turns out the Village has only lacked the ability to hire candidates of the SAME qualifications who live outside of Ridgewood. In other words, they have lacked the ability to discriminate against (politically undesireable?) Ridgewood residents who have the same qualifications as the best (properly politically aligned?) candidates who live outside of Ridgewood.
Why should we change the law to facilitate such a hiring practice?
One wonders if the proposed change to the law is contemplated as part of a larger plan to politicize our system of local government, which by virtue of the Faulkner Act is supposed to be completely non-partisan.
Ah yes…politics. This has been the common denominator from day one when it comes to the behavior of the Three Amigos. Why should we expect these old dogs to learn new tricks when they continue to get such great mileage out of the old ones?
April 4, 2015 Last updated: Saturday, April 4, 2015, 1:21 AM
By CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A councilwoman is urging that a vote to revise a residency rule for hiring new employees should be indefinitely postponed.
Councilwoman Susan Knudsen wants the council’s Wednesday vote on the amendment deferred “so we make sure that we get this right” and to dispel “fundamental misunderstandings about the proposed change.”
Knudsen opposed the change during public talks last month.
The council voted in August to update its residency ordinance for civilian hires with a tier system, which the state has since determined is not permitted.
The system, which officials claim was developed to attract the best qualified candidates, was approved by the entire council.
It would have given preference for village openings to Bergen County military veterans, followed by all county residents, then residents of contiguous counties and lastly, all other state residents.
Readers says Demand that the council represent the residents of Ridgewood by getting all of the facts before voting on the residence ordinance
People need to go to the council meeting on April 8th and demand that they NOT vote on the residence ordinance until there is full transparency on what is going on.
We need to demand that Ridgewood residents get a preference when the village is hiring. As long as the qualifications are equal, Ridgewood residents should get preference. We are the one’s paying the taxes or the high rents to live here. Why shouldn’t we be the one’s to work here as long as we are qualified. There is something going on here that smells bad. Who have they hired not following the civil service rules? I bet there were many. This all needs to get out in the open. Councilwoman Knudsen should be supplied with the information she is asking for and not be stonewalled for a month. The residents need to get their heads out of the sand and wake up. Do you understand what is going on right in front of us? This is an incredibly bad situation and needs to be clarified before any vote is taken.
Go to the council meeting, Wednesday, April 8th, 8:00pm at village hall. Demand that the council represent the residents of Ridgewood by getting all of the facts before voting on the ordinance before them. Let’s get everything out in the open. After all, the mayor’s favorite term is “transparency in government.” I think it’s time the village had some of that transparency.
It’s true. Unfortunately Ridgewood residents are not paying attention. They are trusting that our elected council people are protecting them, but they are not.
Councilwoman Knudsen and councilman Sedon are the only one’s trying to protect our rights as village residents. Please go and click on the link to the previous story, then click on the link to the ustream video https://www.ustream.tv/recorded/60629688 of the April 1st council meeting. Go to minute 24:00 when councilwoman Knudsen starts to explain the run around she has been getting for a month about information she has asked for in order for her to make an informed decision before she votes April 8th on the ordinance regarding residency preference.
The rest of the council should have been upset that Knudsen was being blocked from receiving information. Instead, the village manager, the mayor and councilwoman Hauck seemed more concerned that Knudsen was speaking about this information in public. Sedon was not present at the meeting. I applaud councilwoman Knudsen for bringing this information out into the open.
What is happening with the majority of our council? Why are they always on the defensive? They should be thanking Knudsen for bringing this to light. After all, they have been following an ordinance about hiring practices that is inconsistent with the law.
All hires since Aug 2014 should be reviewed to determined if they were done according to law. Who was skipped over that should not have been? Who was hired that should not have been? Did these hires take place according to civil service rules? Instead of gushing over the village manager’s performance, let’s make sure her performance practices are according to law.
When Thomas Yotka, Ridgewood’s newly appointed building department director and construction code official, proposed numerous (and in some cases significant) increases in permit fees at the March 11 Village Council public meeting, Councilwoman Susan Knudsen requested more data to justify the proposed changes. Although Mr. Yotka had cited only three other municipalities’ fees in his report, Councilwoman Knudsen had compared the proposed fees with those of several others and found some inconsistencies.
Two weeks later, at the March 25 Village Council work session, Mr. Yotka provided additional details to Village Council members. It seems, from the discussion, that the permit fee increases proposed by Mr. Yotka may be in line with those in many surrounding municipalities, although the final discussion and official council vote on fee changes have not yet taken place.
This was a fine example of transparency in government, and we have Councilwoman Knudsen to thank for it. All of us who have obtained permits for home improvements know how expensive these are, and how they can add up rapidly if a large project is undertaken. Thanks to the diligence of Councilwoman Knudsen, if our fees do increase, we can at least feel reassured that the charges will reflect current standards.
Sadly, this positive occurrence was immediately marred by uncivil, condescending remarks from Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck and Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli. They made it clear that Councilwoman Knudsen’s request for this additional data had not, in their opinions, been necessary and had required Mr. Yotka to expend excessive, exhaustive and unnecessary effort. Furthermore, when Councilwoman Knudsen stated, politely, that she did not appreciate a gratuitous swipe by the deputy mayor, he replied nastily and sarcastically. Councilwoman Knudsen, to her great credit, maintained a calm, professional demeanor.
In February 2013, Mayor Paul Aronsohn apologized for similar behavior on the part of the Village Council, saying that the public deserves a working council, not a fighting council. There have been other such outbursts in the last couple of years and now here we are yet again. Mayor Aronsohn speaks of civility often, and insists that public discourse must be polite. As chair of the March 25 meeting, he could have interrupted the nasty comments, and apologized to Councilwoman Knudsen and the public for these counterproductive interruptions to an important discussion. Moreover, why didn’t Councilwoman Hauck and Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli behave respectfully in the first place? The remarks by Councilwoman Hauck and Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli, coupled with the silence of Mayor Aronsohn, exemplify incivility.
My greatest annual expense is my property taxes, as it is in many Ridgewood households. I appreciate when our elected officials are cautious, thoughtful, and informed of the facts before spending tax revenues or increasing our fees. Collegial, productive discussions about village business cannot occur when Village Council members are disrespectful and quarrelsome. Over two years ago, the mayor said that we deserve better, but sadly it seems that we are still not getting what we deserve.
Message to Ms. Sonenefeld: The hiring and firing of Village employees is certainly within your purview, but that in and of itself is no excuse whatsoever for not keeping the ENTIRE Village Council informed of your plans with respect to holding positions open in expectation of an ordinance change. Personally, I’d like to see the complete list of job applicants for those open positions, now on hold, to find out exactly who it is from Ridgewood that you don’t want to hire.
Ms. Roberta:
1. You are not an elected official. You should not insert your opinions and commentary incessantly. We are not interested in your opinions. What are you, the fourth AMIGO? Your gratuitous swipe at Ms. Knudsen last night was completely uncalled for. Councilwoman Knudsen conducted a calm and fact-filled discussion. At the end of it, you had the audacity to state that you had prepared a joke but now you didn’t feel like it. That was insulting and unprofessional. You were clearly stating that you did not like Councilwoman Knudsen’s discussion. That is just tough luck for you. You are not, I repeat YOU ARE NOT an elected official. Your opinions are not germane to any discussion. Keep them to yourself and just try to do your job.
2. You need to stop interrupting when one of our elected officials is speaking. Watching the tape, it is so distracting when you keep interjecting. Stop it. We did not elect you to represent us and we do want to hear what our elected officals have to say.
First Councilwoman Susan Knudsen was told to recuse herself from a closed meeting on this subject at the suggestion of the Village Manager and now information was withheld from her about this same subject.What the hell is going on in Village Hall. Who is the employee that contact Civil Service and who directed this employee to do this, Why can’t Councilwoman Susan Knudsen have that information. Why didn’t the attorney contact the Councilwoman and speak to her about this issue instead of directing another Village employee to withhold the information. WHO IS RUNNIG THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD.?
The circumstance described by Ms. Knudsen demonstrates that public matters are being discussed, and decisions made, by a majority of the council in advance of the public meeting during which the discussions and decisions are supposed to take place on the record. This reduces the public meeting to the status of a charade, because the result desired by the majority has already been determined in advance! As we all had suspected, it now appears clear that the Sunshine Law has been violated. Violations of the Sunshine Law don’t just happen–they are usually undertaken when the majority wants to avoid scrutiny for something they wish to do that the public might find odious. We all owe Ms. Knudsen a debt of gratitude for sticking to her guns and airing this issue out publicly.
BOMBSHELL REVELATION – Councilwoman claims information deliberately withheld from her
April 1 ,2015
Boyd A. Loving
11:15 PM
Ridgewood Nj, During Wednesday evening’s Village Council Work Session, Councilwoman Susan Knudsen revealed selected details of official correspondence related to the Village’s hiring practices, including a document in which a Village employee was reportedly directed (by an attorney employed by the Village) not to release publicly available information to Ms. Knudsen.
Councilwoman Knudsen also revealed that an unnamed employee or representative of the Village supposedly corresponded with the NJ State Civil Service Commission in February of this year to advise the Commission that several open positions (jobs) would not be filled until after Village Council members voted to change an ordinance related to preferential hiring treatment for Village residents (the plan is to remove any preferential hiring treatment for Village residents except applicants for public safety jobs – this ordinance change will be officially voted on during the Council’s April 8 Public Meeting).
According to Ms. Knudsen, Village Council members were reportedly never told that open positions (excluding pubic safety jobs) would not be filled until after the ordinance was changed.
Catch the full action/complete bombshell discussion beginning at 23 minutes 54 seconds into the linked broadcast below:
Reader suggests Roberts Rules of Order a good read for the Village Council
Hey there Mr. Mayor you chair the meetings. Surely you are well-versed in Roberts Rules of Order. As such, you know that part of Roberts Rules reads as follows: “Avoid all personalities. Never allude to another person by name or to motives.” Under points of order it reads, ” Infraction of the rules or decorum in speaking must be raised immediately after the error is made.”
So do you mind telling the citizens of Ridgewood why you allowed TWO of your elected comrades to speak so nastily and dismissively to Councilwoman Knudsen? Why didn’t you rein them in, or at least reprimand them immediately and publicly ? Some leader you are. You certainly have no regard for civility.
Al and Gwenn were completely uncivil to Susan, in different ways. Al, by not being able to control himself and say to Susan, “it’s not all about you, don’t flatter yourself”. Gwenn was uncivil by gushing over the data that Tom had provided and inferring it was a waste of his time. Wasn’t he just doing his job? Isn’t that data important so the council members can vote having actual facts? Susan always delves further to get the whole picture before voting. I may not always agree with her, but I am confident she never votes without having the facts.
