
Editors Note : several erroneous statements in this letter must be addressed , italics is mine
PJ Blogger Founder of the Ridgewood blog and King of the Anonymous bloggers
to the editor:
While watching the council meeting last Wednesday, I was appalled by the rancor and allegations of harassment.
Our councilmen and councilwomen donate an inordinate amount of time and energy for the betterment of Ridgewood. There is a growing tendency on the part of our citizens to vilify some of our council because of disagreement with their positions on public policy and local law. This has got to stop.
Actually it is three members of the council who continue to attack and vilify the opposition ,
Anonymous blogging is an especially onerous method of this, seeing that a forum already exists at every council meeting by going to the podium and stating your name and address. Criticize the ideas if you must, or add constructive ideas regarding the dialogue or issue at hand, but do it openly and expose your views to public debate.
This is a perfect example of the previous statement , you are responsible for your own behavior , poor manners and an ill temper are no ones fault but your own
During the heated discussion of the residency requirement, it has come to light that one of the two dissenters on the council has a personal stake in the eventual outcome that was not previously made known. I find that there are few coincidences in life, and it appears that the catalyst for one of the dissenting votes bears this out. If you have three sons on the current village list with aspirations to pursue careers with the police force, a dissenting vote on this issue of civilian hires can be seriously construed as another dissenting vote down the road on uniformed employees, and a potential conflict of interest.
To our knowledge Public safety employee hiring was not effected by the “residency ” rule change making the hole conflict issue specious.
Regarding this question of residency preference, Deputy Mayor Pucciarelli summarized it best in voting against continuing the preference: The people of Ridgewood are best served by hiring the most qualified candidate for village jobs, whether they are residents of Ridgewood or not. The village does not need to fill civil service positions as a way of providing work for residents which could become a recipe for patronage and nepotism.
No one would argue that hiring the best for the Village , but it seems the change in the law will open the floodgates for importing more partisan hacks in in attempt to destroy the Village ie welcome to Hudson County .
Glenn F. Jorgensen
Ridgewood