the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, North Jersey Media ran an article called , “These Glen Rock, Ridgewood residents are pushing to change local elections. Here’s why” . In a style that reminds many of why the previous owners of North Jersey lost virtually their entire circulation with its over the top one sided reporting . In the article North Jersey quoted only members of the group “One Village, One Vote”, a group looking to eliminate residents ability to vote on the school budget .
North Jersey quotes, “Siobhan Crann Winograd, co-organizer of One Village, One Vote , “We want to improve voter turnout, reduce the cost of the elections for the Ridgewood taxpayer and minimize the movement around the schools to improve security, because 18 of our 19 polling locations are schools,” said Siobhan Crann Winograd, co-organizer of One Village, One Vote.
The article fails to state clearly that by moving the vote back to November would eliminate residents ability to vote on the Ridgewood Schools massive $111,000,000 budget , that accounts for over 60% of the property taxes paid in the Village of Ridgewood .
Claiming ,”The public is given the opportunity to give budget feedback without a vote, said One Village co-organizer Stacey Loscalzo, saying she’d “rather we have greater voter turnout in November to elect those representatives to do that work with their information, knowledge, time and research gone into that budget versus a small portion of our population being able to vote on that budget in April.” ,is laughable given how many residents feel the current Ridgewood School Board has gone “rogue” , continuing to pursue its own agenda over the agenda of tax payers and students.
Then the article goes on to review the expense of an April election , coming in a bit under $50,000. Wow given the Village spent $500,000 on a toilet ,in the Village that’s chump change.
