Oversight group to advise Ridgewood on finances
Monday March 11, 2013, 12:57 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood council members have unanimously expressed the need for a financial oversight board, provided that a new committee acts merely in an advisory capacity.
The council’s decision to pursue the creation of the new board is the first action based off the Tiger Team report, a broad analysis of Ridgewood’s finances conducted through the course of 2012 by a volunteer group made up of accountants, lawyers, finance executives and business owners. The report, which was released earlier this year, provided a list of fiscal recommendations to assist the council during its budget process.
Among the recommendations was the formation of a financial oversight board to specifically examine and scrutinize municipal spending, including the budgets of individual village departments.
Last week, Mayor Paul Aronsohn presented the proposed committee’s suggested mission statement, which rebranded it as the Ridgewood Financial Advisory Board.
The need for an advisory board became apparent, according to Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli, during recent budget meetings with department supervisors. Specifically, Pucciarelli pointed to the various increases already built in to the budget, such as contractual salaries.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/196986521_Oversight_group_to_advise_Ridgewood_on_finances.html
They know what needs to be done. They want this advisory board so that they don’t have to be the bad guys when it comes to cuts. pucch said that he does not have the time to go into every dept. and figure out the cuts. He should give the departments a % to cut from all departments and let them figure it out.
The FAB is just cover for an ineffective village council.
It is a group that the council will hide behind when they need to.
Let ’em hide. As long as the Village Council takes meaningful action to reduce inefficient Village spending, that is all that matters.