A Financial Advisory Committee could have worked if established properly. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s being used for the wrong purposes and conflicts of interest abound. Now that we have a CFO, which was not the case at the time, the committee should be disbanded. They and their leader Aronsohn are using it to beat a political horse, as intended. Their official voice needs to be silenced asap. They are not experts in this field. While financial disclosure agreements would be important if their (highly questionable) recommendations were to continue, which they should not, residents should not have to supply such things. QED, kill the committee. As for Mayor Knudsen’s so-called conflict of interest, what is this, Fox News, pounding away at untruths in the hope that they will become facts? Only Jim Griffiths thinks that where her parents live is an issue. So they live sort of near there–so what? Many, many residents who live in every corner of town agree that the opinion on the dispensation of Schedler of everyone who lives in that area deserves far more consideration than that of anyone who doesn’t. And they have been most gracious in accepting the idea of a small ballfield. If I lived there I would say NO to all of it.
James knows well what happened when Gabbert unilaterally reopened the public safety contacts in 2010…. the supposed “concessions” he got cost Ridgewood taxpayers millions and we ended up giving +4% annual wage increases to police and fire through 2015. He raised the salaries of the brass and then went to the Council and said he deserved more than the police and fire chief who’d just been given raises. And presto, by a 4-1 vote the Council handed him a 12% retroactive pay increase, during the Great Recession. This type of taxpayer giveaway could have been avoided if the Council had good advice from experts in finance and contracts. Instead, Ridgewood taxpayers got steamrolled by the most expensive police and fire CBAs in the United States. Why wouldn’t the Council want non-binding, independent expert advice from volunteer residents who pay taxes, too? They should be protecting taxpayer interests, not exacting political revenge.
I’d like to see a reforming of the Ridgewood Taxpayers Association (not sure about its title). That would be more to the point and more appropriate, and increasingly needed.