Reader says the current problems obviously start at the top with our very ambitious Mayor and his dubious team.
While our choices are few in the upcoming election, we should all be aware that one candidate, Mr. Albano appears to be aligned with the Mayor. Like Mrs. Hauck, Mr. Albano is a decent person that is passionate about a single issue but has no other real qualifications for the job. The current voting block of 3 needs to be broken up, not added to.
Mr. Sedon on the other hand has covered countless meetings for the Ridgewood News and is intimately familiar with the budgeting process and all municipal departments. He is an independent thinker and has a healthy skepticism for less than credible “expert” testimony about the Hospital and high density housing.
Mrs. Kundson is also an independent thinker who will not just vote with the establishment. She appears to be unafraid of the political retribution that Mr. Aronsohn, Mrs. Hauck and Mr. Pucciarelli have wielded over the past year against their adversaries.
Please do your homework – all of the candidates are very approachable. Please ask each one where they stand on Valley and the apartments. Get it in an e-mail if possible. The 3 incumbents are masters of saying one thing but meaning another. They are political hacks at best and have succeeded this week in converting Ridgewood from a local laughingstock into a national laughingstock. Bravo.
I am very concerned about the balance on our council. We need to have a survey sent to each candidate and fi d out where they stand on issues such as taxes and development.
I am tired of three council members thinking with one brain
Do I have to state the obvious?? The voters put them there so vote them out if you have a problem!
The problem with that #2 is voters have short memories. These will do something great just befoer the election and they will be back in there.
#2 I didn’t vote for any of the bumbling trio and I’m now stuck with them for what seems to be an eternity. How many more pet projects, secret meetings with developers, free tickets to fundraisers, public lynchings of political adversaries, hypocritical interpretations of conflict of interest law and failures to guard the taxpayer piggy bank do I have to endure before I get another chance to vote against these clowns?
With hard work and some luck all three of them will be voted out or decline to run for reelection, in 2016. Unfortunately, the next two years are likely to be crucial to the future of the Village.
the shame of it is these clowns could do a lot of damage in 2 years legally and walk away with whatever they were promised and we’re stuck with the mess.
You should stop complaining about our democratically elected officials and start attending Council meetings to make your views heard – that’s your civic duty instead of just posting gripes about your broken laundry list of perceived ills – opinions, not facts. The previous Council handed out 12% retroactive pay raises in a major recession, allowed Council members to conduct business with the Village, and handed out taxpayer giveaways in the 2009 CBAs like they were candy. That’s fact. If you think VH and CBD redevelopment are problems, get used to massive fixed cost increases. We go from 8 members of the $100K+ pension gang to +17 by 2015…. that’s equal to over 4% of our annual Village budget just in pensions and doesn’t include massively subsided Cadillac healthcare which the Village pays for as the healthcare bills are incurred – we will be stuck with these unlimited, fixed liabilities for +20 years because most of the pensioners retire under 60 years of age. It’s a time bomb about to go off.
#7 – You call the Valley expansion and building high density housing “perceived ills?” Also, nice job placing blame on the previous Council for everything that’s wrong with this one. Are you saying that inherited problems are not this Council’s problem? These democratically elected Council members chose to run – that means when you win, you get ALL the problems, not just the ones you cause yourself. Quit complaining about the criticism yourself and tell whomever on this Council you are defending to get to work.
As for showing up at meetings and expressing opinions – look at what that got people that spoke up at the Valley hearings. Gail Price allowed Valley’s attorney to shout them down then told the Planning Board to ignore public comment when making their decision. Only the “expert testimony” paid for by Valley is to be considered.
Is it that hard to figure out why people are so angry?
I’m not saying the Valley expansion and high density housing are “perceived ills”. Guessing how someone will vote on something that is not in fornt of them is opinion, not fact. What I’m saying is that you cannot just gripe and complain about the current Council when those issues are at the Planning Board level. How the Council will vote on any proposals that make it past the PB is pure speculation. The current Mayor voted against the previous Valley expansion plan, correct ? The Council cannot work on something at the PB stage, they can only evaluate the merits of proposals submitted to them. Personally I think Valley should only be allowed to renew their plant & equip on their current footprint and current height, period. But I like having a center of medical excellence so close in Ridgewood rather than having to go to Hackensack or NYC for healthcare. I agree with the CRR though, a 10 year expansion makes no sense for the Village. As for high density housing, I agree that all proposals should be made based on the current Master Plan, no exceptions. But I want to see the vacant lots in our CBD redeveloped, because frankly I don’t like the blighted remains of yester year (Town Garage, old auto & used car dealers, empty stores). There has to be compromise. It cannot just be “all or nothing”. I agree the currnet Valley expansion proponents are out of line daring to say that public opion should be ignored in the recommendations to the PB. That’s unacceptable. But it’s also unacceptable in my opinbion to just complain, complain, complain in thse posts about the current Council. Assuming you’ve lived in Ridgewood, you’ll remember the complete lack of communication from the Village during the Halloween storm of 2011 – the VM was nowwhere to be seen (he was also Mayor of Saddle River), while many residents dealt with live wires and no electricty for a week or more. There was a complete failure to lead. You know my thoughts on the retroactive pay raises and 4% annual pay raises given during a recession.