$460,000 in quarters thats a lot of quarters
Readers find it hard to believe Ridgewood meter thief acted alone and went unnoticed for so long
Shocking! And as expected, no comment from our illustrious mayor on the one thing he should be commenting about. What a joke Ridgewood is becoming. But, Roberta will fix everything, Paul promises.
No way he was the only one. The only way he even gets to the point where he is comfortable stealing a half million dollars in quarters is if there is a pre existing culture of entitlement that facilitates this kind of behavior. Same thing happened in Hoboken about 10 years ago (only it was $1M). And we all know how squeaky clean that city is.
$460,000 is 1% of our Village annual budget and no one noticed ? Makes you wonder what else goes missing every year ?
He took the money over a 2 year period. Someone in finance didn’t notice a quarter of a million dollar shortfall 2 years in a row?
How can this be, he must of paid some one off, what a scam. and don’t tell me that no others new about this. bull shit. right ,right, come on .he is lucky that he did not meet big bubba . he would of never lasted in the joint.
But Village officials steadfastly refuse to offer any other payment option for meters and parking kiosks other than cash, thus making it easier for employees to continue helping themselves. There are so many security breaches in the collection process, none of which officials will admit to in public.
They bad ones all get caught eventually, there was a meter employee who was stealing the money out of the meters before it was collected the collection man noticed it and reported it and the ex employee was caught and arrested. The cop who robbed the PBA got caught. He was arrested. The shade tree who was stealing got caught and was fired, I’m not sure if he was charged criminally or not. There was the parking enforcement officer writing phony tickets he was arrested and fired, there was a lieut who got caught stealing computers he was fired. The point is the town does police it’s own, it may not happen as quickly as the bloggers would like but if you knew how the system works you would better understand why things take so long. The problem with the meters is twofold, one is the meter style is archaic, two is the decline in town “parking” traffic makes it very difficult to gauge how much money should be in the meter.
I’m sure most of the town employees are honest hard working men and women. Sad that a few rotten apples end up in the bunch.
The problem is that the department head who is in charge of the meters is a know it all who wants to make no changes.
Why is it no one higher up was held accountable or better yet fired?
They fired Gabbert, that is who they will say was responsible.
Wait For It!
spin doctor
noun
: a person (such as a political aide) whose job involves trying to control the way something (such as an important event) is described to the public in order to influence what people think about it
Can anyone be trusted? My first two thoughts about this we’re why is this money not going directly to a bank? We pile up quarters in some room? Screams a bunch of morons running this show. 2nd, which is most disturbing, this guy get no jail time? are you kidding me/us? The four counts against, Rica, carry a 5 yr maximum, which when I went to school is 20 years. He gets zero, just probation? for taking almost a half million dollars? Is Madoff up for parole soon also? Holy S, Batman, seems crime does pay. Wow, he loses his $30,000 pension and wait for it…his Accrued Time. This ACCURED Time is most disturbing and the death of our systems. Let’s check on the Police Chief and see how much we owe him now in accrued time and what this will eventually cost us when he gets his Golden Parachute. Oh, I think I went off on a tangent and rant? Sorry, we keep finding the problems and do nothing about them. Keep kicking the can. Isn’t our criminal justice system grand?
rica is not going to get any money from his pension, thats gone. and if he had any sick time or any other time built up , thats gone to.
the manager must be saying to her self what the hell did i get my self into. this town is screwy. miss manager wait until u meet the king of bull shit’ing , you better get your self a seat belt and a big pair of rubber boots.
who ever said it went unnoticed, people seen the quarters in the home, and the paper slips, right you know who.
I agree someone should have seen the shortfall someone needs to be held accountable how does that amount of money go unnoticed and this guy was being made ready to be a supervisor he fit in well with the good ole boys club now the big shots look like a bunch of fools
we would like to know how much the bill was for the village’s law’er .
Easily the best story of the year…..I put the failure to pick up Christmas trees until March a close second.
Where have you gone, Keith Killion ? A village turns it’s lonely eyes to you.
2014 is gonna be great. We have 9 1/2 months to go…!
Ahh #13 in case you didn’t know it Rica was taking the coins during Killions watch.
to # so so true. what was the upper managers thinking of. all his bosses look very stupid . do they know that every one is talking about them. they should all just go. the new manager will find out the truth about all of you.
#14 I knew some asshole would get around to blaming killion. What took you so long?
Just read the Ridgewood News online. Mayor Aronsohn is tripping over himself trying to do damage control. Almost half a million dollars stolen, and it is only coming back to us because a coworker reported that the number of coins looked a little low. It is disgraceful that now, only now, are they suddenly acting all concerned about protecting the money. And, better yet, he and the not-yet manager are going to spend MORE MONEY getting a consultant to tell them how to improve the coin collection process. So much for the new manager trying to save money. Let’s see how much this consultant will be charging us. When will this insanity end??????????
Rica was arrested, booked, charged, and terminated in January, 2013.
Village Council releases statement promising to get to the bottom of security and finance lapses in March, 2014.
Bottom line – it took the mayor and our council 14 months to do what should have been done as soon as the cuffs were on Rica.
I guess the Village Council majority was too busy last year trying to figure out how to get rid of Gabbert instead of paying attention to what they should have been paying attention to.
The insanity will never end. Every solution cost’s money and no one wants to spend any, the current meters were only updated because the signal department couldn’t get replacement parts for the old ones. The new meters still can’t tell you how many cars parked there, and did not put money in. How do you know what is the proper amount of quarters? How do you know how many cars repeat parked and didn’t pay?
(although illegal it does cut down on revenue) The kiosk in the chestnut st. lot is broken more than working, and that allows everyone to park for free. How do you count the amount of revenue loss due to closed stores and car dealerships? Revenue if any from parking summonses doesn’t come in in quarters so how do you know how to factor that revenue in with the coin revenue? This guy was a dark soul and evil usually triumphs in the beginning but they get caught eventually but the lynch mob bloggers call for the blood of others before thinking things thru. If you lock this guy up the town doesn’t see a dime. Why would you want to jail someone when you can get the towns money back?
Agreed that solutions cost money. But sometimes new technology pays for itself quickly and results in more revenue opportunities. Case in point repeat parking would be eliminated if pay and display parking stations were installed in conjunction with stepped up technology assisted parking enforcement. And if the chestnut street parking station were replaced with one that works we would not be losing money there either.
Big question remains whether he had an accomplice and the no-jail deal is related to a police force or other relative or crony.
Hopefully the new Village Manager looks at “how the system works” and revamps it completely in favor of the client, i.e. property tax payers and business.
Why are you always bad mouthing the Council #18 ? What’s your agenda ?
perhaps because missing $460,000 worth of quarters makes the town and the council look clueless ,stupid and again makes Ridgewood the laughing stock of the free world ? ?
I think letting the crook off with no jail time and not even community service – after stealing almost half a million – makes Bergen County look like a paradise for crime and the laughing stock of the free world.
Story has mob connections written all over it
this is not over. wait , just wait. more shit will come out. don’t tell us no one else new.
to # 26 no way. they wish.
the mayor and council need to clean up. the top two need to go. any one who back coin boy will have to leave. this is every place on t v. what happened to this town. to much b s going on with this group called the boys club, who else is in this gang.
the boy’s club , they kept all the workers from talking to the mayor and council. even the dr gabbert at times was told not to meet with workers.
I think the doctor looks back and thinks , yes maybe I was bull shit’ed from a few.