Readers say No question, Aronsohn must suspend his columns well before the election to avoid running afoul of NJ election laws
No question, Aronsohn must suspend his columns well before the election to avoid running afoul of NJ election laws. Thank you for pointing this out.
“The (The Villadom Times) publisher appears to have been involved in only one minor political dust-up, when Democratic Bergen County Executive candidate Dennis McNerney in 2002 called for an investigation of his Republican opponent’s periodic column in the Villadom. McNerney contended that then state Sen. Henry P. McNamara should have disclosed the column, called Straight Talk, as an in-kind contribution from the Vierheiligs.”
So Boyd Loving was right on the money when he commented that Paul Aronsohn’s monthly column in The Ridgewood News may be a violation of NJ State Election Commission Laws and also unethical.
Sounds like the Ridgewood News might have the same sort of dust-up if they keep on with the mayor’s monthly PR column.
Running foul of election laws is the name of the game, as in the Mike Sedon anonymous email.
Throw the dam ball. dunk him. He’s all wet anyway.
I would be happy for that column to cease. It’s an embarrassment. And as pointed out above, probably illegal. End it now.
Mark my words, Ed Virgin will continue to allow the column right through election day 2016 and Aronsohn will continue to write his PR BS. He needs to be stopped, but how?
Not only does the newspaper run the risk of being in violation of election laws, they piss off the opposing candidates, who may own businesses or know those who own businesses that advertise heavily.
Ed Virgin get his marching orders from the owner of north jersey media. You know the guy that was on the last mayor panel on civility.
Ridgewood is done sold and bought by promises made by the three amigos even if the are not elected next year the plans they have set in motion now will continue. I think all three will get re- elected they are masters.
8:12 – no, they will not get reelected. Even though their egos are huge, they still only get one vote apiece just like the rest of us. And the rest of us want them gone. Remember, their candidate Albano was all but trounced in the election last year. Sanity will reign once again.
They can lose only if three good candidates run. Ask around, a lot. It can take a while for someone to decide to run for office–can’t all happen at the last minute. Campaigns should be planned months in advance, too.
8:12, I think it was Pfund who changed the Village ordinances to allow applications to amend the Master Plan, not the current Mayor. The current Mayor has also voted down the Valley expansion proposals on two separate occasions, so what “promises made” are you referring to? Otherwise, that’s a pretty cheap shot right there.
Bernie Walsh for council and mayor.
Bring back Bernadette Walsh!
1:13 –
There are not enough pages to list his broken promises. Let’s start with the biggest lie he told (and continues to tell) – that he insists on TRANSPARENCY in government. His reign of has been clouded by incessant lies and breaking of rules. For example, getting the Ridgewood News to pull a letter from a citizen because Paul did not like the letter. For example, stating that he does not ever communicate with the public during council meetings when he had openly admitted already that he hears from his wife (she is not a member of the public? and if the phone is on, then who else is contacting him?) Add what about his exhausting promise of CIVILITY? He promises civility, but then publicly reams out the Chief of Police and two fellow council members. He promises FLAT TAXES, but in the last few months at least three, maybe four new positions have been created by his sainted Village Manager – a new director of Human Resources (hmmmm, isn’t that supposed to be Roberta’s JOB???), a new director in the Building Department, another new position in the building department, and someone to run the Anne Zusy Center. Keep taxes flat, but jack up expenses with all these new salaries and benefits……so flat taxes is a lie of sorts, because services are dropping to pay for all of Roberta’s new posse.
1:134 Aronsohn apologist on line.
4:42, you’ve made no reference to any “promises made” that have been broken. Taxes have been held flat since 2012 and services have improved – just look at the posts on pothole repairs for example. Municipal goverment is much more transparent than it was in 2011, maybe you forgot the week long silence from Village Hall and Mayor after the Halloween snowstorm that year? What do letters in the Ridgewood News have to do with “promises made”? If you knew anything about Village finances – which your post suggests you don’t – you would know that we have more revenue from parking meters (previously $850,000 was skimmed by a public official who has since been fired), and that all of the increase in your municipal property taxes for 15 years has been going towards wages, pensions and helath care for public safety employees and debt repayment. 10% of the Village workforce was fired in 2010 to pay for those things as well. So Roberta is making Village Hall more accountable and making key hires to do so, and you’re saying that’s a broken promise? Huh? The broken promise has been spending all of our annual tax increases for 15 years on police & fire wages, healthcare and pensions, plus interest on Village debt taken on by Ten Hoeve and Gabbert. Sounds like you just have a personal dislike, not any facts.
Hows that anger management course working for you not so good.
Interesting to see the calls for Bernie Walsh. I though we were supposed to be non-partisan? She’s a failed Bergen County Freeholder Republican candidate, and during her time at Village Hall, our municipal property taxes rose at one of the fastest rates in history to pay for +4% a year contractual wage hikes for public safety officials and retroactive wage hikes for Gabbert and friends. Her time coincided with Rica running wild stealing from the Village, and conflicts of interest were rampant. Why would we want to go back to that?
2:10 AM you did not actually respond to any of the things that 4:42 said. Because 4:42 is right on.
5:40pm, you sound for all the world like a desperate current officeholder sweating their re-election chances. You uncivilly bad mouth our esteemed former Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh as if she were a current candidate vying to replace you on the Council. (We should be so lucky. You should keep your powder dry if in fact you anticipate facing her as a future electoral opponent!) You further hypocritically introduce party politics into your discussion regarding Ms. Walsh, as if she ever allowed her already well-known political affiliation to affect the way she conducted herself as a (successful) candidate for Ridgewood council, or as a (successful) sitting Councilwoman. (Which, of course, she never did, having full and complete respect for the clear strictures imposed by the Faulkner Act.) Finally, you blithely and coldly use the word ‘failed’ when discussing Ms. Walsh’s bid for a county-wide position. This is a transparently malicious bid to paint her as some kind of sad sack candidate, a characterization no right-thinking Ridgewood resident who knows her at all would ever accept, particularly coming from an individual clearly clutching at so many straws to defend an incumbent who was himself a ‘failed candidate’ for US Congress. Would do us all a favor and slink back into the humble roadside hole you came out of, Mr. Mudslinger?