REORG photo of the Village Council by Boyd Loving
Residents again question Mayor Paul Aronsohn’s handling of public meetings
June 8,2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ , Mayor Paul Aronsohn’s handling of public meetings has continued to come under scrutiny from residents .
Marcia Ringel Co-chair , The Preserve Graydon Coalition in her letter to the Ridgewood News has become the latest to point out disprepencies in the way Village “public” meetings are run with her comment ,”Mayor Paul Aronsohn knew about the meeting, he told only selected individuals about it. This did not include the public at large,” https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/210576851_Letter__Public_meeting_anything_but_public.html
In December the Ridgewood blog reprinted an article by DARIUS AMOS of the Ridgewood News ,https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-residents-claim-village-hall-violated-new-jerseys-open-public-meetings-act/ where it was reported that Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli invited approximately 10 members of the public to his information session, held Nov. 27 at Village Hall. The invitees included members of the Preserve Graydon Coalition, a grassroots group that has spoken against Option 1, as well as some members of the Ridgewood professional staff.No other member of the Village Council was invited to the session .
Long time resident Ellie Gruber pointed out the the gatherings violated New Jersey’s Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
Readers at the time said that either Mr. Pucciarelli was unaware of the law or sought to circumvent it. Neither is acceptable.
And predicted , “Look for more of Mrs. Walsh and Mr. Riche being excluded from “informal” Council meetings in the future. I am very skeptical of the Aronsohn/Hauck/Pucciarelli axis as they seem to be moving and voting as a block. Mr. Aronshon is an unapologetic political operator while his partners are political neophytes. This gives way to much influence to a politician about whom we should all be skeptical.”
If you ad some of the recent antics by the Aronsohn/Hauck/Pucciarelli axis toward both Councilmen Richie and Councilwomen Walsh , and Councilwomen Hauck inability to understand that she must recuse herself from discussions involving Valley hospital perhaps a sitdown with Village attorney Matt Rogers is in line for this ethically challenged group.
I am somewhat surprised at Aronsohon’s behavior. I met him at a friend’s house when he was first thinking about running. He seemed nice enough. Now he has shown his arrogance and his true colors. And the mutual friend, he is a big Valley supporter.
Bob Menendez better provide some coaching to his acolyte…..
So many people are commenting the same thing: Aronsohn seemed as though he would be a breath of fresh air and now he’s turned into nothing more than a myopic despot who could care less about the majority in town (including those who supported and voted for him) and everything about special interest projects. I always wonder how people like that look themselves in the mirror.
When Aronsohn looks in the mirror he sees Pucciarelli looking back at him
they are all full of shit. none of them car about what need’s to be done in the village.’if they did they would hire workers to get things done. end of the story. and to the top managers stop the bull shit story’s we are not in the dark.
There’s just enough time for councilwoman Hauck to understand that failing to recuse herself on all Valley-related matters would lead to a ****storm and probable allegations of improper conduct. Anybody advising her legally? What do we pay the village attorney for? (and how much?)
“Ethically challenged” is how I would describe Riche’s behavior. He’s the only council member we know of whose firm is contracting directly with the VoR, in direct contravention of both VoR code and the NJ state Local Government Ethics Law and statute. All our volunteer council and board members need to do is make annual financial disclosures of where they get their sources of income, not whether those sources have any contracts with the VoR. It must change to prevent future conflicts like this.
All true but you omitted the fact that ,not only have Richie been doing business with the town for over 14 years , the current Mayor signed off on the last contract . Richie didnt pay himself , the Village council voted for it, and Village Attorney and Village Manager signed off on it
Bonnie and Clyde were successful in robbing many banks before they were killed. Just because they were successful doing so never made bank robbing legal. Riche was wrong and hew knew he was wrong plain and simple. I can never understand how people can blame others for Riches actions. It’s like blaming a woman for being raped.
#9 — I think you miss #8’s point — If Riche acted illegally, so did the others because they approved the contract with full knowledge.
It’s obvious to anyone with a pulse that a violation has been comitted now what matters is who is accountable for it besides tom Richie and who is going to conduct the investigation.