Ridgewood blog endorse Keith Killion and Jane Shinozuka for Ridgewood Village Council
PJ Blogger and the staff of the Ridgewood blog
May 7, 2012
( Ridgewood, NJ ) This election pits the forces of destructive “urbanization” against those who wish Ridgewood to remain “a Village” embracing all the reasons and values people move to the Village of Ridgewood to begin with. Whether it be the enormous Valley hospital expansion or the construction of more tax payer funded “monstrosities” like the Village Hall . “Citizens for a Better Ridgewood ” and people of that ilk represent nothing more than a group looking to make large sums of money financed by the tax payer bringing with them all the ills of over development and the huge debt burden that would accompany it.
The Villages character would be lost forever as standards and quality of life would continue to suffer decline. The disappointing and discouraging part of this election given how long each candidate has lived in Ridgewood , is how few of the candidates seem to really grasp and appreciate the value “the Village” brings . Whether its is personal political ambition or a hidden agenda driven politics of urbanization the “value of “the Village ” is under attack and seems to be over looked and written off by almost everyone .
People come to the Village of Ridgewood for the insulated and protected environment that offers the best of everything. An easy commute to the city , a top notch schools system with very high standards , plenty of grass fields, loads of recreational activities , opportunities for worship and a vital down town all make the Village a very special place . A place where young people can be free to grow up and experiment in a safe environment. The Village is all about class and understatement and very high expectations fall on everyone. Whether you are a CEO of a fortune 500 company or making local pizza delivers Ridgewood expects more. The Village of Ridgewood is not Newark or Paterson.nor is it meant to be nor will it ever be.
We do have one candidate who does understand how special the Village is and looks to balance fiscal responsibility with the new realities of the current economic environment rectifying years of fiscal mismanagement that has been the hall mark of the the Village sine the late 1990’s ; the Mayor Keith Killion . This was so clearly demonstrated during the long and arduous Valley Expansion hearings where Keith led the Village Council through some tough and comprehensive testimony leading to a unambitious decision by the Village council. . Keith is all Ridgewood born and bred and sees the Village as his home . he is not here looking to make a buck and move on. He also has the experience and long term prospective that make him able to lead “the Village” like no other .
Along with Kieth we like Jane Shinozuka ,even though she does not have that much experience she has been steadfastly opposed to the Valley Expansion which is the single most daunting challenge facing the Village. It also helps that she comes from an area in town that seems to often be over looked ,the Glen School area . This gives Jane a unique prospective given the disturbing trend that ,many would gladly sell out or have sold out parts of the Village in order to protect their own little enclave and curry special favor .
At the is time the Ridgewood blog endorse Keith Killion and Jane Shinozuka for Ridgewood Village Council, to fill two of the three open seats to be decided on May 8th 2012.
Unfortunately the “single most daunting issue” facing Ridgewood is not Valley. Valley is going to expand, that is a given. Thanks to the CCR and others the expansion will not be the monstrosity they originally proposed but there will be an expansion of Valley Hospital, no doubt about it. The “single most daunting issue” facing the Village is our long term fiscal health and outlook. The BOE has just started to feel the pain of mandated 2% maximum increases in its budget and that pain will get worse in the coming years. The Village has no clue how out of touch it is on budget issues. A proposed 7.5% increase in the budget this year?!?!?! Is anyone reading this expecting a 7.5% increase in their income this year? The raises given the police department were outrageous, the raise given to the Village Manager was ridiculous and will hamstring the Village in every single contract negotiation from now until he is no longer employed in Ridgewood.
If you look at projections of what is already built into our budgets in regards to salaries, benefits and retirement you are effectively going to see a near doubling of expenses (and thus taxes) in the next ten years. That might have been semi-tolerable when “things were good” but that is no longer the world we live in. With the private sector struggling tremendously, 49% of college graduates from ’09 – ’11 still not employed full time, continued raises and unsustainable benefits (Do you pay more than $480/yr for health care coverage?) can not continue.
In other parts of the country we have already begun to see towns and cities and school systems declare bankruptcy. We’re not there yet but if things continue at the pace we are going that will become an option. Public employees should take a real hard look at what happened at General Motors. The UAW pushed and pushed and got hourly wages and benefits to such a high level because no one in GM management had the strength to say “no.” The end result was a bankruptcy filing which wiped out everything. Retired? Too bad. Benefits; gone. Pension; gone. Current workers; wages, greatly reduced. Benefits; greatly reduced.
It is simple economics. When our Village budget is based on home values and home values have declined and continue to decline, salaries and benefits can’t stay the same. (For some reason people get testy when their home values drop but their taxes go up.) The fact that they’ve gone up is ludicrous and illustrate just how clueless our Council has become. When your revenues (tax base) drops, your expenses have to drop or you are going to go out of business. We keep cutting a tree guy here, or a concession stand there and nothing really changes. There needs to be fundamental and real changes at the two biggest cost centers we have; Police and Fire.
It is a very emotional issue. We all know what a great job the Police and Fire do and how many great “guys” work in those departments. But that can not stop us from taking a long hard look at where we are at and where we are heading. Changes need to be made. It’s not personal, its business and if the business doesn’t change the business is no longer going to exist. You can not have someone who spent their entire career and owes his entire pension to one of those departments being the one to make tough decisions. We simply (and literally) can not afford to continue on the current path. We need to make some changes and we need to make those changes now.
Just got back from the grocery store. Ran into some friends who told me they are voting Killion, Shinozuka and Russ. Seems this unlikely trio is getting some steam.
Good endorsement and well put!!!
Bullet voting sounds nice but on second thought seems irresponsible.
Three of the six candidates will win office. Killion and Shinozuka are acceptable, but which of the other four is the least unacceptable?
Does anyone have a good analysis which would help those of us looking to vote for three candidates instead of two?
.good analysis for #4
I will vote Shinizuka, Killion and Forenza. My theory is Forenza knows budgeting, has to recuse himself from the valley issue, must be a team player to work in his world, and finally and most important he will add much needed comic relief to otherwise mundane meetings.
#2 you mean Russ who stole overtime pay from the city of Paterson. How is that fiscally responsible?
Forenza lost 70% of the vote in the last election. He’s had is say and it has not resonated with the voters. Time to step aside and stop running.
if he “stole” money then he might have other legal issues. after elected he will resign and then a special election to fill the seat. at least it gets aronsohn out and keeps his cronies away. Russ had me rolling at the debate.
At both the recent debate and the one in November 2010, Russell Forenza just yelled and yelled and was truly frightening. It was impossible to imagine him working peacefully with others. Add to that a possible legal problem and do we really need that headache? Interesting concept to bring him in so he can drop out, #8, but then the fifth council member would be appointed by the other four and residents would have no say in the matter. That doesn’t sound good.
I choose Killion, Shinozuka, and Pucciarelli. The other 3 candidates are unacceptable; 3 must win. Love ’em or hate ’em or sort of both, pick the three you dislike or distrust most and vote for the others. Or write Mickey Mouse in column 1 and be prepared for someone else’s choice to win.
Regarding the original post before comments above, it was fascinating to hear all 6 candidates at the League of Women Voters’ Candidates’ Night on April 30 describe Ridgewood as they would hope to see it 5 years and 10 years from now.
Everyone’s description sounded idyllic–rather 1950-ish. But if any of those in favor of a giant hospital and giant apartment buildings win tomorrow’s election, they will have to reconcile the two concepts or the lovely land of their imaginings will be gone.