photo by Boyd Loving
Ridgewood Council criticized for accepting complimentary tickets to Christie fundraiser from developer
Thursday, July 11, 2013 Last updated: Friday July 12, 2013, 12:06 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — The Village Council is being criticized for accepting free tickets to a $1,000-a-head fundraiser for Governor Christie from a developer seeking to build in the village.
The July 3 event was staged in the former Bank of America building on East Ridgewood Avenue owned by resident John Saraceno, who currently has an application before the Planning Board for a 52-unit, four-story apartment complex elsewhere on East Ridgewood Avenue.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn and all of the council’s members acknowledged attending the event — and not paying the admission price. Village Manager Ken Gabbert joined them.
“You were comped $1,000,” said resident Boyd Loving, challenging the board at Wednesday night’s meeting and alleging possible ethics violations may have occurred. “The owner [of the Bank of America building] has an application before the Planning Board…I have a lot of concerns about this.”
Saraceno said Thursday that the Christie campaign asked him to invite the local officials. Aronsohn said that several other politicians were also in attendance, including Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and several freeholders.
Wasn’t having all 5 council members at a non public meeting a violation of the sunshine law? I would have thought Mr. Puch would have known that.
This is hilarious. The council accepts tickets, eats good food, drinks good booze……….and all at the expense of Mr. Saraceno. Hmmmmm….sure, they are not going to be influenced when they vote on his massive development project. Wait a minute, they CAN’T vote, since they accepted his gift of a social evening. Also hilarious that they were invited by Saraceno, NOT by the Christie camp. The Christie camp clearly stated that they did not invite any local politicos.
Ok everyone is talking and writing about it, now who calls the ag’s office? a lot of talk and teeth grinding occurred about the tom Richie situation but nothing was done. I’ll bet the same thing happens with this debacle.
who is supposed to call the ag? a private citizen?
#4 that’s my question exactly!
Oh the hypocrisy! The Mayor and his 2 cronies publicly crucify Mr. Richie over the mere perception of a conflict of interest, then mug for the cameras as they waltz into the Governor’s fundraiser for free and put the pictures on Facebook. Somewhere Matt Rogers must be smacking his own forehead.
So now all of a sudden there is a new “spin” being floated – that Saraceno was not the host, but a committee was. Give us a break, we know that Saraceno was the one who issued the invitations. In The Record article, Saraceno indicates that he was in touch with the Christie campaign…..he did not say that a committee was in touch with the Christie campaign. And…..the Christie campaign flatly denies that they asked for local politicians to be included on the guest list. Now that the heat is turned up, suddenly Saraceno is distancing himself. Too late buddy. Regarding Mayor Aronsohn’s “correction” – did he eat or drink at the party? If so, he received a gift from a person who has an application before the planning board. This certainly smells like a violation of the gift ordinance to me. This was a political fundraiser at a private venue. It was not an official visit by the governor to our town. The council members were not there in any official capacity. They were all excited, no doubt, to meet a potential candidate for President of the US. Well, looks like they all violated local law.
So, why hasn’t the author of this story, filed an action?