Ridgewood police recruits told to unpack bags for police academy
Thursday January 30, 2014, 5:18 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The Village of Ridgewood is in violation of its own personnel regulations, a discovery that is preventing two police recruits from attending the Bergen County Police Academy. The two candidates, conditionally hired by the Ridgewood Police Department on Jan. 17, already received uniforms and were prepared for the six-month county training but were told to unpack their bags Wednesday night – just hours before the academy was slated to begin Thursday morning.
An ordinance currently included in Ridgewood’s code caps the number of police department patrol officers at 30. The department had 31 officers, though that number is permitted under the ordinance because one sergeant position remains vacant. The two Jan. 17 hires, however, pushed Ridgewood beyond the allowable limit.
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Four of the six candidates were “legacy” candidates? How did that happen?
We need a clear policy for all Ridgewood hires. The Ridgewood schools are nothing but friends and family. You could create some family trees with the employee roster.
If I understand civil service you have to hire with the “rule of three” so it does not matter who they may or may not be related to. They have to score high on the test.
Nepotism in law enforcement is rampant in this county. This “club” mentality needs to stop and unfortunately local government’s hands are tied since they have little power over the chief who makes the recommendations. Some towns require new hires to pay their own way through the academy but make exceptions when it’s a relative of someone connected……they burden the taxpayer with that cost. 100’s of qualified applicants come out for these jobs and after seeing some of the younger guys on the job, there’s no possible way they could have been the most qualified in the pool.
#3 if your so quick to judge the”younger guys”, why not back up your statement with some examples.
relax officer #4…..I specifically referred to the county as a whole and did not single out Ridgewood. Stop being so defensive and just appreciate the large pension and cadillac benefits afforded to you by the taxpayers.
#3 good job showing everyone you don’t know what you are talking about.
Ridgewood is a civil service town.
New hires are taken from a list, in the order they scored on the exam.
You must be a Ridgewood resident to be on the list.
There are a substantial amount of “civil service” rules that must be followed in selecting from the list.
In general, you can skip 2 candidates on the list.
So it’s not the public who’s hands are tied, it’s the chief and village manager.
They must select a single candidate from the next three people on the list.
If you think more “non-related” people should be on the list……tell them to sign up and take the test.
More importantly, our police chief doesn’t know his own staffing levels, as per ordnance. That should make you sleep better at night.
One of the Chief’s son’s was skipped over by the old village manager, and he is currently working as a police officer in another town. So much for nepotism and club mentality. The village manager is the hiring authority not the chief.
#7 an ordinance that’s available on the village website. LOL
#7 How about this your own Council said they didn’t know about the staffing level, as per ordnance when at lest one if not all of them sign the ordnance. How will you sleep now. Its funny how they violated their own pay to play ordnance with no problem.
What is a “legacy” candidates? What does that mean. Some slick attorney jargon.
Why does DEPUTY MAYOR ALBERT PUCCIARELL keep bring up that he is an attorney in these matters. He field of practice is hotel law. That’s like having a foot doctor do brain surgery.
I watch the meeting and saw the one speaker talk about nepotism only to learn that he was a former retired police captain in town and got another job in the village and then his son got a job with the village. “Talk about the kettle calling the pot black ” He must have and axe to grind with on of the candidates.
all you need to do is look at a list of Village employees you’ll several reoccurring last names Fire , Police , staff and maybe even the DPW
The Village Council twice last year violated its own “Gifts, Contributions, Donations” ordinance and thought nothing of it. In fact, they defended their actions claiming that their own attorney said they had not violated any laws. But Mr. Mayor, who pays your attorney’s salary and has the power to fire him? Of course he’s not going to say anything that makes you look bad.
The acceptance of $250 per head comp tickets to the Christie fundraiser from a local developer was such an egregious violation of the law,and the code of ethics, that The Record ran a scathing editorial about it. “Do as we say and not as we do” seems to be the latest message coming from the Council dais. Clearly, politics played a significant role in the Council’s actions with respect to proposed new police hires. The Mayor will never admit to this, just as he refuses to admit that taking gifts/money from developers with applications pending before the Planning Board was a violation of local ordinance and the code of ethics.
This would indeed be an utterly laughable situation if it were not for the fact that one of the candidates is now out of work because he gave proper notice to his previous employer.
Speaking of the Mayor. I don’t know if it true or not but just to verify that I’m reading it right Look up his campaign finance record. You may see that he received significant in-kind contribution twice for a reception given to him during or after his election by same corporation or person that he accepts tickets for the Christie thing and yes the same person is involved with the planning board application to amend the master plan for the CBD. Now there is “transparency” I believe that the Mayor still sits on the Planning Board. No Problem. Right Mr. Mayor. Don’t hire because of nepotism . Try to insinuate conclusion in the news papers that there is something funny going on with these new hires.
Why was only candidates father name in the Record Mr. Mayor?. I guess your friend chris harris from the record took care of you again.
While your at it look Gwenn’s report. Only thing she claims are the Ridgewood News advertisement. I believe she had flyers and signs. Who paid for that and why didn’t those expenses get reported?
The Mayor owns the Record just like he use to own the Patch until they got rid of the editor.
Aronsohn and Pucciarelli threw the police chief under the bus. They made him the problem. News flash: police chiefs do not authorize hiring lines, they execute promises of employment. The Council authorized through a budget line, the VM told the Chief to execute a promise of employment then Aronsohn and puccialelli saw the name Killion. Landers, a former cop who works for the village as does his son, claims nepotism from the audience. In the end, Cheif Wards authority is undermined, the rank and file police offices lose trust in the chain of command, and a young recruit loses a job. Since when do we go after people’s kids? A new low even for Aronsohn and pucciaelli.
Aronsohn never forgave those three Councilpersons for not making him Deputy Mayor and now has systematically gone after everyone one of them as witnessed at the council meeting and now this.
Pucciarellli never forgave two Councilpersons for not appointing him head of the planning board and has said as much to people. (that is way he ran for office)
Hauck is the worst of them all, she does not think for herself and just does what she is told.
The retired police captain who spoke up blames the former mayor for not making him chief. I might and but not sure was Pucciarellli best man.He also hates Chief Ward and said so on public. So there you have folks It has nothing to do with nepotism, ordinance or money. Its payback time folks.
we don’t need any more police at this time. why is it as soon a cop go’s into retirement he or she is replaced. in other dept’s they don’t do that. and they need to hire workers. talk about being unfare, it;s just not right.
thanks mr,t
Next time you need CPR call a DPW worker.
Ridgewood’s own little bridge gate.
to # 23 what is with you and the dpw workers. we the west side crew are not talking about the dpw workers, we are talking about what depts need to higher new employes . we are trying to have a good balance in all dept’s. grow up. my god you have some axe to grind with people. you may need to go to anger management class.
Is this the Jets and the Sharks? The west side crew and the dpw crew are two gangs battling it out. Enjoy yourselves.
West side crew? The Elites . Anger management? When you don’t have a good answer go on the attack. You sound like the crybaby DPW worker who always post on this blog
West side crew is that a new name for the people that live there. WOW
How about we stay on topic
How to become a ridgewood police officer:
1. Resident of ridgewood
2. Score well on the civil service exam
3. Village council has to ok recruits in the budget, which are put into almost every pd budget.
4. Pass psych, medical, background
Top scores who want the job always get hired. Now with that being said, from what I’m aware, the only people to ever get passed over or skipped, (excluding deferrals) from the lists in the last 20+ years, were done so by upper management not in law enforcement, (gabbert). So where in that process can the chief pick his guy. (Insert nepotism conspiracy theory here) Test scores tell the story. The Chief has no control over that.
The fact is, when kids grow up in a family with members in police or fire, they have a passion to follow that career path. Civil service was put in place to make sure it is earned and not political, (test score). Want it bad enough, take a test prep course. It’s not a perfect system, but look at towns that give their own test. I can see it being more of problem there.
“Nepotism is rampant in police and fire” is only said to stir up the mob of uninformed police & fire haters. It sounds like these two young men, with a decorated family history of public service, did everything right to get to where they were in the hiring process, but in this case, they just had the wrong last names, weird.
FYI, nepotism in the private sector “is rampant.” No wait a minute, that’s just called networking for your son or daughter
If anything these two kids got targeted because of their last names not helped.
This “error” would have passed right under the radar if the powers to be didn’t have a axe to grind.
There is another angle here, a candidate who was passed over is the grandson of a politician and the son of a firefighter this throws gasoline on the fire so to speak.
Yes # 32 and you forgot to add that his uncle is also a member of the Ridgewood Police Dept. and his other uncle workers in records of the Ridgewood Police dept. and a retired member of the Ridgewood Police Dept. and his politicization grandfather is a retired member of the Ridgewood Police Dept and his cousin is a Ridgewood firefithter So where is the angle?
you cops are a joke, and who gives a shit.
#33 one connected candidate gets passed over, so someone brings up the ordinance issue so no one gets hired. The hiring issue would have flown under the radar if no one brought it to light. Once the issue is raised the official’s have to deal with it, and not let anything slide. If the passed over candidate wants to pursue an appeal this gives him or her more time to prepare their case. That is the angle.!
Got it. Good thinking.
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and one of the picked candidates failed the academy once already, so whats your point…
He didn’t fail. He got injured. Make sure you have the facts before making statements like that.