the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, These are very preliminary election results. The County will be accepting ballots through May 14th, as long as they were postmarked by May 12th. Certified results will be sent by the County next week. The Ridgewood estimates as many as 500 additional ballots could have been mailed late yesterday or today .
Village Council
Mahmoud Hamza 1654
Lorraine Reynolds 2440
Pamela R. Perron 2119
Bernadette Coghlan-Walsh 2831
Sergio Alegre 2003
Board of Education
Saurabh Dani 2303
Dan Creed 1854
Michael W. Lembo 3045
Muhammad Mahmoud 1543
Hyunju Kwak 2170
Board of Education Budget
Yes 1,425
No 1,578
How do I even know if my mail-in ballot was received, let alone counted???
holy shit… the budget got voted down?
Thank you James! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Dang right it got voted down….
111 Million dollars?
yea right
$115 million
That amount is crazy
who is actually counting the votes….and who is auditing the count
Bergen county board of elections
Do we know who they hire to count?
Apparently anyone can apply to be a poll worker here https://www.co.bergen.nj.us/bergen-county-board-of-elections/about-bergen-county-board-of-elections
even you
We are doomed, even more us vs them mentality with a topping of bullying
Said once and will say again — a defeated budget goes to the Village Council for review and they really don’t know all the in’s and out’s.
The Village Council just looks at the overall number and gives the BOE a new one – usually with a token cut of $100K
Yes anon that is how it works. There’ll be the usual screaming but anyone expecting more than a token slash will be very disappointed
The biggest most relentless bullies are Voigt and Halaby. Period
That’s rich. Anne Loving and Laurie Weber are attack dogs for Knudsen and friends. Mike Sedon, Bernie Walsh and Lorraine Reynolds will all vote lockstep with her on everything, so they’re the bullies. They harass anyone who questions them and Sue’s self-dealing.
So Trump-like of you James to deflect away from the real story by blaming your bogeymen like Ahronson, Halaby and Voigt.
All the levers of power in Village politics are now controlled by Susan Knudsen: the municipal budget, the NWBC Central Dispatch abd Ridgewood Water capital budgets (being used on the Elks HQ boondoggle), and now the BOE budget which will hear recommendations from the Village Council after the “no” vote (assuming nothing changes by the close of counting today). Her chosen slate now has a majority on the BOE as well.
So please tell it like it really is: decisions run through Sue Knudsen and her sycophants who vote lockstep with whatever she tells them to vote for.
Ahronson, Halaby and Voigt don’t control any budgets or levers of power. All those decisions belong only to Sue Knudsen and her majorities on the VC (Sedon has never voted differently from Sue, ever, and we know Reynolds and Walsh will do her bidding on most everything). The real bullies are these majorities who continue to spend, spend, spend and self-deal. Please have a shred of decency and report the facts, not some ghost hunt!
no one is going to be spending any money, COVID19 officially ended that party , best to find some new losers to stick up for
You’re a peach James, really. Your tone above says it all. Nastiness and bullying rule the day in Ridgewood. The tone is being set by Sue Knudsen and her followers, who now have majorities on the BOE (Dani, Kwak, Lembo), the Planning Board (Hooban amongst others), the VC (Sedon, Walsh and Reynolds), not to mention her attack dogs about town, Anne Loving and Laurie Weber.
Why don’t you ever ask why Knudsen doesn’t recuse herself from votes on contracts with police (two sons on the RPD) and fire (one son on the RFD)?
Or why she doesn’t recuse on any discussions related to Schedler given her conflict of interest after she accepted political donations from her father in 2018? The family property is right across the street.
To avoid the potential for self-dealing In both of these examples, an honorable Councillor would recuse.
my tone is my tone and losers are losers
Keep “winning” James. You’re not serving the community well by complaining about people who are long gone and have no influence whatsoever on municipal or BOE affairs… Knudsen controls all of the above. All decisions going forward involve her and her minions like Dani, Sedon, Walsh and Reynolds.
no one is above the law , not the BOE or Paul Aronsohn
James don’t let Charlie Slime is still here fighting Aronsohns battles for him. Don’t let him get to you. Just ignore him, that will drive him crazy.