Ridgewood Village Council Dissolves Financial Advisory Committee

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August 12,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the Ridgewood Village Council on Wednesday nights council meeting finally approved the dissolution of the Financial Advisory Committee in favor of a “Special Projects Task Force”.

The council voted 4-1 with Jeff Voigt the only dissenter, for what the mayor called a “rebranding” of the current committee, and assured the public that the change was met with the committee’s favor.

Financial Advisory Committee was nothing but controversial from the get go. Spearheaded by former Mayor Paul Aronsohn when he was in the council the committee was often used to attack Aronsohn opponents and his plans to Urbanize Ridgewood .
The Hudson County Democrat came to the village with the full intention of turning the Village into the next Hoboken , with many critics of the former mayor thought the next Bayonne was a more fitting description of the direction.

The Financial Advisory Committee was used effectively to attack former mayor Kieth Killion and Village Manager Ken Gabbert over his $12,000 deferred pay raise, while the same committee hardly ever mentioned a word at any of the multitude of Village over spending .

In a town that spent $500,000 for a toilet , a $12,000 pay raise hardly seems worthy merit.

After a massive defeat of the Aronsohn backed slate in the previous election , the hiring of a highly qualified Robert G. Rooney as Chief Finance Officer the Financial Advisory Committee seemed a bit of a rudderless ship.

They focused their attacks on the Mayor Kundsen joined by many Aronsohn holdovers , but failed to make their case often looking out of touch and way off base.