file photo by Boyd Loving
Groundhog Day, with apologies to Bill Murray
January 5,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, At the January 4 Village Council Work Session, members of the public who attended, and those who watched from the comfort of their homes, were treated to a real groundhog-day experience. You remember that movie, where the same thing happens over and over and over. And if you missed it, you can always watch it on youtube from the village website, watch it over and over and over.
For example:
1. Although he has known since November that Mayor Knudsen did not violate the Faulkner Act, Councilman Voigt went after her publicly AGAIN. He did it twice in December, and now he did it again. Three times he has publicly accused the Mayor of illegal action after knowing that she did not break any law. Three times. This time he spiced it up by having a member of the public “innocently” lob a question about the alleged violation…….which then enabled Councilman Voigt to read (yes read) a lengthy (very lengthy) sermon that he had typed and prepared for just this moment. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Councilman Voigt did NOT address the question about how Mayor Knudsen allegedly broke the law (because she did NOT break any law). Instead he sang the praises of the Financial Advisory Committee and various members and all that they have accomplished. Matt Rogers explained that he had given a legal opinion that no law was broken, no violation of the Faulkner Act occurred…..and he clarified that Councilman Voigt knew this in November. Jeff flippantly said something along the lines of Matt Rogers’ legal opinion being exactly that, just an opinion. Come on Jeff, do you think if you keep throwing this lie around it will eventually stick? Guess what Jeff, it is bouncing back and sticking all over you. You look ridiculous. Worse than ridiculous, you look sneaky, nasty, and downright evil. Mayor Knudsen, meanwhile, was the essence of grace, calm, and civility.
2. Rurik Halaby went to the microphone and accused the Mayor of evicting Roberta Sonenfeld from office, suggested that she violated the Open Public Meetings Act, and that she should be investigated for this. Again……groundhog day……again it had to be explained to Mr. Halaby by Matt Rogers that no laws were broken, that in fact a letter of resignation was received, and the procedure for accepting the resignation was correct. Sigh . . . . .
3. And Mr. Halaby continues to call Mayor Knudsen “Mayor
Kah-nudsen.” It has been explained to him that the “K” is silent, he knows it full well, but apparently he thinks it is clever to be disrespectful in such a manner. And he still loves his little catch phrases like “pandering to your base” and “vocalantis,” really, over and over and over.
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A few new things happened, too. We learned that a motorcycle may be donated to our police force, a female firefighter’s hire will necessitate the construction of a women’s locker room at the firehouse, and Graydon Park annual passes will remain the same price (although day passes might go up). Bylaws for every board and committee will need to follow a standard format, will need to be synced with the resolution that created them in the first place, and will need to be approved by the Village Council. Some items that have the 1 and 2 recycle numbers can no longer be recycled – such as salad and bakery containers.
And we also learned that sometime last year Councilman Voigt asked a member of the public to have coffee. Over coffee, Mr. Voigt asked Mr. Saurabh Dani to come to a public meeting and ask specific questions so that Jeff could then have the entree to give scripted answers. Mr. Dani refused to play such an unethical game……but he spoke up about it tonight after witnessing the exact same scenario playing out between Jeff Voigt and Hans Lehmann. He also called for the resignation of Councilman Voigt.
We could hear someone shouting from the audience toward the end of the meeting, but not exactly what they were saying. He was shushed by the Mayor because he was out of order.
Wow, I wish I had gotten a babysitter tonight so I could have been there in person, but it was exciting enough from the comfort of my couch.
Re point 3, the K is not silent in Kn but soft, similar to the “Ts” beginning in Japanese words.Both work but soft K is used by native speakers.
Jeez….Jeff is not even a clever guy….
7:46…..Many times Mr. Halaby was corrected on how to pronounce the Mayor’s name. He finally started doing it right. But now he is pissed off at her once again so he has reverted. This is not native speaker pronunciation. This is his attempt to be rude.
7:54, I think Jeff might be a very clever guy. Fooled me anyway. I gave him a coffee. I met him for coffee. I posted his signs. I distributed his signs. I encouraged all my friends to vote for him. And he turned out to be a giant jerk. I am pretty certain he was a giant jerk a year ago at this time, but he cleverly tricked many of us into voting for him. Major league fail.
In one of those Ridgewood News articles that focuses on a local citizen, Jeff Voigt was interviewed. He stated that the two people he admires most were Hans Lehmann and Keith Killion. Well I sure hope that Mayor Killion will not be showing up at meetings to participate in a ridiculous show like last night, lobbing a softball for Mr. Voigt to blast at the mayor. Please, Keith, don’t do it!
‘Soft K’ pesmith, if you know this subject so well as to justify throwing such a kneeling knitted knuckleball over the grassy knoll, you will have sounded the death knell on the whole argument. Or you will tragically have failed to get a life. One or the other.
815…. Snakker du Norsk? It is not Ka but a soft k.
Wait..what ?
Keith participated in this charade…??
That wasn’t made clear in the post above…
Well James one thing we heard last night is that they all read the BLOG. Janice Willett was quoting it, Jeff was quoting it, Rurik KAH-Halaby was quoting it. Long live the BLOG!
Its getting scary now folks its like a scene from hichcocks The Birds. Towns gone Postal. Lets recheck our awefull water for foreign objects. Might need a new oarking commission to figure out who gets the testing contract ..to be continued…its only January..
No Keith did not participate.
What a brave resident to expose the motive behind Jeff asking to meet residents in private.Kudos!!! As for Jeff… What a SNAKE! He also said he’s not going to stop doing what he’s doing. IT’S TIME TO GET RID OF THIS POMPOUS, DECEITFUL ASS! Voigt, pack your bags and gargantuan ego. I’d have to say you surpassed Aronsohn’s stupidity.
As for Rurik…you can slap a bow tie and sports jacket on a donkey…still an ass.
YES!!!!! They all read the BLOG! Willett had it memorized. 😉
Thank you for the summary of events. I had such high hopes for this council and Jeff in particular. It’s shocking how one member can create such havoc and undermine productivity. I will have great respect for any council member that takes a public stand against him and his antics.
Voigt seemed normal when I met him at a coffee during the election.
A legal opinion has more substance than a Voigt opinion
NONE of his new supporters stood up at the council meeting and supported his position against Susan. His new friends stood up and thanked and praised Susan for keeping them as leaders of FAC. The only person who has publicly supported him so far on his position against Susan is his old friend.
Hopefully before it’s too late he realizes that Paul & company are playing him and they are not his friends. They are gaming him to break him away from his supporter and old friends. Those are the people who are going to help him, but he doesn’t understand it. He is killing his own roots.
Please see this – NONE of your new friends supported you in your fight against Susan. They all just want to help Paul in divide and concur. They are working you / using you for their 2018 goal and you are just participating in this.
@8:17 same. I feel terrible that I supported him and asked friends and family to vote for him.
Did you all hear him when he said “well Matt’s opinion is just that – an opinion”.. this implies that he is saying that he doesn’t trust legal opinion by the attorney whom village is paying to advise him.
If he ignores Matt’s opinion, this guy can land our village in a big legal trouble.
It’s not Groundhog Day. Voigt is crazy. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. – Albert Einstein –
Did you hear when Lorraine Reynolds reprimanded Jeff for lying and he said he only lied twice about it. Oh, only twice, so that’s ok. Jeff, take Saurabh’s advice and RESIGN.
Jeff seems to fancy himself as some sort of renegade leader that everyone loves. Well, Jeff, no one loves you. Even your little cadre of two-bit actors that assembled last night did not support you. They simply talked about how great they are.
Oh wait, there was that one guy who got up and identified himself as Jeff’s friend. As in Jeff’s Only Friend.
@ 12:05 Yes, he also stated that they don’t follow the FAC bylaws anyway. Wait, what?
Jeff is a disappointment for sure, but also a sideshow. We should continue to focus on the important matters and 4 council members who seem level-headed, and stop letting Jeff suck all the air out of the room.
I am ashamed of having put up a yard sign for Voight and having asked friends to vote for him.
Yes, Jeff is a side show and a tiresome one at that. 1:42 is so right, and so is our Mayor, we just need to keep moving forward with business and just try to ignore the distraction of this sad little man with the red hot temper and the Pucciarelli-sized ego.
Agree with a number of previous posters, sorry I voted for him and placed a sign on my lawn. He was a very poor choice.
It was an electoral miracle that Ridgewood residents got their collective back up and soundly rejected the slate of three candidates that openly idolized and were in turn warmly endorsed by Aronsohn, Hauck and Pucciarelli (and, unofficially, by Sonenfeld). When in office from 2014-2016, Aronsohn, Hauck and Pucciarelli always seemed to have some sort of motivation different than what was best for the village as a whole. In 2016, by contrast, we thought we were voting for three candidates that, if elected, would produce in matters of importance a five-to-nothing unanimous vote in favor of whatever was best for Ridgewood and its residents. The last thing we wanted was another council member prone to wigging out and spitefully throwing a monkey wrench into the works every time someone came within a country mile of bumping into their precious little ego. Was it a pipe dream to think we had purged the Village Council of such nonsense? Four-out-of-five good eggs is not bad, but it is a far cry from five-out-of-five. Having one bad egg in a five-person Village Council sets up a situation in which the next municipal election could produce a three-to-two Aronsohn-like tyrannical majority bloc. And in the meantime, having that one bad egg colleague on the Village Council inevitably stresses out the four good-egg Council Members, precisely because they are good eggs! We desperately need the latter to remain in office, rather than quit in frustration. And clearly, we need to do whatever we can do to encourage them to run for re-election.
Jeff needs to resign. He has broken all campaign promises about honesty, working for the greater good, etc.
Didn’t you love how Janice Willett and Rurik Halaby were quoting The Blog chapter and verse???
When are you idiots going to do something about it?START THE RECALL
Definitely RECALL!! Jeff Voigt is turning out to be the biggest disappointment of all time. Why does he keep shaming himself publicly? It’s so painful to watch.
I voted for Jeff Voigt and I am disgusted by his behavior. He needs stop acting like an ass or resign.
@4:29, Susan and Mike held their own in the minority,I am not in the least concerned they can’t handle Jeff, Ramon has shown to be nothing but thoughtful and mature, not concerned about him either. Bernie is and always was fiercely independent, again not worried about Jeff scaring her off. Jeff campaigned on wanting one term and still holding to that promise…the others never commented…
He has to straighten up and fly right or he’ll get torched on these for the next 34 months….that is not my definition of fun. You can ask Paulie how it feels.
Dear anyone who regrets his or her vote for JV: There was no alternative other than voting for one of the three people under Aronsohn’s awning. We did what we had to do.
11:19 pm – a known thug is better than a hidden snake.