New Buzzer System attempts to Suppress Public Discourse
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, did the Village Council just turn public meetings into the “Gong Show”? At the December 3 Village Council meeting, a new feature was implemented. Now when someone from the public speaks during public comments, a loud BELL rings after 2 minutes and at the end of alloted 3 minutes a loud buzzer then goes off.
The Gong Show is an American amateur talent contest created by Chuck Barris in 1976 and franchised by Sony Pictures Television to many countries. Each performer was evaluated by a panel of three celebrity judges who could strike a gong to end a performance they disliked. A small cash prize has typically been awarded to each episode’s winner. The Gong Show is known for its absurdist humor, and often features amateurish, racy or questionable performers interspersed with more legitimate acts. The actual competition was typically secondary to the outlandish acts, and the series is also known for its free-form style which featured various interruptions, digressions and running jokes.
Mayor Vagianos has frequently stated that no one on the council ever interrupts residents who come to speak. This is of course completely untrue, as he often jumps in on a person’s comments. Now we have this obnoxious gong-show bell to interrupt a person’s train of thought and intimidate the speaker.
Readers would like to know who came up with this prison-cell-block ridiculous racket. Someone actually asked about this at the December 10 meeting and no one replied. Radio silence.
Why not continue with the system of a 3-minute-mark buzzer, and a reasonable request of a long-winded speaker to wrap it up? {Why do we even ask, when in fact it is patently obvious that our insecure mayor just wants to intimidate residents who wish to speak?}
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Vagianos will totally eliminate public input soon.
I would prefer a clock and turning off the microphone at three minutes.
Practice your comments at home and don’t be so wordy.
I would prefer that they turn off the mic of the council members when they drone on and on.
Vagianos is such a control freak.
They all ran on the theme that Knudsen didn’t provide transparency and that residents voice needs to be heard.
1) they quickly reduced contracts from five to three minutes
2) capped comments to ten people to allow for hybrid access
3) capped the comments not to exceed 10 pm. Unless vc makes an exception
4) now we have a disruptive buzzer.
5) and we don’t have any standards, some older residents on the phone can call people any name they want…
This council and manager have made Ridgewood a disgrace. They treat the people who pay their salaries and look to them for help like garbage. They actually suck so bad there are NO words horrible enough to describe all of them. They ruined and keep ruining our town.
Boy or a boy they wanna control everybody, they can’t control me. There’s nothing on top of my head. I’m singing and singing to every official throughout the state, everyone knows the villager Ridgewood is dirty. This is what happens when you walk up the wrong tree. They woke up the sleeping giant I was willing to keep my mouth shut. This is what happens you try messing with me you get the horns
The gong show that’s a lot better entertainment than going to a village council meeting and listen to these storytellers. Why would you want to go to that meeting? All they do is give insults to everyone. And their hypocrites anyway, they should bring a lie detector for the mayor and council and listen to that buzz off. Because they are so full of shit. They believe they’re own bullshit stories I heard they can’t keep enough toilet paper in the bathrooms. I believe it, especially with the private cleaning crew who came up with that idea, it’s really working out for you isn’t it place looks like shit. That’s a big screwup, this is what happens when someone causes trouble. They come with a stupid idea like that. Maybe the person who came up with that idea maybe they should be privatized.