January 28,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Pro Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) continue to spread unfounded rumors about Mayor Knudsen. While readers Are question are members of the Financial Advisory Committee getting more out if it than (questionable) personal glory, unacceptable power (much less under current than previous council, which invented the committee), and CV items for possible future election runs?
Perhaps financial disclosure, as well as non-disclosure agreements should be required for all committees along with bylaws,minutes and meeting agendas.
Financial Disclosures: Candidates running for committees (or any office in the Village) should be required to detail their financial holdings, debt and sources of income so that the public can identify any conflicts of interest they may have.
A Non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement(CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement(PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties.
Recent PRO FAC posters continue to post rumors and innuendo about Mayor Knudsen like they did on Mayor Killian and Kieth Gabbert .
Makes it easier to raise municipal taxes more than 2% a year when you don’t have financial advice. Note the last time we had a “CFO” the Village raise municipal taxes 4.8% a year to hand out retroactive pay hikes to friends and offer +4% annual wage increases to Police & Fire during the Great Recession when inflation was below 2%. Those mistakes might have been avoided if the then Council had good financial advice. Looks like we’re going to make the same mistakes again. At least we won’t need so much public safety now that Valley’s leaving.
The last time Ridgewood had a CFO municipal taxes rose 4.8% a year.
Mayor Knudsen and her cronies have finally driven Valley out of Ridgewood – the largest employer in the Village by a wide margin, and a neighborhood institution since 1951. We won’t need such a large police force and fire dept anymore.
This blog is just a Mouthpiece covering up Knudsen’s conflicts of interests and lies
Why doesn’t The Mayor recuse herself from discussions on Schedler? She’s conflicted given her dad lives across from the property and he donated to her campaign.
The FAC was never meant to replace a CFO, it was set up to provide non-binding, independent advice to Council members who perhaps don’t understand the finer details of Village finances, contracts and budgeting. Why wouldn’t the Council want advice from volunteer residents with financial expertise? Agreed they should file financial disclosure agreements but there seems to be a misunderstanding by the poster about contracts. Anyone who pays property taxes in Ridgewood has the right to request access to the CBAs, we pay for them after all. They should be posted on the Village website for all to see, unless these public sector workers have something to hide?
A Financial Advisory Committee could have worked if established properly. Unfortunately, the reality is that it’s being used for the wrong purposes and conflicts of interest abound. Now that we have a CFO, which was not the case at the time, the committee should be disbanded. They and their leader Aronsohn are using it to beat a political horse, as intended. Their official voice needs to be silenced asap. They are not experts in this field. While financial disclosure agreements would be important if their (highly questionable) recommendations were to continue, which they should not, residents should not have to supply such things. QED, kill the committee. As for Mayor Knudsen’s so-called conflict of interest, what is this, Fox News, pounding away at untruths in the hope that they will become facts? Only Jim Griffiths thinks that where her parents live is an issue. So they live sort of near there–so what? Many, many residents who live in every corner of town agree that the opinion on the dispensation of Schedler of everyone who lives in that area deserves far more consideration than that of anyone who doesn’t. And they have been most gracious in accepting the idea of a small ballfield. If I lived there I would say NO to all of it.
The FAC has no right, none, to any information beyond that which the public gets to see. They have no right to be involved with contract negotiations.
7:26, please stop spreading lies and misinformation. The only person who could make such an uninformed statement is a public sector union lackey or retiree with a self interest in protecting their fat pension and health benefits. The FAC are not involved in contract negotiations, and never will be. That’s up to the labor lawyer retained by the Village and the Village Manager, who ten recommends a contract for the Council to ratify. The Council should ask for independent, non-binding views and advice on the contract terms from experts because they are not public sector contract experts. Nor is the CFO. And the Contracts must be publically disclosed on the Village website for all to see, anyway.
Shouldn’t Knudsen recuse on all matters pertaining to the police and their contract negotiations like Kilion did? Her sons are both new on the force. How can she not be self-interested for her sons?
10:16 This is not a lie. Evan Weitz has it in emails that he wants to be involved in the contract negotiations
10:16 – Lies and misinformation? Sorry, but your saying it does not make it so. You are correct that the FAC is not allowed in contract negotiations. But Evan Weitz has tried to get in on them. Yup. Says he sees no point in just reviewing the contract after it has been finalized. Talk about trying to overextend his “power.”