>I have posted a lot on Valley Hospital’s proposed renewal plans over the last few weeks and I must say, that it is evident that the vast majority of comments come from those tax-paying residents of Ridgewood that do not want Valley Hospital to expand. Most of the pro-Valley comments appear to be from residents of other towns so as far as I am concerned, their comments do not count.
There are a number of issues that have come to light over the last couple of weeks and these may have been in place all along but as intelligent, tax paying residents of this Village, the majority of us were blindsided by those that are put into office to protect and serve the interests of the tax-paying residents of Ridgewood.
1. What did Valley Hospital (corporate) promise to certain entities in return for their support of the hospital’s expansion plans?
2. Why does it appear that the interests of Valley Hospital were put ahead of the interests of the tax-paying residents of Ridgewood?
3. Why did certain members of the planning board not recuse themselves from the voting process knowing that there were conflict of interest issues?
4. In reference to the last planning board meeting;
a. Who changed the venue from BF to GWMS – regardless of what else was planned that night, if the PB meeting was scheduled to take place that night, the venue must have been booked for that night without conflict and therefore the apparent conflict does not appear to have been legit.
b. Who authorized Valley Hospital’s PR director to coordinate with the RPD who could and who could not gain entry to the PB meeting?
c. As the majority of residents that night were all law-abiding concerned citizens, in the company of their children, why was it deemed necessary to bring in police reinforcements? Did the planning board think that it was hosting a mini-G8 summit?
d. Who is footing the bill for all non-RPD deployment that night?
5. What redress do the tax-paying residents of Ridgewood have for the unsightly behavior of the planning board?
a. The appearance of corruption
b. The manipulation of Valley Hospital to direct the terms of procedures of a Village meeting, a village in which Valley Hospital does not pay taxes
There are major concerns about the future of our great Village and very few of those that have been elected to office to protect and serve our interests appear to be doing just what they were elected for.
As per Valley Hospital’s website, out of the five current hospitals in Bergen County, there are currently 300 hundred unused beds on a daily basis, so even if it is state-mandated for hospitals to provide single occupancy rooms, there must be room at all our hospitals to incorporate this provision without the need to change the size of any of the hospitals that are currently operable giving the fact that we currently have an over flow of hospital beds.
