August 5,2015
Ridgewood NJ, Faced with an ever increasing number of meeting attendees who publicly disagree with his administration’s policies, Mayor Paul Aronsohn has invoked a protocol of accepting “comments only” from certain meeting attendees. If the Mayor doesn’t like your comment/question, no response is offered, and you are asked to leave the podium and return to your seat.
Long gone are the days when a taxpayer could go to the microphone during a public meeting of the Village Council and engage in meaningful dialog with a Council member or members, regardless of your support for the “Council majority” or the issue at hand. When asked why the new protocol was being instituted, Aronsohn said only that he’d “received complaints” about the interactive nature of the meetings’ public comment segment. He did not say who had “complained.”
Here’s a comment for you Mr. Mayor – If you can’t stand the heat, don’t change the rules, just get out of the fire.
What did you expect,the three stooges led by number one stooge will not listen or reply to anything that you do not agree with.
Chapter 3. Administration of Government
Article II. Village Council
§ 3-19. Manner of addressing Council.
[Amended 1-11-1994 by Ord. No. 2442]
A.
Persons other than Council members may be permitted to address the Council in the proper order of business. A person present may, upon recognition by the Chair, be heard either upon ordinances upon second reading or at the time of petitions and oral communications from the public and at such other times as the Council may, by majority vote of those present, specifically permit. No person shall address any remark or question to any specific Council member, nor shall any person be permitted to address the Chair while a motion is pending. A Council member may, through the Chair, respond to any communication or address received pursuant to this section.
B.
Except upon consent of the Council, by the majority vote of those present, each person addressing the Council pursuant to this section shall be required to limit his remarks to five minutes and shall at no time engage in any personally offensive or abusive remarks. On a hearing on ordinances on second reading, a person who has previously addressed the Council on the issue may be permitted a period of no more than an additional five minutes, after all others desirous of speaking on the issue have had an opportunity to do so, provided the comments of the speaker are not repetitive. The Chair shall call any speaker to order who violates any provision of this section.
My suggestion would be to prepare a 5-minute comment and use the entire time allotted. Bring a clock and respectfully remind the chair and/or council that you entitled to your 5-minutes and to please not interrupt.
What are you suggesting? If I go to the meeting tonight can o speak during the public comment section or no?
They do not answer emails most of the time, either. Non responsive. Not transparent.
Now of course if your initials are RH or JG, you can say all you want for as long as you want.
The mayor knows his popularity, such as it is, has dwindled to a new low. He thinks that by trying to control “his subjects,” he can do damage control. Well, Paul, it ain’t working. The more you do these things, the lower your opinion poll drops.
Just a few more months, folks, and it will be bye-bye sir Paul.
Where is Big Al the Developers Friend at tonight meeting? I thought the the 3 Amigos were joined at the hip.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. –G. Orwell, Animal Farm
His way or the Highway/ Are we surprised? This is the way the country is heading on the local,state, and Federal level
Talk about controlling the crowd, now it seems that spontaneous applause is not allowed by our civilized mayor. When applause was heard in the room following an impassioned statement by Councilwoman Knudsen, the mayor immediately squelched it. Seriously? He is so insecure and nervous he just wants dead silence. Seems that a few weeks ago people applauded for one of his shills, and Paulie boy did nothing to stop that.
Oh well, he just lost the next election anyway with his clear disdain for Schedler. What a relief to know he will be gone soon.
The mayor has always been an arrogant SOB nothing new here.
I have to agree with the above. I have not been involved with village government, and I have no horse in this race. But how can you be an elected official and have such a completely negative relationship with the vast majority of the town? It becomes very obvious who the protected few are, and then there’s the rest of us.
Listening to residents and having an exchange with them in a public setting is a basic requirement of office. This is unacceptable.