photos courtesy the Village of Ridgewood
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Village Manager Keith Kazmark celebrated his one year anniversary on Wednesday July 10th .
Kazmark authored a Facebook post thanking residents for the opportunity,
“Today marks my one-year anniversary as Village Manager here in Ridgewood.
This opportunity has given me the chance to meet great people, share in community success and address some significant challenges. Ridgewood is special place with an engaged constituency, vast resources, long traditions and great pride.
I value my time here, the staff I get to work alongside each day and the residents we have the privilege to serve. Our goal is simple – to provide outstanding services, while managing costs.
Together, I look forward to working with our Village team, the Village Council, our volunteers and all community members to make Ridgewood even better.
Again, thank you for the opportunity to serve.
Keith Kazmark
Village Manager”
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Disgraceful
Puhleaze. Imagine how much more difficult his job would be if he had to deal one-on-one with you cretins on a daily basis.
He should be dealing with everyone whether they like him or not. Thats his job. Not just tooting his own horn and doing whatever the mayor says. He works for the tax payers
You pay your taxes and be quiet.
Keith, it’s poor form to refer to yourself in the 3rd person.
Huh?
Deplorable’s 😉
I’ve lost all respect for The Ridgewood Blog for posting this puff piece.
Kind of agree
This is not a puff piece. There is no “official” opinion being voiced one way or another. Facts were stated and a Facebook announcement was copy/pasted. If you want some legitimate reasons to disrespect the blog, I can show you my list.
Oh cmon. Our Village Manager gets paid an extremely handsome salary, well over $300,000.00 funded by taxpayer money, to keep the village operating smoothly and services running efficiently and effectively. His ultimate goal is to provide outstanding services but at this point a real and honest account of today’s situation here in RW is that there is nothing outstanding happening here. The website has issues, there is no adherence to the Master Plan, except when convenient, despite many dollars being invested to created it, we have PFAS in our water (out in 2026), the village almost furloughed employees last year and yet most of the tangible benefits we see being done are all basic run of the mill repair and maintenance work like sidewalks, roadwork, while garbage cans overflow left and right (yes, those lovely designer ones Vagianos voted for) and many other things don’t get addressed. Thhis is not the proactive approach that residents deserve when countless hours are spent on prioritizing a ballfield that Ridgewood does not need because ifyou drive around and see all of the empty fields you ask yourself why. That is the biggest game of all.
And supplying 370 k for a pavilion that will be used by a privately owned business. Waste of time and tax dollars
the guy works hard and communicates what he’s doing. . .some folks are never happy.
He never replied to an email i sent.
Both Heather and Roberta always replied.
Too f***cking arrogant to reply to a long time resident?
seems odd – did you call him? or just complaining on the blog is a better way for you to have your issue addressed?
Heather replied to emails???
What?
How much micro-dosing have you done this weekend?
She was a nasty, non-responsive hack.
This guy responds to everything that lands in his inbox.
Completely agree.
Not his fault 80% of the council (excluding Lorraine) is something out of a Saturday Night Live skit.
keith…. you don’t have to respond to every negative comment about yourself.
Well then maybe work smarter not harder. He’s got plenty of time for photos and facebook thoough, just saying. confidence is one thing but dont’ give the appearance of arrogance, that is just plain insulting. Although I think after his anger management commentary he has toned down a bit. Come from a place of willing to learn, not “I know everything and I have the only solution” that is just bullshit and residents can smell it a mile away.
Are gays and persons of color being bashed as they are allegedly in woodland park?
Uh, no?
Congratulations on a year! Lasting change takes time, especially in the Village with a strong union atmosphere,. So far I am hearing good things about the progress you are making.. Good Luck in the future V.M. Kazmark! To the person posting “Disgraceful” my advice would be to grow a set of balls and post your name!
Besides photo ops, he is a suit stuck in his office. The guy is the COO of the Village. Get outside, walk thru CBD and talk to residents and small business owners.
He is actually CEO of the Village and he is not stuck in his office. You are sorely mistaken. He is like Where’s Waldo, Keith is everywhere. Lots of pictures being taken all over town, which perhaps he thinks is great marketing but doesn’t actually show residents what is really getting done except that you are posing with people. Show us so that we see, fix what is broken and then once we see, we can applaud. Giving kudos based on a small margin of improvements that are standard don’t provide enough context to understand what is happening. Also, and I come from a sports driven family who all played here in Ridgewood, spending his time and other staff who have invested countless hours to produce another sports field that will also not be maintained, seems counter productive. Why can’t Nancy and her crew get these fields in top shape. Plus proper scheduling could probably pull Ridgewood out of the perceived hole that seems to be pervasive. The field envy problem in Ridgewood has to be brought to a halt and people need to be realistic about what is really going on. It is simply fictitious and if you don’t believe me, let us meet up any day and I will show you that it is a well disguised lie. Get the real stuff done, Keith and then we will see what you are really capable of.
They should be spending money on maintaining the fields for sure. They look awful and stop giving money to pet projects like a pavilion for 370 k to the only park in town with a private business. One that needs a pavilion all the campers and field trips that pile into Habernickel park daily
The Guy is a Puppet with a poor track record.. But he knows a lot of people in Trenton, and puts on a GOOD front, that is the only reason why he is here.. Oh and to Raise his pension !
If only the world was filled with more selfless, honest, honorable and charitable people such as yourself. We seem to have a high percentage of such people in Ridgewood but I fear it’ll be never enough.
Congratulations on a job well done! Don’t let the haters get you down. The majority of residents appreciate what you do.
I don’t think so
It’s an appontted position , lets see if he makes 2 years if Pee Wee isn’t elected
Fingers crossed they all go soon
Nothing related to their jobs should be posted on social media by town officials, ever. I do not use Facebook (and never will) and do not appreciate the FOMO feeling that things are going on privately.
Look I don’t know the guy but I wanted to like him. I saw things going south early on in the process when he was adament about things that I knew to be untrue. I don’t think he intended to lie but misleading people based on misinformation is wrong. Recently however, he did apologize for misiinforming a resident asking about the Kingsbridge Lane footbridge that has long been decommissioned and in serious distrepair. This bridge, an apparent life life to some residents who need to get around The village engineer did nothing and the VM was put on the spot time and again to be held accountable for fixing it. Although this seems to have been quite painful and a series of mishaps, lack of transparency, not sure why when other towns have fully functional footbridges, but it looks like it is finally moving forward. this manager needs to stay on top of the engineering group, Chris and Jovan, who seems to think that THEY run the village. If he can manage just this one feat of keeping these guys in line and getting this bridge finished, that will be a small victory.
Does Chris R have an actual Engineering degree?
And he should be concerned with money going to pet projects for who?
The guy is an absolute train wreck. He is a media whore whose primary goal is to get photos of his big super white teeth, smiling all over town. Why isn’t he doing his job instead of just posing for photo ops. He is rude and disrespectful to residents. He has been known to make very snarky comments to people who have spoken up at council meetings. They never should have replaced Heather. She just quietly went about doing her job. She wasn’t riding around town waving to her constituents. I absolutely cannot stand this man and he is everything that Ridgewood is not.
100%.
Totally agree. He is very snarky and mean. I have personally experienced his disinterest in subjects that effect tax payers
Ancient Chinese proverb – the tallest nail always finds the hammer.
This guy holding a job down for one year is a major feat for him.
He’s way past “Everybody Gets a Trophy” generation.
No. But his YOUNG girlfriend is not
STUPID
The basic concept is this: In order to prevent his delicate ego from facing any hint of mediocrity or failure, let’s mask it with LOOK AT ME.
What utter nonsense! Reaching one year in a 300k+ position is bare minimum.
Photo Caption: When a grown man thinks they’re far more talented than they really are, and they expect unqualified approval in every area.
🐂💩
Stop already. This guy counts his days of employment like a child’s age in months.
Keep whining losers! He’ll be here for a while. Hardee har har.
Hey Keith you need to have the d p w too step up on catch basin cleaning. We have noticed many storm drain “s full of leaves during our daily run. Who is inspecting this. Any one.
Hey Keith, you need to get the Department of Public Works to step it up a bit cleaning catch basins. Who is out inspecting them. During our daily shock each and every morning, we have noticed quite a few are full with leaves and debris throughout the town. We the resident would love to know how many catch basins are cleaned out so far this year.
He can clean out some drains himself and then post pictures of him doing it.
I don’t know the man and have only read hear-say. But, is his main (only?) accomplishment before being appointed to this extremely well paid position–the highest in town?–was to get our “wonderful” (according to himself) Mayor elected by being his campaign manager? Then being hired by same said Mayor. Did anyone but the Mayor check his qualifications? I assume it was a quid-per-quo (You get me elected, I’ll get you appointed.) Then, yes I would assume he answers to the Mayor and not the townspeople. Photo Ops then are probably part of his next resume when Paul loses and the council can then fire him.