the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in June 2023, Keith Kazmark made a pivotal career shift, resigning as Woodland Park Mayor to take on the role of Village Manager in Ridgewood, New Jersey. With a resume that includes serving as clerk and administrator in Elmwood Park and administrator in Parsippany, Kazmark brought a wealth of experience to his new position.
Starting Fresh in Ridgewood
Kazmark hit the ground running in his new role. Shortly after his appointment, he introduced himself to Ridgewood residents through various Facebook groups on July 17, 2023. His commitment to community engagement was clear from the start, as he prioritized transparency and communication.
Tackling Budget Challenges
By September 2023, Kazmark faced significant budgetary hurdles. During his “Meet the Manager” session, he identified two major issues impacting Ridgewood’s municipal budget:
- Loss of Federal COVID Aid: The village experienced a $2.6 million reduction in federal pandemic relief funds.
- Rising State Health Benefit Costs: Ridgewood saw a 22% increase in state health benefit expenses in 2023.
Despite these challenges, Kazmark expressed optimism, predicting that 2024 would be less financially burdensome than the prior year.
Reflecting on One Year in Ridgewood
On July 10, 2024, Kazmark celebrated his one-year anniversary as Village Manager. Reflecting on his journey, he acknowledged the progress made but emphasized that the work was far from over.
In his words:
“We have accomplished much in the past year and a half – but there is more to do. We have significant work to do before year-end and are planning an aggressive agenda for 2025.”
Looking Ahead to 2025
Now, after 18 months in the role, Kazmark has shared his first year-end memorandum, outlining achievements and setting an ambitious vision for Ridgewood’s future. His leadership continues to focus on collaboration with the Village Council, staff, and residents to address key priorities and drive forward progress.
For a deeper dive into his reflections and plans, you can view his full memorandum here.
What’s Next?
With Keith Kazmark at the helm, Ridgewood residents can expect a proactive approach to governance, with a focus on fiscal responsibility and community engagement. As 2025 approaches, Kazmark’s leadership aims to build on past successes while addressing new challenges head-on.
Tell your story #TheRidgewoodblog , #Indpendentnews, #information, #advertise, #guestpost, #affiliatemarketing,#NorthJersey, #NJ , #News, #localnews, #bergencounty, #sponsoredpost, #SponsoredContent, #contentplacement , #linkplacement, Email: Onlyonesmallvoice@gmail.com
another photo opt
Budget Challenge #3:
How are we going to pay for the massive and imminent remediation bills at Schedler, Habernickel, and The Town Garage?
Does the NJ DEP accept credit cards?
Jeez….he takes himself pretty seriously.
Kazmark is the de facto mayor
R ther any republicans or this towns leaders are all white democrats?
Well, Chaziel, it’s kind of a white democrat town. It’d be a little strange if the leaders were mostly Green party Samoans.
Is this a joke?
🐂💩
Elmwood, Parsippany, Woodland Park… Ridgewood is like collecting the final piece of a municipal puzzle. What gives?
Kazmark’s career: a tour of New Jersey towns, now with Ridgewood as the headliner.
His motto. Destroy destroy destroy. Who cares he don’t live here
From Elmwood to Parsippany to Woodland Park to Ridgewood-With all that turnover, should Ridgewood start prepping their ‘Now Hiring’ sign?
Please I hope so. Get rid of the garbage!!!!
Keith Kazshark is a POS .. all smoke and mirrors
I thought he was going to be an honest guy when he first started but typical politician spewin BS and lying, over spending, lots more to come with this guy. Instead of fixing the issues he just spends more and more tax dollars to gloss over problems. It is like putting a bandaid on a wound. 100% disappointment and he is being paid a ton of money to further screw things up.
Yeah, I always assume any politician is going to be honest. I’m always wrong and disappointed but that’s on them, honestly.
They did spend more money in the past year, like never before, but at least they’re addressing a lot of issues that needed to be repaired replaced what have you you go back 1015 years ago and I kept on saying we can’t do XYNZ because we have no money. And talk about Band-Aids, it was one Band-Aid on top of a Band-Aid so in the past few years, I’ve been trying to catch up, which I get it. What are you supposed to do? You know it’s funny you look at some towns and they don’t raise taxes for a year or so, and they praise the mayor and council, but that’s the smoke screen. It’s all bullshit. They just stopped doing repairs letting things go to make themselves look good so at least yes they’re spending big money but at the end of the year they can actually say you know what we achieved a lot of improvements that needed to be done. Things were crumbling. You never seen paving, curbs sidewalks like this in the past two years, go back 1520 years when they used to do slowly ceiling on 50 streets.