Dana (with orange balloon) with petition. Roberta trying to interrupt conversation. John Saraceno standing off to side. Picture by Ellen McNamera snapped picture.
March 26,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, People at Van Neste square now collecting signatures. Roberta, Rurik & John apparently trying to interrupt conversations, so petitioners can’t talk to people.Hard to believe a village employee is trying to prevent a legal democratic process!
No time in modern history has a Village manager so unprofessionally inserted herself into the political process . Hired as a political hack Roberta Sonenfeld has now crossed the line .
Readers raise questions:
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld may I ask you. Are you not hired to work for ALL of the residents of this town, by our elected representatives?
How and in what way is it acceptable, professional, or above board, for you to be in the town park today with a developer/builder who seeks to change our town, and clearly people are divided over that, and a man with a stake in the game. You’re there on our dime speaking on their behalf while residents are peacefully, and quietly attempting to exercise our rights. Residents of this town who again, PAY YOUR SALARY- for now.
How are you there pushing your agenda and not mediating the questions among-st all residents and accurately discussing both sides of the arguments?
How do you still sit in your current position? How do you look your neighbors in the face?
You represent one, and only one, side of the argument and it is questionable as to WHY. It is very very questionable.
I think that people have been remiss in not forcefully and immediately investigating THAT.
I find this all repulsive.
On our dime on a Saturday afternoon? Really?
There is no excuse for this woman any more, it is time for her to resign. Is there anyway that this woman and the nonsense she does as manager be investigated?
Not a great move here by Roberta, neither practically nor politically. Just going to stir up more people to support the petition. Backlash full steam ahead…
She is becoming unhinged
Does this surprise anyone? I too find it repulsive that she’s taken over Easter in Ridgewood. The holiest weekend of the year for Christians. Offensive, shameful and unnecessary. Even her council buddies can’t defend this one.
All of the council surrogates are a bit off. Don D, Tim W, Rurick and Roberta are aggressive, opinionated and many times wrong – or maybe fingers crossed.
Maybe tomorrow it will be Gwenn’s turn. The two guys have checked out already.
John Saraceno leaving Albert Pucciarelli’s office at 8 AM Thursday, Roberta trying to interfere with a legal petition drive, Rurik taking out ad after ad. We live in insaneville.
I could almost accept this behavior if it were any member of the Council, but the Village Manager? This is outrageous.
Is Pucceralli permitted to meet with Saraceno privately? Saeaceno is a developer with monetary interest in village council votes.
At the very least is it a conflict for Pucc? Was it just a job interview?
Is she an elected official interfering with the rights of citizens to secure signatures for a petition?
Why didn’t she just get her own table and balloons? Maybe Saraceno could have blown them up for her.
Roberta Sonenfeld Village Manager and John Saracen Developer and has an interest in more then one restaurant around the future parking garage. No conflict there. John Saraceno leaving Albert Pucciarelli’s office at 8 AM Thursday. No conflict there. We can all connect the dots. I just wonder if the new Bergen County Prosecutor can connect the dots or is he a political hack like the rest of them. Don’t we have Attorney at Department of Justice running for Council. Maybe he should look into it. Na didn’t think so.
Our Mayor is going to tell us that we are all mistaken It wasn’t Roberta at the park it was Gabbert.
Once again the Ridgewood Blog is on top of things but nothing from Record,Ridgewood News, Patch and Ridgewood Voice. Give a true meaning to ONE SMALL VOICE.
Last Angry Man syndrome…usually the one left holding the bag of Rot…
The New Jersey Criminal Code (N.J.S.A 2C:1-1 et seq.) contains a number of offenses which are specifically directed at public officials and/or employees. Although this article is not intended as an exhaustive treatment of all state law on this subject, it will hopefully provide a working knowledge of the major acts or omissions which may give rise to criminal culpability.
Official Misconduct (N.J.S.A. 2C:30-2) A public servant commits official misconduct if with a purpose to obtain a benefit for himself or herself or another (or to injure or deprive another of a benefit) he or she knowingly commits an act relating to his or her office constituting an unauthorized exercise of official functions: or knowingly refrains from performing a duty which is imposed by law and is clearly inherent in the nature of the office. The “benefit” obtained may be of minimal value. Investigation Into Hamilton T.P. Board of Education 205 N.J. Super. 248 (App. Div.1985). This also includes benefits not received by the public official but rather by a third party. State v. Schenkolewski 301 N.J.Super.115 (App. Div.), cert. den.151 N.J. Super. (1977). To violate this section, the individual must be a public servant and the act must relate to the office. State v. Bullock 136 N.J. 149 (1994).
5:27pm, which property near the garage location is owned by Roberta?
6:37 “John Saracen Developer and has an interest in more then one restaurant around the future parking garage”
Suggest leave Al alone so we can concentrate on more pressing issues..no need to stir up any lawsuits. Can be quite concerning and get people off their game,,,
Disgusting. She should do what she is told and otherwise shut up. As of now there is a bond approved for a garage. If a petition comes in and they can’t move forward after twenty days she deals with it then. If not, they move forward after the 20 day period. Her job is not to advocate for anything either way, merely to handle what is before her.
Does Matt Rogers do ANYTHING?
mr spano should go with her. another wast of money. He should be the next mayor , he is one of the best bull shit’ers I’v ever seen in my 55,years on this land.
I understand 6:55 but it part and parcel to this problem. I have faith that we can multitask. Leave no stone unturned with these three and the VM
Follow the money…
Wow! This picture is pretty powerful.
Saraceno’s wife is on Facebook defending her husband for beind in the park today. Standing near Dana and Roberta but apparently minding his own business.
Is it only the women who use social media? Roberta and Gwenn have been alienating man and women in the Ridgewood Facebook Groups for weeks. Tim posts occasionally but he never seems to have a full understanding of the situation.
Wants a link to the petition because he needs to examine the wording. And he is not getting off the couch.
I was ready to move on and accept the Council vote but I think I’ll sign that petition now. Fighting on seems to have worked for Valley. Its2big!
I did not go into town yesterday. Seeking a petition to sign. I am not trying to make work for the hard working people who are trying to maintain the village character.
Three high density housing developments, one (for now) garage and Valley (Regional Hospital that can be sold at any time) doubling in size. Do any of the council members think that Ridgewood will be much different than Hackensack? The only thing that we have over them is good train service, and the council cannot take credit for that.
This is not responsible planning. The deal making should be investigated.
12:25 excellent sarcasm because we all know champagne is flowing in the Valley Board Room. For all intents and purposes a judge / mediator passed down a diktat that gives Valley just about everything they want! If I were a developer I would look at that outcome and march straight to court and get far more density than I’ve given up already! 35? Based on the Valley outcome developers can count on 50.
We in ridgewood PUBLICALLY thru our VC LEADERS SIGNALLED (Garagezilla) that we were open for over development to Valley and those judges.This signaling was called here on this blog six months ago. Our VC …THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON TAKING…
This is not civility.
Civility is a station long since passed on this voyage to take back our town from the current renegade government Their going to BCA was the final insult and bordered on complete contempt to the citizens of Ridgewood.
The “complete contempt to( for ) the citizens of Ridgewood” will be if the Planning Board approves the Valley expansion.
Title is wrong. She should not resign. She should be fired and arrested.
Bill H. 7 of 9 planning board members WILL vote for the Valley expansion. It has taken a few years, but at this point, every committee and board in the village has been planted with people who will approve Paul, Gwenn and Albert’s agenda and will go to any length to write letters to editor or mass email to get their agenda approved.
They WILL approve it. The question is how to overturn, how much money will it cost to appeal in a higher court.
May be reaching out to their institutional investors may help.
So true @ 6:40. They have stacked the planning board with like minded people, not your average ridgewood resident. We need to continue to be watchdogs and attempt to stop any decisions until a new council Is sworn in.
6:40 What’s amazing to me, and several others I’ve spoken to over the years, is that anyone supporting, or, if you are on the PB or Council voting for Valley to expand, what you are saying is that you really don’t care about the very strong possibility of turning a good portion of Ridgewood into an, at best, highly”transient” area. What they don’t get is that the reputation of Ridgewood is on the line here, not a neighborhood.
Bill H… what is amazing to me that while people squawk about signs, call for the trial and summary execution of the village council (or 3 of them anyway) as well as the village manager, the garage and housing plan will not turn Ridgewood into hackensack… the fact is Valley is the monster on the horizon… it will impact everything and mostly not in a good way, especially over the 10 year construction period… The mayor shot down the expansion last time, why the hell should he do it now… the people that Rurik Halaby referred to as vocalantis are responsible for this mess… if the garage deal is done as in D, at least there would be political capital to leverage with the CBD as well as the council regarding valley… it’s all been thrown away… and Ridgewood loses.. valley doubles in size then gets acquired by one of the regional behemoths and then the fun will really start… great job folks… congrats on the pyrrhic petition victory and good luck about the illegal dreaded sign by the station…
Paul Smith – with Gwenn on the negotiation committee and Albert, Paul and Gwenn voting as a block on every issue, why do you think that they would have voted against valley if garage was a done deal with plan D?
Paul- Agree, the “priorities” here have been, to a great degree, misplaced, if not completely backwards.The long range negative effects of this will, if passed, dwarf those of the garage and the HDH. The ten years of construction will be bad enough for anyone using or coming thru that side of town, but who will be residing in those homes after that is what the entire town better be paying attention to.
Lol nice try Paul smith. This was never going to end any other way with valley. The majority most likely knew they would be sued and figured they would just accept the deal then, right before they leave office. Planned all along.
The garage and hdh are important, and they all would set new height precedents all throughout town…and that would make it easier for valley to go big if we have already approved a huge garage. How could we reject theirs?
8:13…what are you talking about? Leverage… Our leverage is zero with the council. They are going to try to jam all of this in by June 30….we have to fight it all!
Unfortunately Paul Smith gets it exactly right. All these people staking out extreme intransigent positions on trivial issues created the environment where the council feels like they have nothing to lose. So now we lose on the only really important issue – Valley – because people hate a bike lane and an electric sign. We burn political capital on +\- 50 parking spaces and +\- 25 apartments and we fiddle while Rome burns. When Valley overruns the town it will be because of your short-sightedness.
if you want to sign the petition, send an e-mail to its2big@its2big.com
or you can go to the website at http://its2big.com to find #’s to call or text about signing the petition.
10:06…. easy to reject… HDH and garage are not dead center in residential areas…. 1052 summarizes it perfectly… a few number of spaces and apartments that are the difference is peanuts impact wise to a 10 year massive expansion in a residential area adjacent to 1 school and in close proximity to 2 others… I’m not much of a bike lane fan either but hey, it’s done, we can live with that and I don’t know what the big deal is about the sign…
10:06…What the hell is the big deal with “getting sued?.” You are being asked to do a job and you volunteer to do it. I would think somewhere in there you are also being asked to do it to the best of your ability, be fair, objective, etc. So you vote against this ridiculous proposal and you 3 to 5 ?
@10:52 and Paul, I am really not sure you know who you are dealing with. The residents never had political capital with this crew, I can’t believe anyone paying attention would think this! Once the planning board was fully stacked, there has been nothing they wouldn’t do. I am still not hearing what you think residents could have done?? shut up about everything else and then they would say, sorry Valley?? lol
And for the record, the hospital already has it’s own zone and has always been in a residential area.
1011.. I actually do know… the intransigence with the garage and housing as well as obsessions with things like bike lanes and signs have done a lot of damage. The difference is negligible on the housing and parking after the latest rounds… the continued push on this is crazy… the actions, however well intended, do not represent the majority of residents and the vc is aware of that as well.. I’m sure if more effort was devoted to the Valley issue instead of these sideshows, a 60% expansion may have been an attainable benchmark and maybe still will be… it’s still too much for many people (me included), but it would be considerably less than double.
So Paul what are you doing to stop valley?
Don’t you think it’s a little weird that Ellen Macnamaraneeds to take photos and send the. To her “little posse”.
it easier to fire her