Residents Accuse Ridgewood Manager Of Official Misconduct

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. – A group of residents has accused village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld of official misconduct and claims she interfered with them speaking to people about the Hudson Street parking deck.

Dana Glazer and other residents were at the corner of East Ridgewood Avenue and Van Neste Park Saturday afternoon collecting signatures for a petition allowing a referendum to go out to voters. The referendum would ask residents to repeal an ordinance permitting the construction of the 325-space deck. The Village Council unanimously approved the plan last week.

Glazer said Sonenfeld walked up to petitioners as they were speaking with residents and interrupted them.

“She showed up and when we would reach out to residents she would come in and say ‘I want to clarify another point of view with what’s going on here,’” Glazer said. “She’d be argumentative and stick her nose in conversations and derail what we were doing. This is a First Amendment issue.”

Glazer claims Sonenfeld committed official misconduct.

“As a civil servant, what she did was not appropriate,” Glazer said. “What she did was not right.”

Sonenfeld, a village resident, disagrees.

“As a resident, I have a right and responsibility to speak on issues important to our community,” Sonenfled said in a written statement. “It’s admittedly, however, a balancing act when you are both village manager as well as a resident. As the village manager, who works for the Village Council, I have the responsibility to support, defend and implement decisions taken by the Council, particularly a 5-0 decision on financing a parking deck.”

Sonenfeld said she heard one petitioner “incorrectly tell someone that the deck would be 60 feet high. That is simply not true.”

It is not the first time this year residents have tried to get a referendum regarding the parking deck placed on an election ballot.

The group collected more than 800 signatures to get the referendum on the May election ballot.

The Village Council introduced an ordinance earlier this year allowing the Bergen County Improvement Authority to finance the project with the Village. The Council approved bonding for the $11.5 million garage alone Wednesday.

Residents have taken issue with the structure’s height, which will be 43 feet to the roof and 46 feet, 9 inches to the top of the parapet. The main tower will be 60 feet, 10 inches tall. They said the structure is too tall and needs to be lowered several feet. The group claims that the deck is too high.

Related: Ridgewood Council Unanimously Approves Bonding $11.5 Million For Parking Deck

The group told residents that the new referendum would go to voters in November at no expense to taxpayers. That also is not true, Sonenfeld said.

If enough residents sign the petition, a special election with just the referendum would be held in May or June with a $40,000 price tag, Sonenfeld said.

Sonenfeld said she asked petitioners for a copy of the petition before she left the area, but was not given one.

“People certainly have a right to petition their government,” Sonenfeld said. “I have a right and responsibility to make sure that the public has correct information.”