Complaint alleges misuse of Ridgewood website to promote yes vote on referendum

Ridgewood Village logoThe post below discusses the use of the Ridgewood Village website for a video promoting a yes vote on a ballot question in the June 21, 2016 referendum.  The New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project and chairman John Paff have filed an ethics complaint against the Village mayor and manager alleging improper use of public resources.

An insightful quote that appears at the start of John Paff’s below blog post on this issue:

“The public funds entrusted to the [Village government] belong equally to the proponents and opponents of the proposition, and the use of the funds to finance not the presentation of facts merely but also arguments to persuade the voters that only one side has merit, gives the dissenters just cause for complain.”    – Justice William J. Brennan, 1953

 

 

Ridgewood Mayor and Manager accused of violating Local Government Ethics Law for appearing in video that exhorts a “yes” vote on parking deck referendum.
NJ Open Government Notes
by John Paff
June 13, 2016

 

Also see this Bergen County Superior Court complaint (dated June 14, 2016) filed by several plaintiffs on the exact same issue.  (Update: The complaint was voluntarily dismissed in December 2016 following the non-passage of the June referendum.)