Yesterday, August 18th, the Ridgewood Village Clerk notified us via email that our petition again was rejected. This occurred despite our rapid resubmission of a revised petition that addressed the Clerk’s stated reasons for her initial rejection. The clerk did not share reasons for the new rejection; rather, she stated that more information will be provided at the next Village Council meeting, September 2nd (still 2 weeks away). One of us visited her office in person today to obtain more information but was referred back to the email noted above.
Given that we resubmitted a petition that fully addressed the Clerk’s initial concerns, we are stumped. As Village residents who hope to improve the rate of civic participation here in Ridgewood, we deserve a courteous, complete, and timely explanation as to why our petition, signed by a substantial portion of the electorate, was rejected.
We have been advised that the Clerk’s office is not complying with the relevant state statute, that states “…if the petition be still insufficient, (s)he shall file his (her) certificate to that effect in his (her) office and notify the Committee of the Petitioners of his (her) findings….”
We will be meeting as a group to determine next steps. We are especially concerned that we have minimal time before ballots are finalized for the upcoming election, and hope to update you in the near future.
Finally, we would like to say a warm thank you to the Ridgewood community for all your support and help.
Bob Fuhrman
Matthew Lindenberg
Stacey Loscalzo
Deborah Steinbaum
Siobhan Crann Winograd