May 23, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 3 Area Suit: Village owes $4.4M in water fee refunds by John Koster The Village of Ridgewood is accused of overcharging the ratepayers of the Ridgewood Water Utility more than $4.4 million over the past four years. Attorney Joseph Fiorenzo, a former Wyckoff mayor who is representing Wyckoff, Midland Park, and Glen Rock, says Ridgewood owes Wyckoff $1,640,492, Glen Rock $1,049,165, and Midland Park $619,635 in over-billed water fees that were not necessary to cover expenses of the Ridgewood Water Utility. Fiorenzo said the money was used by Ridgewood to cover police and fire department salaries and other expenses not related to water supply. The recent 26 percent water rate increase in all four towns, Fiorenzo said, was not justified by the needs of the water company for water operations, but by the needs of the Ridgewood municipal government to cover other budgetary items. “Ridgewood has been bilking the ratepayers of Wyckoff, Glen Rock, and Midland Park by having the ratepayers pay for a substantial portion of the operating expenses of the Village of Ridgewood,” Fiorenzo said last week at a press conference in Wyckoff Town Hall. “In effect, the residents of Wyckoff, Glen Rock, and Midland Park have been subsidizing the Village of Ridgewood’s operating budget so that, during periods of economic difficulty, Ridgewood does not have to make the tough choices that all other communities make by reducing expenditures.” Fiorenzo said Ridgewood owes its own resident water customers $2,475,300 because a substantial amount of the money collected in the form of water bills was used for departments outside the water company operation. Ridgewood Mayor Keith Killion, contacted separately, said he could not comment on the charges due to litigation. Glen Rock Mayor John van Keuren and Midland Park’s Bud O’Hagan were present at the press conference, but did not speak. Ridgewood Village Manager Ken Gabbert declined to comment at press time. Fiorenzo said Ridgewood had engaged in “sham accounting to artificially inflate the costs of the water utility and decrease the expenses of the Village of Ridgewood.” As the principal attorney for the three municipalities suing the Ridgewood Water Utility, Fiorenzo said that improper expenses, which water customers in all four towns had paid, included $2,413,737 for health insurance, $645,362 for the Ridgewood Police Department, $570,374 in municipal attorney fees, $435,995 for engineering, $189,864 for the police and paid firefighters’ retirement system, $180,600 for the fire department, and $29,996 for the consolidated police and firefighters’ retirement system, for a total of $4,465,928 for Ridgewood municipal expenses paid for by water bill fees, but not related to supplying water to customers in Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Midland Park, and Wyckoff. Fiorenzo provided specific numbers and details for a pattern that a Glen Rock official had noted when he went over the books with other officials from Glen Rock, Midland Park, and Wyckoff some months ago. Residents of the other three towns, reeling under a 21 percent water rate increase in 2010 and an added five percent increase in 2011, (continued on page 12)