Council Member Robert Holden, a longtime member of the Ridgewood Property Owners and Civic Association, received an award for his service with the organization, as a board member of the community board and a representative of District 30 on the City Council, presented by President Joseph Segretti.
Holden’s tenure as a council member is coming to an end this December after eight years, and during the meeting he introduced his successor, Council Member-elect Phil Wong.
“I love the fact that this Ridgewood property owners grows, and keeps growing every year,” Holden said. “I’ll cherish this, you know why? Because it comes from the civic association, which is very near and dear to me. Thank you so much.”
Before being presented with the award, which was kept a secret by members and staff, Holden reminiscent on his long career in public service. Before deciding to run for City Council in 2017, Holden was president of the Juniper Park Civic Association for 25 years, a community board member for 30 years and a professor at New York College of Technology for 44 years. Holden joked that at the start of his political career, he didn’t care for the job, but in the twilight of his second term, he finally began to enjoy it.
“In the beginning, I didn’t eat because it was like very different than teaching, and I had to deal with people who… you couldn’t trust that they would do [what they said]… politicians,” Holden said to laughter from the audience. “I cared about issues because I came up through civics… and I would go to the leadership, and I could see they didn’t care. I did.”
Holden hopes that more people involved in civics use their passion to run for office, as he did. Wong took to the mic next after a brief introduction from Holden, who told the story of how they first began working on his 2017 campaign in an overheated, mosquito-filled garage. Wong reiterated his plans to keep Holden’s office in-tact, from the entire staff down to the potted plants.
Despite the contentious election for District 30 City Council between Wong and his co-worker, Alicia Vaichunas, Wong still hopes she will play a role in his office in the future. However, Vaichunas said she would not stay to work for Wong, accusing him of using dirty campaign tactics, and plans to go back to her catering business full-time. Wong also promised to attend the future meetings of Ridgewood’s civic association and join the Common Sense Caucus, which Holden founded.
“Councilman Holden has done so much to the community. He spent his whole life volunteering, both in the community board and in Juniper Civic Association,” Wong said. “So before I agreed to join [the race], I said I’ll follow your footsteps closely.”
Holden also presented some certificates of his own to recognize the community service of several other members: Paul Kerzner, Margaret “Peggy” O’Kane and Helen Kuch, all of whom have dedicated decades of their lives volunteering to work for the association and other community groups. Kerzner was unable to attend the meeting due to health complications, but sources said not to worry, as he’s already back in stable condition.
“He always bounces back, and he comes back even better. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s doing it,” Holden said. “Keep him in your prayers because he’s feeling a little ill… we’re sure he’ll recover.”
The meeting also featured the swearing in of a returning board member Fred Hoefferle, a lifelong Ridgewood resident since his family immigrated from Austria in the 1960s, who served on the board in the 1980s. Also a member of Community Board 5, Hoefferle studied marketing and management and works his day-job at BelGioioso Cheese. In his career, Hoefferle also used his marketing skills to help this very publication, the Ridgewood Times, where he worked for the first female editor, Maureen Walthers.
Though too soon to speculate on future plans of the civic association, Hoefferle hopes to continue work on community outreach and be able to include all demographics not currently represented.
“I’m interested in what happens in the community, and hopefully I can make an impact once again,” Hoefferle said. “We just have to convince them that this is to their benefit, and once they have somebody reach out to them, they’ll do the same thing.”
