ASAP! Copy, Paste, and Send This to Town of Monroe Officials About Clovewood

It's now everyone in Southern Orange County versus Keen Equities. Here's the first (of many) things you can do to help put a stop to the Clovewood project. This one involves the Town of Monroe.

To quickly recap: the DEC knowingly granted permit requests made by a criminal organization, Keen Equities, for the Clovewood mega-development in South Blooming Grove.

What can you do about it?

The answer is a lot.

But I want to caution you: This is a long, long process. There are a lot of things we know right now.

There will be a lot of things we won’t know right now, but we will know later.

So, the tactics and strategy may change over time as new information comes in.

Let me give you a quick example. I have the following three FOIL requests sitting with the DEC:

W137244-100324
Records (emails) created by: Kelly Turturro Tracey O'Malley Concerning: Application ID: DEC ID# 3-3320-00150/00001, /00002, /00003 Permit(s) Applied for: Article 15, Title 15 Water Withdrawal Public Part 182 Endangered/Threatened Species (Incidental Take) Article 17 Titles 7 & 8 P/C/I SPDES - Surface Discharge Records also request: Permit extension and rationale/related to discussion for reasons for extension. From 1/1/23 to 9/30/24

W137243-100324
Communications (emails)between DEC Commissioners Basil Seggos and Sean Mahar concerning: South Blooming Grove 1/1/21 to 9/30/24 is the time frame requested

W137242-100324
Communications and discussions (emails) from Region 3 officials and staff between each other and to and from Mr. Joel Stern, JStern@vosbg.com, and Al Fusco Jr. aafjr@fuscoengineering.com concerning South Blooming Grove violations, stop work orders, investigations, and complaints received by DEC. 1/1/21 to 9/30/24

At this time, we don’t know what those FOILS will reveal, if anything.

I am also not the only one who is FOIL’ing information from the DEC and South Blooming Grove about Clovewood.

Concerned Southern Orange County residents should absolutely ask the DEC Region 3 officials to explain how they reached the decision to grant these permits, for example, in the face of overwhelming evidence of criminality, deceit, and fraud perpetrated by Mr. Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein, acting on behalf of Keen Equities. Fraud and criminality that was shared with the DEC during their April 3rd Public Hearing, and in letters submitted as part of the public comment period for Clovewood.

It’s impossible for the DEC to argue they were NOT aware of these allegations while also claiming they performed a thorough review of all comments that were submitted to them.

And, by the way, fairly soon, Mr. Stern is about to find himself in court, being deposed under oath. (For a religious extremist, we’re all about to learn how seriously Mr. Stern takes swearing on the Torah.)

As all of that information becomes available, the tactics and strategy will evolve.

So, again, I want to stress that people recognize this is a long process, but there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic.

The last thing you want to do is give up and feel like nothing can be done. Don’t be one of those Facebook Losers who say weird, bigoted shit that can, and will, get screenshotted and used against every person and municipality who brings a suit against Mr. Stern.

If you see that stuff, call it out immediately. That’s the simplest and easiest thing anyone can do to help fight Keen Equities.

I’ll also remind you that this whole Clovewood thing dates back to the early 2000s, when the people who would go on to form Keen Equities sued the Village of South Blooming Grove to have it dissolved so that they could build this project.

Put another way: Nothing is inevitable. Only death.

And those politicians and DEC Commissioners? They come and go like the wind.

Remember that last point, because you’ll have a chance to get even with more than a few of these people who sold you out real soon.

That brings us to the Town of Monroe …

The Town of Monroe has already been directly impacted by Mr. Stern’s criminal behavior as documented here with the hydrogen sulfide situation. Perhaps not coincidentally, the DEC is downplaying South Blooming Grove’s involvement with the hydrogen sulfide situation and blaming Orange County instead.

While Orange County deserves a lot of blame — particularly County Executive Steve Neuhaus for bragging about lowering people’s taxes while simultaneously stiffing every resident in Orange County Sewer District 1 with higher and higher fees — the primary source of the hydrogen sulfide issue is South Blooming Grove and Mr. Joel Stern.

Unfortunately, the Town of Monroe has routinely passed the buck on addressing this issue, leaving the Village on its own to take action. I want to stress: As much as State Senator James G. Skoufis sucks, Mrs. Dorey Houle — his closest competitor in this year’s State Senate race — sits on the Town of Monroe Board and has done literally nothing concerning Clovewood or the hydrogen sulfide issue.

Below is an email sent out by Team Skoufis, just this morning, completely ignoring his BS about not taking money from Mr. Joel Stern, and does not at all mention the Clovewood approval.

Mrs. Dorey Houle has talked a big game on Facebook about Clovewood, but in her capacity as both a VIllage of Monroe elected official, and then a Town of Monroe elected official, she’s done nothing.

So, now that Skoufis has put his cards on the table and showed everyone he works for The Developers, it’s time for Mrs. Houle to do the same.

Mrs. Houle, do you work for The People or do you work for The Developers?

That is why every Southern Orange County resident should write to the Monroe Town Board, and even better, go to tonight’s meeting at 7pm over at Town Hall (1465 Orange Turnpike.)

You do not need to be a Monroe resident to speak.

You do not need to be a Monroe resident to write, either.

Everyone should be sending these letters.

Given that Mrs. Houle is running to represent ALL of you, and that she refuses to answer questions from the media, these meetings are the only place where all residents can ask her to clarify and explain her stance on the Clovewood project.

Every municipality surrounding this Clovewood project has a moral and ethical obligation on the part of its residents and neighbors to speak up about Mr. Stern and Keen Equities' criminal behavior.

It is a fact. It was presented to the DEC, and despite full knowledge of Mr. Stern and the company’s deceitful and criminal behavior, they still granted permits to his Clovewood project.

Your job is to make sure each municipality takes action.

Especially the ones with verifiable links to Keen Equities like South Blooming Grove where Stern acts as Mayor, the Town of Woodbury (Supervisor Luciani received financial contributions from the lead shareholder in Keen Equities, Ziggy Brach), and the Town of Monroe, even if Monroe is run by a bunch of washed-up fascist rodeo clowns.

How?

Copy, paste, and send the following letter to be read at tonight’s Monroe Board meeting (but again, it’s even better if you pack the room, because the fascist dinosaurs can and have ignored emails sent to the Town requesting action.)

Send all letters to the Town Clerk, but make sure you copy Councilwoman Maureen Richardson because the Town Clerk has done a bunch of shady shit we’ve documented here at The Monroe Gazette, and she cannot be trusted. You MUST demand that the Town Clerk write you back and confirm the email has been:

1. Received

2. That it will be submitted for public comment

3. That it will be read into the record at the meeting. (Supervisor Cardone often ignores this rule.)

For reference purposes, since the video is mentioned in the below letter, this is the sworn testimony provided by Stern where he lied under oath about the activities at 601 Lehigh Avenue in Union, New Jersey. Mr. Stern begins speaking at 1:09:36 In this video, Mr. Stern testifies that he works for Windsor Global, which is the same company owned and operated by Keen Equities investor, Jacob Gold.

-In this video Mr. Stern confirms ownership of the building and his affiliation with Keen Equities’s second largest investor, Jacob Gold. (Gold owns Windsor Global. Ziggy Brach is Keen Equities largest shareholder ahead of Gold.)

-Just like Mr. Stern has done repeatedly in South Blooming Grove, he routinely blames the previous owner of 601 Lehigh Avenue for all of the problems brought up during this hearing.

-Stern confirms he is Chief Operating Officer of Windsor Global in this video, which is a company involved with PPP fraud having used its old name of Arenburg Electronics to get those loan

-Stern was asked why, after being told the building was single occupant facility, claims that he addressed it. He did not.

-Stern, who said he is in charge of the facility, repeatedly denied knowledge of what was happening in the building under his watch.

-Stern repeatedly lied about the nature of the businesses in the building prior to his takeover.

-Stern repeatedly lied about the operations of the businesses operating within this building.

All of this was done with Mr. Stern testifying under oath.

In April 2021, Mr. Stern’s Enterprise Realty Associates was evicted from this building by Union Township via court decree that cited “defendant’s blatant disregard of the township’s Construction Code and Fire Code Orders".

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Here’s The Email To Send

Emails: valerie@monroeny.org, mrichardson@monroeny.org

Subject: Less BS & Grievance, More Action Protecting Your Residents

Body:

This is a formal request for the Town of Monroe Board to draft, approve, and send — no later than the meeting following your receipt of this request — a letter to DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar asking that all permits granted to Clovewood developer, Keen Equities, be revoked on the basis of criminal behavior, deception, and fraud perpetrated by their representative and agent, Mr. Joel Stern, in his capacity as de facto Mayor of the Village of South Blooming Grove, and Zigmond “Ziggy” Brach, lead shareholder of Keen Equities.

As Town and Village of Monroe residents are well aware, Mr. Stern has already exhibited a willful and reckless disregard for the health and safety of all Monroe residents through his refusal to treat the raw sewage released by South Blooming Grove through Orange County Sewer District 1’s infrastructure. The repeated failure of Mr. Stern to act, despite direct knowledge of his contribution to this issue as far back as August of 2021, proves that he qualifies under the DEC guidance (laid out in DEE-16 Policy) as a “bad actor.”

As Town and Village of Monroe officials are also aware, Ziggy Brach is the primary shareholder in Keen Equities, and Mr. Brach has repeatedly acted in a deceptive manner involving his properties and their construction in the Town and Village of Monroe, as well as in Woodbury and other areas where stop work orders and other violations were routinely ignored by Mr. Brach, much like they have been with his project at Clovewood. This factually demonstrates a long-standing and documented history of willfully disobeying the law, qualifying Mr. Brach, along with Mr. Stern, as what the DEC would describe as “unsuitable parties.”

-The DEC has wide latitude to revoke existing regulatory permits granted to “unsuitable” parties who have “been convicted of a crime related to the permitted activity under any federal or state law,” (Mr. Stern and his companies based at 601 Lehigh Avenue in Union, New Jerse meet this standard, having been evicted by Union from the building via court order due to rampant and verifiable environmental crimes), “engaged in conduct that constitutes fraud or deceit . . . in the permit application or supporting papers or in the conduct of the permitted activity,” (Mr. Stern engaged in a verifiable attempt at voter fraud in the 2021 election cycle that was investigated by the Orange County District Attorney’s office and sent to the FBI) or “been convicted of the crime of filing a false instrument or making a false statement to the Department or any other agency regarding compliance with the laws of any state or the United States.” (Mr. Stern lied under oath in giving testimony to Union, New Jersey officials about his activities at 601 Lehigh Avenue.)

Mr. Stern is also presently the subject of two lawsuits where he was accused of deceitful behavior and fraud, among other crimes such as tampering with medical specimens left by customers of his urgent care facility located on State Route 208. Keen Equities is also the subject of an ongoing lawsuit involving the critical injury of a contract worker, who was performing construction after the DEC had issued stop work orders and multiple fines and violations to Keen Equities (see: Guimar Montufar vs Keen Equities LLC)

-The DEE-16 Policy also discusses when an individual’s bad acts may be imputed to the employer company or organization applying for a permit. The policy explains that the factors discussed above are “applicable not only to the immediate entity but to any other corporation, partnership, association or organization in which the permittee or applicant holds or has held a substantial interest or in which it has acted as a high managerial agent or director or any other individual, corporation, partnership or organization which holds a substantial interest or the position of high managerial agent or director in the permittee or applicant.”

As presented to the DEC during their April Public Hearing for the Clovewood project, there is no daylight between Mr. Joel Stern, acting in his capacity as de facto Mayor of South Blooming Grove, and Keen Equities. They are one and the same.

For instance, not long after taking control of the Village of South Blooming Grove, Mr. Stern had the entire Planning Board fired and replaced, then set up a special meeting at noon on a work day, and had his new planning board unanimously approve all Clovewood requests before the Village.

This means Keen Equities can be, and should be, held directly responsible for the actions of Mr. Joel Stern, who in his sworn testimony to Union New Jersey officials confirmed that he works for a company known as Windsor Global, which is owned and operated by Keen Equities shareholder, Jacob Gold.

I request that the Town of Monroe immediately act by sending a letter to the DEC Commissioner, urging him to find that Keen Equities is an unsuitable permittee in the State of New York, and revoke all permits granted to Keen Equities due to the rampant and verifiable criminal behavior exhibited by its shareholders and associate parties such as Ziggy Brach and Mr. Joel Stern.

(Put your name here)