Developer Wayne Corts on Woodbury: "We Have Unlimited Water"
Full audio from Wayne Corts's 2022 presentation concerning his plans for the Falkirk Golf Course, various grievances, and how he wants Woodbury residents, and Tyler Etzel Jr. to help him develop it.
(Photo Credit: Woodbury developer, Wayne Corts, taken from The Times-Heralrd Record Archive.)
There are many things we can say about Wayne Corts, the alleged local arsonist and multi-time court defendant.
We know that he has an axe to grind with another local developer, Bill Brodsky, who Corts repeatedly disparages in the audio I’m going to share with you today. (The feud may have originated with the sale of land off Dunderberg by the Nature Conservancy to Brodsky, which Corts was initially involved with back in 2003. Of course, Brodsky was also trying to buy ACE Farms from the Etzel family until Corts, Mayer Hirsch, and his associates in Hanhallah got involved. That situation involving ACE farms is explained in the fact check below.
Over in Wawayanda, Wayne Corts tried to build several homes on top of heavily contaminated soil, which led one resident to tell Mr. Corts, “Ultimately, it's not what the Department of Health accepts, but whether or not my child gets leukemia."
In Wallkill, Mr. Corts was essentially chased out of Town in 2009 by then Supervisor, John Ward, concerning Cort's’s decision to refuse to do any work on a development that was approved that the Town had requested.
We know down in Rockland, Mr. Corts was sued over participating in an alleged fraudulent transaction involving his friend’s yacht.
And of course, we know Mr. Corts has admitted to knowing Ralph Petruzzo, the middleman who facilitated the ACE Farms transaction between Tyler Etzel Jr. and Mayer Hirsch. In the audio below, Mr. Corts admits to being involved with the ACE Farms transaction for “at least six months.”
Petruzzo later purchased ACE Farms from Tyler Etzel Jr.’s family on behalf of Mayer Hirsch and Hanhallah. Corts brought this connection up with Petruzzo to downplay concerns from Cornwall residents that his purchase of the New York Military Academy was not being done in an effort to flip the property, much like his involvement with ACE Farms.
Apparently, Mr. Corts had something else in mind: Five years after purchasing the New York Military Academy, Corts sold it to the Research Center on Natural Conservation. This is an organization backed by a principal of China-based SouFun Holdings Ltd and their super sketchy owner, Vincent Tianquan Mo. If Mo’s name isn’t familiar to you, this organization also purchased the Arden House in Harriman State Park, also with shady financing.
Finally, some of you may recall Mr. Wayne Corts receiving an award from 2020 Election denier and pro-insurrectionist Colin Schmitt. Corts was quoted in The Chronicle saying:
“We at Falkirk have always strived to give back to the community in a positive way and I can’t think of any better way than through providing to those in need,” Corts said. “Chef Abel (Molina) did an excellent job coordinating and preparing hundreds of meals each week and we are very proud of his hard work and dedication. Falkirk Estates and Country Club appreciate this special recognition.”
What you may not know about those food donations through Falkirk’s catering arm is that former employees alleged Mr. Corts to have found a tax loophole. One that allowed him to receive a huge tax write-off by documenting the cost of each donation for its full per-plate cost of ~ $250 per plate. This came at the same time, as documented below, that Mr. Corts received over a half-million dollars in PPP loans and was hoarding money Falkirk received from married couples who wanted to use the facility to host their wedding.
So, it’s safe to say that Wayne Corts has left a trail of bullshit and fraudulent business dealings across the Hudson Valley. And he isn’t done yet, given he — and Mayer Hirsch’s — financial backing of the Woodbury Democrats’s Matthew Fabbro, James Freiband, John Keleman, and Tyler Etzel Jr.
That brings us to the audio and transcript below.
In it, you’re going to hear Mr. Wayne Corts, back in 2022, give a presentation to Woodbury residents who live in and around the Falkirk Golf Course that Mr. Corts owned. Not long after this presentation, Corts sold Falkirk on or around November 1st, 2022 for $11, 626,000 to High Mount LLC.
(How much, or how little, Mr. Corts is still involved with High Mount LLC and Falkirk is unknown at this time. What we can say, factually, is that the law firm that represented Mr. Corts in his 2022 case with the Attorney General’s office, Joseph J. Haspel, PLLC, is the same law firm that registered High Mount LLC with the New York Department of State on November 1st, 2022.)
Currently, and despite a building moratorium over a lack of water and a forthcoming sewer moratorium, Mr. Corts wants to assist another group of developers in converting the golf course into condominiums.
(And yes, that is indeed Mr. Etzel speaking towards the end about the need to support Mr. Cort’s plan.)
So, below, you’ll hear Mr. Corts’s presentation. Usually, I fact-check this sort of thing, and I did some of that within the brackets that begin and end with [ ], but at this point you should have more than enough information to understand that Mr. Corts is embarrassingly full of shit with his presentation and just wanted the zoning changed so he can develop the property and/or flip it with all the zoning changes made to increase how much he made from the sale.
Enjoy!
Wayne Cort’s 2022 Falkirk Presentation: An Hour of BS, Lies, and Grievance
(Note: The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity. Drink every time Mr. Corts contradicts himself throughout this one-hour audio file. It’s a great way to get absolutely hammered.)
Everyone In Florida Helps You, Unlike New York State
Wayne Corts: If I’m able to, I'll give you your money back. Two or three people complained. And Leticia James, our Attorney General, you know, she’s given me a hard time. I had to sue the AGs office so I can live another day.
[Fact Check: Here’s what happened, according to the Attorney General’s office, whose report you can read here. During the pandemic, Wayne Corts canceled weddings that were scheduled to be held at Falkirk, refused to reschedule them, and refused to give the money back, crying poverty while also loading up on PPP, other SBA loans, and taking those huge tax deductions from the food donations. The Attorney General, Leticia James, had to step in and make Mr. Corts pay the couples back.]
Above: From ProPublica’s Paycheck Protection Plan database, Mr. Corts received $552,000 in just under a year while simultaneously refusing to provide refunds to couples who had weddings planned at Falkirk. Both PPP loans would later be forgiven.
Wayne Corts: But everything is a battle. Today, New York State is not a business-friendly state, and I'm tired. I'm 67 years old in October. What the hell am I doing? My wife's in Palm Beach, like, get down here, you know, we’re in Palm Beach. And you know the police stopped me on my tractor during the storm, he comes over. I thought, Oh, I'm gonna get in trouble. He says so I see you got a can. This gas station is closed. I have diesel fuel right in my garage. You want me to help you? Everybody they help you. Everybody's smiling, everybody's out walking. We have parks, doggy park, you know, I come back here and it's just, you know, I go to town hall. There's a mayor here. It's like no one you can talk to.
[Former Woodbury Town Supervisor] Mr. Burke has been good. We've been talking and he's been trying to get me … our new supervisor. He's a lovely gentleman. Been trying to get me a meeting with the mayor [Woodbury Village Mayor Andrew Giacomazza] and I’m pulling up. This is an SOS. It's an emergency, you know? I have to do something.
So if anybody has any ideas, I need a new manager here. My manager left. It was closer to their house, and I need help desperately. I need some classy people to work selling weddings. I could use a manager. I could use some partners, or any kind of idea that we try to hang on to the property. Otherwise, I'm jumping off and I'm selling and it's not what I want to do. I really need you know, if you can, you know, talk to our public officials.
Again, you look on this table in, 2019 I presented beautiful plans. I wanted to tuck, all the way up in the back corner, 188 senior units. 20% of them I was going to do for volunteer firemen and ambulance workers, which is a critical situation in all of the municipalities. They're losing volunteers. So I was going to get 50% of market value apartment rents for $2000, a volunteer would get it for $1000 and that would help our town.
So I've presented many, many plans. I'm very flexible. I'm not stuck on it, on any one thing. Just as a point of information. I did the West Hills Country Club. That was one of my projects. I bought it just before I got sick and got my cancer, and I had a rough year. My sister died at 58 My brother died at 59 years old, and then a month later, my lawyer died, and then I got diagnosed with stage four cancer. So I sold out of West Hills Country Club, that place now for sustainability, they put up 150 unit apartment building. It's all in one spot. And you know now that it gives them a lifeline. I'm choking here, you know, we this [Falkirk] was built 100 years ago, this golf course, the erosion, the storm water management, needs to be addressed. I have, you know, some kind of containment every time we get a crazy new biblical or what do you call it, you know, the weather, you know, I get wiped out.
[Fact Check: Asshole, it’s called Climate Change. Developing what we have, as proposed by Corts, is the exact opposite of what we need to do to fight it.]
Wayne Corts: And thank God I'm still in decent shape. And my kids, my neighbors, come and we clean up and we're open the next day. But, you know, it's not an easy go and again. Don't feel sorry. I'm not looking for any pity, you know, I just want to help everybody else, help ourselves. And you know, move forward. My books, my tax returns for 12 years. It's an open book. Anybody who wants to see them, you stop by during the day and you can look, you know, there's no secrets here.
[Fact Check: Emphasis added. Feel free to ask Mr. Wayne how much he made by serving as a middleman for selling ACE Farm.]
Wayne Corts: You know, I went to our tax assessor eight years ago, and I showed him, I said, Here, look golf magazine. A golf course is an asset to the community. It raises every other piece of property in this town. Raises the value of the house by like 3% because you have a golf course. Normal municipal golf courses cost the town money because they hire all their friends and family and they take kids with it for a week here at $30 an hour. Anyway, I said you're supposed to tax me differently.
[Fact Check: Emphasis Added. Also, I have not been able to independently verify that living around a golf course raises your property value. There are a lot of golf-based publications that make this claim, but no independent and unbiased source at this time to support this.]
Wayne Corts: My taxes here, I pay $320 grand a year. My insurance during COVID-19 doubled. I paid $2000 a week for insurance. I'm like, wait a minute, it's covid. Got to pay it. The bank called my mortgage.
[Put a pin in this statement. We’ll get back to it in a moment …]
Wayne Corts: They called my mortgage because I had a girl who worked here eight years ago, and she went around. She sued eight different facilities. She worked for some attorneys on Park Avenue, and they set you up. Now, my case is 1% not true. It's not I'm not guilty. It's gonna cost me a half a million dollars to defend it. And they said, pay a million. It'll go away or go on trial, and you have a 60% chance of winning. I mean, it's just incredible. And. But if you lose, it can cost you two million. So I'm going to fight it because I live on principle. I got to do it for other people that are getting sued. Anyway, I know I'm getting off schedule. If anybody wants to see the different plans I had. And if you can think of anything, you know, I really need help. Yes?
[Fact Check: None of this is true. Mr. Corts was taken to court back in 2016 for keeping tips and other gratuities and stiffing his staff. Corts lost the case and threw a temper tantrum about it, according to witnesses. After Wayne Corts lost the lawsuit, he was alleged to have lied to the bank about the property he was refinancing, Falkirk, not being involved in any litigation. The bank found out Mr. Corts deceived them, and they pulled his mortgage.]
Speaker 1: [Inaudible]. A lot of us are probably caught in the middle of our parents or kids at this stage, watching your parents get older and your kids still need you a little bit. One of the things that I've been seeing in this community would be, if you leave this community or if they stay, there was a long term vision of what housing would look like. [Inaudible.] A lot of communities down south and in other countries, you don't leave your community. There's a place where you know you'll be living there, and everybody chips. It is cooperative in nature and taxes, other places [inaudible] for Co-Op, and it's a structure that allows you to stay in a community and know where you are. Be close to home. [Inaudible.]
The Young People Will Take Care of the Old People, You See …
Wayne Corts: That's what my plan does for the 180 unit senior group, they are one and two bedrooms. My plan is to mix young people With older people so they can babysit. I think the older people give good advice to the young people. The young people keep the old people young, you know. So I have great visions and ideas, but unfortunately, there's nobody really that cares. There's no there are, you know, I've seen us in 28 years. I've seen our boards to, oh, doing a new master plan. You want to hear the master plan? They did. I own Fort Knox Jewelry on [State Route] 32. I got about five acres. They rezoned my property. They took one of the most valuable pieces of commercial property and rezoned it residential. When I went to the meeting. Oh, we did it by mistake. I said, Would you kindly change it back? Oh, you got to give a $20,000 deposit to go on the on the board meeting. I was like, Oh, forget it.
Recently, being a property owner next to The Dugout, The Dugout is like, the only thing we have where we can go get a rootbeer float. They're going to knock it down. I went to the owners, the people that used to run it. They said, Wayne, we'll give you all the help. I went to Sonny Patel. I went to his house up in Monticello. I met with Sonny. I said, Sonny man, let's do this. I said, I'll give you my other five acres with the jewelry store. I said, Let's take your piece, your layout stinks. He's got a big beer store jammed in there long because that's the only way it'll fit. I said, Sonny man, no good. So it's a bastard. Man. What are you doing? You know, as you're a classy guy, let's, you know, I said, Let's do something like at the five corners up in New Windsor with the Starbucks, you know, beautiful stone, you know, we'll put two anchor stores. I'll have my jewelry store. In the end, you can have your beer store. Maybe we'll get some apartments, you know, offset the expenses.
And in the back, we can do some little townhouses to separate. I don't want to place, you know, the residential so they won't look at anything commercial. And he went, they more or less said, Oh, no, you know, we're not going to do anything for Wayne. You know, I don't know who said it, but essentially, came back because I'm going to just they said, you know, we can be approved. This will be done quickly and Wayne, you know, it'll take years if you deal with Wayne.
Meanwhile, everybody thinks I'm the golden boy in town, because I've done four developments. Oh Wayne. You know, Wayne, they do anything for Wayne. You, they do nothing for me except give me heartache.
If we take the two governments and merging into one, we'd be moving along.
[Fact Check: Say, that Woodbury merger suggestion sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s worth noting here that, during her run for New York State Assembly, now Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani received a $500 donation from Wayne Corts via his Highland Greens MHP LLC. Mrs. Luciani is alleged to have been the one to ask State Senator James G. Skoufis to propose merging the two Woodbury municipal boards in order to keep the animal shelter and Woodbury Police.]
This merger idea should also sound familiar, because Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr., at the August 8th, 2024 Woodbury Village Board of Trustees meeting was recorded as sharing the following during public comment:
“Tyler Etzel stated he thinks the Senators legislation is a good idea. He then stated that within the resolution it states that the Village Board is prohibited from taking part in any political campaign; however, two years ago Assemblyman Eachus and Senator Skoufis attended a board meeting where they were allowed to promote their campaign.
He then urged the board to entertain and look into the cost savings if the two boards were to merge. He stated he was on the Town Board for four years and in the last three of those years nothing could get done because the boards did not work well or communicate.
He then brought up the IMA and how nothing is moving forward with conversations to continue it. He then stated that the Village and the Town spent $500,000.00 suing each other over a half-acre of land behind the Highway Department that was fought over for two years. He then stated that the Town worked well for a one hundred years with one board and there is no reason to have two.”]
Fear Mongering By … Fear Mongering?
[Fact Check: “Fear-mongering” is the exact same term Senator James G. Skoufis uses whenever people in Woodbury mention the Satmar. Did Skoufis ever hold any fundraisers at Falkirk? Between his proposal to merge the two boards and holding fundraisers at Falkirk …]
Wayne Corts: You know, this is so much fear mongering right now. On Smithclove road, we have a group out of Brooklyn just bought three houses on Estrada Road, two or three houses have been bought up. And, you know, it's … I grew up in Monsey.
I know how things evolve. You know, hey, everybody has to live. You know, it's just, we spend so much time fear mongering, and we never, ever pay attention to what we have.
Currently, I don't know if you people are aware of this. We're looking to condemn the Nieman Estate.
[Fact Check: This is not true or accurate.]
Wayne Corts: Okay, she just passed away a couple years ago. It's 100 something acres across from the police station. I went to our town officials and said, Hey, this is a chance to do something good. They came to me. They wanted me to buy it. And I said, No, you know, I'm not interested. I said, Why don't you get approved as a city, place like they have in Palm Beach. They duplicate an old fashioned town and Simon group and anybody would be interested in buying, any big developer, they'll bid on it and pay big money. Why would we condemn that property? You don't know what to do with it.
The last piece that they condemned and kept is right behind the Gasho House. Okay, there was an old hotel, and I desperately needed it because I tried to do weddings here. And my friend Martin, up the street with the Hampton Inn, he's like a shark. Every time I have a wedding, he raises the prices $300 a night. I wanted to build a beautiful hotel behind the Gasho house. It was there already. They told me every reason why I couldn't renovate it and keep it. They went ahead and bought it the town, and they spent a million dollars cleaning it up, and they've done nothing. So it's on the back of all of you taxpayers. Okay, that property sits there vacant, and you know what? It's warehoused for? For special interest groups that will be here in 10 years and take over our board.
[Fact Check: He’s referring to the Satmar. “Special Interest Groups” in Woodbury is code for Satmar, which I think is really dumb. Just say Satmar, man. Especially when you just got done lecturing people on “fear-mongering.”]
Wayne Corts: Okay, so right now, you should all keep paying your taxes like good people, and we're going to condemn, we're in process. We've got attorneys, okay, working on, we're going to condemn the Nieman property and screw them and pay them as little as we can, and then we're going to warehouse that, and we're going to wait until people come and take over our boards and know how to do land development everything. And by then, all of your taxes will have gone to carry this property and and buy it and but yeah, we don't know what to do with it.
It's like the town of Stony Point. I was there for 40-something years. I owned four or five marinas. I finally got out of there. It's the same type of Old Town, you know. I mean, it's how it is for most of these. My brother's in North Carolina, and it's incredible. They're building and they're user friendly.
[Fact Check: Having spent a lot of time sitting in Raleigh, North Carolina traffic, I want to stress here that yes, they are building like crazy in North Carolina, but they also have ZERO plan for mass transit, and in the future, driving in Raleigh is going to be like driving in Atlanta: A fucking nightmare. And, you know, this just happened. So, maybe don’t build like crazy?]
Wayne Corts: And, you know, I'm doing a 90 lot subdivision in New Windsor with Cornwall schools, and it's going pretty good, although we got a new supervisor there now, and he's super tough that went from the best in Orange County to the worst town to deal with in Orange County. But, you know, I've got 50 houses up already. I got another 40 to do. And, you know, but our town is so beautiful, and we still have a chance to maintain the character if we stop running away, you know. And you know, or I don't know if it’s running away. We just focus on developing what we have. I supported one of our other supervisors about six years ago, the ambulance who's the ambulance guy? Or someone's Volunteer Ambulance Corps? He ran for supervising was our supervisor for one term.
Dave Sutz. He, comes up with this marvelous plan. We're going to get rid of all our buildings, and we'll put everything in one building across from the Catholic Church.
“We’re Going to Have Prisons”
Wayne Corts: We're going to have prisons, we're going to have a court, we're going to have everything. I gave them a beautiful proposal. I said we could buy this building, all these buildings, for pennies, so we could put a substation over there, and it was at a fraction of the cost. And David insisted that we're going to cut out the side of the mountain. Nobody knew how many yards of material we were going to use, or anything. And we were going to build a new police station half underground where it was moist. It would ruin the ammunition, and we were going to put everything in one spot, I explained. I said, look, the seniors. My dad, at the time, he was probably close to 88 he would go to the seniors every day, and he loved it. And the seniors get nervous. You need one way in. And you know, the senior citizen center, where it is, is beautiful because you got multiple entrances and exits, and it's low pressure, pulling in and out, and they were going to put everything right there on Route 32 with no sight distances. Well, I lobbied and I rallied and we killed it. [Emphasis added]
And you know? We have good buildings now, and you know we need to improve them a little whatever. Anyway you want to look at these plans. And if you have any ideas, I don't know what else to say.
Speaker 2: Has anything been formally put to the planning board?
Wayne Corts: What's that?
Speaker 2: Has anything been formally put to the planning board?
Wayne Corts: No, why spend any more money … The current planning board? No, I haven't. I did reach out to our neighbor here in the Greens of Woodbury. I believe we have a village board member who might be here tonight. We have a village board member that lives right on Greenwich, and we have our Planning Board Chairman who lives there, and he had the planning board Chairman … the planning board attorney called me. They said no, you know, can't talk. No time. We're involved in very important projects. I said, All right, not a problem.
Speaker 2: So you have no applications in front of the planning board.
Wayne Corts: Excuse me?
Speaker 2: You have no applications in front of the planning board?
Wayne Corts: No. Oh, I do. I do. I give him $20,000 to appear. I wanted to fix my walk and do a little extension. And I'm waiting to go in front of the planning board. They want me to go to get a building permit, but I had to pay $20,000 and give 50 sets for some minor thing that I was going to do here. You know, the typical gridlock. You know, hey, if any of you guys needed a pool or anything, everything's a project. The consultants just, I think what we do is we get a lot of people on the boards that are, you know. They mean well, but then they get frightened. The attorneys tell them, you know, the consultants, oh, no, we have to handle this, you know, you don't know, you know. And meanwhile, they just gridlock the whole town.
Speaker 2: Well, how long has your application been in?
Corts: Mine? It's been in probably six, eight weeks.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, they only meet once a month, and they …
Wayne Corts: (Interrupting) It doesn’t matter. I need five minutes in front of them. My plans were already approved. I was approved for I was going to do a little tubing in the snowboard park here about 10 years ago, at the 12th hour, they said, Oh, I got to merge the two deeds. I said, I have two separate mortgages, two separate everything. I'll do a lease, a 99 year lease, and then, oh no, and I gave up. My MO is, when I get too much resistance, I just go to the next project. I have several projects, you know, that I own. So, you know, when a town becomes unfriendly and it doesn't know how to put one foot in front of the other, I go somewhere else and I start working. And, you know, I mean, things change in all of these towns. It's unfortunate.
Speaker 3: What's the property zone where you're looking to put the 188 units?
Wayne Corts: With the overlay district, it's on four units per acre. So my plan was to make a nine hole golf course and donate the range. Leave the catering facility on five or seven acres, and then tuck the housing in the back. We could, we could do it as open or as dense as the town, you know, as the people would want. They said, Hey, wait, cram them all in one building, like they did at West Hills Country Club. I would do that. I'll do anything they want. I just got to do something.
[Fact Check: Emphasis Added. Also, no, you don’t need to do anything. In fact, you could have donated the land to the Open Space Institute or Orange County Land Trust, for example.]
Speaker 4: How do you mix seniors and younger people, like you said before, in a senior housing development?
Wayne Corts: How do I?
Speaker 4: Yeah, because usually that's restricted senior housing to age, right?
Wayne Corts: Well, everything's restricted. That's why you know you can live here for 40 years and no kids in school or anything, and you can continue to pay crazy taxes, and you can't rent out your basement apartment or something, because there's no flexibility here, right?
Speaker 4: So how do you do it?
Wayne Corts: How do you do it? Your board votes on it. How do you approve a city place on the Nieman property? You get your boards together, they approve it, and then there's a bidding war to buy it …
Speaker 4 [Inaudible] senior housing is that …
Wayne Corts : Senior Housing you get 20, you get 20% of it to be volunteer firemen, ambulance workers, okay? And you strategically locate them so the kids are on a down a bottom floor, and maybe you only one and two bedrooms, so it's not going to be a lot of kids, and so you have some young people mixed with seniors. I think it's just a great way to go. And everybody has their own opinion. You don't have to do that. You can, you know, we could put one building on the side with all the kids and, you know, the volunteers, and at least it's in the same region as, you know, the seniors, you know. I mean, you don't have to put all …
Speaker 5: Isn’t that across from the high school …
Wayne Corts Does Not Like Mr. Bill Brodsky
Wayne Corts: Oh. Across from the High School, that’s another one.
Speaker 5: Wasn't that supposed to be a community where you had some older families and some younger families … [Inaudible]
Wayne Corts: That's Bill Brodsky. Okay, quick, funny story, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, I’m trick or treating with my four kids and some other and I see our supervisor and a bunch of our public officials make a wave. And every house I go up to people hug me. They give me beers. They're like, Hey, do I want some pizza? And our supervisor at the time, she goes, Oh, you know, Mr. Brodsky, he gets arrested if he goes back on the property. And I built houses, you know, I mean, was I accessible? I used to tell people, If I don't deliver it on the day, you can move into my house. My front door was always open. My kids rode their bicycles here for 28 years. And, you know, I consider me completely different. Okay? I own the Falkirk hospital property, okay? I live there. I have a magnificent house. The property is gorgeous. I have all my horses, chickens, goats, rabbits, cats.
[Fact Check: Remember this story, because Corts will contradict it toward the end and complain he’s treated like an enemy up here.]
Speaker 5: I used to Carol over there.
Wayne Corts: Did you? Yeah, wow. So you've been here a long time. I've when I bought that, that was supposed that's a white elephant in the room, the hospital. Nobody wanted it. I bought it 28 years ago. It was, you know, and I have completely restored it over the years that the original horse drawn carriages, the books, everything from the doctors, furniture. It's a magnificent piece of property. It's so rich in history, you know, I have all the records from the 1800s and. Yeah, I mean, it's just a wonderful piece.
Speaker 6: My question was, do you think you see perhaps creating a mixed neighborhood, with the concept of mixing some housing [inaudible]
Wayne Corts: All of that is easy if we have the support of the community.
Speaker 6: My question is why did it fall through across the way from the high school?
Wayne Corts: It fell through because Brodsky would sell his mother. You know, he doesn't care. He could give it to him. The town gave him a hard time. The town wasn't too bright either. Okay, I go to bed every night and I look across there and I see LED lights. We have bridge protection. They circumvented everything for Mr. Brodsky, okay, and now we have 450 houses. You got average four or five boats per house. Towns, you know, days are limited if we don't move and we don't do something, okay, but we're not going to do a damn thing.
[Fact Check: Mr. Corts, much like Mr. Brodsky could have, could utilize deed restrictions to control what is allowed, and what is not, on the Falkirk property.]
Speaker 7: To my knowledge there's a water moratorium.
Woodbury Has Unlimited Water, According to Mr. Wayne Corts and Trustee James Freiband
[Fact Check: Also at the August 8th, 2024 Woodbury Village Board meeting, Part 1 is above, Trustee Freiband slipped up. Remember, he received a donation from Mr. Wayne Corts, Mr. Etzel Jr., and Mr. Mayer Hirsch, during his campaign for Village Trustee.
Freiband, as documented in the minutes, first did the following:
“Trustee Freiband requested an engineers report with written comment of the current status of the water system in order to justify the continuation of the moratorium. Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips stated we have the information that Trustee Freiband is asking for and nothing has changed.”
Then, Trustee Freiband echoed something that Mr. Corts is about to say in our transcript below. From the meeting minutes:
“Trustee Freiband stated he would like to see a seal of approval from the engineer. He then stated that the wells that were taken offline should be put back online, stating the cost was miniscule to the need of water. He then stated that three wells were found in the Greens that would render 270 gallons of water per minute with proven capacity. (Emphasis Added)
Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips stated the wells that Trustee Freiband is talking about are rock wells from thirty years ago, that would have to be redrilled and are probably caved in. Mayor Giacomazza stated that Trustee Freiband in an email to Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips suggested putting a building on top of the well to utilize the well. “
Here is that email:
From the meeting minutes: “Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips stated one out of the three were working thirty years ago and the other two were test wells. Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips then stated two of the current wells are rock wells that were supposed to render 175 gallons a minute and only produce twenty-five gallons per minute. Water/Sewer Administrator Phillips stated there are multiple new rules including a 200-foot buffer from people’s backyards.”
So, to be clear: Woodbury Village Trustee Frieband, in 2024, is repeating a lie you’re about to hear from Mr. Wayne Corts in 2022 …
Wayne Corts: Oh yeah, that's a good one. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that up. [Corts talks over Speaker 7] Thank you for bringing that up. Okay,
I'll give it to you very quickly. Okay, I was at Mr. Bloomberg’s mansion about 12 years ago for fundraising for Congressman Sue Kelly. My wife and I were there. They thought we were rock stars, because my daughter rides with his daughter in the equestrian circuit. We're playing pool on his pool table, and all Orange County people are lined up, let's meet the mayor, Mr. Bloomberg. And he was like, hey, Wayne, how you doing? And we're talking. Anyway. That evening, we raised, not we Okay, whoever put it on, raised about $300,000 to Sue Kelly. And that night, she flipped and she agreed to do the aqueduct, the water line, so that's how we have unlimited water coming into town. Okay? [Emphasis Added]
[Fact Check: It’s worth asking who else was at that gathering, for what it’s worth. Also: Mr. Corts is referring to the federally funded Kiryas Joel Catskill Aqueduct Project which does NOT provide water to any municipality in Orange County except for Kiryas Joel. That means Woodbury residents would need the permission of both Kiryas Joel and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to access this water, and as explained by former Woodbury Village Trustee, CJ Graziano, procuring the water from the pipeline, if approved, would be incredibly expensive and not financially feasible for either Woodbury municipality to attempt.]
Wayne Corts: I watched James Skoufis, who hates me, because I, told home exactly how I feel and I only speak the truth, okay?
[Fact Check: LOL]
Wayne Corts: And he was, you know, going around, fighting everything, and we were sold out years ago. Stop wasting your time on something that's coming. Okay, pay more attention to developing what we have, instead of fear-mongering and all the crap.
When I built the Greens of Woodbury, I bought that property from Rivervale Realty, which is a Hackensack water company. You probably remember that, you’ve been around on the boards. They were very deep aquifers. There's gravel wells. And when I built the greens, I donated four of those lots, when you first drive in, where the road teas, right there is well happening, well casings. And we have all the reports, we have enough water to supply, you know, a lot of a lot more than you could ever dream. Okay? [Emphasis added]
[Fact Check: This is a false statement. After refusing to comply with FOIL requests, and then being compelled after being told Orange County District Attorney’s office was potentially getting involved, Trustee James Freiband turned over documents from the ‘90s that show these wells cannot produce anywhere near the capacity Freiaband and Corts, in this audio, claim.]
Wayne Corts: And the reason why we put up a moratorium, okay? If you talk to some of our board members, they just want to wait. Okay, you know what we're waiting for? We're waiting for to get another 5000 votes online, and we lose all our board, and we get a whole new board, and then we'll let other people develop our property. That's our only saving grace. If we move and develop sensibly the property that we have here now, okay, and we have unlimited water. That's a bullshit excuse.
[Fact Check: Emphasis added. Also, again, this is a false statement.]
Wayne Corts: Bull, okay? And I'll take any one of your consultants on and tell them, pull up the reports, Greens of Woodbury and Greenwich and whatever. The wells are there, the water studies are there. We have the water, but we use those excuses.
[Fact Check: Again, this is not true.]
Wayne Corts: Let's brings up all the people, you know, you know, right now, we're breaking shops. You want to open a kosher in the Kohls shopping center. You know, we just gridlock, gridlock, gridlock. They're entitled to that, it's in the shopping center. No, no, we got lawsuits, and we just do such stupid stuff. It just, it blows me away.
Speaker 6: Wayne is your contact material over there with the material?
Wayne Corts: Yes, okay,
Speaker 6: I, honestly, I'm not as close to it as you are. I'm not as close to it as you are, obviously, but I don't really see any problems. I see solutions. I see that you can make whatever happen you want to have, like, what? What do you want? What is the ideal outcome? What would you settle for? And do you have the team to make it happen?
Wayne Corts: I just need everybody to unite the people in the Greens, if you think it's a good idea. And, you know, we can get a consensus of opinion. And, you know, people can get a few people that can look at some of the stuff. You know, maybe I, you know, we start going to some of the meetings
I don't know if I have two or three years. We need to try to get momentum. You know, we need to get momentum. We need everybody to send an email to all our members and say, Look, we met Wayne. You can say what you want about Wayne, but you know what? I work seven days a week, 12 hours a day. I am a self made guy. And anybody that wants to talk crap about me, bring them out, and you'll see how quick it's all bull. It's complete bull because I'm accessible all the time. I build your house. Was I there? Did I do a good job? Builders, it's one of the hardest things to be a builder, because, you know, you deliver a house. We deliver houses now it's a crazy time. They come with a 400 page checklist. They check everything, you know, but we still, we pull it off. We deliver beautiful little homes up there without a punch list. We try to do a good job.
Spoiler Alert: He Closed The Dugout Anyway
Speaker 6: Are you open to investors?
Wayne Corts: Yes, I would love to get some investors. And you know, my mortgage was just called because of these two BS lawsuits that I had, so I'm just going to process remortgaging in the next few weeks, you know. But again, it didn't make money, because I never, you know, we used to do holiday parties with the Greens. You can remember what we only did. And, you know, you get to so wrapped up with your kids and life. You just, you know, you don't stay in touch with everyone. This year I wanted to do it about two years ago. I did it with Winding Lane. I should have invited all those people tonight. Thank God for Glenn. Thank you, Glenn. Where's Glen you know, he was able to pull this together. I know Glenn. He's my neighbor. His back right up to me. And you know he's really we got to thank him for, you know, being able to get everyone out.
Speaker 7: Is there a possibility somewhere, also the town advising to somewhere [inaudible]
Corts: I'm giving them a golf course, you know, you want to, you want to guarantee, you know, right now, it's a white elephant And this is very, very valuable. Okay? I’ve had offers, big offers, you know, I mean substantial offers.
Speaker 7: To do what?
Wayne Corts: Just Buy and hold it Five or six years. 10,000 units. 20,000 units.
[Inaudible speakers]
Wayne Corts: I contacted a lot of our local lawyers. The mayor, all too busy. Goodbye, Mr. Gordon. I contacted [inaudible]. I contacted a lot of our attorneys.
[Inaudible speakers, one is suggesting they’ve never seen things move quickly with the local planning boards.]
Wayne Corts: It blows me away, because I went in with The Dugout, and it's the only place we have to go, you know, I love getting ice cream. And I'm like, Look, I'm going to build an old fashioned dugout. Let's leave it. Switch my zoning back. You know, you're on one of our boards. What do you think? If we got all the boards together to switch my zoning back so we can put a beautiful center and do a new dugout, and then next year, knock down the old one, so we don't have an interruption in our ice cream here forever. What do you think? You’ve been here forever. Just give it up now, right? So we're going to gridlock them and make them go back. You know, you know, why don't we just tell them?
[Inaudible speakers. Corts brags about his property being worth a million dollars.]
Wayne Corts: … You know will contribute both but don't take our beloved Dugout away from us. I love eating there. The gravel and sand and dessert. He really [inaudible] that when I opened up my jewelry store, it kept me at the board for a year. I told him, I said, You gotta make me come to change my entrance and exit. I'm not gonna come. You know, I'm not, don't make me go through this for a year. So it was almost the end of the year, and I had the, um, it was a final meeting, and I watched all the consultants fight for over an hour. Now that cost me about $1,000 an hour to pay all these consultants, yeah, and they argued about that that should be in, that should be out. And I'm like, Look at The Dugout. There's no in or out. Man, it's a problem. And finally, I got started to get dizzy, and I closed my books and I left. I said, You know what? Forget it. Man. You obviously like looking at crap. I'll leave it. I'll just leave it. I walked out and I did so I cursed someone, and I kicked the door and I left, and the next morning they approved me. I mean, that was so nice of them. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 8: Hey Wayne, when you’re rallying the group, when we start attending these meetings, what’s the next step?
[Inaudible discussion.]
[Fact Check: Mr. Corts was asked this question repeatedly throughout the meeting and could not give an answer. Another thought, while I have your attention: This whole presentation is based on Mr. Corts telling people, “let me get the zoning I want for this golf course, or else.” He never mentions the other possibility that he wanted those zoning changes, which would raise the value of the property, allowing him to sell it for an even higher profit.
One thing that supports this suggestion is that there is, at no point in this presentation, a discussion involving deed restrictions that Corts could have utilized to sell the property without it having to be developed. Instead, the entire presentation is based on the idea that if Corts doesn’t develop Falkirk, “someone else” (the Satmar) will, so you gotta give Mr. Corts what he wants. It’s just nonsense.]
Speaker 9: We need to know what we’re rallying for. That’s important because we came over from Woodbury junction, so you want to talk about …
Corts: Oh so you know, man. You can see it.
Speaker 9: So you can start talking about putting density housing in and other things you've got to really know before you start advocating for it. So we need to know plans. We need to know what's going on.
Let’s Talk About Those Sketchy Investors From China
Wayne Corts: Stuff is on the table. [Referring to plans for the apartment units that are on the table in front of him. See picture below.]
Wayne Corts: Everybody look at it. And it's an old you know, I took over New York Military Academy probably eight or nine years ago. That was a day away from going ...
And, you know, I worked with their board, and I said, I want your board to be on one of your members. And you know, after five years, we were able to turn it over to a group that saw us doing a good job with it but it’s just very difficult…
[Mr. Corts “turned it over” to a sketchy Chinese billionaire currently under criminal investigation.]
Wayne Corts: I need to find whoever l[inaudible] They'll handle it, but he will not handle it for me unless the town blesses it. He says, Yes, Dominic, we're behind it.
Speaker 9: There needs to be clarification on Beer World. It’s not before the Planning Board it’s before the Zoning Board [Inaudibe]
Wayne Corts: I'm telling you, that they told him, don't even play with it …
Speaker 9: It’s next week …
Corts: (ignoring this fact check) … To take a year or two to change my zoning. And I said, and I pleaded with some for board members please. You know, let's save the Dugout. You know, we'll leave it this year, and you can do all the zoning and get the approvals done, and we'll build it right on that pond. I'll raise it up … nobody cares.
Speaker 9: The meeting is next week [about Beer World’s zoning issue that Mr. Corts seems to want to ignore because it contradicts his earlier statements]
[Inaudible]
Corts: Is Mr. Burke here? Did he come? It wouldn’t surprise me. He’s very busy.
Speaker 10: Hey, Wayne, It's my understanding that the LLC that you're speaking with is the same LLC that just bought between 30 and 40 acres on the other side of the entrance of the green. Is that true?
Wayne Corts: The group that wants to buy this [Falkirk]? Yes, no, no, not at all. Completely different. They bought the old Smith property. It’s a group out of Brooklyn. They bought three houses here, the Smith house and Randy White's house.
Speaker 10: I thought it was like 30 to 40 acres that has all been changed over …
Wayne Corts: Well it has changed over as far as zoning. It's … everything's the same It borders the Thruway and there's a big lake back there. It's really not good property. I don't know what they can do and what anybody can do with it right now. Anyway, I'm sorry that ran on so much.
Yes?
It’s Haredi, Not Hasidic. It’s Satmar, to Be More Specific
Speaker 11: [Inaudible] The Hasidic community … They’re allowed to, they should be able to … The Property Value. Are you in discussion with them?
Wayne Corts: I'm not at liberty to say who I am in discussion with at this point, but I can tell you that I'm that close to signing contracts. My contracts have drawn, and …
[Mr. Corts did indeed sell the golf course to a group of Haredi developers from Brooklyn after this meeting.]
Wayne Corts …You know, this [the meeting] was a desperate attempt. I know Glenn over the years, and you know, I'm … I've spent probably $20,000 on, you know, refining my contract so it makes sense. Yes?
[Inaudible]
Wayne Corts: They could be in one building. They could be in, you know, different. They could be spread throughout. It could be anything. But again, it was not.
[Inaudible]
Wayne Corts: … At West View Country Club, is a beautiful building, parking underneath. They didn't disturb any of the property.
Speaker 12: I have a question.
Corts: Yes.
Speaker 12: Being that I have kind of lived through this ... This is where this question's coming from. What guarantee do the residents have that, let's just say, for argument sake we get behind this. Okay, what guarantee do we have once you're looking for a zoning change that or spot zone?
Wayne Corts: No no …
Speaker 12: Well …
Corts (Interrupting again) Here's the guarantee: The buildings would be built, one and two bedroom. That's not conducive to large families.
The other thing, I thought I was clear. My name is Wayne Corts, not Bill Brodsky. Okay?
Speaker 12: Well, again …
Corts: … And, and, and, if I may, on my very valuable piece next door would be sterilized. Okay? It would be under a nature conservancy thing, or whatever. I’m keeping my property there forever. Okay? My children and my grandchildren will.
[Fact Check: The Nature Conservancy actually started a lot of this trouble in Woodbury by selling land on Dunderberg Road that they promised to conserve to Bill Brodsky, who then created Woodbury Junction.]
Speaker 12: But this is zoned, R2A, right?
Wayne Corts : R2A with an overlay district for seniors, four units per acre. So if the board approves the overlay and we move through the system. It'll take if it was fast-tracked. It could be done in a year. There's no reason why it couldn’t be …
Speaker 12: You’re saying you don't need a zoning change.
Corts: I do not believe so. No, there is no zoning change for that, from what I've been told, yes?
Speaker 13: But if you have a one-bedroom proposal, but you also have approval specifically for zoning that is for residents. How do you …
Corts: But it’s senior. 55 and over senior living?
Speaker 13: And my second part of the question is, if you are looking to combine senior residences with non-senior residences with that specific thing, how …
Wayne Corts: I don't want to do that. I just thought it was a carrot I was putting out there. I thought it would be great for our town to continue a volunteer fire department and ambulance, you know, I don't really care. [Emphasis Added]
Wayne Corts: I'd rather get 100% rent from the seniors and get 50% from, you know, volunteers. But I I'm doing what's good about my community. I live here. I still own a lot of property here.
Speaker 13: Okay, so there are no guarantees.
Wayne Corts: Nothing's guaranteed. But what's the alternative? What do I do? I bail out next week, and then, you know, you know, whatever, I don't know what to say. There are no guarantees. I think 28 years, anyone who knows me, okay? 28 years I am here, solid, okay, you know again, just show me. Show me what I've done wrong. Okay, I rebuilt the gatehouse. Dottie Morris, who I love. You know, I was just going to fade away.
*Speaker 14: With all due respect … this is fear mongering? He talks about that. You’re telling us … Am I wrong?
Wayne Corts: … And I walked in, the fire chief from Chester gave me a hug.
*Speaker 14: And [he’s] intermixing the Town and the Village …
Wayne Corts: And on my way out, a half a dozen requirements. Thank you, you guys, you do such a good job. I thought I was a statewide … not an enemy, but I'm treated like an enemy, an arch enemy. It’s insanity.
[Fact Check: This is completely different from the story Mr. Corts told earlier in the presentation about everyone greeting him and waving to him and his kids.
*Speaker 14 is not addressing Mr. Corts. They are speaking to the person sitting next to them who is recording the presentation.]
ACE Farms Involvement Confirmed By Mr. Corts Himself
Pictured Above: Tyler Etzel Jr. listening to Mr. Corts’s presentation at the Falkirk Golf Course in 2022.
Speaker 15: I think with everything that happened with ACE Farms …
Corts: Beautiful, thank you for asking that.
Speaker 15: I just want to hear your side. I’ve heard everyone else’s side.
Wayne Corts: Thank you for asking that. ACE Farms. I got dragged into it. I had it structured. I worked with our legislator, Michael Amo. My feeling always was everything from the chicken side up we should try to hang on, to maintain. But down that hill? (Emphasis Added)
You know, I was more concerned my kids were of the age and starting to drive, you know, people that wear glasses they can't even see, okay, they're coming down by Mario's and crash into one of my kids. I thought, hey, this is great man, sort of draw a line in the sand. And yes, I did get involved with that for about six months, and I can tell you that it came a point in time where I was told to stay away, leave it. We have lost. Okay, and I did everything I can do to fight, to keep it. I made no money on it. You'll notice that the newspaper The Times-Herald Record at the very end it said we believe Wayne Corts did it. [Emphasis Added.]
[Fact Check: This completely contradicts Mr. Corts’s years of statements saying he had nothing to do with ACE Farms. He also did not fully explain his involvement or get into specifics, instead rambling like another infamous developer we all know and hate.]
Wayne Corts: And yes, I carried that on my back for the last 15 years. ‘Oh, Wayne, he deals with the Jews.’ He said, You know, he's just a flipper. Okay? If I was a flipper, let me ask you something, why wouldn't John and all the other board members come out and said it was to something that I did that?
I didn't help. Okay, they should have come out. So no, no, wait, I just let it go. I never defended myself. I never talked about it. And, yeah, I've paid somewhat of the price. Okay, I lost the Harriman Estate. Mortimer wouldn’t even talk to me. Okay, so the Chinese bought it.
[Fact Check: This is the same group of Chinese investors who purchased the NYSMA from Wayne Corts later on. Mr. Corts also contradicts himself in less than two minutes here, he is rescued by …]
Tyler Etzel Jr.: Let me just chime in with this …
Wayne Corts: Oh, he’s ACE Farms (referring to Etzel.)
Etzel: The Town never approached us. Never came up with a deal for us.
[Fact Check: Maybe. But that doesn’t explain why or how Tyler Etzel Sr. who did not want to sell to the Haredi, had the property sold to Corts’s confirmed associate Petruzzo, who then sold the land to Mayer Hirsh. It also doesn’t explain the house that was burned down, allegedly by Mr. Corts, after a former friend of Cort’s tried to warn Etzel Sr. about who the farm was really being sold to.
Also, the Town not making an offer doesn’t somehow preclude a property owner from preserving their property. So, how is it the Town of Woodbury’s fault again?]
Wayne Corts: Here’s the best part. When I sold the title, now God should strike me dead, I never met him [Etzel]. I never sold them his house. It was done for my people that work for me. When I sold it to him, I didn't sell to them, my people sold them a house they built. We built a beautiful house from across the street. Steve Brandon, I think he's on one of our boards. I love him. Great guy, Steve. “So that's it. You're, you know, you, you and Tyler.” Meanwhile, we've [Etzel and Corts] become really good friends, although I found it he is a Democrat. So anyway, we are very good friends, and Tyler's an incredible guy, but everybody right away said, Oh, that's it. You know Wayne, you're with Ace Farms. His family owned ace farms, and I never did a goddamn thing. But no, I'm an easy target.
[Emphasis added. Fact Check: Dude, you literally just confirmed you were involved with the transaction like, a minute ago. Here’s Etzel again to make the save …]
Tyler Etzel Jr.: Can I tell you what I think we need to do? We get the planning board. I went before them, before for a three-lot subdivision. It took me four years to get through the planning board. Cost me $60,000 in consultant fees. But they, there is no … I'm on the town board, which has nothing to do with planning or zoning. I wanted to run for the village board, but they said it was all Republicans, and I would be the only one there. So I didn’t run.
We need to do some advanced planning in this town, because there's none, everything's a reaction, and pretty soon it's all the property's going to be gone. If we don't do something very soon and get these people off their butts and make the planning board move, be able to move through it … When I was on the planning board in the town Monroe, we met till 12, one o'clock at night, and everybody that had the papers in on time they were on the board the next week. [Emphasis added.]
[Fact Check: Residents of the Town of Monroe have Mr. Etzel to thank for the overdevelopment and Orange County Sewer District 1 being over capacity. Thanks, Tyler!]
Tyler Etzel Jr: So this, this planning board in the town of Woodbury, is just hard, and I tried to get a meeting with Wayne and Andrew, and said he would call. And he has never called.
So the only thing I think we can do is to email, call, write, whatever village officials and tell them we need to do something. We really need to do something with the Niemand property, it goes from 32 all the way up to 105 by Ridge Road. And it's not coming. If they condemn it, they'll be fighting lawsuits on the condemnation from now until the Hasidics will just fight those lawsuits still, and I'll just cost you more and more money. So I don't know where the ideas in this thing come. I think it’s Rick Golden. He’s not a very honorable lawyer, in my opinion.
[Fact Check: Mr. Rick Golden is now an Orange County attorney who is leading the lawsuit against South Blooming Grove for Mr. Joel Stern’s illegal construction within Gonzaga Park. So, Woodbury residents should carefully consider Mr. Golden’s current actions on their behalf against the corrupt administration of Mr. Joel Stern, against Mr. Etzel’s statement that Mr. Golden is not a “very honorable lawyer.”]
Etzel: But we need to, we need to light a fire under the village board.
[Fact Check: To do what exactly? Develop the property you have for the financial benefit of Mr. Corts and others? How does that jive with Woodbury residents consistently saying they want to preserve open space in order to help curb greenhouse gas emissions, which would help stop the worst effects of Climate Change from happening? This is something Woodbury residents should ask candidates Tyler Etzel Jr and John U. Keleman about.]
Wayne Corts: Yes?
Speaker 14: I would suggest what you need, a very short description. This is what you'd like to do with, to whatever it is, give the property to the town, keep it precise down to two or three pages, and ask people to sign up and then send that to whatever. I think there's people willing to support you, but I think we need some kind of mechanism to say, ‘here's what we're supporting.’
[Inaudible]
Wayne Corts: The point was, is that, you know, maybe we know some people that are hedge fund guys for somebody. Let's try to save it. Let's get a new owner in here. You know, maybe. I mean, if some of you guys are doctors [inaudible, Corts says he’s beat up and is looking for investors.]
Speaker 15: My name is Elijah. Last night, I met Wayne [Corts] just last night, knocking on our door while we're trying to have service, banging on the door. I thought I was going to get robbed, but it was Wayne, just pointed out what he's planning to do today.
Wayne Corts: (Interrupting) I did that little spiel, that was one take, that's funny. I seem to confuse a lot of people. I talk so fast and I get off point, so I thought, be helpful to take our new pastoral church, and he was gracious enough to help me take that.
Speaker 15: (Continuing) But I do feel that Wayne has great ideas. You [Corts] can't sound like you want to give up, because if you've given up, then why are we here? So I think there are people that are wondering. 'He said, let's come up with ideas, short bullet points, technically, besides, it is so easy to get confused, all the ideas. Let's have another meeting. I’m suggesting let’s have another meeting. You must come back, be a little more organized. Present this to everybody …
[Inaudible, complaints about speed of the planning board in the Village. Etzel again chimes in about Rick Golden for some reason. Someone says “we can read between the lines about who’s buying the land in the community.” The Monroe Gazette has reached out to Mr. Golden for comment about Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr.’s statements.]
Speaker 16: So if we come together, we have regular meetings, we get a form, we all sign it, and it takes months, right? It's going to take months. I have a feeling in your head, you have a drop dead date. So at some point you're going to say, I'm tired. You said it tonight, many times, I need to do something. What? What can we do? There's got to be a timetable. So what's your timetable?
If you say community, if you invest a year with me, and you come to the board and you sign a form, and everyone's clear what we want to do, and we go in with you, and we take time away from our families and our children and our jobs and whatever, right? I don't want to be three months in going, Well, no, that's taking too long. So what's the timetable?
Wayne Corts: I think we need to meet again in another week or so.
Speaker 16: I don’t think the timetable will change in a week, so in your mind, what’s the timetable?
Wayne Corts : I’d like to get some of our government officials to be able to come to the next meeting. And I think our voting population, urged them to come and listen and get some type of commitment that they're interested in our community and doing something well then, yes, I would take whatever time. I would take a year or two, but to date, I can show you my phone records. I haven't been able to get any public officials to pay attention; they’re very busy, and that's it too bad. (Emphasis Added.)
[Fact Check: This contradicts what Mr. Corts said earlier. This is also a false statement. Texts shared with The Monroe Gazette showed attempts by Village officials to meet with Mr. Corts that he would later cancel at the last minute. In terms of the drop dead date, Corts sold the golf course not long after this meeting was held.]
Wayne Corts: That's where we are. So to have all of you good people taking your valuable time off and coming out here, you know, I wouldn't do that to you, if we're not going to get the cooperation of our elected officials, and it's too late. I can't wait two more years to get another group of people in …
You know our mayor tonight, he finally texted me back, but he's away.
Speaker 15: I think it would be helpful to get two or three officials that we can all email, and can align to a date when we can all come back. Then that helps. But if I don't have a name of town officials, because I just have a busy life, and I don't know off the top of my head who they are, but …
Wayne Corts: That would be great.
Speaker 14: Tell us who you want to email and let's pick another date to come back. If we can get 30 emails demanding that they show up. Maybe we can get someone to show up and start making progress there …
[Inaudible.]
Of course, none of this happened. Instead, Mr. Corts, Mr. Hirsch, and Mr. Etzel Jr. funded the campaign of Trustees Matthew Fabbro and James Freiband when they ran for the Woodbury Village Board in the Fall of 2023.
Mr. Etzel, just last month, received $1,500 from the family of Trustee Matthew Fabbro, for Etzel’s own campaign for the Village Board to join his associates.
Shoud Etzel and/or John U. Keleman win a seat on the Woodbury Village Board of Trustees this Fall, that would allow them to give Mr. Corts anything he wants.
I don’t think this can be any plainer for Woodbury residents: The Woodbury Democratic Committee works for Mr. Corts and Mr. Hirsch, among others.