State Senator James Skoufis Pushes for Merger Between Woodbury Town and Village

The behind the scenes manipulation of Woodbury's local government was on full display at the July 11th, 2024 Woodbury Village Board meeting.

If you want things to change, not just here in Southern Orange County but all across America, that change starts locally.

First, you can identify bad-faith actors in your community and make sure what they have to say doesn't influence others.

You can do this by fact-checking them and asking them to explain the reason for their statements. You'll often find they have little to no good reason for saying what they are. Sometimes, they won't answer you, proving they're acting in bad faith.

Second, change comes by voting (duh) and speaking up at your local Town or Village Board meetings, especially when misinformation is problematic and frequent, as in the Town and Village of Woodbury.

One thing that's become apparent here in Southern Orange County is that our local elected officials can and do use surrogates to speak for them during public comment and on Facebook to tell you everything is fine.

Everything Is Not Fine

Not here.

Not across America.

It hasn't been "fine" in a long time, if it ever was.

The third thing you can do, which I'm going to do today, is hold your elected officials accountable. If they are trying to do something that could be harmful to the public from behind the scenes, that sort of thing should be outed and reported on.

The Media Industry is dead.

You can’t count on a local reporter being around to tell you what’s going on at every meeting. And in a few documented instances already, the local media may not even be on your side.

So, remember this formula when it comes to understanding why corruption is rampant on the local government level here in the United States:

No reporters + poor public turnout at local meetings = Lots of opportunity for shady shit to go down.

And that shady shit continues with our local politicians on their journey from being a local politician to a state politician and, sometimes, to a national politician. This is why it’s so important to call out and stop as soon as you spot it. If you don’t, the rot grows worse.

So, once again, we're going to talk about State Senator Skoufis and his activities behind the scenes in the Town and Village of Woodbury.

As a reminder, Mr. Skoufis was a Town Councilman in Woodbury before running and winning a seat in the State Assembly and, later, the State Senate. He's also contemplated at least one for Congress. So, there’s an example of what happens when shady behavior is not spotted and stomped out. Your local politicians feel empowered to continue that behavior as they climb the political ladder.

What can you do about it? For local residents, I’ll remind you this Fall, Mr. Skoufis is up for re-election in the State Senate against Dorey Houle and Timothy Mitts.

For those of you joining us from around the country, people like Mr. Skoufis are a dime a dozen. Throw a rock at a local meeting, and you’ll hit a local politician just like him.

But please don’t actually throw a rock. Violence is never the answer unless all other options have been exhausted, and in the United States, our options have not yet been exhausted.

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State Senator Skoufis's behind-the-scenes activity was mentioned three times during the July 11th, 2024, Village of Woodbury meeting.

The first mention came at 2:20 in the video above, when Woodbury Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro requested the public hearing on the creation of the Village Beautification Committee be delayed at the request of State Senator Skoufis.

Multiple sources have confirmed that Mr. Fabbro was given a statement from Senator Skoufis to read, but he declined to do so.

Instead, Fabbro mentioned concerns that the Village government had misunderstood the nature of a grant Skoufis provided for beautification projects within its borders.

The thing is, since the Town and Village share the same borders, that can be confusing to parse out. So, I reached out to Senator Skoufis and Trustee Fabbro to elaborate on the nature of this "misunderstanding" concerning the grant and the reason for the delay in creating the Village Beautification Committee.

For those not from our area, the Town of Woodbury has its own Beautification Committee, of which Maria Hunter is the chair. She's been bullied by the Town of Woodbury Board, including Councilman Brandon Calore, who once derailed an entire meeting so that he could snipe at Hunter from the dais.

The Village is attempting to create its own committee, claiming the grant money provided to the Village from Senator Skoufis was said to contain specific language stating the money had to be used on village-related projects. If this committee is created, Mrs. Hunter will be the Village Board's choice to run it.

Since Mrs. Hunter chairs both committees, this would ensure clear communication between the Village and Town as they work on their independent beautification projects.

Does that make sense? The Town has grant money for Town staff, and the village has grant money for Village staff. That is the understanding of this grant as made public by the Mayor on June 13th, 2024.

At 31:42, the second mention of Senator Skoufis's behind-the-scenes politicking was made.

This mention came from Maria Hunter (Chair of the Woodbury Beautification Committee for the Town). During public comment, she discussed a call with State Senator Skoufis she had before this Village Board meeting.

I asked Mrs. Hunter to elaborate on the nature of this phone call, but she declined to comment.

At the meeting, Mrs. Hunter said, about Trustee Fabbro's comments, "I want to let the board know, and the residents here, trustees are not the only one who speak with Senator James Skoufis. I had a personal phone call last night for ten minutes with James, and let me tell you, I'm still upset with that phone call."

Hunter said, "James is a personal friend of mine, and he called me to let me know what's going on. And let me tell you, I'm not happy. For James to call me, with the nonsense that's going on between the Town and the Village, I'm done. This has got to stop. We have got to come together, and people have got to say, 'Oh. I spoke with James, or 'I called James’. Go through your supervisor. Go through the mayor. Let's find out what the hell's going on. I'm just disappointed with everyone who can't work together."

The final mention came just after Mrs. Hunter finished speaking.

When asked by the Mayor if she would clarify what Mr. Skoufis was angry about in his call, Mrs. Hunter declined to reveal what was said publicly. The Mayor added that Senator Skoufis had called three of his Village Trustees (Fabbro, Fries-Ciriello, and Ferrarelli) and that the conversation between Hunter and Skoufis should be made public since it was brought up during public comment.

In response, Mrs. Hunter told the mayor that the trustees should speak about it before she did so.

So, what’s happening?

I've contacted the Mayor, who provided off-the-record comments concerning the situation with the State Senator. I contacted the State Senator himself, Trustee Fabbro, Trustee Fries-Ciriello, and Trustee Ferrarelli to elaborate on their conversations with the Senator. I've also asked Trustee Fabbro about the memo the State Senator gave him to read.

I've also contacted Woodbury Town Councilwoman Sandra Capriglione, who said she has yet to be contacted by Senator Skoufis and Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani. Luciani, Ferraelli, Fries-Ciriello, and Fabbro have yet to reply to requests for comment.

The long and short of it is this: The State Senator wants the Village of Woodbury to merge with the Town of Woodbury. According to people close to the matter, the merger would, the Senator claims, stop all the infighting among the local politicians and save taxpayer money.

A merger would indeed save taxpayer money. That's just simple math. The Town and Village merge, reducing “redundancy” in offices and departments.

But if you work in the corporate world as I have for so long, you know "redundancy" is often just code for "layoffs."

Woodbury residents from both the Town and Village should think long and hard about who gets fired and what, if anything, replaces them.

It would help if you looked no further than South Blooming Grove to see what happens when most of the functional apparatus of a local government is done away with. Cronies are placed in charge to help the people in power justify whatever bullshit they'd like.

This includes people like Isaac Ekstein, who donated $15,000 to State Senator Skoufis’s previous campaign for State Senator.

I just invited State Senator Skoufis to take an up close and personal view of some of the bullshit in South Blooming Grove perpetrated by Mr. Ekstein. His attendance at this event should give him pause concerning his plan for Woodbury.

But here's a much more important point concerning a merger between the Town and Village of Woodbury:

It is not true that a merger would stop any of what the State Senator has described as "infighting."

Why?

Merging the Town and Village does not address the source of all that infighting: the City of Kiryas Joel and its expansion plans, as engineered by Gedalya Segedin, the Robert Moses of this new city.

And if one thing is sure, it's that Mr. Segedin has the ear of our State Senator.

The City of Kiryas Joel would represent the Town of Palm Tree, Village of Kiryas Joel, Village of South Blooming Grove (unless Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum is successful in his alleged takeover bid of the Village through Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein), and Woodbury.

The neighboring Town of Monroe will also almost assuredly be absorbed as long as Supervisor Tony Cardone is in charge, given his friendly relationship with Monroe Commons developer Lipa Deutsch.

So, if you're looking at Southern Orange County 50 years from now, Chester and Cornwall will become the suburbs of this new city.

This infighting occurs because some members of the Town Board verifiably work for Mr. Segedin and his associates, including Woodbury Police Chief Kevin Watson.

Mr. Skoufis's intervention allegedly stemmed from a phone call from Segedin after The Monroe Gazette broke the news of Chief Watson's alleged private contracts with vendors in Kiryas Joel. These contracts are attributed by Woodbury residents as the cause for uneven enforcement of the law when it comes to Haredi and non-Haredi residents in Woodbury, such as with noise ordinances and at least one bear murder.

So, let's be clear and specific about what the State Senator is trying to address here because it's not "infighting."

The "infighting" is a symptom of corrupt local politicians and their associates working for Mr. Segedin and the build-out of his city.

You have politicians working for Mr. Segedin, who I believe includes the Town of Woodbury Supervisor Kathryn Luciani and Senator Skoufis, and, verifiably, the police chief of Woodbury, Kevin Watson.

And you have the politicians who are not working for Mr. Szegidin, which includes your Woodbury Village Board of Trustees except Trustee Freiband.

Merging the Town and Village does not stop this fighting from taking place.

Merging the Town and Village without the appropriate safeguards would turn Woodbury into South Blooming Grove.

Mr. Skoufis has been invited to a front-row seat to the happenings in South Blooming Grove. I invite all of you to attend this South Blooming Grove ZBA Board Meeting on July 25th, 2024 at 8pm.

It's a sneak preview of Woodbury's future if Mr. Skoufis is successful in his plan to put merge the Village and Town.