The One Where South Blooming Grove's Real Mayor Meets a Process Server

Legal consequences for their actions caused last night's South Blooming Grove Village Board meeting to be cancelled. So here's a recap of everything currently going on with its village government.

Above: South Blooming Grove’s real mayor, Joel Stern, is seen here smiling at the November 4th, 2024, Village Board meeting; however, after his encounter with a process server on November 18th, he wasn’t so happy—so much so that he immediately canceled the scheduled South Blooming Grove Village Board meeting for later that evening.

Whenever South Blooming Grove gets bad news, whether news of yet another lawsuit or negative coverage on News 12, it cancels its Village Board meetings. So, for those of you asking why the meeting last night was canceled, now you know.

I can’t say much about the court case itself, other than to say this won’t be the only Article 78 Mr. Stern will have to deal with soon. (Ditto with the Town of Monroe and Town of Woodbury.)

But you can read more about the legal documents Mr. Stern was served with here.

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It’s been a while since I’ve covered village government meetings in South Blooming Grove. That’s mostly because nothing happened in October because of the High Holy Days.

If you’re just joining us, South Blooming Grove is a mini-Flint Michigan.

There’s a severe municipal water crisis. That water crisis was previously just a challenge. Not quite reaching the level of an emergency or crisis. But ...

The current administration—specifically Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein (the unelected co-mayors, with Mr. Stern working for the developer Keen Equities)—is actively turning the previous water challenges into a crisis, one that the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency are actively investigating.

Orange County’s government, led by Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus, aids and abets South Blooming Grove at every possible opportunity. In fact, much like the ongoing issues at Orange County Sewer District 1, Orange County was well aware of the challenges in South Blooming Grove and allowed Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein to make it worse through their lack of enforcement action, as we’ve previously covered here at The Monroe Gazette.

So has Congressman Pat Ryan.

So has State Senator James G. Skoufis.

So has Governor Kathy Hochul.

Above: Despite the fire not being put out, and numerous questions about the qualifications of Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein’s Blooming Grove EMS, Mr. Skoufis is seen here shaking hands with Mr. Ekstein at the staging area for the Jennings Creek Fire containment efforts. If you’re wondering what kind of jackass wears an expensive suit and poses for photos at a fire where someone died fighting it, there’s your answer. I bet it also didn’t hurt that Mr. Ekstein donated $15,000 to Mr. Skoufis’s 2022 State Senate Campaign.

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Between now and the last meeting I reported on, we’ve also learned that the sale of water from neighboring Washingtonville, via Spindler Bulk Transport, to South Blooming Grove is a way bigger story than anyone thought, especially in light of the extreme drought conditions and the Jennings Creek Fire.

Basically, what the hell are you doing selling any water during an extreme drought?

Washingtonville residents have been asking that question, and they’re not entirely satisfied with the answers they’re getting from their village government. So …

I am working on that story.

And I can promise you, I am not the only reporter looking into that story as well.

If I were Washingtonville, I’d stop selling that water until there’s a contract—there’s not, which may be illegal in itself—and I’d make sure the municipality was getting fairly compensated because, let me tell you something, friends: Mr. Kurtis Spindler is making a ton of money off this water crisis in South Blooming Grove. The least he can do is share the profits with the people from whom he’s taking that water.

(Mr. Spindler has declined to respond to multiple emails requesting comment on the sale of the water to Mr. Joel Stern and South Blooming Grove. The Washingtonville Village Board has been in contact with The Monroe Gazette, and we appreciate their responsiveness, even if we don’t agree with their decision to continue selling this water.)

How Are The South Blooming Grove Residents Doing?

The fix is definitely in, and if people want to sell their homes? I don’t blame them. New York State, and your Congressman, did you all dirty. Anything that Mr. Stern wants from Skoufis, Ryan, and Hochul, he’s going to get.

So as you might imagine, residents are fed up, and they know the Courts are really their only option left, leaving them with two options: Move or Sue.

They can also do nothing; but how’s that working out for you?

I want to encourage SBG residents to keep coming to these meetings, even though Stern did away with public comment.

The fact that he did away with public comment, after being in power for nearly four years now, tells you that showing up and holding him accountable works.

Remember: There’s power in taking up space when dealing with fascists (Town of Monroe, Town of Woodbury) and Religious Extremists (South Blooming Grove.) Both authoritarian leadership styles depend on you not showing up, not speaking, and getting frustrated because of that.

That’s how fascists win.

This is exactly why Mr. Stern now wants to move all the South Blooming Grove meetings to the middle of the day, which is something Mr. Tom Shepstone let slip during the November 14th, 2024, Village Planning Board Meeting …

We’ve previously covered Mr. Shepstone’s numerous ethics violations and poor management of the Village Planning Board meetings here.

At or around 11:51 in the above video, Mr. Shepstone says he wants to shift to “Day time meetings” and said I know “they’ve (Stern and Ekstein) talked to a few of you about it.” It’s unclear from the video which Board member says he’s working, but Shepstone laughs and ignores him.

Honestly, it’s a little alarming when the guy doing the presentation on behalf of all the developers is more concerned about public participation than Mr. Shepstone, but at this point, is anyone really surprised?

Another resident can be heard saying off camera “ I don’t think it’s fair.” Adding that it’s not fair to the residents. And they’re absolutely right. It’s not. And that’s the point.

Mr. Stern does not want the Village of South Blooming Grove to have any sort of interaction with the public. He’s feeling the heat, he’s now getting sued, and he wants it to stop so he can go back to work building Mr. Avraham Bur Jacobowitz's new city.

(Mr. Shepstone did not respond to requests for comment. Specifically, The Monroe Gazette asked him to clarify whether or not he wants the meetings to be early because he’s old and doesn’t want to make the 90-minute drive from Pennsylvania to South Blooming Grove at night. Or because that’s what Mr. Stern wants.)

Not being able to do a three-hour drive late at night, in the dark, in the Fall and Winter? I totally get that

But …

Given what we know at this point about Mr. Shepstone, there’s reason to be skeptical of this announcement of the Day Time Meetings.

So here’s my recommendation:

You can, and should, always send in comments on South Blooming Grove matters to the Village Clerk. You can and should request time to be placed on the agenda to speak.

Given that the Village Clerk, Kerry Dougherty, just got served, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest she’s not dumb enough to do anything to make any future lawsuits against her and the village stronger.

But who knows?

So if there’s something the planning board is looking at — like the upcoming discussion on 1-3-5 San Marcos — and there’s no public comment, you should still send in your comments to the Clerk and ask that they be addressed at the upcoming meeting and/or that you be given time on the agenda to address them.

You can also copy me on all those emails: BJMendelson@duck.com. This way, Mrs. Dougherty can’t say she didn’t get them later. I am happy to watch what she’s doing for you. That’s my job as a reporter.

Before we move on, I do want to give some credit to the Developer’s representative. At 7:13 in the above video, you can hear him clearly say, “We can’t do anything else until municipal water and sewer are available, which is years away.”

I forget the guy’s name — usually, you don’t want the reporter to know your name. If we do, it’s because you messed up — but he’s the same one representing pretty much every Haredi developer that comes before the board. You can also see him at the Town of Monroe and Woodbury Planning Board meetings.

I’ll get the name for the next post, but I want to highlight that statement.

It’s literally the first time that one of the developer representatives has clearly acknowledged the ongoing water crisis and issues at Orange County Sewer District 1, which is more than I can say for Stern, Ekstein, Mr. Shepstone, and Mr. Fusco (Village Engineer and Building Inspector / Code Enforcement officer, despite his reluctance to acknowledge that role publicly).

You might want to remember that he said it, given how packed the agenda is for the November 21st Village Planning Board meeting. It is still scheduled for 8 p.m. unless Mr. Shepstone and/or Mr. Stern have their way.