Town of Woodbury Board Accused of Having "No Agenda"
“Where Is Your Agenda? What Is The Goal Here?”
According to attendees at recent Town of Woodbury Board meetings, the Town of Woodbury has a litany of issues they would like the board to address:
The looming opening of a cannabis dispensary that Councilman Calore has been a vocal opponent of at Village meetings.
The use of the Walmart parking lot — which falls under the jurisdiction of the Town of Woodbury — as shelter for the unhoused and lack of services offered to those individuals.
The lack of water pressure around the high school and tight water restrictions in the town during the Summer.
Traffic improvements with the coming of the 407,819 square foot Monroe Commons off Nininger Road.
The “weird smell” that is often detected by Woodbury Junction residents.
The “junk yard” on Route 32 and Route 32’s general appearance as Orange County's favorite dump.
The logging business that operates in a residential area.
The lack of a town peddlers law to address aggressive door to door solicitors on Brigadoon Boulevard.
And the urgent need to recruit local ems and firefighters.
The first Woodbury Town Board meeting, held on January 4th, ran for under an hour with most of the time taken by public comment.
The January 18th meeting saw more of the same.
During the public comment period, when the Town Board was asked point blank by Jimmy Ng — who spoke for 15 minutes — what their agenda was, Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani insisted the village and Town Board need to work together to get things done.
This is true. The Town has a limited purview when compared to what the Village runs.
But.
How the Village was obstructing the Town in doing its business was not explained.
What the Town wanted to do in conjunction with the Village wasn’t either.
At one point, Councilman Calore shot back to Ng, “It’s our second meeting” in response to Mr. Ng’s concerns.
However: Councilman Calore, Councilman Finnegan, and current Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, in her previous role as Councilwoman, represent the majority of this current board.
All three are returning board members from its previous iteration.
Despite only being the second meeting, a resolution was submitted concerning a pay increase for Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani.
A public hearing will now take place on February 1st, 2024 at 7:30pm to discuss the pay raise. Woodbury resident, Linda Mastrogiacomo, who observed the meeting told me:
“I do find it disturbing that this [The pay increase] was never mentioned when she [Luciani] was running for Town Supervisor. Two weeks on the job and she’s asking to double her salary, it’s out of bounds and uncalled for. The people of Woodbury got duped. This wasn’t for the love of the community as she likes to claim, but really all about money.” Mastrogiacomo added, “Luciani is stating that she deserves doubling her salary because ‘other town supervisors make the higher amount’. What she is stating is correct, however she fails to state that other town supervisors have the full responsibility of all the different departments in those towns. In Woodbury those responsibilities are split between the village and the town. Therefore the reasoning paying 30K plus for the mayor and 30k plus for the supervisor is because they share the responsibility and equals out to what a supervisor would make in handing all departments that he or she is in charge of on their own. Since it is a shared responsibility, giving her a raise has no merit.”
Worth Noting …
During the Town Board meeting, Supervisor Luciani mentioned that her son was hired in January to serve as an Animal Control Officer (ACOs). She then stated that the pay for the ACOs needed to be raised in order to be in line with 2024’s contractual obligation.
On the face of it, this sounds fine. But there are questions:
Given that Finnegan, Luciani, and Calore had a majority of the previous board, why wasn’t this done when the 2024 budget was being considered and approved?
When the 2023 Town Board hired Gavin Mayer on December 21st, there was no mention of needing to adjust the pay. What changed in less than a month for the Town Supervisor?
I’ve been in touch with the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government concerning the Supervisor hiring her son as an ACO, and also about the logic behind the pay increase for the ACOs after he was hired.