What Does Trustree Freiband and Joel Stern Have In Common?

Hint: It involves intentionally lying to the public in order to further their own interests. And those lies come at the expense of the entire Southern Orange County community.

Above: Since Mr. Chris Gerver — Woodbury’s Planning Board Chair — had his credentials called into question by Trustee Freiband last night, Mr. Gerver was kind enough to send The Monroe Gazette the above image. The image above verified that Mr. Gerver is indeed credentialed and qualified to serve on the Planning Board as the Chair, despite Mr. Freiband’s slanderous claims.

By way of comparison, Mr. Richard Cattagio, the former planning board member — who is under investigation from the New York State Division of Human Rights — and an ally of Trustree Freiband, did not have any such credentials according to Village officials.

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Alright. So, I know I’m late with today’s post.

That’s because I spent a good two hours this morning in South Blooming Grove at what can only be described as a raucous meeting. You can watch that meeting below (video courtesy of Preserve Blooming Grove.)

Here’s what I’m going to do, in the interest of time.

I’m going to share with you the notes I took at the Woodbury Village Board meeting last night. Then, tomorrow, I will share with you my notes from the South Blooming Grove Village Board meeting.

Since I mentioned that Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Ekstein were going to try to slip something big through at this 10:30am meeting, I want you to fast forward to 55:12 in the video below.

Note: Nothing Mr. Stern says about Route 208 is true. Little, if anything, he said about the need for a new police department is true either.

This is why he wanted the meeting for 10:30am on a Friday morning: Like the fire department he created, Mr. Stern wants the UJC to have its own police department as well.

More on that tomorrow. Today, we’re going to talk Woodbury.

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Above: Part 1 of the Village of Woodbury Board of Trustees meeting. The entire first hour is focused on the proposed “Senior Housing” complex.

Below is Part 2 of the meeting:

Please Keep In Mind!

A lot of these notes are likely to become individual stories on their own. For now, I just want to share with you my notes to let you know what happened last night and what you need to pay attention to.

Part 1 Notes

-Senior Housing: It doesn't sound like the community wants it. They are skeptical that this project is truly senior housing and not a "Trojan Horse" (in the words of one resident) to allow for other development.

-Deputy Mayor Victor Ferrarelli asked if the developer, Moses Braver, was open to turning the undeveloped land as part of the property permanent green space. It sounded like Mr. Braver’s representative was open to that via a potential conservation easement. "Very confident", the attorney said, that he'd [Braver] would accept a conservation easement.

-This is just the start of this process with the Senior Housing, it will go back to the Zoning Board if the Village approves what's before them currently.

-I want to give a special thanks to Maria Hunter for pointing out on the map for the senior housing the actual properties impacted by the development. You can see that in the Part 1 video at 42:27.

-Neil Crouse, a member of the Land Preservation Committee and former Trustee, asked how this project get a negative declaration. Remember that a negative declaration means there’s little to no environmental impact.

Mr. Crouse pointed this out because of the nearby wetlands and Woodbury Creek. He suggested one potential environmental hazard: Ice and snow melt running off the parking lot for the Senior Housing and entering Woodbury Creek.

Robin Crouse spoke next and suggested a survey of Seniors be done. She asked if there is a need for senior housing in the community. She also asked what everyone seemed to be thinking: "How long is this housing going to remain Senior Housing?"

Mr. Steven Gargano spoke next. He asked a similar question, which was along the lines of, “If someone buys a unit as a senior, what’s to stop them from turning and around selling that unit to someone who isn’t? Who enforces this?”

Trustee Fries-Ciriello responded, saying that this sort of thing is enforced in Woodbury Junction, and people with similar concerns should file a formal complaint with the Building Department. (We’ll talk more about the Building Department in just a second.)

As a reminder, the public can still submit feedback to the Village Clerk until June 21st about the Senior Housing development.

Part 2 Notes

-Trustee Freiband voted against Torre and Naughton being reappointed as Village Attorneys for the Planning Board and ZBA. No reason was provided. I reached out to Mr. Freiband to explain his objection.

Honestly, this seems like a continuation of this weird anti-woman pissing match Mr. Freiband seems to be engaged in with Mrs. Naughton, but I want to stress, that is just my opinion based on his continued interactions with the Village Attorney at Village of Woodbury meetings. Next time the two interact at a meeting, I encourage you to pay attention to what Mr. Freiband says and how he responds when corrected by Mrs. Naughton.

-Mr. Victor Ferrarelli was appointed Deputy Mayor

-Chris Gerver was appointed Planning Board Chair. Once again, Freiband voted against this appointment.

Mr. Freiband claimed Gerver failed to provide, or even have, the required educational requirements for the position.

This comment was immediately corrected by the mayor, who pointed out that — to his knowledge — Mr. Cattagio was the only one lacking the sufficient education requirements.

Mr. Freiband claimed to have spoken with a Town/Village Clerk as part of his research into Mr. Gerver, but he did not clarify who he spoke with. I’ve followed-up with Mr. Freiband to ask whom he spoke with as part of his investigation into Mr. Gerver.

Mr. Freiband did NOT vote against the following ZBA chairman appointee. When asked if he looked into Mr. Brady’s qualifications, Freiband said he did not. I asked Mr. Freiband to clarify why he was trying to slander Mr. Gerver and not commit to an equally thorough investigation of the proposed ZBA chair.

-Congratulations, Town of Monroe and Village of South Blooming Grove residents: You are the only remaining municipalities in Southern Orange County with a strictly enforced time limit on how long the public can speak. Woodbury’s Village Board has removed their five minute rule, which prompted a thank you from Mr. Jimmy Ng.

-Mr. John Hand III was appointed Building Inspector and Mr. Alex Presti was appointed Assistant Building Inspector. Both come with tremendous experience and a deep knowledge of Woodbury’s community and its needs. I’ll have more to share on these appointments soon. Especially as it relates to on-going investigations in Highland Lake Estates and other hot spots that the former building inspector, Michael Panella, was not actively looking into (according to residents.)

The Ethics Board

-An Ethics Board is (finally) being introduced in the Village of Woodbury. The Town Board does not have one. South Blooming Grove does not have one. I am unsure of Blooming Grove. The Town of Monroe has an ethics board, but it’s populated with former members of United Monroe and at least one current campaign donor to the current sitting board members.

Put another way, the Town of Monroe does not have an impartial Ethics Board that residents can bring their issues to, but Woodbury now does.

Trustee Fabbro was supportive of an ethics board but did voice concern that it could turn into “a clown show” due to the upcoming election season and tension among members of the community and Trustee Freiband.

I understand and appreciate his concerns about the ethics board, but unlike the Town of Monroe, I have the full confidence in the majority of the Village of Woodbury Board, that the Woodbury Board of Ethics will be run fairly.

In fact, the Mayor volunteered himself to be the first subject of inquiry under the new ethics board in order to demonstrate the impartiality of the board.

He suggested later that Carmine Mastrogiacomo should be appointed as Chair of the Ethics Committee, given his years of service as a former NYPD officer. (The mayor didn’t mention Mr. Mastrogiacomo’s NYPD background specifically at the meeting, but has mentioned it when The Monroe Gazette requested comment on his choice for the Ethics Board.

-The need for the Ethics Board was cited due to an inaccurate story run by The Photo-News, which was fed to them by Trustee Freiband in order to allegedly make the rest of the Village Board look bad. Later during his board comments, Deputy Mayor Ferrarelli also called out The Photo-News for its inaccurate reporting.

-A discussion took place concerning the creation of a Village Beautification Committee. I was happy to see this since, again in my opinion, I’ve observed Town Councilman Brandon Calore seem to single out Maria Hunter during at least two Town Board meetings this year.

It’s difficult to be a chair of a committee when at least one Town Board member is openly hostile toward you.

It reminds me of Dennis Fordham and the Conservation Commission in Monroe where it’s an inconvenience that Supervisor Tony Cardone continues to put off (the new tree code) in order to benefit the developers he is allegedly connected with.

Regardless of my opinion, the Village is looking to form a Beautification Committee in order to spend the $250,000 granted specifically to the village by State Senator Skoufis. So far, only $30,000 or so of that money has been utilized.

Mr. Freiband immediately suggested this was duplicative of the Town’s Beautification Committee, but as I just mentioned, at least one member of the Town Board has exhibited hostility toward the Town’s Beautification Chair.

Perhaps the Village of Woodbury is a better place for the Beautification Committee to exist?

Mr. Freiband also failed to acknowledge that the money provided to the Village from Senator Skoufis has to be spent specifically on projects by the Village on land owned by the Village.

So while the two committees are similar, and share a similar chairwoman in Maria Hunter (if approved), their purposes are unique.

If anything, having the same chair should improve coordination between the Town and Village, something that famously has not existed according to members of the Woodbury Town Board.

On July 11th at 7:30pm, there will be a public discussion held on this matter.

Something strange happened next

Trustee Freiband may have intentionally revealed the subject of an Executive Session discussion. Specifically, he name dropped the NYS Thruway Authority and their request for water from Woodbury.

Sources I spoke with for this story felt Freiband was attempting to intentionally entangle the Village Board in litigation with the Thruway Authority.

This was being done, they said, in order to bolster his own election chances. If this is true, it’s the first thing the new Woodbury Ethics Committee should investigate.

-Lisa Hintze spoke next about the need for recruitment at the American Legion. The Vets are getting older and younger vets are not signing-up to join. If you know of anyone who’d like to join their local legion, and is eligible, then I hope you’ll consider getting them involved.

-Un-elected Councilwoman Sandra Capriglione spoke next to issue a formal request for the Village to engage the town in discussions concerning the IMA.

I also had a nice conversation with the Councilwoman following the meeting. (Un-elected or not, she is still the Councilwoman for the Town and I want to acknowledge that.)

I stressed to her, and I want to stress to you, that my position is to give every elected official a hard time.

Not because it’s personal, or because I’m “out to get them”, but because that’s the role journalists are supposed to play when it comes to your elected officials.

Those are the rules of the game if you sign up for public service. The reporter is supposed to poke the bear. (No. Not that bear. But we’ll get to that bear shortly.) The reason for this is, as a fellow humorist once said in a Chicago newspaper back in 1893: “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Although not (yet) a newspaper, The Monroe Gazette adheres to this principle. It is not a malicious act. It’s our responsibility to the public.

So, if you see me refer to Monroe Councilman Sal Scancarello as Rubber Stamp Sal, that’s not personal.

I’m drawing attention to something about that elected official. In his case, that Mr. Scancarello acts as a rubber stamp for Supervisor Cardone in much the same way the South Blooming Grove Village Board, and Mayor, act as a rubber stamp for Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein.

Corrections Are In Order

I do want to apologize though to the Councilwoman, and anyone else, who feels like I may be bullying them.

That’s not my intention.

Mrs. Capriglione also mentioned my publication of Chief Watson’s signatures for John Kelleman and Tyler Etzel Jr. She raised objections to it because the Chief’s address is present on the document.

I’m glad she mentioned this. I wrestled with that decision, and I thought twice about it as soon as I published it. Let me briefly explain why I did so:

1. The Chief of Police is a public official with a lot of power. As someone who is a fan of our public servants (especially police and firefighters), I believe it’s important that the police in particular are held to the highest standards. That’s sort of the deal in 21st Century America now: The Police protect us, and the Journalists are supposed to protect us from the police when one of them goes rogue. I do not find any joy in doing this. I think our men and women serving as police officers are underpaid, undertrained, and under-appreciated. But I also know it’s my job as a journalist to be critical of what the police do, or don’t do, since there is often little if any other form of accountability for them.

2. I was concerned that if I altered the image in any way shape or form, people might ask if I altered anything else. That’s also why Mr. Gerver’s credentials above are presented as they were provided to me. I don’t want to get into the business of altering documents unless there’s a specific reason for doing so. So, if you send me an image, I will publish it as is 99% of the time.

3. There is an allegation before the Orange County Board of Elections concerning one of the signatures on this specific document that is currently being investigated. That allegation involves the address of the police chief and whether or not one of the signatories on the document actually resides there. I’ll have more information on these allegations soon. So, I had an additional, newsworthy reason to publish that document as it was provided to me, without any alteration.

She shared that Mr. Brandon Calore was also going door to door for her on the independent Woodbury Empowered line. This has led to some confusion to which I am partly responsible.

Let me explain:

Mrs. Capriglione stated that John Keleman did walk signature documents on her behalf because of their long standing friendship, but his doing so does not at all suggest that she will be voting for him in the Fall.

Mrs. Capriglione pointed out that this may also be the case with Chief Watson, and that I’m wrong to suggest people who sign ballots just to sign them — having no intent to vote for that person — are more common than I think.

I will respectfully say to Mrs. Capriglione that she is right and I am wrong on this issue.

There are people who do sign signatures just to be helpful. I need to do a better job of not letting my cynicism get to me when it comes to some of our elected officials in the area.

I will also say that while Mr. Calore was spotted by Woodbury residents walking petitions for Etzel Jr. and John Keleman, Mrs. Capriglione pointed out that there’s no actual proof since no signatures from Mr. Calore have been submitted for these two individuals.

Although I trust my sources, she’s right to suggest that there’s no smoking gun here.

So I’m issuing a retraction on this one.

I was wrong.

I can’t prove Mr. Calore was walking ballots for Mr. Etzel Jr. and Mr. Keleman at this time. I’ll be adjusting those previous posts to reflect this shortly.

Nobody bats a thousand. I will not be right 100% of the time. I will, of course, tell you when I am wrong.

I also agree with the Councilwoman that it would be nice to help turn the temperature down in terms of local Woodbury politics.

Like her, I would love it if we could just stick to the issues and not deal with this conspiracy BS that people like Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, and James Freiband have enveloped us in.

There are two kinds of politicians in Southern Orange County: Those who are transparent, and those who are not.

The lack of transparency is fueling a lot of anger and speculation, and Mr. Stern, Mr. Ekstein, and Mr. Freiband, among others, are specifically responsible for this. Others, like Supervisor Cardone, simply benefit from the chaos.

Back to The News

-I brought up the bear situation, and that the DEC and Woodbury PD have different reports as to what happened when the body was found. I asked the Board and the Public to get in touch with Chief Watson and ensure a thorough investigation is done.

The Mayor added that you need a permit to trap anything in Woodbury. People just can’t randomly do it.

-Former Village Trustee, Tara Burek, pointed out that Trustee Freiband slandered her husband, Chris Gerver, with his remarks this evening. She stated that Freiband has a responsibility to “speak fact”; and pointed out that Freiband failed to make eye contact with her as she addressed his remarks. Mr. Freiband did not offer an apology. I reached out and asked him if one is forthcoming to Mr. Gerver.

-Trustee Fabbro spoke next and promoted the Invasive Species event that’s coming up. More information, including a flyer, can be found here and below:

-Trustee Fries-Ciriello said the creation of the Ethics Board was not driven by Election Season. She also called out Freiband for targeting and slandering Mr. Gerver, pointing out Mr. Freiband’s admission that he only looked into Gerver’s credentials and no one else.

-The Mayor spoke next.

He thanked the Village Clerks and Treasurers for working through the hardest time of the year with the water bills and tax bills.

He did speak with Mr. Wayne Corts and confirmed the Falkirk Golf Course is closed. He also confirmed Mr. Cort’s partners want to develop the property, but details are still TBA.

Mr. John Hand is already hard at work and reported that another long time Woodbury property had just received a title search, which is usually the first step before a purchase.

The mayor then talked about Chris Gerver, pointed out Freiband wasn't actually interested in Chris's certifications. and that his goal was to embarrass the village in order to win the election this Fall.

The mayor pointed out that Etzel Jr., Keleman, and Freiband are accusing Gerver of slowing projects down like the resturant, Whose. But the truth is, the slow down is because of applications not being filed properly.

He then moved to the Woodbury Commons DEIS discussion and how most residents DO NOT support the project, despite this misleading Photo-News headline.

And finally, the Mayor spoke about the IMA.

Remember how I mentioned an embargo on certain information?

The embargo has been lifted.

The Mayor wants the Animal Shelter and Police Department under the purview of the Village Board.

The information about the police department was what I could not publicly share with you, but I can now do so. A full story is forthcoming.

His reasons for these changes are as follows:

The Highway, Building, and other Departments in the Village control and maintain the roads, integration with the police department would allow for better coordination between these departments. Nothing will change for the police officers themselves aside from a potential name change on their badge.

In speaking about both the police and animal shelter, the mayor cautioned that other parties will try to portray this decision as personal, but he says it’s not.

The need for the change comes, according to the Mayor, from improving communication and public safety among the Village Departments in regards to the police, and addressing the concerns that have been raised concerning the operation of the animal shelter. Especially with how to improve conditions there to better protect its furry inhabitants.

And with that, I will catch you tomorrow with another exhaustive write-up of what went down at the SBG meeting.