What Is Governor Hochul Trying to Hide About Her Blooming Grove Veto? (Part 2)

After almost two-hundred days of waiting, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul's office says there are no records concerning her late night December veto of a land preservation bill for Blooming Grove

If you missed Part 1 of what I hope will be a short series, you can read it here.

For some additional context about Governor Kathy Hochul’s veto of the Blooming Grove land preservation bill, I encourage you to read this long, but highly, worthwhile article.

What follows is a super brief update for reasons that will be very clear.

Way back in March 2024, I placed a series of FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests into the Governor’s office and the office of the former Lieutenant Governor—you know, the one who was charged with bribery?

The requests concerned a meeting the de facto Mayor of South Blooming Grove, Joel Stern, and others had with former Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin. Not long after that meeting, Governor Hochul vetoed the bill Mr. Stern lobbied Brian Benjamin to kill.

I can’t say whether or not Mr. Stern and friends bribed Lieutenant Governor Benjamin to secure a veto from Governor Hochul on the Blooming Grove Land Preservation Bill.

But I can say it’s a legitimate question to ask when you consider the charges brought against former Lieutenant Governor Benjamin.

Especially given Mr. Stern’s $10,000 campaign contribution to State Senator James Skoufis, the funny business with the fake South Blooming Grove mayor’s house,  and his well-documented support of Congressman Pat Ryan.

Given that Mr. Stern’s organization, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, meets the Southern Poverty Law Center and FBI’s standards for a hate group leader and a hate group, respectively, the public has the right to know if the leader of a hate group overseeing a mini-Flint Michigan, can influence the governor of the State of New York.

For example, here is a nearly two-hour video (almost entirely in Yiddish and German) obtained by The Monroe Gazette where Mr. Stern, just as he’s taking power in South Blooming Grove back in 2021, repeatedly refers to residents as “goyim” (a hateful slur for Non-Jews when used by some Haredi groups such as the Satmar) and explains his disregard for all local planning and zoning regulations to drive the goyim out.

I’ve had this video for some time, but we couldn’t upload it until we were able to safely make a copy of it. (Shout out to Amy Lavine at Liberty Street Legal for the assistance.)

Is this someone who should have any influence over the decisions made by the State of New York?

The Governor’s office took until September to fulfill the FOIL requests, stating that no responsive records were found.

We feel pretty strongly that this is a lie in regard to some of the records being requested.

So, we’re going to FOIL Governor Kathy Hochul again. This time with a much more thorough kind of request.

I’m sharing the FOIL with you because I’m sure her office will take another six months to fulfill this request, and I don’t want you to think I somehow forgot about it if it’s not mentioned here at The Monroe Gazette for a while.

This is very much a story I want to investigate further, and if the Governor’s office does not want to cooperate, well, let’s just say it’s Fuck Around and Find Out Time for local, state, and even federal entities that want to keep information of great public interest out of the spotlight.

The FOIL:

Records Requested: 1. Communications, sent on personal and professional devices, and from personal and professional email, text messages, and other electronic communications, including WhatsApp messages, between Governor Kathy Hochul and Jake Adler, Director of Jewish Affairs, concerning S1811/A5761 (Land preservation in Blooming Grove).*

2. I am requesting communications, as described above, concerning S1811/A5761 sent by and between Governor Hochul and Staff identified below, and Jake Adler and staff identified below during the time frame provided with this request (1/1/21 to 11/1/24). I am further requesting records created via email and other communications by and between the parties named below about S1811/A5761.

-Director of state operations and infrastructure, Kathryn Garcia

-Chief of staff: Stacy Lynch

-Secretary to the governor: Karen Persichilli Keogh

-Counsel to the governor: Elizabeth Fine

-Press secretary: Avi Small and former Press Secretary: Hazel Crampton-Hays

-Deputy chief of staff: Ivan Acosta

3. Communications, as described above, sent on personal and professional devices between Governor Kathy Hochul and former LT Governor Brian Benjamin and his former chief of staff, Stacy Lynch, concerning legislation S1811/A5761 that was before the governor to sign.

4. Communications, as described above, from the Lt. Governor's office concerning a meeting that took place on December 13th, 2021 with former LT Governor Brian Benjamin, Stacy Lynch (former chief of staff), Joel Stern, and Isaac "Yitzchok" Ekstein, and representatives of Agudath Israel including Rabbi Yeruchim Silber , ysilber@agudah.org

Records requested include include all emails, notes, minutes, scheduling entries, and other related documentation related to this December 13th meeting, 2021 meeting. For each foil request described above, I am requesting that a POL 89(3)(a) certification be completed by all parties identified in this email including former LT Governor Brian Benjamin.

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*Reader note: Mr. Jake Adler was specifically thanked by Rabbi Yeruchim Silber for his role in securing the veto in media interviews.