Why Mean Councilwoman Banned From Good Guy Sal's Fascist Food Truck Spectacular?
No. That's not a typo in today's headline. Today we're going to take a detour into the mind of the Town of Monroe's elected officials and how it all ties into the rising tide of American Fascism.
Monroe's Town Board took less than six minutes to enter into an Executive Session at the October 7th, 2024, meeting.
As Councilwoman Mary Bingham pointed out, many Monroe residents were in attendance and wanted to discuss the budget.
When Bingham asked if the Executive Session could wait until the end of the meeting — which is standard practice for the Town of Monroe — Supervisor Tony Cardone did not answer.
(I’ve been reporting on Town of Monroe Board meetings for a year now, and an early meeting Executive Session for this current group is exceedingly rare.)
Instead, Cardon told Councilwoman Bingham, “I’ll call the vote, and we’ll see.”
Now, given that failed State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle and Sal “I Assault Women” Scancarello just rubber stamp whatever Supervisor Cardone suggests at Monroe Town Board meetings, Cardone knew they would go into Executive session because that’s what Cardone wanted. In fact, following Supervisor Cardone’s suggestion of going to Executive Session, you can see Councilman Slippery Sal Scancarello immediately second the motion before the Supervisor had a chance to elaborate on his motion.
Councilwoman Maureen Richardson motioned to table Cardone’s suggestion to go into Executive Session, which Councilwoman Bingham seconded.
To nobody’s surprise, because they are incapable of any independent thought — Proving yet again that a vote for Dorey Houle’s second doomed campaign for the State Senate would just be a vote for Tony Cardone in the State Senate — Houle and Scancarello joined Cardone in rejecting that motion.
The Town Board then decided to hold a half-hour Executive Session while Town residents patiently waited to discuss Monroe’s proposed 2025 budget.
What Were They Talking About Instead of The Budget?
Let’s play a fun game. Can you guess, from the following list of things that have factually and verifiably happened, what was so crucial for Supervisor Tony Cardone, State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle, and the guy who assaults women to discuss?
Was it …
A. Supervisor Cardone lying about the contamination of Village Well #4 as part of a larger effort to punish the City of Kiryas Joel for not supporting State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle’s campaign?
B. Was it the oil spill that State Senate candidate, Dorey Houle, knew about involving Lake Mombasha that could have impacted the water supply of 20,000 people that she has said nothing about? (Mrs. Houle is the official liaison for the Village of Monroe and pledged to represent the needs of Village residents with the Town when she abandoned her spot on the Village Board and ran for Town Councilwoman.)
C. Supervisor Cardone’s frequent demand for the City of Kiryas Joel to establish its own Post Office, which would be a violation of the federal constitution and New York State’s Establishment Clauses since the City of Kiryas Joel is a theocracy. (That’s not a judgment; that’s just stating what any place factually is, that has all of its rules and regulations decided by a religious leader and his associates. The Satmar community often refers to Grand Rebbe Teitelbaum and this crew as “Hanhallah.”)
D. Using air time on WTBQ, paid for by the Town since the Supervisor expenses his travel to and from the station, for Supervisor Cardone to make antisemitic remarks, which has now led to at least one ethics complaint against the Supervisor. (Not to mention, allegations by Town of Monroe Highway Department employees that Supervisor Cardone routinely refers to them as “Spics.”)
E. The hydrogen sulfide situation impacting Town and Village residents who frequent Airplane Park and the Millpond which now involves the EPA, the DEC, and the New York State Department of Health. (Worth noting: Supervisor Cardone routinely passed the buck on this issue in FOIL’ed emails provided by Orange County, and Dorey Houle, in her capacity as Village of Monroe liaison, was not involved in any discussions or communications about this issue at all.)
F. How Cardone intentionally stymied requests from the City of Kiryas Joel concerning the Raywood and Ruzhin road intersections to punish the City for not supporting Mrs. Houle's doomed campaign for the State Senate.
(Mr. Patterson just got a raise from Mr. Cardone.)
H. The 90-day blanket FOIL response that the Town of Monroe was told was illegal by New York State’s Committee on Open Government. (The policy is now gone, but the Town Clerk’s office continues to slow roll FOIL responses. Wouldn’t you know it, Mrs. Valerie Bitzer got a raise, too.)
I. Cardone’s attempt to ram through the Monroe Common project on Ninninger Road despite Orange County Sewer District 1 being overcapacity and the local roads no longer able to handle the strain of an increase in traffic without Orange County’s intervention to expand Larkin Drive (for example) to help alleviate it.
J. Stopping any building within Monroe due to Orange County Sewer District 1 being over capacity and Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus repeatedly bragging about lowering everyone’s taxes while failing to mention how much in fees and other expenses related to OCSD1’s failing sewer infrastructure that Neuhaus has passed on to Monroe residents. (Your taxes may have decreased, but your other costs have increased if you live in Orange County Sewer District 1 to pay for this infrastructure. Your fees and costs will also go up again once the new sewer plant is bonded and construction begins.)
K. The Town claimed to own portions of Forest Road and hired legal counsel to sue Kiryas Joel at the expense of Monroe Taxpayers without finding a peaceful resolution between the municipalities.
L. Supervisor Cardone is lobbying Orange County to prevent any further funds from being provided to Kiryas Joel to provide busing, which would get cars off the road and help alleviate traffic congestion. Traffic congestion continues to be a topic Monroe residents often discuss when asked about their top complaints of living in the Town.
M. Speaking of buses, did the Town Board use this time to ask for more specific and direct action against Darkei Yosher and EMES Bus Company due to frequent complaints by local residents of these buses speeding and otherwise behaving inappropriately while transporting children to and from local yeshivas?
N. When was the sale of 15 Lake Street decided, and why was there no public discussion or vote about that sale to Somni? (There was a vote and public debate about leasing the building, not selling it.) Additionally, Did they discuss who set the purchase price of $245,000 for 15 Lake Street, how that price point was agreed to, and by whom? Was there a discussion about Slippery Sal’s potential business involvement with the new Somni location despite his position as a Town Councilman?
O. Supervisor Cardone’s familial relations operating the Lake Sapphire Home Owner Association and conspiring with Cardone, who owns 2/3 of Lake Sapphire, to increase the value of the property he owns by creating a drainage district, all without the Supervisor mentioning the conflict or recusing himself from any votes related to Lake Sapphire. Not to mention the Town of Monroe’s refusal to comply with records requests concerning Lake Sapphire, whether or not Town residents were directly paying for a road connecting Supervisor Cardone’s property in the area, and the Supervisor’s refusal to turn over any information about the Lake and to whom he might be selling that water.
P. The 165 HR complaints filed by Councilwoman Maureen Richardson concerning the supervisor's behavior and that of his flunkies directly prohibited the “Mean Councilwoman” from getting much done on behalf of her constituents. (At no point have any of these complaints been processed by Jennifer Schnarrs, who is the Town designee for Human Resources Complaints and also the personal secretary for Town Supervisor Tony Cardone.)
Q. Forcing residents of the Village of Harriman and the Village of Monroe to pay outrageous fees because the Town bungled the lawsuit involving Rye Hill Road, leading to threats of lawsuits now faced by the Town from both villages.
R. The frequent flooding of Lakes Road that now puts the lives of residents in danger, as well as the frequent flooding of other areas that now may cost homeowners more money to alleviate.
S. The high prices at the grocery store could be alleviated, in part, by direct action by Orange County, according to The New York State Comptroller’s office and the Town of Monroe’s advocacy of action by the county to help its residents during an ongoing affordability crisis.
T. The lack of first responders and the need to switch to a paid model, instead of a volunteerism model, both in Monroe and county-wide to ensure Town and other area residents have an adequate supply of firefighters and emergency medical professionals.
U. None of the above.
The answer? Well, you’ll have to keep reading.
“We Wouldn’t Have a Problem If Someone Let Me Be a Councilperson”
I’ve talked to multiple witnesses about what occurred during the Executive Session held on October 7th. Councilwoman Richardson was heard saying the above to Supervisor Cardone, citing Cardone’s frequent attempts to restrict the Councilwoman’s ability to interact with any facet of the Town’s operations by not assigning her to be an official “liaison.”
Cardone responded to Richardson by saying, “Let me ask you a question: Do you think there’s a packed crowd out there, every time, there’s something written that’s detrimental about him [Sal], about Dorey, about me […] There’s a packed crowd every time you make those comments. There’s a packed crowd out there [referring to the October 7th attendees] that are about 150-200x more …”
Yes. That’s what the executive session was about: Supervisor Tony Cardone does not like that Town of Monroe residents are coming to the meetings.
He does not like that YOU are coming to these meetings, and I’ll remind you that in November of 2025, Supervisor Cardone will be up for re-election and is very aware that his prospects for continuing in this position are dwindling by the day.
Cardone wants to go back to the bad old days when no one showed up to Town of Monroe meetings and he could do whatever he wanted because The Photo-News doesn’t actually do any reporting, and the Times-Herald Record is now a zombie with little local news content for the area. (And when the Photo-News did do some reporting, you’ll recall, Supervisor Cardone threatened to pull all Town-related advertising from it.)
So, the answer was U. “None of the above.”
Instead of discussing any of those issues I identified above, Supervisor Tony Cardone, State Senate Candidate Dorey Houle, and Sal “I assault women” Scancarello held an executive session to complain about the large public turnout at Town of Monroe meetings, which they blame Councilwoman Maureen Richardson for.
So, in response to getting the public to attend Town Board meetings, and observe Town Board business, the three dunces proceeded to read a resolution that prohibited Councilwoman Maureen Richardson from attending this weekend’s Food Truck festival.
Yes. Seriously.
Following the return from Executive Session, and you can see this in the video, Councilwoman Richardson again attempted to speak with both Mrs. Houle and Mr. Cardone, to no success.
Instead, Supervisor Cardone had Councilwoman Houle read a resolution that barred Councilwoman Richardson from the food truck festival over a workplace violence complaint that, I want to remind you, Councilwoman Richardson was the victim of after Sal Scancarello assaulted her at June’s food truck festival.
Got all that? The victim who was assaulted was barred from attending a Town event by the man who assaulted her.
I want you to understand what’s going on here, because you see it over in Woodbury, and you see it in South Blooming Grove too.
In Woodbury, just last week, when she didn’t get the near $1M she requested, Woodbury Public Library Board President Cathy Schmidt — already the subject of one investigation concerning her assault of a Woodbury Parks Department employee last year — assaulted Maria Hunter, and had to be physically separated from Mrs. Hunter at the October 9th Budget Workshop meeting.
Much like in the Town of Monroe, where Tony Cardone and Dorey Houle have not said a word about Sal Scancarello assaulting Councilwoman Richardson, as of this writing, Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani and Deputy Town Supervisor Theresa Luongo have not issued a statement, nor condemned, Mrs. Schmidt’s actions, nor have they asked for her to resign following this second, public violent outburst.
And in South Blooming Grove, you have Mr. Joel Stern, the Village’s de facto Mayor, restricting the speech of village residents in an effort to single out one woman.
This is how fascists rule, through intimidation, restriction, and violence.
And this isn’t a problem limited to Southern Orange County. We see this happening all across America right now. Fascism is ascendant. It’s born out of good people, understandably frustrated about living through this Second Gilded Age, voting for Far Right Fascists because they think that’s the solution to the problem.
It’s not.
The good news is that it’s not too late to do something about this.
Woodbury and South Blooming Grove residents have demonstrated that. It’s a long, slow process, but it has to start somewhere, and it starts by attending meetings — Something Supervisor Cardone has now been witnessed saying he does not want — and speaking up, just like Woodbury residents are doing, and just like South Blooming Grove residents are doing.
So the question for all of you Monroe residents is this: Are you going to show up to the next Town Board meeting and hold these three accountable?
Or are you ok with sitting at home and letting your money and time get wasted by a bunch of fascists?