Woodbury Residents Have 3 Challenging Issues to Discuss at Their Next Meeting
A building (and sewer) moratorium, a resolution against Senator Skoufis's latest harebrained scheme, and Trustee James Freiband's violation of the US Constitution top the list of agenda items.
Tomorrow (Thursday) should be an eventful day in the Village of Woodbury. And since the Town Board in Woodbury is no longer a functional government — instead looking, sounding, and acting like the corrupt village government in South Blooming Grove — Woodbury residents are left with only one functional government to turn to.
So, for that reason, I’m going to direct your attention to the Woodbury Village Board’s agenda, which you can find here.
If you’d like to attend, the meeting will be held at 7:30 pm at the firehouse at 455 NY-32 in Highland Mills.
I’ll be there.
It was 109 degrees in Woodland Hills last week. So, despite the back pain that comes from flying to and from LAX and EWR, I’m happy to be in New York for a bit to enjoy the Fall weather.
In the interest of time, we’ll skip the usual preamble and discuss a few items you should know about for tomorrow’s meeting.
Specifically:
-The resolution against State Senator James G. Skoufis’s gift to real estate developers everywhere
- A constitutional violation created by Trustee James Freiband, who should be removed from office effective immediately.
Let’s Start With The Building Moratorium
As you know, Tyler Etzel Jr. and John U. Keleman are running for seats on the Woodbury Village Board this November. Both men, like their fellow Democrat James Freiband, have been spouting disinformation to get people’s attention and votes.
If these two men succeed, the village government in Woodbury will be lost, dooming the entire town and village into becoming the next South Blooming Grove.
That’s no exaggeration.
In South Blooming Grove, Village residents have waited over a year to have their FOIL requests fulfilled.
Woodbury Village Trustee James Freiband has repeatedly refused to comply with FOIL requests.
Trustee Fabbro, who would join Keleman, Etzel Jr., and Freiband, required intervention from the New York State Committee on Open Government in order to fulfill a FOIL request properly.
That’s a preview of what things will look like with a majority of Etzel Jr., Freiband, Fabbro, and Keleman.
In South Blooming Grove, Village residents bring their tainted water to meetings and ask their Village Board for action. And the Village Board responds by ignoring the residents and doing what they want instead.
So, this is not an exaggeration. This is not hyperbole. You’ve already seen the same behavior factually demonstrated by both the Woodbury Town Board and Trustees Freiband and Fabbro.
Trustee Freiband, in particular, has been hellbent on lifting the Building Moratorium despite the Village of Woodbury not having enough operational wells to provide water for the current population. (Sound familiar, residents of South Blooming Grove?)
Freiband continues to claim that he has these wells that can provide enough water to meet the demand of further building. (Sound familiar, residents of South Blooming Grove?)
But Freiband will not comply with FOIL requests concerning these new wells, and by all accounts, he’s talking about wells tested over thirty years ago and found to be mostly useless. (Sound familiar, residents of South Blooming Grove?)
It’s the same bullshit playbook: Put real estate developers first, the actual residents of the area second.
But here’s a complication that hasn’t been discussed as it relates to Woodbury: Orange County Sewer District 1 is over capacity (in Monroe) and at or just above capacity (for Woodbury.)
Orange County’s Department of Health refuses to answer questions about the current state of Orange County Sewer District 1. They have slow rolled responding to all FOIL requests submitted by The Monroe Gazette on this issue.
They have also, at the time of this writing, still denied requests by The Monroe Gazette to tour the sewer facility with a cameraman and interview employees and officials at the plant.
So, not only does Woodbury not have enough water to continue building much of anything, but there is zero sewer capacity to allow them to do so.
And, unlike the water situation, the sewer situation does not have a resolution that is even close to happening.
You’re talking, easily, 2028 at the earliest for upgrades and new facilities to be built. And that’s assuming the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection doesn’t have something to say about all that waste getting dumped into the Ramapo, which two million people rely on for their drinking water.
(At this time, the NJ DEP would not respond to questions about whether they were included in the most recent DEIS and FEIS concerning Orange County Sewer District 1 upgrade.)
And yet, I promise you, tomorrow, you will see Trustee Freiband go on and on about these wells and the need to lift the building moratorium because there’s “plenty of water.”
This is a violation of his fiduciary responsibility to all Woodbury residents. It also puts them in danger of the same violations currently issued against the Village of South Blooming Grove by the Orange County Department of Health: Not having enough water to meet the demands of current residents.
It’s time for the Woodbury Village Board to take action and remove him from office—a point we’ll circle back to in just a minute.
But first …
Senator Skoufis Is An Idiot
Our man has time to pose for photos with the unresponsive and undemocratic Woodbury Town Board, but he does not have time to attend a single meeting in South Blooming Grove.
He has time for photos with Wannabe Future Woodbury Town Supervisor Brandon Calore, who assaulted a disabled teenager after he was asked to wear a mask during the height of America’s largest disaster, where 1.1 million people died.
So, think about that for a second.
According to FOIL’ed documents, Skoufis shared bizarre, paranoid fantasies about the “honesty” of our local politicians, but he posed for photos with someone who assaulted a disabled teenager for the “crime” of being asked to wear a mask at an ice cream shop.
Joining Mr. Skoufis in the same photo is the part-time Town of Woodbury Supervisor who gave herself full-time pay, Kathryn Luciani. The same Supervisor who drove the Animal Shelter into the ground, killing a kitten in the process, hired her son to work at said animal shelter, and then changed the Ethics law after “discovering” that the law existed and prevented other Town Board members from hiring their own children. (Their words. Not mine.)
That is who Senator Skoufis chose to hang out with. That is who Senator Skoufis said are trustworthy politicians who do not lie.
As I continue to say, in the words of Maya Angelou, “When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
If Dorey Houle wasn’t objectively the worst possible candidate any political party could run against a very beatable Democrat, Mr. Skoufis would be evicted from office this November.
So tomorrow night, the Woodbury Village Board will discuss a resolution that essentially tells Mr. Skoufis and his plan to have a “Unified” municipal board to go fuck himself.
Because as you’ll recall, the ONLY reason why he is involved with this “fight” between Woodbury’s Village and Town is because Supervisor Luciani — amidst the steady stream of resignations from the Animal Shelter — didn’t want to transfer the shelter to the Village.
That’s it.
That’s the source of ALL this drama. It’s not to save Woodbury residents money because a “merger” would not do so.
it’s not to stop the “infighting” between the Village and Town. Infighting between Villages and Towns is incredibly common across New York State.
In fact, the Town of Monroe is about to be engaged in a lawsuit brought against it by the Village of Monroe and the Village of Harriman. Where is Senator Skoufis on that one?
The Village of South Blooming Grove is claiming it owns Prospect Road, despite all evidence to the contrary presented to it by the Town of Blooming Grove. So the Village of South Blooming Grove is threatening to sue the Town of Blooming Grove. Where is Senator Skoufis on that one?
The answer, in both scenarios, is nowhere.
The Supervisor wanted to keep her failing animal shelter instead of letting the Village step in and fix it for the sake of our four-legged friends.
That is why Skoufis is wasting taxpayer time and money in proposing unnecessary and undesired legislation.
Because he thinks helping out Luciani will be politically advantageous to his re-election campaign.
It’s a disgrace. It’s embarrassing. And I hope the New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying – who are investigating Mr. Skoufis and his Chief of Staff Emma “Frederick Douglas Isn’t A Journalist” Fuentes — throws the book at them both.
Tomorrow, you will have a chance to do the same. I encourage you to come out and speak up against this uneccesary bill, and ask the Senator to focus instead on helping the people in South Blooming Grove.
Because apparently he’s got all the time in the world to play around on Facebook and tell people about how great his legislation is to create a Unified Board in Woodbury, but not a single damn second to directly speak to the people in South Blooming Grove.
But watch Trustee Fabbro carefully tomorrow. Because if you look at those text messages between him and Skoufis, it’s clear Trustee Fabbro works for the Senator and not the people of Woodbury.
Expect him to vote with Freiband against this resolution on completely nonsensical grounds.
When people tell you who they are, believe them. Fabbro, Freiband, Keleman, and Etzel?
They’re Democrats, but they ain’t the good kind.
The Constitutional Violation
I’ve had the chance to discuss some of the issues here in Southern Orange County with a few Constitutional scholars.
Every single one of them, Conservative and Liberal, have said the same thing:
A government entity cannot act in such a way that advantages one group of people, particularly a religious group, at the expense of those who are not part of that same religious group.
So, if you’ll recall, there was a proposal from the Village of Kiryas Joel for a tax break concerning water infrastructure they own that exists in Woodbury.
As pointed out by former Trustee Christopher Graziano, this sort of tax break is highly unusual, and potentially even unprecedented in New York State.
At this time, I have not been able to verify this claim; however, Mr. Graziano’s day job deals in water infrastructure projects throughout New York State, so I can’t dismiss what he’s saying totally out of hand because of his first hand knowledge of the situation.
What is known is that the Village of Kiryas Joel has made this request fairly regularly in Woodbury, and each time it comes up, it gets unanimously voted down.
But not this time.
Because in March of 2024, despite being told that the request was unusual in New York State, and that it is historically voted down because it would be harmful to residents of Woodbury — fewer tax dollars coming in with the property off the rolls — Trustee James Freiband went ahead and voted to approved the request.
So let’s be clear about this.
A Village of Woodbury Board of Trustees member voted in favor of a request that would:
Take a property off the tax rolls, meaning less revenue coming in to the Village he represents. All while his running mates (Etzel Jr. and Keleman) complain about a phantom “increase” in taxes.
Provide a benefit to the Village of Kiryas Joel, a theocracy representing a majority Arronite population of Satmar.
Now, what you may think of Kiryas Joel is irrelevant here besides the simple fact that, unequivocally, Palm Tree / Kiryas Joel IS a theocracy according to multiple legal scholars and experts.
That doesn’t mean it’s good or bad. I make no judgement here.
What I care about is upholding the Constitution and our Democracy.
Sometimes, that means agreeing with my Haredi Brothers and Sisters, and sometimes, that means disagreeing with them. But they are still my family and Tribe.
So, I want you to put everything aside but the simple fact that Kiryas Joel is indeed a Theocracy no matter how you want to think about it. Theocracy here meaning, Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum and Hanhallah (leadership) make all the decisions, and the people serving elected positions within the municipality work for Hanhallah.
Because once we accept this fact, we have here a clear Constitutional violation on our hands with the actions of Trustee Freiband.
Because Trustee Freiband attempted to use his position as a Village Trustee to disadvantage residents of Woodbury, through the loss of tax revenue, to the explicit benefit of a Theocracy; despite being told the request is historically voted down and despite being told that the request itself is unusual if not without precedent in our state.
This may seem like a minor point. Trustee Freiband has done A LOT of shady shit during his short time in office, most of which on their own can be, and should be, fireable offenses.
But after the assault on our Democracy on January 6th, 2021, and the continued assault on our Democracy by the MAGA Republicans and their leader, Donald Trump, we all have to be vigilant in defending our country and our democracy.
That means ensuring that the Constitution, which every Village Board member takes an Oath to uphold and defend, is followed appropriately.
In this specific instance, we have clear evidence that a constitutional violation occurred where harm would have been caused to a secular community to favor a theocracy.
For that reason alone, Village Trustee Frieband should be removed from office. As soon as tomorrow’s meeting, but sooner rather than later.
There’s no time to waste. If we’re going to move forward together, and that includes my Haredi Brothers and Sisters, then we have to all agree to play by the same set of rules.
The Constitution is a better place than any to start with.