Skoufis Leaks Clovewood Permit Approval News In Latest Failed Spin Attempt

In an effort to dump the bad news when no one was paying attention, State Senator James G. Skoufis may have leaked the DEC decision concerning Clovewood late on Friday night on Facebook.

This is a story about how the actions of a small time State Senator in Upstate New York can potentially cost the Democrats nationally against Trump and MAGA. It’s also a story about what happens when a developer, Keen Equities, takes over a small village government and every elected official is somehow unable, or unwilling, to do anything about it.

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It sounds like New York State Senator, James G. Skoufis, "accidentally" leaked—before it was made official—that Keen Equities’s Clovewood permit was approved.

In an effort to avoid this seriously bad news, both for himself and for New York’s Hudson Valley, Skoufis posted it on a Friday evening when no one was looking.

He also stressed that he could do nothing, which, once again, is false. This would be Skoufis's second verifiably false statement to the public in less than a week.

Above: I want you to remember the line, “State legislators’ influence is limited to advocacy,” which is EXACTLY what area residents have been asking the Senator to help with, and he has repeatedly and verifiably failed to do so.

It is an act of advocacy, for one example, to write a letter to the DEC asking them to revoke the permits granted to Keen Equities, which is something that the Senator has refused to do.

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Before we talk about the Clovewood news, what it means for you, and what you can do about it, it’s worth addressing one of Skoufis’s other false statements.

That’s because Skoufis took $10,000 from an employee of Keen Equities shareholders, South Blooming Grove’s de facto Mayor, and local religious extremist Joel Stern.

So, let’s go to this article from our friends at Straus News, notorious and “reliable” fact-checkers that they are.

In this week’s Photo-News, State Senator Skoufis said the following:

“We must do more to keep big money and influence out of politics; to that end, I would love to see my bill prohibiting candidates from taking corporate campaign contributions signed into law. With or without the law in place, I’ll continue to refuse these kinds of contributions, as I have for several years.” (Emphasis Added.)

Fact: In 2024 alone, Skoufis took in $34,719.53 from LLCs (corporations) and LLPs (law firms.)

He also took in $136,400 from Political Action Committees.

That is a total of $171,119.53 that Skoufis took this year that he has NOT refused.

He is lying to you.

I know some of you love this guy and will defend him even if he strangled The Pope, but this is something you can look up for yourself on the NYSBOE Public Reporting System. Don’t take my word for it.

The financial contributions are right there for all to see, as is his comment in The Photo-News about not taking this kind of money.

At this point, you either want to see the facts in front of your face about Mr. Skoufis, or you don’t.

And if you’re in the latter group, I can’t help you.

Only God can, and she’s busy.

But for those of you who can understand past performance isn’t an indicator of future performance, and can understand that the facts show a very different picture from the one Mr. Skoufis wants to sell you, here’s another fact for you.

On May 15th, 2022, Mr. Skoufis received $70,000 in a single day from people directly tied to Keen Equities and the larger development projects in South Blooming Grove.

This includes money from the founder and president of the local hate group — and a direct employee of one of Keen Equities largest shareholders — Joel Stern.

Mr. Stern gave Senator Skoufis $10,000. That is a fact.

Mr. Isaac Ekstein, South Blooming Grove’s other de facto Mayor and the president of the hate group, gave Senator Skoufis $15,000. That is also a fact.

These two men have largely been responsible for ramming the Clovewood project through the municipal approvals process. Mr. Skoufis has NOT rejected or otherwise refunded their donations.

When asked about the $70,000 — and $25,000 from Stern and Ekstein — Mr. Skoufis told The Monroe Gazette, “It's not my responsibility to explain someone else's reasoning for donating, but it is my responsibility to ensure those donations don't change how I approach this work.”

That sure is a fuck of a lot different than this week’s statement of, “With or without the law in place, I’ll continue to refuse these kinds of contributions, as I have for several years.”

You deserve a straight answer from the State Senator:

Either you don’t take this kind of money, which you just publicly said, or you do and you “don’t let it influence you” which also isn’t true from the Senator’s repeated refusal to personally attend a single meeting in South Blooming Grove, or write to the DEC asking them to revoke the Clovewood permits. Both are forms of advocacy the Senator could have done in recent months, and repeatedly failed to do so.

If all he can do is advocate, then you tell me, Skoufis Supporters: What the fuck is the hold up here?

Who He WAS Ain’t Who He IS

So, before we get into Clovewood, I think it’s important to stress that Mr. Skoufis took money from people directly tied to Clovewood, and is now telling people that he doesn’t accept this kind of money, and that there’s little he can do.

He is also telling people all he can do is advocate on their behalf, and he has failed to do the one thing he has repeatedly been asked to do by residents of South Blooming Grove and the Town of Blooming Grove.

I truly wish that Dorey Houle would be struck by lightning and replaced by a better Republican opponent for Mr. Skoufis. Or maybe somehow be mutated by the lightning and become a decent human being, because she ain’t that either.

Maybe there’s also some kind of Frankenstein’s Monster scenario here where the re-animated corpse of Dorey Houle is actually a better and more thoughtful candidate for New York’s 42nd State Senate District than actual Dorey Houle. I don’t know.

But unfortunately, and as I’ve said virtually all year, residents in New York State’s 42nd State Senate District have a choice between an anti-woman fascist who has verifiably covered up environmental emergencies that directly impact the health and safety of the residents she was elected to serve … and Senator Skoufis.

Skoufis is the kind of guy that gives Democrats a bad name.

Like, all the work that’s being done on the national level to highlight the differences between Trump / MAGA and the Democrats?

State Senator James Skoufis—along with other local Democrats such as Tyler Etzel Jr., James Freiband, Matthew Fabbro, and John U. Keleman*—are undoing that work.

And in the process, they make the fascist MAGA crowd look like a viable alternative. THAT is why the national polls between Harris and Trump are so close.

Because people see State Senator James G. Skoufis, and the actions I just detailed for you, and they’ll go, “Well, he’s just a corrupt asshole, so all the other Democrats must be too.”

I can’t put into words how truly fucked up this is.

Not just here but all across America because we’re not the only ones dealing with having to choose between two political parties that have both sold us all out long ago to the highest bidder.

But wait. There’s more on the Clovewood front. Keep reading.

*Also, Mr. Keleman was a lifelong Republican until last year. He switched parties to run with Mr. Etzel.

Despite lacking any sort of leadership skills, and having been seen scowling at people in organizations he’s lead doing things successfully without him, Mr. Keleman wants to be your next Woodbury Village Mayor.

Good luck with that shit, Woodbury.

Now Let’s Talk Clovewood

At this time, the DEC has not officially stated that approval was issued for the permit.

The DEC was asked to provide a statement to both The Monroe Gazette and News 12 earlier this week. They did not do so.

If you look up the Application ID for Clovewood, which is 3-3320-00150 at the time of this writing, nothing is listed there to indicate that the project was approved.

So, let’s be clear:

Given that Orange County Sewer District 1 has no sewage capacity, and it's not clear if the New Windsor sewage plant can support the added burden from Clovewood and South Blooming Grove’s other projects, in addition to the rampant air pollution and failed municipal water infrastructure, the potential for polluting both the Hudson River and the Ramapo River, not to mention the direct conflict of interest that exists between South Blooming Grove's de facto Mayor, Joel Stern, and Keen Equities, residents across Southern Orange County are encouraged to organize.

(And frankly, it’s time to reach out to our friends in New Jersey too, because the Ramapo River and their drinking water is not going to survive the amount of sewage and other pollution being dropped into it by both the City of Kiryas Joel and South Blooming Grove.)

If Skoufis is incorrect, and the permit has NOT been granted, it'll be worth demanding that he actually do something to justify another two years in office. He claims all he can do is advocate, then let’s see him do that.

Otherwise, you can vote appropriately.

If Skoufis is correct, it'll be worth organizing and taking immediate legal action against the DEC, SBG, and Mr. Stern’s various friends and partners involved with Clovewood.

So, What Can You Do?

The other day, I took my Dad to get his flu shot at Central Valley Pharmacy. We drove by those huge Tyler Etzel Jr. and John U. Keleman signs, and I said to my Dad, “I can’t believe this guy, the Democrat, is going to people’s homes and lying to their face.” You can see Mr. Etzel doing that here.

My Dad says to me, “You expect too much from these people.” [our local elected officials.]

And he’s right.

I am one of those people who still very much believes in this country, our form of government, and our way of life. That includes believing that our elected officials, regardless of party, religion, or anything else, should act in good faith toward ALL of the people they represent. Not just the people who voted for them.

That’s why I have a very simple test to determine who I write about here at The Monroe Gazette:

1. Are you an asshole?

2. Are you an asshole that’s in a position to harm people based on your decisions?

3. Are you actively and willfully harming those people without good faith discussion and debate about your decisions?

If the answer is yes to all three questions, then I’m going to write about you. That is why I spend so much time talking about — keeping with the Woodbury example — Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, Town Councilman Brandon Calore, and Village Trustees James Freiband and Matthew Fabbro.

For all of the people I just named, the answer to those three questions are: Yes. Yes. and Yes.

If you watch the most recent Woodbury Town Board meeting, you can watch a bunch of gaslightning narcissists blame the Village for dragging out this IMA discussion without the Town literally having done anything to move the discussion forward itself. The Town’s position is “Fuck you. We want to leave things as they are.”

And to support their position of fuck you, the Town Board had a bad faith meeting with Trustees Fabbro and Freiband, all working for the same developers Luciani and Wannabe Town Supervisor Brandon Calore are, all agreeing that “Village bad. Town good. Keep everything as it is” despite …

1. The out of control library board, including a president who has now publicly assaulted both a town employee and an area resident

2. The potential and rampant pension fraud going on with Woodbury PD’s overtime system, and the lack of due process — a constitutional violation — committed by Chief Watson in uneven enforcement of the law towards Satmar residents and Secular residents.

3. The repeated failures at the animal shelter since Deputy Supervisor Theresa Luongo and Luciani took over, which has led to an exodus of employees, and the Town Board deciding to lie to the public and claim due to that exodous that they can’t hire anyone, which led to the Supervisor hiring her son, and then amending the Town’s ethics laws so that the other Town Board members can do the same.

Does all of that sound like you should keep the current IMA arrangement as is? Are you serious?

Does all of that sound like the Town Board, and Fabbro and Freiband, have failed my test? Yes, yes, and yes.

Why am I telling you this?

Because there is a legitimate solution to the Clovewood problem, and absolutely nobody is going to like it. That’s because it’s not a quick fix, it’s going to involve voting for someone we don’t like, and it’s going to involve everyone agreeing to deal in reality and not Facebook fantasy.

If you all can’t agree to play in this dimension, nothing’s going to change.

That means accepting the facts that Skoufis sucks and he just sold you all out.

It means accepting the facts that Trump is going to sell you out in ways way, way worse than you can possibly conceive Harris will.

And that also means accepting the facts that a lot of your local elected officials in Southern Orange County are a bunch of gutless, cowardly fascists who don’t want to answer difficult questions, and instead complain about the mean things people say about them online.

For example, I was supposed to meet with Supervisor Luciani and Deputy Supervisor Luongo, but they’ve canceled that meeting because they’re too chickenshit to answer the questions I had for them.

This includes the IMA items I just mentioned, and it also includes Luciani’s alleged attempts to build a road through forever green space that the Town owns, as part of an effort to help out Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone push through the Monroe Commons project. (Luciani denies this. But then again, she just spent the meeting I just showed you gaslighting people about the IMA. So, buyer beware.)

I’m not kidding about Trump by the way. He wants to dismantle the National Weather Service. Think about the absolute devastation that many of you issued thoughts and prayers over with Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and now imagine what it would be like to live in a world where you didn’t know those storms were coming.

That’s reality.

You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to agree with it. You just have to acknowledge that facts are facts.

Right now in America, that’s a serious challenge for a lot of people.

If you want to stop this Clovewood project, there is a way to do it. But it’s not going to work if everyone is too busy living in their own bubble.

Remember: Nobody is coming to save you. You have to save yourself and your community, and that process begins by accepting reality. Not just locally, but nationally as well.

As far as Clovewood goes, I do have a plan, and I’m going to share with you what that plan is shortly.

As far as America goes? Well, that’s on you in a matter of days.