Can Crazy People Really Say That During Public Comment?

Transcript

(A note to readers: The Transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity. We’ve also added a few things, such as the new super sketchy Protect Monroe-Woodbury mailers that State Senator Skoufis is responsible for. If you’ve missed our coverage of Mr. Skoufis’s violation of New York State Election law as it relates to Woodbury, you can read our most recent story on it here.)

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of The Monroe Gazette brought to you from the George Carlin Memorial Podcast Studio. I'm your host, BJ Mendelson. You know, I was watching the June 5th Town of Woodbury Board Meeting and I wanted to share something with all of you.

While it's true I don't live in Southern Orange County half the year, for example — the George Carlin Memorial Podcast Studio is based in Los Angeles — When I am here, I help take care of three disabled adults. They all live here and what happens in Monroe, Woodbury, Chester, and Blooming Grove impacts them. So every time you see someone, like the unelected Woodbury Village trustee, Rhonda Fabbro, tell people “He doesn't even live here." I want you to know something. She's right. But my family does. They've been here since 1988 and we can't all be as fortunate as Rhonda. You see, Mrs. Fabro has a son over on the Woodbury Village board and she tells him how to vote. Isn’t that special?

I'll also point out to you that over in Monroe, former State Senator Skoufis intern, Brandon Bernard, is running for town board and he also doesn't live here half the year.

Pictured Above: Fellow Part-Time Monroe resident, Brandon Bernard, stands in the center. Next to him is the weird asshole who won't get off people’s lawns, Paul Phelan. On the right is David Rabbitts, looking at the one person in the room who could still have a successful political career after the Town of Monroe Democratic Primary is over.

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So, someone should tell the local Democrats that you can't have it both ways. You can have people use their voice to speak up for those who are unable, regardless of where they may be, or you can't. Before we move on, I just want to say, I'm sure Woodbury voters this November will make the right choice and send both Fabbros packing.

That said, I was a little disturbed by what happened during the public comment portion of this Town of Woodbury meeting.

The Monroe Gazette consulted with multiple attorneys, including the town of Woodbury’s attorney, for this story. Here's what we were able to learn.

Yes. A Town Attorney Can Shut You Down.

-A town attorney can cut you off during public comment and they can also remove public comment entirely. That's what happened over in South Blooming Grove.

That doesn't make it right. We don't think it's right. But in New York, it's important for residents to know that public comment is a privilege, not a right. That said, if you're like me and don't like the Town of Woodbury forcing you to speak for only three minutes, you can and should absolutely run every candidate out of town who refuses to fix that. If you are running for town board, you can and should tell people you want the public to be able to speak their mind. Preferably in more time than it takes to show commercials between innings at a Mets game.

We hope, and I don't think it's out of line to state this, that the Woodbury Town Attorney agrees that these rules and guidelines can be explained better, and we hope that at an upcoming town board meeting, they will be clarified respectfully by the Town of Woodbury. For example, you CAN record Town of Woodbury Board meetings. As long as you don’t get in Brandon Calore’s face, for example, and say something like, “I know you drink and drive. How many beers did you have on your way to this meeting?”

I also feel, and I hope you agree, that the town should be asked to clarify why they feel public comment should be limited to three minutes, especially when the attendance at town board meetings are often on par with a Brandon Calore ice cream social for disabled teenagers.

(And if you don't get that joke, I'm happy to explain that Mr. Calore was accused of assaulting a disabled teenager in an ice cream shop and then legitimately sued the mother of that teenager for telling people what he did. This is the man who wants to be your mayor. And Calore is also the primary beneficiary of mailers being sent out by James G. Skoufis's Protect Monroe Woodbury. Did you see these “cool” new ones?

Above: The latest round of deceptive mailers sent by State Senator James G. Skoufis, and his employee — and former Door Dash Delivery Driver — William J. Alexander. We reached out to Woodbury Village Trustee Susan Ciriello for comment. Here’s what she told The Monroe Gazette about these deceptive fliers created by Mr. James Skoufis:

Here are the facts. For fiscal year 2023/2024 the Mayor's Salary was 36k. For 2024/2025 it was raised to 42K, a 6k increase. Was it a secret or hidden? No. First, it is a separate line item on the budget under the caption of Mayor. Second, the salaries of elected officials are on the Summary page of the Village Adopted Budget which was available at the public hearing and on the Village website. Third, it was discussed in our budget session in executive session, where all 4 trustees were present. I was in favor of the increase. Why?

Andrew has consistently demonstrated a deep commitment to serving the Woodbury community. He is accessible and responsive at all hours, often monitoring social media to stay attuned to residents’ concerns and promptly addressing issues as they arise.

His leadership is results-driven, and his efforts have led to tangible improvements in the quality of life across Woodbury via infrastructure development, repair and maintenance, open space initiatives, climate smart initiatives and community engagement. He has shown tireless dedication to protecting and preserving what makes our community special.

And to put it in perspective, the 6K increase resulted in MY personal village taxes increasing by $1.96 FOR THE YEAR or .16cents per month. (Emphasis added.)

With regards to the budget, for the 2025/2026 budget, we were under the tax cap override.For the 2024/2025 budget, we were over the tax cap. This was because of the new ladder truck that arrived way ahead of schedule that we needed to take delivery of.

Per the April 11, 2024 VB meeting minutes:

"Mayor Giacomazza stated that money was in the budget for the initial down payment (of the fire truck). He stated the truck was ordered in February of 2023 and was supposed to take three years; however, it will be ready by the end of this year, meaning the Village has two less budget cycles to pay for it."

I am personally disheartened by the amount of time, energy and money that is being spent on these dirty politics.”

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If you want to know more about Protect Monroe Woodbury, we've basically spent like the entire week at The Monroe Gazette talking about it, and we still have like three more articles to get out about Protect Monroe Woodbury, so there's more coming.

Here’s the most popular one:

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Remember here, we are dealing with lawyers. So, yes. It is semantically confusing from a legal perspective, to have an independent party line that shares the name of a petition, and then ask an attorney to try to decide in real time what is and what is not political because of that confusion.

I hope that makes sense because that was like a mouthful. In this case, we're talking about how We Are Woodbury is both an independent ballot line and the name of a civic group circulating a petition. This confusion is nobody's fault. It's actually good marketing. I'm just pointing out the fact that within the context of a town board meeting during public comment, it can be confusing.

We have to fight smart. And the important thing is, if you're going to go and start a fight with someone, you want to be able to control the terrain that you start the fight on.

So when you go into a town board meeting, and this is just an example using Woodbury, it could be like any town board, you don't control that terrain. And so you have to fight smart. And fighting smart is, okay, I know the rules, I know how to work the rules, but if I create an opportunity to be shut down, I will be shut down. That's what I mean by “we have to fight smart.” You want to avoid creating those opportunities to be shut down.

Now …

In the context of Woodbury, you're dealing with Mr. Skoufis, a well-funded real estate developer, and in some respects, the infrastructure of the New York State Democratic Party. I'll give you an example of what I mean. Did you notice the education equivalency requirements for Yeshivas were delayed another year in a recently approved budget? I hope you did, because the Governor did that to help her chances at reelection. You may also be aware, I hope, that the governor sent a representative from her office to speak with Woodbury officials about the annexation of Ace Farm. So pay attention. These actions by Hochul are not coincidental.

When you don't control the terrain, you create opportunities to be shut down. And they will shut you down. In this case, the town is right to point this out [the confusion over We Are Woodbury as a Political Party and as a Civic Group].

A broken clock is right twice a day. It's also true that the town is involved in litigation concerning Ace Farm, and you better believe anything they say can and will be used against it. Probably by the same law firm Woodbury Public Library Board President Cathy Schmidt spent Woodbury taxpayer money on to utilize.

So they [The Town] can't really comment on this stuff as a town board or during town meetings.

The town is also right to point out that We Are Woodbury is a third-party. That means that any comments made on behalf of its candidates, for example, gets into the realm of political commentary. Something that's currently prohibited under the rules. That said, if you don't like that, and I don't, you can and should, if you feel strongly about this, demand that the town board revise public comment. They can absolutely give you more time to speak and allow for any manner of speech as long as it's not a verbal assault on the senses.

Which is what happens practically any time a member of the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats opens their mouth. Also, while we're talking about the Committee to elect Woodbury Democrats, can we talk about the suits? Like what's going on with this? Why are they all wearing suits? It's like I'm looking at a pod person that was hatched in Skoufis's office. What is happening here? Nobody else is wearing a suit but you. You look like a freak.

Anyway, sorry … It's just been a pet peeve of mine for a while now. It's incredibly stupid. It's also disingenuous. You represent a working-class town. This isn't Manhattan. You don't need to wear a suit for your Village of Woodbury board meeting, okay? Trust me.

What does that mean for upcoming Woodbury meetings?

If you want to specifically criticize a town board member for not doing enough for Woodbury without mentioning the petition, you could certainly do so. For example, Deputy Supervisor Gretchen Wieners has missed a bunch of meetings.

Does she think the town board is a part-time job? Where is she?

Another example: Mrs. Kelly Rinaldi is the unelected town board member who replaced another unelected town board member. If you recall, the last guy quit under mysterious circumstances that were never explained to the town. He replaced ANOTHER Town Board member who also quit. It’s almost as if there’s a pattern forming …

Mrs. Kelly Rinaldi can be seen at this meeting, nodding her head at everything Mrs. Luciani says. I personally find that to be alarming.

Like the aforementioned Village Trustee Matthew Fabro, if Mrs. Rinaldi isn't capable of independent thought, she probably shouldn't be on the town board.

Now, if you want to discuss the petition concerning Ace Farm, it's best to explain to the public watching the meeting the benefits of signing such a petition and then remind the public where and how they can do so.

You see the difference? This way you're not calling people out, you're not calling out the town, and you're not getting into a fight on terrain you don't control. Listen, I read the Art of War like every four months. So if you don't want to take my word for it, you can go and pick up a copy of the Art of War for yourself.

You always fight a battle on terrain you control. You see the difference between going to a town board meeting and calling someone out for not supporting an annexation petition versus going to a town board meeting and saying, this is our petition, this is what it does, this is what you'll get if you sign it, this is how you sign it. You see the difference?

Sell people the brownie, not the recipe.

That's not my saying, by the way.

I stole that from a much smarter woman who advises political candidates, proving once again that women are smarter than men and I am a dumbass. So all I can do is offer you the feedback. It's up to you now to act on it. So I'll leave it to you, people of Woodbury. And if you don't live in Woodbury, and you're like, why am I listening to this? It's true in Monroe too. You only got three minutes to speak in Monroe because Tax Hike Tony doesn't want people speaking. And if he sees you coming, he'll even cancel public comment, which we've seen him do.

So it's not just the Woodbury thing. I'm just using Woodbury to highlight the point that you want to fight smart at these things. If you have an adversarial relationship with something like the Woodbury town board, you don't control that terrain. You can certainly fight them. You don’t have to pick your battles. That’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying is that you have to do it a specific way. And if you do it the wrong way, it looks bad.

And Now A Quick American History Lesson

I'm just a journalist giving you my opinion. And if you're like, “BJ, journalists aren't supposed to give an opinion” … Can I just tell you, and this isn’t in the script, so I'm probably gonna get myself in trouble here and ramble … But I think it's a really important point. I was watching the broadcast on CNN of Good Night and Good Luck, which was really good. If you haven't seen the play, the movie is not as good as the play, the play is better. So anyway, it was on CNN and then they had this panel and they had these two schmucks on the panel, and I'm not gonna name names, but one of them was like, “we need less advocacy journalism.”

And so, The Monroe Gazette is what you would call advocacy journalism. It's not what you would call “traditional journalism.” But here's the thing. Throughout American history, if you go way back, back to the time when they had pamphlets before newspapers, you know like so Thomas Paine, Common Sense, that was a pamphlet. That was journalism. That's what constituted journalism in America up until the technology improved. And then you started to have private printing presses and then you started to have newspapers.

And the newspapers up until the 1870s were also advocacy journalists. You had the newspapers in the South that were like praising the Mexican-American war and saying, “We need to take this territory from these godless heathens because they're brown and we're white and we're better.” That's seriously what they were saying. In the North, you also had people calling out slavery. You had William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator. And later you had Frederick Douglass's newspaper. So you had newspapers and they were all giving you their opinion. Up until the 1870s, that dynamic starts to change.

And what happens is you get the Associated Press, and I'm not going to go into the whole history of this because it would take like an hour, but you get the formation of the Associated Press. And the Associated Press is basically like, OK, we can form a business cartel by creating standardized news. And they did this, by the way, to tilt the presidential election. This wasn't done out of the kindness of their hearts. This wasn't done to better inform the public. The origins of the Associated Press were to help tilt a presidential election.

So at the same time this is happening, you start to get mass advertising. And so the combination of the Associated Press and then later people like Hearst and mass advertising led to what is now “traditional journalism.” But really that’s a way of saying corporate journalism. News that’s meant to be packaged with advertising and, usually, be as bland as possible. And if you're a baby boomer, you grew up with this.

But that’s NOT what you had throughout American history. What you had throughout American history up until the 1870s, until about let's say 2008 was a blip. And now we're back to what's advocacy journalism. What's actual American journalism. So lwhat The Monroe Gazette does is actual American journalism. Not the “voice from nowhere” style that you get from The Photo News or Mid-Hudson news, which allegedly are not slanted. Even though they both totally are. That's a blip in terms of American history.

So I just think it's important because we hear people talk all the time about like, “we need less advocacy journalism.” We actually need more of it. Because journalism itself is an act of activism and it's important. And the reason why I tell you all that is I wanted to touch on one last thing before we go. And I also wanted to explain, sometimes we get questions about why The Gazette sounds the way it does, why it talks the way it does. It's definitely got its own attitude. It's definitely not at all like a voice from nowhere, neutral, Associated Press-style media outlet. But what I'm trying to convey to you is that what we do here at the Gazette is actually rooted deeply in the tradition of American history and American journalism. And the thing that we sometimes call “traditional journalism” or what is derisively called corporate journalism, historically, is a blip.

Let’s Talk About What’s Happening In Los Angeles

And so I want to touch on this because we are based in Los Angeles part of the year. And so I've been very distracted and upset with what's happening. You know, I lost a lot of time this week making sure friends and family are okay and making sure that the people that need support got support.

So if you watch Fox or even CBS News, you might see a Waymo car on fire and be like, my god, Los Angeles is burning. And that's not what's happening. So I just wanted to point out real quick a few things I think are really important.

First: One in eight Americans live in California.

So. Much like the Wild West, what you picture is the “real America”, kind of like “traditional journalism” is nonsense.

It's not the real America. You know, we think about like, "the farm and white people and going to church and then going to your town board meeting.” That we’re told constantly this is the real America, but it's not.

In the 21st century, one in eight Americans lives in California. If you want a picture of what America looks like, I encourage you to visit Los Angeles.

So that's just what, like I've seen that a lot this week. People trying to paint Los Angeles like some radical far left liberal city. And it’s not. LA is many, many different communities fused into one. And everyone is doing their own thing most of the time.

The second thing I want to tell you is that California is the largest economy in the United States. So what happens in Los Angeles in particular, like for example, a lot of the stuff that you get in stores here in Monroe first probably originated over in the Port of Los Angeles, and then made its way over on the truck.

And so we have California, the number one economy in the United States and in the world, California is the fourth largest economy. So what happens here is really important.

And so when you see these depictions in the news of like LA being on fire or things being crazy. Like that's, it's very deceptive and it's not at all the reality.

And I think it's also important to point out how economically important Los Angeles is. So if the Trump administration wants to mess around with one of the world’s largest economies? Don’t think that you’re going to be any more safe in your little red bubble.

For example, let's say you are some of my conservative friends and I've had these conversations where you might not like a lot of the stuff Trump is doing, but you do like the immigration stuff. You do like the crackdowns. You know, I encourage you to think and look at what's happening in Los Angeles and California just a little bit more critically, because what's happening is not what the president had promised. They keep saying “Promises made, promises kept” and it’s just another form of gaslighting. No promises have been kept. We just got more chaos and higher prices everywhere. On everything. For no reason at all.

Yes. I know. Some of you will say “but I didn’t vote for that!” If you were paying attention to his rallies, like in July, they had signs that said Mass Deportations Now. So you kind of did.

But I don’t fault you. Here’s why: Because despite those signs, the Trump team was also telling people, “oh, you know, don't worry, we're only going to go after like the bad actors.” That's not what's happening in Los Angeles.

What's happening is that you've got people working for ICE who are just sitting in school parking lots, in Home Depot parking lots, and they're rounding up children, they're rounding up pregnant women, like they're not going into the gang areas. You know, like on the ground in Los Angeles, I can tell you that we have not seen ICE go into where the “bad hombres” are. They're not doing that. They're instead like bothering people who are outside of the Home Depot looking for work. And that's not exactly what was promised or advertised.

So I just want you to think for my more conservative friends about what that means and what's really happening here. Because if they can disrupt one of the world’s largest economies without any thought? Just to menace non-white people in order to “own the libs” and excite their dwindling number of supporters? It just demonstrates that the MAGA people aren’t looking out for you; and that they never were.

So the third point is, I think if you live in Monroe, and you're, we're kind of spoiled by New York City, because New York City is tightly packed, right? New York City's got a high density and everything is right on top of everything else. And LA isn't like that. LA is almost 470 square miles. So it would take you driving from Monroe to Monticello 11 times just to cover the geographic distance that comprises the city of Los Angeles.

So when you see stuff on the news, and it's like, oh, LA is burning, and things are crazy, and it's like, no, dude, these are very small pockets within the city. So in downtown, that's where the National Guard is. So you see some of that. But that's not the city.

So we get crazy stuff like “we're going to liberate Los Angeles” and “Los Angeles is burning and the city is on fire.” It's not. It's just not. It's just not actually true. So I thought that was important. You know, I've been thinking about this all week. None of this was in the script, but it's been on my mind quite a bit. And like I said, the George Carlin Memorial podcast studio does come to you from Burbank. I just thought it was important to touch on that because these things do have an impact on what happens in Southern Orange County here in New York. It’s all interconnected, whether or not your friends who were brainwashed by MAGA want to believe it or not.

Everyone Counts or No One Counts

I think a lot about the fictional LAPD detective Harry Bosch. His philosophy is the same philosophy I have, which is that everyone counts or nobody counts. And if you look at South Blooming Grove, clearly New York State has decided that nobody counts.

And if you look in Los Angeles and you look at the treatment of people that … regardless of how they got here, they are protected by the 14th Amendment. They do have rights under the 14th Amendment and clearly the federal government has said nobody counts. And so if you live in a world where nobody counts, then as you've probably heard by now, that means you WILL be next. Not could. Not potentially. Not hypothetically. You WILL be next. MAGA just hasn’t got around to you. But it will.

And I just think that that's something that you should think about.

So, okay, back on the script.

One last thing before we go. This Saturday's nationwide mass protest known as No Kings. There are multiple locations across Orange County. The first event takes place in Warwick from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The next events will take place simultaneously in Newburgh, New Windsor, and Goshen from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. I'm going to repeat that. Newburgh, New Windsor, and Goshen from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. I kind of wish there was a centralized one, but...

Yeah, what are you gonna do? Finally, over in Middletown, there's a No Kings event from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. So, conceivably, if you are really worked up about the stuff like I am, you could start your morning in Warwick from 10 a.m. to 11:30, you can make your way to Newburgh, New Windsor, or Goshen, your choice, from noon. To 2 p.m. And then over in Middletown after you're done there From 4 p.m. To 6 p.m. You can sign up here to attend the one that works best for you. Just punch in 10950 into the Map and you’ll get all the locations and further details.

It's clear from the events happening in our home city of Los Angeles that the Trump administration is looking to quell dissent using the military and National Guard. The freedom to assemble and the freedom to protest are foundational to our republic. So whether or not you agree or disagree … The thing I keep trying to stress to people is that this isn't Democrats or Republicans. This is a specific group of people known as MAGA and MAGA is a traitorous, un-American, and seditionist movement.

That's who we're talking about.

We're not talking about Republicans. And we're not talking about the corporate Democrats who suck, too. Like I said, when you go to these events, if you want to hold up a sign that says Schumer sucks? Let me know, because I will absolutely hold one up. And if you've got one that says Hochul sucks or Skoufis sucks, I will hold one up. Again, I just want to stress, I don't want people to make this a Democrat, us and them, Republican thing. It's not.

People are out to protest the Trump administration specifically. These actions by the Trump administration again illustrate that there is no fidelity to our constitution and that the MAGA movement, as I said, is traitorous, seditious, and un-American.

If you want to show everyone how much you love America and what true patriotism looks like? You grab yourself an American flag and head on out to your nearest No Kings event. It's time we take back our flag, our government, and our country from this un-American movement and those who support it. I'll see you there.