Former Woodbury Town Board Member Doesn't Understand How Karma Works
How actual karma — and door-knocking — could save your town from people like Kelly Rinaldi.
Pictured Above: The March 2025 swearing in of former Woodbury Town Board member, Kelly Rinaldi. The local equivalent of former British Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Happy Monday. We’re back. If you missed last week’s episode of our Stupid Sexy Privacy podcast, you can check it out here.
Our other podcasts, The Finley and Privacy Tips, will return as soon as I finish “How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos.” It’s looking like the end of the month for that book to be completely edited.
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Now, due to a request for privacy, at the time of this writing, I can’t give you the full context behind this story. Someone died. It’s very sad, and we’d like to give our condolences to those affected by this loss. When it becomes appropriate to do so, we’ll fill you in.
But.
I can give you something incredibly shitty that happened related to this loss. And, honestly, even if you don’t live in Southern Orange County — a bigger and bigger chunk of our readership as we transition towards covering more state-wide and national news in addition to the local coverage — there’s still a lesson to be learned here. Or two at least.
The first explains how karma actually works.
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Pictured Above: A couple of hours after a tragic loss was shared on Facebook, former Woodbury Town Board member, Kelly Rinaldi, decided to share what many Woodbury residents claim was her opinion on that passing. (The Monroe Gazette was unaware of this story until numerous Woodbury residents sent us these screenshots voicing their outrage. The Monroe Gazette reached out to Mrs. Rinaldi for comment and will update this story if we hear back. Mrs. Rinaldi has since deleted the above post.)
Current Woodbury Town Board member, Gretchen Weiners, decided to chime in as well. This was followed by the wife of Woodbury Town Board member — and far right MAGA Bigot — Brandon Calore. The other two people in the picture above were blurred because they are not public figures or closely associated with a public figure. We’ve previously written about Mrs. Calore’s odd behavior toward Woodbury residents here.
Now, if you don’t live in Southern Orange County, all you need to know is that Kelly Rinaldi is essentially the local equivalent of former British Prime Minister, Liz Truss. Mrs. Truss served as Prime Minister for 50 days, which is the shortest tenure in British history.
During the dark times of the Luciani Error — not a typo — in the Town of Woodbury, the Woodbury Town Board saw not one, but two resignations. The first being Timothy Finnegan, who formerly operated Finnegan’s Pub at 504 State Route 32 in Highland Mills. The bar was owned by local real estate douche developer, Wayne Corts. Mr. Corts then sold the bar to 297 Hart LLC, who then sold it to Yeh Realty Holdings LLC. We mention this because Yeh Realty Holdings LLC is based in South Blooming Grove, not too far from Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein’s United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove headquarters at 29 Merriewold Lane South, and may be owned by Yosef Horowitz.
You can draw your own conclusions there as to whether or not these things are connected, given Isaac Ekstein’s involvement in the most recent Village and Town elections in Woodbury. Both Stern and Ekstein are alleged to be at the center of an ongoing federal investigation involving voter fraud and voter coercion. Allegedly, New York State’s Attorney General Letitia James is investigating them as well, but we’ll believe that when we see it.
The second resignation was of Robert Beckley, who replaced Timothy Finnegan. To this day, Mr. Beckley has not explained or commented on his abrupt departure from the Woodbury Town Board. It’s speculated that Mr. Beckley did not get along with Supervisor Luciani, but there is no evidence publicly to support that conclusion. All we can say to you factually is that his resignation was abrupt, and it occurred following a tense meeting of the Woodbury Town Republican Committee. It was Ms. Rinaldi, who — over the objections of current Town Board member, Martha Lopez, and others — was appointed to fill Beckley’s seat by Kathryn Luciani. Despite the fact that an election was starting up at the time of Beckley’s departure. Lopez and others insisted that the Town Board seat abandoned by Finnegan and then Beckley be left open so that the voters can have their say. Mrs. Katrhyn Luciani ignored these suggestions and appointed Kelly Rinaldi.
Mrs. Rinaldi proceeded to miss a bunch of meetings, and when she was present, did little more than nod her head at what Mrs. Luciani had to say. This can be verified by watching any Woodbury Town Board meeting between March and Rinaldi’s sudden and permanent disappearance in November of 2025. (Upon losing their respective bids for re-election, Mrs. Rinaldi ghosted the Woodbury Town Board for the duration of the term she was appointed to serve.)
The Monroe Gazette has reached out to the Town of Woodbury to confirm the exact number of meetings missed by Kelly Rinaldi, as well as how much money she made while acting as a rubber stamp for the corrupt and inept Luciani-Calore administration. We will share that information once provided.
That’s Not How Karma Works, Kelly
Let’s assume for a second that Mrs. Rinaldi is not a Buddhist. So, if that’s the case, it’s probably true she doesn’t believe in death and rebirth.
Outside of like, Jesus.
So if we’re talking about spiritual rebirth, and bringing what you did — or did not do, like show up to Woodbury Town Board meetings — then that’s how karma works in one sense. If you’re a terrible person in one life, in the next life, you’re going to face the consequences of your actions, or at least suffer in some form because of the consequences of your actions in a previous life.
It’s a safe bet this isn’t what Mrs. Rinaldi is talking about in her Facebook post.
And also, Buddhism, like any religion, is not a monolith. So your mileage may vary as to this explanation and whether or not it’s believed or followed by all Buddhists.
So then there’s the other kind of karma, which is that — if you like the works of Thích Nhất Hạnh like I do — you subscribe to this idea of interbeing. Basically, it’s aligned with a similar belief found in Shintoism that everything is interconnected with everything else on an atomic level. In that sense, karma doesn’t refer to some God sitting around and keeping score of how you behave. (Which, I feel, is how we get this Western misinterpretation of Karma in the first place, because it fits in perfectly with the monotheistic religions and their concept of a singular God that’s keeping score.)
Basically, karma in this sense means, if you’re a good person, then by virtue of being a good person, you’re making the people and environment around you better in ways that you and others may not even realize.
If you’re an asshole, the opposite is true.
You’re making everything and everyone around you worse, which is funny since we’re talking about Kathryn Luciani’s Reign of Error in Woodbury. Her behavior, and the behavior of her other Town Board members (specifically Luongo and Calore), made Woodbury worse through their actions in both big tangible ways — like gutting the Woodbury ethics law — and small ways, like the chaotic dysfunction caused by multiple resignations and giving away Town Board jobs to your friends.
That’s karma. That’s how that works. If you do something bad, like Teresa Luongo/Gretchen Weiner’s threatening to dox the former town supervisor at a Town Board meeting, you’re not going to suddenly get instant justice for your bad behavior.
Make sense? So, what we have here instead isn’t an example of karma. We have here an example of what happens when you scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of finding people to represent you in local government.
Go Door to Door and Keep Going Door to Door
Recently, there’s been a big discussion about the need for more volunteers in Woodbury. Volunteers for different boards like the deeply troubled Woodbury Public Library Board. Volunteers for the Animal Shelter. And just getting people more engaged with their local government.
Here’s the thing, though …
Politics, whether it’s local, state, or national, is an aristocratic activity.
That doesn’t mean everyone involved is wealthy. Although wealthy people like Wayne Corts, James G. Skoufis, and Avrum Bur Jacobowitz certainly like to try to shape and warp our local elections. But what it means is that the people who typically show up to Town Board meetings, volunteer, and vote have the luxury of time to do so.
Most people don’t have that.
Most people live paycheck to paycheck. Many are working two jobs, if not three. And others are trying to juggle not only their jobs, but taking care of their kids or their elderly parents. That’s not to say these people couldn’t make time to volunteer — some can — but they’re going to need some convincing. That’s because they’re constantly being bombarded by messages of government bloat and inefficiency (on the Right) and government corruption and inaction of the government to enforce the laws against the wealthy (on the Left). This isn’t about which side is correct. This is about the information we’re constantly being hit with, that we all need to filter out.
So, when you say at your meeting, already attended by people who can afford to contribute some of their limited time — we are all time constrained in one way, shape, or form, some more than others, though — that’s not going to reach the people you want to reach. Neither is posting on Facebook. As we’ve said repeatedly here at The Monroe Gazette, these Facebook groups are great for activating your base. But they’re not very good at reaching the 90% of people who are not getting their news and information from these Facebook groups in your community.
What you need to do is make phone calls and go door to door, as your local government, and make your pitch directly.
The funny thing is that when it’s election time, we already do this with our petitions. (Petitions for my state Senate campaign are available for you to sign, by the way.)
But after election season is over, all that door knocking stops. It shouldn’t. Especially when you live in a place like southern Orange County that is almost entirely a news desert.
This disengagement isn’t a southern Orange County problem though. It’s an American problem. And it’s one that’s up to all of us to solve. Because if we don’t, we will keep getting worse and worse local, state, and national candidates to choose from, like Kelly Rinaldi.
That’s an example of how karma actually works.
So, for whatever it’s worth, my advice is to continue knocking on doors on behalf of the local government and recruit the volunteers that way. And in the process, ask those people what the local government can do for them. Because while it’s nice to help small businesses, the business of government should never be about business. The business of government should always be about making sure everyone knows how their taxes are being spent; and making sure that the government is doing all it can to help their community. Especially now, as we experience a national emergency and crisis of leadership at the very top.