Lawyers. Lawyers As Far As The Eye Can See!

A letter to Hanhallah's attorney concerning his statements at yesterday's DEC hearing.

Hey.

This is going to be a relatively short post. I’m exhausted from yesterday’s DEC marathon, and I need to answer (and send) about another hundred or so emails today.

So. Today, I am going to share with you an email I sent to Robert Rosborough, who is an attorney for hanhallah … Excuse me. Who is an attorney for Whiteman, Osterman, and Hanna LLP.

During the 2pm DEC Public Hearing, Mr. Rosborough claimed to be representing the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove. An organization founded and operated by South Blooming Grove’s Confidential Assistant to the Mayor, Joel Stern, and South Blooming Grove’s Legislative Aide, Isaac Ekstein.

During that three-hour call, Mr. Rosborough was THE ONLY PERSON to bring up anti-semitism / anti-hassidim, and then claimed that opponents of Clovewood were against the project for those reasons.

As you might have guessed, I had questions for Mr. Rosborough.

And since his firm has a habit of not answering questions submitted by the press concerning their other clients, like the Village of Kiryas Joel, I thought I’d share with you my questions so you can ask them too.

Mr. Rosborough’s office email address is: rrosborough@woh.com and his office phone number is 518-487-7608.

Let’s get to the email.

Mr. Rosborough,

I understand you represent the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove according to your comments during the DEC public hearing held on April 3rd, 2024.

I am a reporter with The Monroe Gazette, and have questions that I hope you can answer concerning the activity of your client, herein referred to as UJC.

1. According to the IRS, all organizations that file a Form 990s — including non-profit organizations such as UJC — must make this information public upon request. In March, I requested the three most recent Form 990s filed by the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove and provided a deadline of March 31st. The UJC did not respond to this request. Instead, they took down the English language version of their website, but kept up the Yiddish language version which can still be found online at UJCBG.org. I have filed a Whistleblower report with the IRS over this lack of non-compliance and attempt to obfuscate any future requests by the English speaking residents of Southern Orange County.

Can you explain why your client chose not only to not provide their three most recent Form 990s, but to then remove their English language version of their website after this request was received by their office?

2. The UJC has put out communication’s accusing the state DEC of intentionally delaying the permits for Clovewood due to an outside pressure campaign (something you echoed during your statement) from hateful outsiders. Official publications from the UJC refer to those who oppose the Clovewood as “half-Jews” and antisemites. Is it your client’s position that the residents of South Blooming Grove who have voiced their concerns are “half-jews” and antisemites? Am I a “half-Jew” according to the official statements put out by the UJC because I oppose the Clovewood development?

3. Mr. Joel Stern, a Board member of UJC, and Mr. Isaac Ekstein, the president of UJC, are paid employees of the Village of South Blooming Grove. Since they will not make their Form 990s available, can you confirm if the UJC is also paying a salary to Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein? Has the UJC made any loans or payments to Town of Blooming Grove Ward 4 representative, Simon Schwartz, or any of the current Village Board members and Planning Board members?

Speaking of Mr. Schwartz, the UJC published an “important message from the Town Councilman” that all outstanding tickets issued by the Town of Blooming Grove police will be cancelled. This was announced because the Town was said to hire staff to follow-up on unpaid tickets. Can you explain why this announcement was apparently only made by Mr. Schwartz in the page of the UJC newsletter and not on the Official Town of Blooming Grove website? At the time of this writing, no such statement by the town can be found.

4. Since its inception, has the UJC donated time, space in its offices, or other resources (monetary or otherwise) to candidates seeking office in South Blooming Grove and the Town of Blooming Grove? Are you aware that this is a prohibited activity according to the State Attorney General’s office?

5. The UJC has encouraged Yiddish speaking residents to voice their support for the Clovewood development because it would provide affordable housing. This statement is false, as the SEQRA findings state that only 94 of the homes built out of the project’s proposed 600 would be affordable housing. The UJC has also asked Yiddish speaking residents to voice their support for Clovewood because it would provide badly needed water for the Village. This statement is also false, as the Orange County Department of Health was informed in a letter dated September 2023 that the wells for Clovewood would NOT be connected to the Village. Given that the UJC is operated by Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Isaac Ekstein, both village employees, can you explain why the UJC is providing false information to residents of South Blooming Grove?

I eagerly await your response to these questions, given that the UJC appears to act as an official arm of the Village of South Blooming Grove, which in itself may constitute a violation of the first amendments establishment clause.

-BJ Mendelson