MAGA Extremists on Woodbury Town Board Face Lawsuit
The Town of Woodbury threatened to sue the Village of Woodbury over an inter-municipal agreement. Now the Town faces a lawsuit of their own.
We are currently working on our next story. It involves the Town of Woodbury, and the fact that The Monroe Gazette is probably going to sue them for the reasons explained below.
If you’re one of our national readers, you might ask yourself why you should care about the Town of Woodbury. Well, the Town government is operated by Team Coup Extremists. And one of those extremists wants to run for mayor. If you’re feeling powerless and overwhelmed lately, there are two things you can do about it. So we hope you’ll stick with us today.
The first thing you can do — if you’re busy — is to support organizations like Indivisible, Public Citizen, and the Working Families Party. These organizations have been working together to organize protests, coordinate outreach campaigns to your elected representatives, and sue President Elon Musk.
The Working Families Party holds a regular mass call with tips, actionable things you can do, and important information on the ongoing coup. It is far more than what some Corporate Democrats, led by Hakeem “It’s Their Government” Jeffries, are doing.
(Why aren’t these Corporate Democrats doing more? Because while a lot of them want Trump gone, they don’t want to solve any of the problems that gave us Trump in the first place. Why else do you think Hakeem Jeffries was out meeting with Tech Billionaires recently?)
Here’s an example of the most recent Working Families Party Mass Call. After the jump, I’ll share with you the second thing you can do about the coup, and how it relates to the Town of Woodbury.
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Former Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe was arrested for exercising his First Amendment right to practice civil disobedience. The protest came over a plaque that spelled out MAGA at the Huntington Beach Library in California. As Kluwe explained in a copy of his speech (an abbreviated version can be found here):
MAGA stands for hate, and fear, and the idea that we should have a king instead of co-equal branches of government. MAGA stands for a version of America that would appall the founders of this country, because they explicitly warned about this exact situation in the Federalist papers, multiple times.
MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakeably anti-democracy, and, most importantly, MAGA is explicitly a Nazi movement. They may have substituted a red hat for an armband with a swastika, but every single thing MAGA stands for is what the Nazis did. Eugenics. Racism. Blind loyalty to the leader over what benefits the community as a whole. Removal or destruction of knowledge deemed "unsavory." Removal of groups deemed "unsavory." Sustained assaults on science, reason, and logic. Ceaseless propaganda that has no basis in reality. The promotion of fools, imbeciles, and charlatans to positions of power.
The threat to take everything you have, unless you give it to them first.
If this council wants to have MAGA represent our community, as someone who actually believes in the Constitution, I can only have one response to Nazis.
In the Town of Woodbury, we, too, are dealing with MAGA Extremists on our Town Board.
So, you might be wondering what you can do about the ongoing coup.
That brings us to the second thing: Show up.
For example, as I write this, a Woodbury Town Board meeting is scheduled for tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the (structurally unsafe) old Woodbury Court House, 511 State Route 32. The first floor is fine; that’s where the meetings take place. The second floor, not so much.
You should be there.
I’m not saying it’s time to throw your bodies upon the gears just yet, but it is time to start showing up to your local town, village, and county meetings. The coup will succeed if you sit at home and let it happen. That’s because wannabe authoritarians depend on you not putting up a fight.
IF you are sitting around right now, regardless of where you live, and you’re like “I don’t know what to do about the Coup” the answer is right in front of you. You show up to a local meeting.
You get in the face of the MAGA Nazis on your Town Board (for example), and you say to them, “What are YOU going to do to protect this community?”
A local example: President Elon Musk and his weak little sidekick, Donald Trump, want to shut down the Department of Education.
What are YOU (local elected official) going to do to protect the children of this community?
What are you going to do to protect the teachers?
How about the support staff working with those teachers to provide your kid with an excellent education?
And how about your property values? Because if your school has to close, who will want to come and live here?
Make your elected officials answer that question at every. single. meeting.
“What are YOU going to do about it?”
Because if they can’t answer the question? You know who to evict from office in November.
And if they can’t answer that question, and they’re a candidate running for office? You know who not to vote for.
If you don’t show up, the following letter will illustrate the kind of government you will get. It’s the kind of government that loses sales tax revenue, raises your taxes, threatens to sue their neighboring village, and winds up getting sued themselves.
What Happens When MAGA Rules A Town Board
Dear Town of Woodbury Supervisor Kathryn Luciani,
Since your struggles with the truth are well documented, we’ll get right to the point: There is no judge out there who will agree, based on your track record, Councilman Brandon Calore’s, and the facts expressed in our original FOIL request, that the Town of Woodbury Board — and Village Trustee James Freiband — complied appropriately with The Monroe Gazette’s FOIL request concerning the Intermunicipal Agreement (IMA).
Since you claimed the failure to renegotiate this IMA successfully contributed to higher taxes on Woodbury residents in 2025, this matter is of great public importance. As is the misinformation you have repeatedly shared with Town residents about the IMA. For example, you claimed that the Town Courts would no longer provide VTL fees to the Village of Woodbury, something the Town of Woodbury has never done in the nearly twenty-year history of the Village of Woodbury.
In just the last 30 days, the false statements have continued. For example, you slandered a Town resident with a false story about them “swearing in front of children,” which was disproved by both a witness and surveillance camera footage. You then went on to inform Town residents that the Village Building Inspector approved the Town’s use of its new location at the old Woodbury Court House. The Building Inspector said no such conversation ever took place. And despite repeated warnings from Town residents, you chose to occupy a potentially dangerous building all the same, putting their health and safety at risk.
So, let's see if you can stick to the truth here.
We are writing to appeal the inappropriate nature of how this FOIL was responded to, and inform you that without substantial corrections, we will absolutely take the Town of Woodbury to court. Which is pretty funny — given that you and this Town Board had an attorney threaten the Village of Woodbury with a lawsuit — after the Village refused to give in to the Town’s repeated demands concerning the Intermunicipal Agreement that this FOIL is about.
These are the facts:
We requested a signed POL89(3)(a) certificate to accompany this FOIL. We received one; however, there is no definition provided to explain how the Town of Woodbury defines “due diligence.” As we can plainly see in the screenshots we received, Town Board members (for example) forwarded responsive records to the Records Officer. This is not what we asked for. Councilman Brandon Calore, who is verifiably more apt at committing random acts of violence than telling the truth, wrote back to the Records Officers on November 26th, 2024. “I have nothing.” Are we expected to believe the same man who threatened to harm his coworkers in Cornwall and accused them of being engaged in a conspiracy against him? That’s not what due diligence means. Due diligence means, for example, what we did request: That the Town of Woodbury use an IT Professional to search the Town’s servers for a true and correct record of the records being requested. Therefore, the Town of Woodbury did not appropriately respond to our request to provide this certification. We have included here a copy of the original FOIL, which was quite explicit and clear as to what we were looking for and how it should be searched for.
In November of 2023, future Town Board Deputy Supervisor, Teresa Luongo, potentially committed several crimes. This happened during public comment when she threatened to dox (release embarrassing information) the Sitting Town Supervisor Tommy Burke, stating, “I also have other things too that can blow a lot of people out of the room too, even … maybe arrest records.” While doxing itself is not a crime in New York State, the act of doing so can bring about charges of criminal harassment. The man Mrs. Luongo threatened was your political opponent. On December 2nd, 2024, Councilwoman Teresa Luongo replied to a request for records, “Hi Tracy, I have nothing due to attorney-client and inter-agency privilege.” Are we supposed to take someone willing to commit a crime for you at their word?
Given that Mrs. Luongo is the originator of the slander against a Town resident who you claimed “Swore at children” we don’t think so. Mrs. Luongo's response to the Records Officer is also incorrect. While you can exempt certain items under FOIL for both inter-agency and attorney-client, these are not blanket exemptions. In the inter-agency case, Mrs. Luongo would still have to provide her emails, and an attorney would then have to redact what they felt fell under inter-agency. Mrs. Luongo can’t simply state “inter-agency” and send nothing ala Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy.
With attorney-client, a similar process must take place. There also must be an explanation to accompany EACH record that is exempt under attorney-client. In the process, the email must still be released, showing who sent it and who received it. This is important because if it turns out, for example, that you and Mrs. Luongo were speaking with a third party, such as Village Trustee James Freiband, then there would be no attorney-client privilege, as the conversation may break privilege. Whether or not the Records officers (either of them) ever followed up with Mrs. Luongo on these claims is unknown, and again indicates that “due diligence’ was not exercised.
We are reiterating the point above about Mrs. Luongo and attorney-client privilege, as it was also mentioned by Mr. Thater, the second Town attorney you’ve relieved of their duties in less than a year. Mr. Thater cited attorney-client privilege; however, that does not act as a blanket exemption to all emails, as each email would still need to be released with an explanation for the redaction, and who the emails were sent and received by would still need to be shown. If a third party was copied on the email, this, as mentioned, would also exempt that record from any attorney-client privilege as it breaks privilege.
Emails are clearly missing. You have Village Trustee James Freiband and his incompetence to thank for us knowing that. Trustee Freiband informed the Records Officer that he had no responsive emails on November 20th, 2024 stating: “I have none of the requested communications per your 11/20 correspondence.” Unfortunately for Mr. Freiband, you sent an email on July 25h, 2024, stating that you had emailed Trustee Freiband: “James also said all dates work for him. He responded to my email.” So while we do not know the number of emails that are missing, we do know that emails are missing, which means the signing of a POL89(3)(a) certificate opens the Town up to legal liability, as it also does Trustee James Freiband for his second documented attempt at obstructing a FOIL request. We have some good news, though; since a FOIL request requires the preservation of all documents requested by that FOIL, there should be no problem here for an IT Professional to search the Town’s servers and locate any potentially responsive documents not provided upon our request. If it’s found any documents were deleted, that too would open the Town up for potential legal liability. That’s something we warned you about when this FOIL was first submitted. (As a reminder: This FOIL included emails sent from your address, (redacted), and from your cell phone #: (redacted). Since we know you use an iphone, you might want to check your iCloud data for any missing responsive documents.)
Finally, Mr. Ed Thater mentioned that there is a rule that allows for documents to be withheld under interagency, and he provided the exceptions. However, as stated in the original FOIL, we were quite clear that the Town Board rendered final agency decisions, which is one of the exceptions allowing for records to be released. We are reiterating the point made in our original FOIL: According to Town residents, Village residents, and Village of Woodbury officials, there were few attempts by the Town of Woodbury to negotiate with the Village of Woodbury legitimately. Instead, the Town made up its mind about what it wanted (representing final agency determinations) and then repeatedly badgered and complained to all who would listen that the Village “refused to negotiate.” In fact, as we’ll remind you, Councilman Calore and you decided to make this a political issue, demonstrating that you had made up your mind as the Town of Woodbury, and simply wanted to use what you claimed were a lack of negotiations to retaliate against your political rivals.
As we mentioned in the original FOIL: At the Town Board meeting just before the 2024 Village election, you used your Board comments to call out the Village Trustees for their “refusal” to negotiate with you. Something that was verifiably false, since Trustee Sue Cirello (up for re-election that month) sat down with you, ON CAMERA, at a Town-Village workshop to discuss the IMA. (To nobody’s surprise, given his love of conspiracy theories), Mr. Brandon Calore then went on to say, “The Jews” came out and helped Mrs. Cierellio (and her running mate, Village Trustee Vic Ferelli) to victory. This is a demonstrably false claim based on the final voting statistics released by the Orange County Board of Elections. Not to mention defamatory. We will absolutely submit to a judge all of this information, as well as the demonstrated fact pattern perpetrated by yourself and this Town Board, that shows a refusal to negotiate with anyone, for any reason, in good faith, and that this Town Board simply does whatever it wants to do—rendering its decisions, as laid out in these requested records, final agency determinations that cannot be withheld under interagency rules. We are confident that a judge will agree based on your repeated pattern of behavior and false statements.
In the words of your (now former) Town Attorney, govern yourself accordingly and take this FOIL appeal with the seriousness it deserves. You can properly hand over all the requested records, including the exemptions you want to make, or you can have a judge make you do so. The choice is yours.
You have ten days to respond to this appeal. We are also requesting that we receive a response from your office to confirm receipt.
The IMA isn’t the only story we’re digging into with Woodbury.
As mentioned, the old Woodbury Court House is structurally unsound, and the current MAGA Extremists on the Town Board were warned about this. So we’ve just placed new FOIL requests concerning engineering studies with the Town of Woodbury, correspondences amongst the Town Board members and Village officials including the Building Department, and the management company for the Woodbury Professional Center. That building was, until recently, where Town Board meetings and Town offices were located. We’ve reached out to the management company, Kent Companies, to discuss the potential misbehavior of the current Town Board that led to their sudden relocation. While this Town Board wants you to think it’s somehow saving taxpayers money by relocating, the truth is, what they need to spend to fix it will present no savings to Town of Woodbury residents at all.
(And guess who’s going to have to pay the bill for all those repairs? It’s you.)
While we haven’t touched on it much recently — we’ve talked about the issues with the Woodbury Public Library over in our Facebook group, which is only accessible to paid subscribers of The Monroe Gazette – we did want to mention something real quick.
Below, you will hear three area residents discuss their concerns with the Woodbury Public Library. (Chief Watson looks very excited to be on camera throughout this meeting, by the way.)
At tonight’s Woodbury Town Board meeting, the Town wants to vote to approve a new Memorandum of Understanding with the Woodbury Public Library, one that could indemnify Library Board members for any potential malfeasance.
Why would such a provision be needed?
The New York State Department of Education was made aware by multiple Woodbury residents of potential malfeasance on the part of Woodbury Public Library President Cathy Schmidt, as well as other members of the Woodbury Library Board. The Monroe Gazette contacted the new Town attorney, Rory Brady, and asked him the following question. As of this writing, we have not heard back from him. But we will update this post if we do. Our questions were:
-Is it appropriate for the Town of Woodbury to enter into an agreement with the Woodbury Public Library, given that the MOU would indemnify the Library Board members, while an active investigation is ongoing?
-What can you share with Woodbury residents who feel this new MOU would leave the Town on the hook for any resulting legal bills incurred due to the library board's behavior?
Town and Village of Woodbury residents with concerns about the Library Board's behavior should use this form to contact the New York State Department of Education.
For months, we’ve detailed the violent outbursts and abuse hurled at Woodbury residents by Library Board President Cathy Schmidt. (Here’s our first story on her, for those who missed it.)
MAGA is a disease. It infects all parts of your local government. Not just the Town Board, but the Library Board too. We encourage Woodbury residents to demand no MOU is signed with the library board until New York State’s Department of Education completes its investigation into Mrs. Schmidt and her friends on the board.
We also want to encourage Woodbury residents to take back their Library Board. It’s clear this current group has zero interest in doing what libraries do best: Serving as the first line of defense for our democracy against authoritarianism, and being the last refuge for those in our community who need it most. If you want this library board gone? You need to show up.
That’s how you take your country back too.