Note: This article is a sequel to The Torah, The Talmud, and Rhonda Fabbro.
10/29: If you thought this story was crazy, you’re wrong. It’s crazier. We made some updates throughout this post to further highlight the situaiton. At the very bottom of this article, you will also now find an up to date timeline of confirmed information involving the South Blooming Grove illegal election.
Pictured above: Snapshot from the front page of The KJ Weekly’s Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, edition. From left to right, the translation reads: “Village of South Blooming Grove grants fresh four years of service to sympathetic Will Yedosh Leader’s Society.” The headline to the right reads, “Positive Village Election Result.” (“Will Yedosh” is an odd Google translation, but essentially means “Jewish Leadership.”) It’s not clear who provided The KJ Weekly with the news of the election.
We again remind readers that Google Translate provides roughly 80% of the translation from Yiddish into English. This is important to note when browsing Ivelt.com or The KJ Weekly for information on South Blooming Grove or Kiryas Joel; Google Translate often misses the idioms, for example.
Ivelt.com recently restricted access to the South Blooming Grove threads to registered users only; but you can, and should hire someone on Fiverr.com to create an Ivelt.com account for you. As stated previously, “Written and Spoken” appears to be Joel Stern’s burner account on Ivelt.com. For those looking for evidence of wrong doing — and the plan to turn the Village of South Blooming Grove into a city, which dates as far back as 2017 — Ivelt.com’s archives is a great place to start. (We recommend screenshotting and saving as much of it as you can, using a program like Hunch.ly, before Mr. Stern scrubs it, if he hasn’t done so already.)
And of course, The Monroe Gazette’s archives is a good source of South Blooming Grove information, which you can only access as a subscriber.
We put all content behind a paywall after 30 days, and only subscribers can listen to the audio edition for these posts. Paid subscribers also get access to our Private Facebook group, which I update throughout the week.
And just an FYI: This week will feature a lot of interviews on The Finley, which is our free listener-supported podcast. This includes a conversation with LT. Gov. Antonio Delgado, County Executive Candidate Mike Sussman, and more. You can subscribe to The Finley where all good podcasts can be found. After the election is over, The Finley will go back to a once per week release schedule.
The Monroe Gazette is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Below: Village of South Blooming Grove Clerk Kerry Dougherty is confronted by resident Kelly Corduana Parzer on Oct. 23 about the lack of notice for the election held on October 22nd.
The Monroe Gazette also recorded audio, that same day, of Dougherty giving the same reply to me and the other person that called, that she later gave to Mrs. Parzer about an hour or so later — that residents must email questions, and that she refuses to answer them in person or by phone.
Note that there is confusion as to what newspaper the election notice went to, with some residents stating Kerry told them the Wallkill Valley Times (heard in the audio to The Monroe Gazette), while Kerry not correcting Mrs. Parzer when Mrs. Parzer said it was the Warwick Valley Dispatch. It’s unclear what paper got notice of the special election, if any. In the Parzer video you can see Mrs. Dougherty not bother to correct Mrs. Parzer when she asks about the Warwick Valley Dispatch. The Wallkill Valley Times confirmed to The Monroe Gazette they never received any documentation from the Village of South Blooming Grove concerning this election.
Monroe Gazette Audio:
Kelly Corduana Parzer Video:
Update: On Monday, October 27th, the Monroe Gazette spoke with Kerry Dougherty, who claimed repeatedly that she was misquoted in the above videos. When we asked her to identify what or how she was misquoted, she did not answer.
To avoid Mrs. Dougherty making that same false claim, we are posting the entirety of our discussion with her, recorded on 10/27. There is only one edit in the video, and that is where Mrs. Dougherty exited the room to get water where no conversation was had.
At the time of this writing, Kerry Dougherty has not provided any details in response to our email; but read receipts confirm she received and opened it. We suspect — since disgraced Town of Clarkstown judge–turned–$75,000‑a‑year no‑show village attorney Scott Ugell can’t be bothered to attend meetings — that Nora M. Murphy and Laura M. Gulfo of Monaco Cooper Lamme & Carr PLLC have been tasked with preparing a legal response to residents’ concerns involving the election.
That’s why we think Kerry is telling people to email her, so that the law firm can draft a response that Kerry can then copy and paste to residents.
Most recently, Murphy and Gulfo oversaw, what we feel, is a blatantly illegal attempt by the Village of South Blooming Grove to annex land from Orange County’s Gonzaga Park, which resulted in a second lawsuit against the village by Orange County. So we’re not the only ones who think it’s illegal.
Another lawsuit is making its way through the courts concerning the further taking of property South Blooming Grove does not control;
And part of the Town of Blooming Grove’s case, involving the Clovewood property, also alleges the village illegally took land from the town.
Pay attention to these court cases, as well as the original one filed by Orange County. We’re going to circle back to them at the end of this article.
Finally, we caught Laura M. Gulfo red‑handed in an email, accidentally copied to The Monroe Gazette, preparing FOIL appeal responses for Mayor George Kalaj to sign.
These responses appear to have been copy‑and‑pasted and never actually read by the mayor. (When we take South Blooming Grove back to court, this is absolutely something we’re going to bring up.)
So, it’s our opinion that Mr. Ugell isn’t the only attorney that’s going to wind up before a grievance committee by the time this South Blooming Grove story concludes.
If you or anyone reading this would like to file a grievance against Mrs. Laura M. Gulfo, Mrs. Nora M. Murphy, and Mr. Scott Ugell for their activities in South Blooming Grove, you may contact the committee at
Grievance Committee for the Ninth Judicial District
399 Knollwood Road, Suite 200
White Plains, NY 10603
(914) 824-5070
In the case of Mr. Scott Ugell, we were told by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct that, if he were to be arrested or found to be responsible for any wrongdoing, they would re-open their case against Ugell.
When The Monroe Gazette successfully sued the Village of South Blooming Grove, Kerry Dougherty previously said in her testimony that she “didn’t get the emails” submitted with our FOIL requests; we believe that statement amounted to perjury.
The Village of South Blooming Grove then repeatedly delayed releasing metadata that would have revealed whether or not Mrs. Dougherty committed a crime.
Dougherty has repeatedly told residents she “didn’t get your email” during Joel Stern’s tenure as “village executive”, beginning in 2021 with allegations of voter fraud. So her current instruction to have people email questions to her about the election appears suspicious.
A representative for the FBI informed Orange County Attorney, Rick Golden, that the FBI investigation into Yitzchok “Isaac” Ekstein’s alleged voter fraud remains open. We have a copy of this email to confirm the statement’s authenticity.
South Blooming Grove residents are encouraged to contact the FBI’s Albany office concerning that voter fraud case and this new “special” election at:
FBI Albany Field Office:
200 McCarty Avenue
Albany, NY 12209
albany.fbi.gov
(518) 465-7551
Joel Stern, George Kalaj, Scott Ugell, and Kerry Dougherty have never returned requests for comment to The Monroe Gazette on any of these matters, including this election.
Active investigations into South Blooming Grove, that the public is aware of, include the New York State Attorney General’s office, the Orange County District Attorney’s office, the New York State Comptroller’s office, the New York State Department of Health, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Orange County Department of Health, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
You can read the full June 30th, 2025 letter from the Orange County Department of Health here.
We’ll also circle back to this at the end of the article, because it involved Woodbury Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro, and his mother, the Un-Elected Village Trustee, Mrs. Rhonda Fabbro; who is one of the people running the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats.
Pictured Above: Un-Elected Village of Woodbury Trustee, Rhonda Fabbro (left). MAGA CJ Graziano, the man running against Mrs. Fabbro’s son, the legitimately elected Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro, can be seen with his arms folded trying to look intelligent.
Mrs. Rhonda Fabbro, the un-elected Woodbury Village Trustee, recently stated at a Woodbury Village Board meeting that any questioning of South Blooming Grove’s activities is anti-semitic. This statement was echoed at the following meeting by Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats member, Valerie Hebel. Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro, has publicly refused to apologize for his mother’s statements. We’ll get back to this point at the end.
The New York State Comptroller, between March 2024 and June 2025, conducted an audit of South Blooming Grove initiated after village residents complained about a second garbage pickup that nobody asked for or needed. Public Comment does not exist at South Blooming Grove Board meetings, beyond Public Hearings, and even then trustees are often on their phone while Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein tell them what to do. South Blooming Grove Village Planning Board meetings were also moved to Friday mornings at 10am, and no documentation has been provided to The Monroe Gazette via FOIL that details the rationale or reasoning behind this time change.
South Blooming Grove is now harassing residents concerning the second garbage pickup. They’re now threatening to have Village property tax bill’s levied, and added to it, if residents do not pay.
State Senator James G. Skoufis has claimed credit for the comptroller’s intervention; however, if you look at the weekly newsletters released by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, you will not find the audit of the Village of South Blooming Grove mentioned once between March of 2024 and June of 2025. The Comptroller’s office was also alerted to a late night move in March of 2024, orchestrated by Joel Stern, of files from the Village offices to the headquarters of his United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove. Something captured on surveillance camera footage that the Village refused to turn over as part of a FOIL request.
As it turns out, Skoufis had little to do with Thomas DiNapoli’s investigation. The Comptroller’s office was made aware of the situation in South Blooming Grove with Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein going back as far as early 2021 because of the efforts of a former South Blooming Grove Village Board member. We have all of their emails to the Comptroller that demonstrates this.
The comptroller’s spokesperson routinely stated to The Monroe Gazette that an audit was underway but repeatedly denied further comment and an interview request with Thomas DiNapoli about the Village of South Blooming Grove. In June 2025, the comptroller’s office went radio silent in response to requests by both News 12 and The Monroe Gazette on the status of the audit.
The Monroe Gazette submitted a FOIL request for all comptroller records related to the audit after the radio silence began. Their FOIL response is due around November 18th. We’ll also note here that Skoufis’s office has said and done nothing about this radio silence from the Comptroller’s office, other than informing residents that his office contacted the Comptroller.
The Orange County District Attorney’s office would not comment on the record when discussing South Blooming Grove; however, we do want to point out that David M. Hoovler can be seen here sitting next to Joel Stern at a re-election campaign event earlier this year. So you might want to consider voting for Alan Joseph for District Attorney. As if that whole Megan McDonald stuff wasn’t enough for you to not re-elect David M. Hoovler.
Pictured Above: David M. Hoovler, third on the left, is seated next to South Blooming Grove “Village Executive” Joel Stern, seated second to the left at a David M. Hoovler campaign event earlier this year. The photo was posted by Joel Stern in his United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter.
The Monroe Gazette has an active FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request in to the EPA to preserve and access all records related to the municipal water infrastructure crisis in the Village. The EPA has confirmed to The Monroe Gazette that it is actively investigating South Blooming Grove. Joel Stern, of course, has disputed this.
The Village of South Blooming Grove is specifically obstructing the release of related FOIL requests involving Congressman Pat Ryan’s office and State Senator James G. Skouifs.
A fun fact about FOIL in New York State: You can’t access much of anything your State Senator or Assemblymember does. But you can access their communications with local municipalities.
For example: We did this previously with the Village of Woodbury to get a memo that State Senator Skoufis sent to Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro to read at a meeting. Further demonstrating that Matthew Fabbro does what he’s told by people without the best interests of the Village in mind.
Under FOIA, you also can’t access much when it comes to your Congressional representative.
State Senator James G. Skoufis has a standing policy not to answer questions from The Monroe Gazette. We still reach out to him for comment anyway because he’s the only State Senator Orange County has. We also like to mess with him when we do, because of his policy not to respond to any of our inquiries:
Video Above: BJ Mendelson messes with State Senator Skoufis prior to their primary for the Working Families Party nomination in 2026.
Just kidding.
But. Yes. This part is true: State Senator Skoufis was sued in federal court for blocking a constituent, see: WAGSCHAL v. SKOUFIS.
As of this writing, my personal account is blocked by Skoufis. So he has until October 31st to unblock me, otherwise we’re taking him to federal court.
Pictured Above: Well-manicured State Senator, and man with delusions of a congressional run, James G. Skoufis (right) greets Yitzchok “Isaac” Ekstein at the staging area for the Jennings Creek Fire in the Fall of 2024. At the time this picture was taken, Mr. Ekstein was a subject of an FBI investigation concerning voter fraud.
There is a WHOLE other controversy involving Mr. Ekstein and his South Blooming Grove EMS, it’s legitimacy, and so much more but … The New York State Department of Health, for over a year, has delayed releasing any records on the matter involving the Town of Blooming Grove EMS; and Stern and Ekstein’s EMS service’s attempts to crowd out the non-Satmar volunteer EMS that serves the entire community. I’m unable to write that story without these documents because the allegations made by Blooming Grove EMS can’t be substantiated without them.
State Senator Skoufis Is The Kind of Democrat That Makes People Hate Democrats
If we sound hostile to State Senator Skoufis, it’s because he’s embarrassingly full of shit, bought and paid for by the real estate industry, has done less than zero for the South Blooming Grove residents — aside from a press conference and an email he copies and pastes to everyone that details his sagging interest in solving their problem, which I referenced in my voice mail.
Skoufis also operated an independent expenditure committee, named Protect Monroe-Woodbury this year to support a Far-Right MAGA bigot (Brandon Calore) in his race to unseat the moderate Republican Woodbury mayor, Andrew Giacomazza.
Every time we point this out, Matthew Fabbro and the Un-Elected Woodbury Village Trustee like to claim we work for the Mayor, saying we never criticize him.
This isn’t true. We’ve been critical of Mayor Giacomazza’s handling of the Ethics Committee, re-appointing MAGA Tom Deluca to the Village Planning Board, and running with closeted MAGA weirdo, CJ Graziano. Mr. Graziano also made a concerning statement about how the previous Village Board conducts it’s business, that we’ll get to at the end of this article.
Above: MAGA Tom Deluca was re-appointed to the Village of Woodbury Planning Board despite frequently posting far-right propoganda that could get the Village Planning Board sued.
Why did Mr. Skoufis spend $19,600 to unseat the moderate Republican and replace him with a Far-Right Trump Supporter with a long, violent history of incidents. Including accusations of assaulting a disabled teenager in an ice cream shop parking lot because he was asked to mask up during the pandemic.
This is a post the mother of the teenager made following the incident:
The Answer Is …
Because Skoufis wanted to consolidate the Town of Woodbury and Village of Woodbury to speed up the annexation of ACE Farm for Kiryas Joel, and Mayor Giacomazza stopped him. Brandon Calore, did not.
Mr. Skoufis is also actively endorsing Democrats who support his mission to support this transaction, instead of Democrats working for the people, such as Vernick Alvarez.
If Mr. Calore is successfully elected mayor in Woodbury, alongside a returning Mr. James Freiband and Mr. Matthew Fabbro — and Mother Rhonda Fabbro, because the Fabbros are a package deal — Mr. Skoufis will succeed in eventually getting the ACE Farm property to the real estate developers who lavish his $6M (and counting) campaign bank account with contributions.
I share all of this with you because if you think State Senator James G. Skoufis is serious about helping the people of South Blooming Grove, you’re wrong. That’s why we took this detour into Woodbury.
Let me continue to demonstrate why.
Protect Monroe-Woodbury — Mr. Skoufis’s Independent Expenditure Committee — recently received $22,000 from Wolf Wercberger, Project Manager at Elite Concrete who has a checkered legal history, $2,500 from Douglas Land, who is listed as an Investment Banking executive for The Chesapeake Group, and $10,000 from Jacob Weiser, who is listed as an associate Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever LLP. Skoufis’s other Pac, Skoufis for New York also donated $2,000.
So, of the $19,600 that was spent by a Democrat — who wants to run the Democratic National Committee — to promote a far-right MAGA candidate, Brandon Calore, we now know where much of that money came from.
This amount of money also may substantiate claims that Skoufis hasn’t been truthful with the expenditures of the Protect Monroe-Woodbury Independent Expenditure Committee and also spent an additional ~ $15,000 to harass Monroe Town Councilwoman, Maureen Richrdson. This was done in an unsuccessful bid to promote the candidacy of David Rabbitts. We’ll have more on these specific Protect Monroe-Woodbury donors in an upcoming story.
Mr. Skoufis continues to mess with Councilwoman Richardson through one of his employees promoting a write-in candidate for Town Supervisor.
And, Yes … We’re serious about the Facebook thing.
We get asked a lot by readers about whether or not a politician can block you. So let’s explain that before we move on …
Skoufis has my personal profile blocked on his official State Senate profile, which a federal judge told him not to do to another constituent not too long ago.
It’s against the law for a politician to block a constituent from their official profile.
They can block you from their personal and campaign profiles. Even if they use their personal profiles for news.
For example: Monroe Town Board member Dorey Houle updated only her Facebook Friends about the progress of brush fires and mini-fires along the Monroe-Tuxedo border during the Jennings Creek Forest Fire.
Mrs. Houle then falsely tried to tell Monroe residents, during public comment at the October 20th Town Board meeting, that she was posting about “how hard she was working during the fire.”
Nope. Dorey Houle lied again.
She was updating only her friends about the fire — so, important Town information — on her personal profile and not updated Town of Monroe residents.
Despite this: Mrs. Houle can still block you from her personal profile, which honestly is kind of scary in the event of another forest fire.
Voter Fraud in the 2024 General Election?
Above: Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein’s United Jewish Community 2024 campaign flyer for Congressman Pat Ryan.
Below: Congressman Pat Ryan celebrates a grocery store opening at a controversial building development pushed through by Joel Stern to benefit (Stern is holding scissors and Ekstein is on his right), and tours the controversial Clovewood project that is at the heart of the controversey in South Blooming Grove:
The Monroe Gazette has observed video of Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein — using their former Rapid Care property barely 100 feet from the Village of South Blooming Grove office where the 2024 election was held, gathering ballots from residents, entering the Rapid Care, and then potentially filling out those ballots. This video and other documentation was provided to the Orange County Board of Elections in November of 2024, but it does not appear that the OC BOE acted on that information, or shared it with the District Attorney’s office. We have placed a FOIL request with the OC BOE for all complaints concerning the 2024 General Election to see if they documented and reported these allegations properly. On the ballot was Congressman Pat Ryan, who is a frequent visitor to South Blooming Grove:
Congressman Pat Ryan’s office has so far declined to answer requests from The Monroe Gazette concerning the status of the FBI and EPA investigations, as well as clarify his relationship with Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein, and their friends. We reached out to his press secretary for comment on the illegal South Blooming Grove election.
Infamously, The Monroe Gazette called Pat Ryan’s office on Election Day 2024 to ask where he’d be, as we were given a tip that he would be in South Blooming Grove.
Congressman Ryan’s office said they didn’t know where he’d be. As it turned out, Pat Ryan was in South Blooming Grove with Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein.
Pictured Above: Congressman Pat Ryan with Village of South Blooming Grove’s un-elected co-mayors, Joel Stern (left) and Yitzchok “Isaac” Ekstein (right.) in a photo shared by Joel Stern’s United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter. The United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter is the only source for information in South Blooming Grove’s government, and it is not released in English for non-Satmar residents. (As of this writing, there appears to be no mention of the South Blooming Grove Village election held on October 22nd in this newsletter.)
In the second photo, when reached by The Monroe Gazette to find out where Congressman Ryan would be on Election Day, his office said they didn’t know. As it turns out, AIPAC Ryan was in South Blooming Grove with Ekstein (left) and Stern (right.)
Pictured Below: Please don’t think this is just a Democrat thing. House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson, while campaigning on behalf of MAGA Mike Lawler, visited Rockland County to meet with Hanhallah (yiddish for leadership). It’s doubtful Mike Johnson asked the Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum where that $94M in COVID relief money went.
So, again, don’t think that Trump’s EPA and FBI is somehow going to “save you” from fellow Satmar, Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein.
Stern and Ekstein are followers of Zalman Teitelbaum, not Aaron, but that’s a story for another time. (It’s actually the reason for South Blooming Grove’s existence, but this article is already approaching book-length. So we’ll skip this for now. In short, Zalman Teitelabum wants South Blooming Grove to expand and grow quickly, in order to circle Kiryas Joel and cut off its growth. That too, is why Aaron Teitelbaum and Kiryas Joel are pushing so hard for the ACE Farm annexation. This is why you can’t separate discussing Woodbury from discussing South Blooming Grove.)
I mention this because many Monroe and Woodbury residents who are Republican say this to me all the time. “Trump is going to end the corruption!”
Nope. Trump isn’t coming to help you either. Go look at the voting totals from the Village of South Blooming Grove and the Town of Palm Tree / Village of Kiryas Joel for Trump in the 2024 General Election.
Governor Kathy Hochul’s office has not responded to multiple requests for comment about South Blooming Grove, and is also currently obstructing the release of requested FOIL documents. As we stated in our last post, yes, we’re going to sue Governor Kathy Hochul for these records, if we don’t hear back from her with an acceptable response, by October 31st. We have reached out to her office for comment on the election and will update this post if we hear back.
The DEC has released (most) documents concerning South Blooming Grove which currently totals over a thousand pages.
Woodbury Residents, Pay Attention To This …
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) did; however, redact an email exchange between the incoming and outgoing DEC Commissioners concerning South Blooming Grove.
Woodbury residents might have heard the malevolent geezer, Village Trustee James Freiband — who is super popular in Gardiner, New York by the way — state at the October 23rd, 2025 Village Board meeting that the DEC Commissioner stated no petition — meaning the We The People of Woodbury petition, featuring over 800 Woodbury resident signatures — influenced his decision to award lead agency to The Village of Woodbury.
You can see Freiband take shots at the petition in a recent campaign email below as well. If you attended the October 23rd meeting, you would have also seen Freiband again attempt to derail the Village of Woodbury’s efforts to serve as Lead Agency in deciding the annexation of ACE Farm.
So, when this man tells you he’s a “no annexations” candidate, what he’s telling you is that you don’t matter. He thinks you’re a sucker and going to automatically vote on the “No Annexations” line. Aside from voting, the single most important thing Woodbury residents can do this election is tell their friends and neighbors that the No Annexations ballot line is a scam. One perpetrated by three fraudsters (Yoffee, The Fabbros, and Freiband) hoping you don’t realize that the No Annexations team actually supports the annexations.
Just like he demonstrated in Gardiner, New York, Mr. Freiband works for the wealthy and the well-connected real estate developers, not you. So too does Matthew Fabbro, the un-elected Village Trustee Rhonda Fabbro, Brandon Calore, David Yoffee, Kelly Rinaldi, and Woodbury Town Supervisor, Kathryn Luciani.
I think I would have been able to shake out more dumb statements form Freiband had MAGA CJ Graziano not started to shout and clap at me, along with Mother Rhonda Fabbro, but we got enough.
I want people to understand something. If you ever see me go to a meeting and I’m shouting shit, or I’m being disruptive and I’m making a scene, there’s a specific reason.
And the specific reason is to get your elected officials to trip up and actually tell you the truth. Because that’s how you get the truth when it comes to a lot of these people. You have to push them. And if you don’t push them, they’re going to sit there and lie to you.
I wish more people around here would do this, because there are way too many local politicians who sit there and gas light you week after week, and it’s time to get mad.
What’s happening in America right now is not normal, and the time for being polite and passive is over.
In CJ’s defense, I went on too long and should have stopped after I got the response I wanted from Fabbro. So, I apologize to everyone for going on too long.
But not in CJ’s defense, he then got up and tried to provoke Freiband himself. He also may have confessed to violating New York State Open Meetings law in the process. This came when MAGA Graziano said he and the other board members would “hash everything out behind the scenes” so that there was no drama during the meetings.
Yeah man, that’s called a violation of the New York State Open Meetings Law when you’re meeting outside of the view of the public.
If Mrs. Burek and Mr. Graziano are re-elected alongside Mayor Andrew Giacomazza, they better commit publicly to not doing that shit again at the soonest possible meeting. You discuss things out in the open, in full view of the public. That’s how a representative government works.
Honestly, I didn’t have much of a game plan for Freiband because his malevolence makes it difficult to provoke him, which is what I wanted to accomplish.
I give Freiband credit. I am a terrible liar. I cannot successfully lie to anyone. I start giggling and laughing. I just can’t do it. You’ll know immediately if I try to pull a fast one on you. So if I ever need to hire someone to lie for me, I’m hiring James Freiband.
And truth be told, my tactics did work — like they worked on Tony Cardone by making him start a meeting on October 20th by saying he’s not a racist. Despite the fact that more than one Town employee has accused him of repeatedly referring to them as “spics.”
I also got him to stop a meeting dead in its tracks and say he has never taken a bribe from any real estate developer, which he’s been accused of doing.
I also got Freiband to take out a piece of paper and state that he feels the petition had nothing to do with the DEC Commissioner’s decision, which I’ll tell you is patently false.
Freiband’s statements at the October 23rd meeting was yet another attempt at gaslighting Woodbury residents. This time by pretending the DEC Commissioner is not a political appointee and somehow above playing politics in their memos and statements.
BULLSHIT
The Governor hand picks the DEC Commissioner. It is literally a political appointment. If the Commissioner was not a political flunkie, I promise you, the Town of Blooming Grove would not have had to sue the DEC over the Clovewood permits.
And Kathy Hochul isn’t going to put someone in there to upset the wealthy and well connected people that lavish her with donations. It is, after all, why the New York Health Act and the New York Privacy Act and the Package Reduction and Reycling Infrastructure Act have never been passed.
Unless you bully them into doing their job, like hand delivering a petition with 800 signatures, elected officials and their political appointees will do nothing for you.
So, remember friends: Bullying works when it comes to your local elected officials.
And Now Back To That SBG Election
Months after our FOIL case, the Village of South Blooming Grove continues to be, mostly, unresponsive to these requests. The Monroe Gazette has submitted FOIL requests for the October 22nd, 2025 election results, notice to the public, and all other related documents including final vote totals.
The New York State Board of Elections referred The Monroe Gazette to the Orange County Board of Elections for comment. The Orange County Board of Elections spoke to The Monroe Gazette off the record. But what we can say, because the Board of Elections spoke to concerned residents, is that Orange County was never notified by South Blooming Grove concerning the election. Thus far, the Orange County Board of Elections has not responded to our questions on the record, which include:
1.Was the BOE aware of whom they were emailing at the address SBGDeputyClerk@sbgny.gov, the email, according to the Village Clerk, does not belong to the Village Deputy Clerk. The Village Clerk (Rosemarie Vega) does NOT have access to this email address.
2. When the BOE was told by this individual that a referendum passed on October 20th, did the BOE inquire or ask for any further information on this referendum? I requested a copy from the Village Clerk this morning and she refused to provide it. (This was the referendum to move elections from March to October. The Department of State has told The Monroe Gazette that there is no notice, at this time, or any documentation received by South Blooming Grove concerning the change in election dates or related laws or referendums.)
3. On October 16th, Joel Stern emailed requesting the Voter Roll for SBG from his UJC of Blooming Grove email, did anyone at the BOE inquire about the nature of this request given that it did not come from an official SBG email?
4. The unidentified individual using the Deputy Clerk email asked for the pollbook no later than 10am on 10/22 (day of election). They received it at 2:29pm. Is there a time when this information needs to be received by in order to conduct an election that same day?
5. Did the unidentified individual ask for any additional assistance for the Village of SBG in terms of voter machines or anything else?
6. The Village Claims the election was held at Village Hall that evening, did the BOE know the location of the election that night?
7. Has the BOE received any additional information (such as final vote tallies, who was on the slate, ect) after 10/22? What is the process to certify election results after they are held, if any, on the County level?
South Blooming Grove did not ask for voter machines for the election either. A source close to the matter told The Monroe Gazette that South Blooming Grove claims to have passed a resolution allowing them to change the time of their elections from March to October, as depicted here:
Despite this, no notice of the election was shared with the public or posted on the South Blooming Grove Village website about a referendum or the election itself. There is also no notice of an election in Joel Stern’s United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove newsletter that we have found thus far.
Also, in the Kelly Parzer video, you can hear Kerry Dougherty admit that the elections are usually held in March. The rationale for a “special” election was not provided. “Special elections” can only be held under certain circumstances. Not to re-elect all of the incumbents.
Emails and calls sent to the Warwick Valley Dispatch Times were not returned, inquiring as to whether or not they received an election notice from South Blooming Grove.
The Warwick Valley Dispatch times does not have any mention of the South Blooming Grove Election on its website. The Monroe Gazette was also unable to track down a copy of this newspaper, and was informed by Warwick residents that it’s distribution is limited. Copies of it can be found at The Edenville General Store, for example.
The Warwick Valley Dispatch — much like how Mid-Hudson News is owned by Trump Region 2 EPA pick, Mike Martucci, and The Photo-News is owned by Pro-Tony Cardone Jean Straus — has a sketchy history of its own. It’s owned by Steven Kitar, owner of Sam’s Meats in Florida — our Florida, Florida, New York, not the State — and is highly politically biased.
For example, and this is relevant to our Monroe readers concerned about the Orange County Sheriff’s department and it’s ties to I.C.E. … here is a piece on the opening of Dorey Houle’s 2024 State Senate Campaign office.
Can you guess who was in attendance? It was Orange County Sheriff, Paul Arteta.
And here’s the kicker, Taylor Sterling, aka Joy P. Taylor, the Station Manager at WTBQ, wrote that article. She’s the one who has provided Tony Cardone with air time on the station to promote whatever he wants not related to the Town of Monroe. This time is claimed to be to promote the Town, which it often isn’t, and Cardone reimburses himself for his travel to WTBQ every time he goes.
The joke about WTBQ is that it basically serves less as a community radio station and more of a propoganda arm for the Orange County Republican committee. Mrs. Joy P. Taylor, among many other aliases, was accused of running a fraudulent not-for-profit organizaiton known as Feeding Families.
One Warwick resident told The Monroe Gazette that the Dispatch’s style of journalism is “repulsive.” Although to be fair, Woodbury Village Trustee Matthew Fabbro did say I was “disgusting” at the October 23rd meeting.
So, maybe I shouldn’t throw stones …
Except … Local Nazi, Jay Westerveld, briefly served as the paper’s editor and is cousins with Mr. Kitar. We will update this story if we here back from the paper, but we’re leery of anyone associated with Jay Westerveld given the virulent anti-semitic conspiracy theories Mr. Westerveld likes to spread.
The Wallkill Valley Times confirmed that on October 9th, 11 days before the alleged referendumm was held to change the date of the election, that they received a flyer from Joel Stern — using his personal gmail account.
Note that, while a referendum was NOT on the October 20th, 2025 Village of South Blooming Grove agenda, the Mayor’s property was:
So, What Does This All Have To Do With Woodbury Village Trustee, Matthew Fabbro?
This is the key to the whole story.
But first …
Early Voting has started here in New York. You can, and should, get your ass down to Monroe’s Town Hall at 1465 Orange Turnpike and vote during the following hours.
Do NOT wait until Election Day.
DO bring your friends and family.
Look OUT for irregular voting activity, such as Mr. Pinchus Glauber, hanging outside of polling locations in Woodbury telling people how to vote. He was alleged to have done that during the June 2025 primary in Woodbury on behalf of Make America White Again (MAGA*) Mayoral candidate, Brandon Calore. A candidate Mr. Glauber frequently donated to. (Mr. Glauber declined to respond to requests for comment from The Monroe Gazette.)
If you see that happen, report it to the police immediately. In years past, Tony Cardone and Dorey Houle have been accused of doing a similar thing during elections using Town owned vehicles to intimidate employees on election day. If you see something, photograph it or record it and send it to us anonymously using the Signal App at 646-331-8341.
Either way, and no matter who is doing it, that sort of behavior is illegal.
(*Remember: When we say MAGA, we’re not referring to all 77 million or so people who voted for Trump in 2024. MAGA here refers to the 30-35% or so of the American population that supports White Christian Nationalism, and other forms of fascism, replacing our democracy. It’s totally fine if you’ve voted for Trump because you think the Democrats suck. I think they suck too.)
Speaking of which … Please don’t vote on the Democratic or Republican lines.
Vote on the Preserve Monroe line if it’s available in your area, the We The People of Woodbury line if it’s available, and the Working Families Party line across New York state, including here in Orange County.
The best way to show the Democrats you are NOT happy with James G. Skoufis, Kathy Hochul and Chuck Schumer is to vote on the Working Families Party line instead.
With one exception, we endorse all of the Preserve Monroe and We The People of Woodbury Candidates
We do NOT endorse the Kwyjibo, CJ Graziano, on the We The People of Woodbury line; however, we encourage you to hold your nose and vote for him in this specific election, in order to accomplish a specific goal of getting rid of the Fabbros (Mother Rhonda and Son Matthew) and James Freiband.
We’ll remind our readers that CJ Graziano sucked so hard as a Village Trustee the first time, that given a choice between him and James Freiband, people stayed home. That is a factually true statement based on voting totals, no matter what dumb face Mr. Graziano wants to make whenever you mention it to him. And he makes a lot of dumb faces.
That factually verifiable low turnout allowed our Satmar brothers and sisters to turn the tide of that election and get Jim Freiband on the board. You know what happened next if you’re reading this.
It is unfortunate, and frankly sad, that Woodbury voters are now given the same choice in yet another village election cycle.
You mean to tell me that, in a Village of nearly 12,000 residents, your options are a MAGA Supporter(Graziano) and two law breaking Village Trustees (Freiband and Fabbro)?
And in Freiband’s case, one who’s votes represent a clear and present danger to the health and safety of their community?
This man, Freiband, wanted to put your water and sewage into the same pipe!
This is your choice, Woodbury?
Really?
REALLY?
Shame on everyone who gave Woodbury voters this Giant Douche (CJ Graziano) vs. Shit Sandwhich (James Freiband) choice.
Especially, by his own comments on October 23rd, Mr. Graziano doesn’t seem enthused to be running again.
Well ok, asshole, step aside and let’s find someone else who wants to be there. In fact, I’ll go out and say the best thing CJ Graziano can possibly do for Woodbury is get elected, and then immediately resign so that someone who actually wants to serve the community — and conduct their business in public — can do so. Anyone that is, except the Fabbros.
But CJ won’t do that.
Because CJ Graziano Is a Suckup
I don’t know about you. But if someone just spent nearly $20,000 to defame my friend as part of a bid to hand over a big chunk of the local community to a real estate developer, I wouldn’t be kissing that someone’s ass.
But that’s CJ Graziano for you.
This isn’t about diplomacy either. Diplomacy does not work against bullies. CJ’s God, Donald Trump, has demonstrated that repeatedly. You can’t trust what he says. The correct thing to do is to stand up to the bullies and tell them, “No. We will not let you push our community around anymore in order to further fatten your wallet.”
And if you want to see Mr. Skoufis’s deeply troubling post about the Woodbury election, I’ve included it below:
(Note: Mr. Skoufis has my personal account blocked. He does not, yet, have The Monroe Gazette Page blocked.)
And again, I want to point out the following statement from Skoufis:
“Once the unacceptably- but unsurprisingly-acrimonious local elections conclude in Woodbury, I look forward to working with whomever takes office to ensure a fair and thorough review. More broadly, we must unite our extremely divided community that cannot continue to stand so divided and I am committed to working towards that end.”
Not mentioned? The $19,600 Mr. Skoufis spent, funded by people with some connection to the Village of Kiryas Joel, to attack Mayor Giacomazza. This statement reads like an arsonist coming back to the scene of a fire, and then saying, “Whoa. Look at that fucking fire!”
I also hope you all feel empowered to take over your local Democratic and Republican committees in Woodbury, just like in Monroe, and make sure the barrel’s bottom is done being scraped here with these candidate selections.
Because at this point, I don’t even think it has a bottom anymore. You’re tearing into the floor.
As soon as this election is over, if Kwyjibo (CJ Graziano) gets a seat on the Village Board, we are coming after him.
If you’re not up on your dated Simpsons reference, a Kwyjibo is big, dumb, balding North American ape with no chin and a short temper.
Given Mr. Graziano’s tendency to threaten to rage quit boards he’s been elected too, such as in Highland Lake Estates and the Village Board during his previous tenure as a Trustee, we think that term describes him beautifully. (We also have questions about how often Mr. Graziano looked the other way in Highland Lake Estates concerning the efforts, or lack thereof, of the former Woodbury Building Inspector.)
And if you’d like to start calling CJ a Kwyjibo, remember this is how you pronounce it: Kwi-Ji-Bo:
Why am I telling you this?
Pictured Above: Village Trustees Matthew Fabbro (Left) and malevolent geezer, James Freiband (Right.).
Because I thought it was important to discuss one of Mr. Matthew Fabbro’s opponents before we talk about Mr. Matthew Fabbro and his mother.
You see, Mr. Fabbro is like James G. Skoufis: A fake man in an expensive suit.
A chinless incel who holds a hostile view of women. (Just check out his comment when attorney Amy Lavine was up for the role of ZBA Attorney for the Village. Mr. Fabbro referred to her disgustingly as “BJ Mendelson’s Personal Attorney.”
Nope.
Mrs. Lavine represented us, once, when we sued South Blooming Grove. And she won! She’s one of very few people who can say she stood up to South Blooming Grove and beat them.
She’s not my “personal anything.” Yet here was Mr. Fabbro, trying to damage a professional woman’s career for political ends by making insinuations.
I mean look, If I had to live at home with Mrs. Rhonda Fabbro — I’d be prematurely balding and angry at women too.
But I digress …
All of this is relevant because it answers the question about why nothing has been done about South Blooming Grove:
Fabbro, like Skoufis, views everything in terms of politics and not in terms of people.
Kathy Hochul’s New York State Democratic Party does the same.
I will prove it right now when it comes to Matthew Fabbro.
If you go and watch me grill Fabbro — before the Kwyjibo does the MAGA thing and shouts and claps at a journalist to silence them alongside Rhonda Fabbro — you’re going to hear him say something very interesting.
Because I think, honestly, Woodbury voters, for the very first time — after nearly two years in office — finally got to see the real Matthew Fabbro.
A petulant, spoiled child who feels entitled to this job as Trustee because Mommy told him so.
I told everyone that South Blooming Grove had just held a potentially illegal election. I then read the following statement that was sent this week to a South Blooming Grove resident. It is the first time someone in SBG has not received the same copy and paste timeline from a Skoufis staffer that demonstrates Skoufis’s lack of interest in their problems. It says:
Good Afternoon [Redacted],
I hope this email finds you well. My name is Alana and I work in the district office of Senator Skoufis. I just read your email about the village inflating your property taxes to reflect the unwanted second garbage pickup fee. Our office is aware of the second garbage pickup issue. We have presented the issue to the State Comptroller’s office. The AG’s office has also been made aware of certain SBG practices. We have not received any meaningful feedback from the OSC at this time. However, our office is continuously discussing ways in which we can be helpful. SBG tying the second garbage pickup fee into taxes is a new piece of it that I have not heard yet and I am happy to escalate this to my team for further review. (Emphasis Added)
Best Regards,
--
Alana Burnham-Quinones
Constituent Services Specialist
Office of Senator James Skoufis (NY-42)
45 Quaker Ave, Ste 202
Cornwall, N.Y. 12518
I asked Mr. Matthew Fabbro if he thought James G. Skoufis was anti-Semitic for referring South Blooming Grove to the Attorney General’s office.
Matthew Fabbro immediately said no.
I THEN asked Mr. Matthew Fabbro if he thought the FBI, the EPA, the DEC, the DOH, and other agencies, not to mention all the court cases, as well as the residents of Woodbury, were anti-semitic for raising questions about South Blooming Grove and Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein more specifically.
He did not say no.
Think about that.
When I asked him if Skoufis was anti-semitic, he immediately said no.
When I asked him if the people of Woodbury, were anti-semitic for raising concerns about South Blooming Grove, echoed and documented by all these agencies?
HE DID NOT SAY NO.
Matthew Fabbro also would not apologize for his mother’s comments. (His mother, also, did not apologize for her comments when given the opportunity to do so.)
Matthew Fabbro waffled. He facilitated. Then he said I was disgusting and that I never ask him about “Village Business” in our emails to him.
Not true.
Here is just one of many, many examples from October 10th:
Hello Village Board Members,
Our apologies, we have additional questions now that the video of the meeting is live, and once again, we feel the need to email these to the entire board due to previous statements made by Trustee Fabbro that The Monroe Gazette is somehow working for the Mayor and not, in fact, doing our due diligence as investigative journalists.
When we have questions of the other Village Trustees and Mayor, as they can attest, we get answers.
The same is not true for these two men, and thus, here we are ...
Trustee Freiband:
-Trustee Freiband, we are concerned about your mental state and cognitive capacity. Do you believe that Maria Hunter and Jimmy Ng are running for office? We ask because your sense of time, including when you receive documents and how long you spend at Village Hall, was said to be inaccurate according to Village employees and residents last night.
-You referred to Wayne Cort’s treatment by the Village Planning Board as “municipal extortion.” Can you be more specific?
-Mr. Freiband, you have not filed any campaign funding paperwork with New York State, with your last reported donation coming in October of 2024. Can you clarify whether or not Mr. Corts has donated to your campaign?
-Finally, we noted that there are now multiple members of the Woodbury Democratic Committee to refer to criticism of SBG as anti-semitic. Mr. Freiband, are Joel Stern and Issac Ekstein, or any other SBG official, a client of your wife’s PR and campaign consulting firm? I’ll note that SBG has an upcoming election in March of this year.
Trustee Fabbro:
-Your mother stated that she did not intend to speak last night. So then can it be said that she had no intention to apologize to the Jewish community and to Woodbury residents for her previous insensitive remarks?
-We are again asking if you would like to apologize on behalf of your mother for making these insensitive remarks and offending the Jewish community.
-Mr. Fabbro, you have also not reported any campaign contributions since October of 2024. Can you clarify why this is, and whether or not Mr. Wayne Corts has donated to your campaign? We’ll note that your mother’s committee received a $500 donation from Mr. Corts when you previously ran for office, and a mysterious ~ $1,200 donation from an LLC that same day.
-Mr. Fabbro, when told you were a “Democrat in Name Only” and supporting a far-right MAGA candidate (Brandon Calore) you shook your head. So again we want to ask: Can you clarify your support of Mr. Brandon Calore given his endorsement of President Trump’s policies, which includes rounding up and deporting members of the Woodbury community? If you don’t think this is a legit question, I encourage you to speak with Dr. Norman some time about the fears expressed by Monroe-Woodbury parents about ICE right now. [Emphasis Added]
Because if you look at the Village Code of Ethics, it clearly states that Village Trustees should not give a more than reasonable impression that someone else is influencing their decision making. And you’ll see both Fabbro and Freiband NOT answer my question about where the $19,600 went from James G. Skoufis’s independent expenditure Committee, Protect Monroe-Woodbury. [Emphasis Added]
I asked County Executive candidate, Michael Sussman, specifically about Matthew Fabbro and Rhonda Fabbro’s South Blooming Grove cover-up in an upcoming interview that’ll be out this week on The Finley. So, stay tuned for that, because I don’t think the Fabbros are going to be too happy when they hear it.
Both Rhonda Fabbro’s Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats and James Freiband have not reported any campaign filings since January 11th of 2025. This is a crime under New York State Election law. We’ve reported both of them to the New York State Division of Election Law Enforcement.
The Monroe Gazette FOIL’ed for text messages between Matthew Fabbro and Mommy Fabbro, and between James Freiband and Willa Freiband — who, reminder, owns a political consulting PR firm — about Village of Woodbury business.
Both Matthew Fabbro and James Freiband told the Village of Woodbury there are no such text messages.
We believe this is false, and opens the Village to a, minimum, $20,000 FOIL lawsuit.
We’ve been told specifically in the case of the Fabbros by both Village employees and residents, that they have seen Mother Fabbro texting with Mr. Fabbro during Village Board meetings.
Following our FOIL request, if you watch the video from October 23rd’s Village of Woodbury Board meeting, you’ll notice that Mrs. Fabbro sat directly in front of her son, as opposed to her usual location toward the back where she can send text messages.
We thought that was really bizarre. I mean, beyond the fact that when you get elected to public office, nobody elected your mother. They elected you.
We also saw Rhonda Fabbro and Matthew sending text messages during this meeting, so we put in a new FOIL request for texts sent and received that day and texts sent and received between both Fabbros concerning South Blooming Grove.
What you have here is a coverup.
Mrs. Fabbro isn’t calling Woodbury residents antisemitic because she’s an idiot — she may be. I don’t know. — She’s saying Woodbury residents are anti-semitic so that when or if Palm Tree and/or the Village of Kiryas Joel sue the Village of Woodbury over the ACE Farm annexation, the likely law firm choice of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP will use it as evidence to claim Woodbury is antisemitic, and therefore can’t be trusted to make this decision concerning the annexation. Just like in Washingtonville.
(Fun fact: Rhonda Fabbro’s best friend is Woodbury Public Library Board member, Cathy Schmidt. As we documented, Mrs. Schmidt hired this same law firm to cover up for instances of harassment by Schmidt of Martha Lopez. In the process, costing Woodbury taxpayers over $11,000. The Woodbury Public Library is currently refusing to process our FOIL concerning this incident.)
So, to us, it sure looks like James G. Skoufis is having the Woodbury Democrats repeat his public facing claims that there’s “nothing to see here” as it relates to Joel Stern ($10,000 Skoufis donor) and Isaac Ekstein ($15,000 donor. $10k from him, $5k from an LLC he owns.)
Because even in the face of a massive news story that demonstrates SBG’‘s disregard of the rule of law involving their election, both your elected and un-elected Trustees (Matthew Fabbro and Rhonda Fabbro) continue to insist you can’t criticize the village of South Blooming Grove without being antisemitic, and that you are if you do so.
Why? Because there are Democrats who work for the wealthy and the well-connected, and there are Democrats who work for you. Skoufis, the Fabbros, Freiband, Yoffee, don’t work for you.
In the face of corruption by wealthy real estate developers, both Fabbros insisted on covering up for Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein. Just like James G. Skoufis has, just like Kathy Hochul has.
There are few things more disturbing and disqualifying then that. Aside from maybe Dorey Houle informing her pals about the progress of potential threats to their health and safety, but not her own residents.
If you are in SBG and Blooming Grove, or if you’re in Woodbury, tell your friends. The Fabbros have made it clear they’re not working for your best interests and need to be kicked out of office. Even if that means voting for the Kwijibo. Just this once.
Any adult politician who takes orders from their mother, just like Mike Pence, need to be kicked to the curb.
And anyone providing cover for South Blooming Grove on the local and State level need to go too. Because we will not get action from the DEC, the DOH, or the Attorney General, until we have elected officials who are willing to call out bad behavior no matter where it’s found, and no matter who is doing it.
That’s how we stop the ongoing White Collar Crime Spree in South Blooming Grove. By calling out the bad behavior clearly and specifically, and the people who are trying to cover it up.
This is a problem that can be solved, but it takes massive collective action across all of Southern Orange County to do so.
Updated SBG Timeline
In early 2021, not long after taking office in a controversial fashon, Joel Stern is appointed confidential assistant to the mayor, and Isaac Ekstein is appointed legislative aide. Stern then assumed the role of “Village Executive” and identified himself as such in emails to local, county, and state officials. Within the Satmar community, when “the mayor” of South Blooming Grove is referenced, it is Joel Stern that is referenced, not Mayor George Kalaj.
The Village of South Blooming Grove then attempts to change the terms of office from two-year to four-year terms; however, the Village fails to file this paperwork with the Department of State until late 2024, after missing the regularly scheduled Village Election of March 2024. In March of 2025, the Village Election is then skipped.
During the tenure of Joel Stern, the FBI, EPA, Department of Health, the Orange County Department of Health, the New York State Comptroller, the Department of Environmental Conservation, and the New York Attorney General’s office launches multiple investigations into activities by Stern and Ekstein. Multiple lawsuits are also filed.
On February 20th, 2025, Joel Stern provides testimony as part of a lawsuit between Orange County and the Village of South Blooming Grove, stating Mayor George Kalaj’s term of office expires in March of 2026.
On September 25th, 2025 at the Woodbury Village Board meeting, un-elected Village Trustee, Rhonda Fabbro, declares that any criticism of South Blooming Grove is anti-semitic. Mrs. Fabbro, her son (the actual elected Village Trustee), James Freiband, and Valerie Hebel are political allies of State Senator James G. Skoufis. Mr. Skoufis has repeatedly ignored or otherwise pushed off residents of south Blooming Grove who brought these numerous instances of malfeasance to his attention. Mr. Skoufis has also tried to downplay concerns about South Blooming Grove using the same language as Mrs. Fabbro, writing it off as “fear mongering” or “conspiracy theories.”
On October 9th, 2025 from his Gmail account, Joel Stern sends an ad to the Mid-Hudson Times announcing the election for 10/22/25
On October 16th, from his United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove email, Mr. Joel Stern asks the Orange County Board of Elections for the complete voter role of South Blooming Grove. We have this and other emails via a FOIL request.
On October 20th, Isaac Ekstein, using the Deputy Clerk email from SBG sent an email to the OC BOE stating that the election went well with 61 yays and 10 nays concerning a referendum to move the Village Elections from March 2026 to October 2025. Note that Joel Stern is copied on this email. This may have happened at the 10/20 VOSBG meeting; however, there is nothing on the agenda for that meeting concerning an election. There IS something on the agenda concerning the Mayor’s property, 58 Fort Worth Place: (*On October 27th, Kerry Dougherty is recorded stating Isaac Ekstein is a Deputy Village Clerk, and may have access to the email in question that interacted with the Board of Elections. However, no where in any budget or document (that we have found thus far) demonstrates that Mr. Ekstein is a Deputy Village Clerk. This also raises concerns about FOIL, because it would mean Mr. Ekstein has directly participated in processing records requests that he himself was the subject of.
Ekstein then informed OC BOE that the election would take place two days later, on October 22nd and requested a pollbook. (Note here that OC BOE stated to The Monroe Gazette that they had NO knowledge of the election. This email shows that the OC BOE was lying and had full knowledge of the election, choosing not to intervene.)
On October 21st and 22nd, there is an email discussion with OC BOE and the person believed to be Ekstein, asking for an updated pollbook before 10am on 10/22. (Mrs. Dougherty, when asked, did not have a physical copy of the pollbook, nor did she have a readily accessible digital copy that was requested from the Village.) We have now spoke with several residents that expressed concerns that Mr. Ekstein wanted the pollbook in order to forge signatures.
Mrs. Kerry Dougherty, when asked, has only confirmed an election was involved, that it was a “special” election, and that the incumbents were all elected to four year terms. (Note that the original law to change the terms of office from 2 years to four years was filed three years after originally passed in 2021 and it appears filed incorrectly from what I can tell.) Mrs. Dougherty, as you can see in the video in the post and audio of our call, refused to answer any additional questions, saying she would answer them by email. At this time, The Monroe Gazette can confirm Mrs. Dougherty opened and read our email on Friday, but has not replied. When asked on 10/27 when she would respond to our email, she gave no timeline for response.
The Kiryas Joel Weekly was informed of the election results by an unknown party (probably Joel Stern, but that’s a guess on my part) and published the news on its front page on Friday, October 24th.)
Governor Hochul’s office and Congressman Pat Ryan’s Office have not yet replied to requests for comment on this matter. State Senator Skoufos provided a weak ass reply to News 12 about the “questions” his office has for the Village of South Blooming Grove. Then, he put out the following statement on Facebook, failing to note that “Village Executive” Joel Stern donated $10,000 to Friends of Skoufis on 5/15/22. Deputy Village Clerk and Legislative Aide, Isaac Ekstein (the two men responsible for this election) donated a combined $15,000 that same day.
Note: The Monroe Gazette called Matt Fascaldi, head of Constitutent Services, to report on the illegal Village Election on Thursday, February 23rd. Our call was not returned. Matt Fascaldi is currently on the ballot as a Democrat to be a Orange County Legislator in District 15.
