Religious Extremist Restricts Speech of Secular Residents

News from the September 23rd, 2024, South Blooming Grove Board meeting, wherein everyone lied and de facto Mayor Joel Stern continues to discriminate against secular residents of the Village.

Above: Video from the September 23rd, 2024, Village of South Blooming Grove Board meeting, courtesy of our friends at Preserve Blooming Grove. As you can see from George — He’s Only The Mayor on Paper — Kalaj, things are going really well for him and the Village Board. So much so that, at one point during the meeting, Village Attorney Scott Ugell told a resident, “If you don’t like it, you’re welcome to leave.”

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We know for sure that South Blooming Grove's de facto Mayor, Joel Stern, discriminates against the secular residents of the Village. This can be shown in the video where Mr. Stern repeatedly refers to the residents of the Village as "goyim," which is a slur in the Satmar community on par with a racist white person in Alabama calling a black person the N-word. Or, if you prefer a more local example, Town of Monroe Supervisor Tony Cardone allegedly referring to Highway Department employees as "Spics.”

We can also show Mr. Stern's discrimination in statements authorized by Mr. Stern — Founder of the local hate group, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove — where he called the non-Satmar Jewish residents of South Blooming Grove "Half-Jews.”

Later, Mr. Stern’s hate group created fanciful conspiracy theories concerning the Washingtonville Central School District and its alleged discrimination despite the lack of evidence to support Stern’s claims. While smearing the school district, Mr. Stern would serve as liaison to the Washingtonville Central School District during his lawsuit against them.

Whether or not he, too, believes in the racist "Curse of Ham," a Biblical misinterpretation that was, at one time, cited as a justification for slavery and later a known source of bigotry among some Orthodox and Haredi communities, is unknown. Mr. Stern has refused to answer this question when asked both by residents and via email from The Monroe Gazette. But it's worth noting here because a belief in the Curse of Ham ideology would explain Mr. Stern's treatment of the non-white residents of South Blooming Grove. 

Finally, and most importantly for today's story, we know Mr. Stern has a problem with women, as demonstrated by his treatment of News 12's Blaise Gomez, which we previously covered here at The Monroe Gazette.

When you refer to your Jewish brothers and sisters as half-Jews factually, and when you refer to the non-Jewish residents with a vile slur, and when you have a demonstrated problem with women, that all should be reason enough for residents of the area — All of Blooming Grove, Washingtonvile, and South Blooming Grove — to call 1-800-771-7755 or email civil.rights@ag.ny.gov to report Mr. Stern's consistent discrimination against them on the basis of their sex, color, and religion (or in my case, the lack of faith if you're like me and identify as a secular Jew.) This is a proven pattern best described as a religious extremist discriminating against those who do not share his extreme beliefs, which, in New York State, constitutes a hate crime.

Unfortunately, since Mr. Joel Stern is also the de facto Mayor of South Blooming Grove, this personal discrimination has carried over into both his professional capacity as a paid Village employee and in the actions of South Blooming Grove itself as a local municipality. Specifically in the form of moving to restrict the ability of the public to speak at South Blooming Grove meetings and threatening to remove public comment altogether as part of what he has factually described as "revenge" based on how he feels he was treated. (Note: There is absolutely no basis or factual evidence that we know of to support Mr. Stern's claims that he was not treated respectfully by previous Village employees and representatives. As we've covered in our previous fact check of Mr. Stern, seen here and here, it's yet another lie.)

Restricting Speech By Blocking Residents on Social Media

In Lindke vs. Freed, the Supreme Court ruled (and this is me trying to oversimplify the ruling) that if you're an elected official or a municipality like South Blooming Grove, you can't just block someone on a platform like Facebook. However, this is happening on the Village of South Blooming Grove's Facebook Page.

We've covered the situation with Mrs. Adrianna Concillo before. (The Monroe Gazette will have an in-depth video interview with her soon.) But briefly, Mrs. Concillo has been ignored for over a year in trying to get answers about a huge house and a retaining wall to support it that was erected behind her grandmother's home with absolutely no approval to do so. In her complaint (seen here), you can see evidence that the Village blocked Mrs. Concillo from their Facebook Page, thus breaking the law.

The Village of South Blooming Grove does not have a social media policy to explain its decision to block Mrs. Concillo and other residents. When asked to present one, the Village Clerk, Kerry Dougherty, did not respond to email, which is standard procedure for anyone working in the Village of South Blooming Grove: Do not reply to phone calls or emails, and when asked why, deny and lie to the public to say that they did. (The video above shows Mrs. Dougherty doing that beginning at 18:52.)

In addition to verifiably blocking residents, the Village of South Blooming Grove's Facebook Page has selectively allowed comments on posts starting in September of this year. You can see that here by scrolling to August and the months before to see when the comment restrictions were implemented.

The Supreme Court decision gets murky regarding whether or not a municipal government can temporarily restrict post comments. My impression—and again, I want to stress that I am not yet a lawyer —is that it's an all-or-nothing kind of deal. You can have people leave comments, or you can restrict comments entirely. Still, you can't do what the Village is doing by selectively limiting who can comment on what post at what time.

This is the first of three examples I'm going to share with you today concerning Mr. Stern's actions to limit the speech of secular residents living in South Blooming Grove. In our next example, we will show you how his problem with women translated into a new sign-up-to-speak policy.

Wait, How Do You Know This Was Mr. Stern's Decision?

That brings us to September 19, 2024, and the Village of South Blooming Grove's Planning Board meeting. We've already covered this incident, but it's worth recapping briefly, in the words of Chirs Maderia, in writing to the Orange County District Attorney's office to file charges of felony destruction of public property against Joel Stern, Mr. Madeira said:

"Yesterday, Thursday, September 19, 2024, was the Village of South Blooming Grove (VSBG) scheduled Planning Board Meeting at 8:00pm. This Board does not post its Agenda until after noon or at twelve noon on the dates of the scheduled meetings. There is very little notice to the public, and the agendas are large; generally, anywhere between 6-10 projects are planned. I am a regular attendee of the VSBG board meetings, and every official, board member, and municipal lawyer knows who I am and has for years. Same with the engineers presenting and many in the public in attendance and watching from home.

After arriving home from work, I proceeded to go to the VSBG website to find the Agenda for the meeting. I was surprised to see that Public Rules were presented requiring a "sign-in with address Required." One does not have to relinquish one's 4th Amendment right to exercise one's 1st Amendment right to speak at a public forum on the issues on the Agenda, where a public hearing is opened for the public to speak.

I then researched the NY Open Meeting Laws and listed Opinions concerning Public Participation. My research provided the attached opinions, and my initial thought was to speak with the Village Planning Board Attorney Dan Kraushaar prior to the meeting to get his opinion on the rules and the OML Opinions. Mr. Kraushaar and I have a respectful and cordial relationship, which I would describe as professional. I knew he would be open to a conversation. 

I arrived early for the meeting, and Mr. Kraushaar was just getting out of his vehicle. I approached him and asked if I could have a few minutes of his time to speak concerning the rules, and he was open to a conversation. I parked my vehicle and then began speaking with him. I asked him, who made these new rules? He wasn't sure. I stated that only the Board itself is empowered to create any rule(s) for a public hearing and that the Village Planner, Mr. Shepstone, nor the Village Engineer, Mr. Fusco, could make any rule on their own or together." (Emphasis added.)

I just want to interrupt here to explain that Mr. Tom Shepstone has demonstrated a pattern, like Mr. Stern, of misinforming Village of South Blooming Grove residents about the rules concerning the operation of Planning Board meetings, which we covered both here and here.

Continuing on with Chris

"I then proceeded to state that the requirement for a member of the public to have "Sign-In with Address Required" to speak was unconstitutional in my opinion and provided him with these OML opinions, though areas of attention that pertained were yellow highlighted for his reference to ease his review prior to the start of the meeting. His first thoughts were that he had attended other municipal forums that require the public to "sign in" at its meetings. Still, he was open to reviewing the OML opinions. We proceeded into the Village Hall, where he reviewed them. I think it would be fair to say he viewed them for 3-5 minutes and then approached me. He said these opinions refer to a "Meeting," not a "Public Hearing." I disagreed respectfully and said that an updated advisory opinion from the NYS Committee on Open Government would be the best avenue to proceed and that the last-minute posting of the Agenda didn't allow the time for the public to obtain an opinion prior to the start of the meeting. He then returned the OML Opinions back to me.

The meeting then opened. Once Mr. Shepstone presented the rules, I objected to the public not having to relinquish its 4th Amendment rights and not signing any document. Still, I would identify myself by name prior to speaking. After some back and forth, I was told I could not exercise my 1st Amendment Right unless I "signed in." I then got up, approached Mr. Shepstone, handed him these OML Opinions, and said, "See you in Court." I then respectfully removed myself, returned home, and watched the remainder of the meeting via Facebook.

I did not become appraised of Mr. Joel Stern, Assistant to the Mayor, who, in the video of the meeting, got up, took the OML Opinions from Mr. Shepstone, tore them up, and then walked to the trash container to dispose of them until today after reviewing last night's meeting on audio and video. These are the facts to the best of my knowledge and belief."

Now, there's a lot to unpack here.

For starters, the new sign-in-to-speak rules were created arbitrarily and capriciously. This is a fancy way of saying "Despotic." Or, if you'd like, that the rules were just made up by some dipshit with the specific purpose of restricting speech. The fact that neither Mr. Shepstone, Mr. Kraushaar, or Mayor Kalaj at the following Village Board meeting could identify the "source" of this decision indicates that it came entirely from Joel Stern, as Mr. Stern (as you can see as plain as day in the above video) runs the meetings and the Village.

And if the video isn't enough evidence, I'll point you to the current Comptroller Audit of the Village of South Blooming Grove, which was triggered specifically by Mr. Stern, acting as de facto Mayor, trying to negotiate for a second garbage pick-up that was unnecessary and unneeded by Village residents, both with the Town of Blooming Grove and with Marangi Waste Management company. I’ll also point you to the illegal left turn lane that Mr. Stern had installed at the expense of Village residents and removed by the NYS Department of Transportation, also at the expense of Village registers.

Another example that people might have missed from this week's Village of South Blooming Grove Board Meeting was that Mr. Fusco stated he would only speak to the public if the Mayor, George Kalaj, asked him to speak. You can see him say that at 20:05.

If you watch the video, you'll see that Mr. Kalaj does not ask Mr. Fusco to talk at any point. But at the end of the video, Joel Stern asks Mr. Fusco to speak, and Mr. Fusco proceeds to do so, again demonstrating that when Mr. Fusco stated he would talk only if the Mayor asked him to do so, he followed the directions of Mr. Stern and not Mr. Kalaj, who is only the Mayor on paper.

Again, it must be stressed that Mr. Stern is the de facto Mayor of South Blooming Grove and makes the decisions, such as restricting speech on Facebook and at public meetings.

Why Restrict Speech Now, Three Years Into His Term as “Mayor”?

Nothing with the Village of South Blooming Grove is done transparently. So here, we have to step away from the news so I can briefly provide my opinion to answer this question. And my opinion is this:

-Mr. Stern is a religious extremist who hates and discriminates against "the goyim," half-Jews, women, and maybe our non-white friends and neighbors. You can see this in how he labeled very few of the public comments he received as "legit" during the previous Village Board meeting. (You may recall the one where Mr. Stern lied to the public for sixteen straight minutes, which required two full days of fact-checking by The Monroe Gazette.)

-After The Monroe Gazette thoroughly fact-checked Mr. Stern's false statements, being a very fragile snowflake, like most tough guy conservatives when challenged, Mr. Stern could not handle that South Blooming Grove residents were talking back to him. His words on Monday, “We should terminate public comment. It’s just waisting everyone’s time.” This was one of two moments where Mr. Stern was caught projecting his feelings under the guise of an official village act. We’ll talk about the second in another post.

Stern misses the days when virtually no one showed up to the meetings, and he could get away with ignoring or just talking over the people trying to correct him. Since Mr. Stern does not respond to emails or phone calls and is often not found in the Village office, the public meetings are the only real avenue that residents have to interact with him, so it makes sense now that there's pushback for him to want to limit or otherwise remove the public's ability to speak to him.

-But more importantly, I think this is being done to specifically target one person. A woman and we all know how Mr. Stern and his extreme religious beliefs feel about women. (I’m not identifying this individual at her request.)

If you go back and watch the South Blooming Grove Planning Board meetings, you'll see consistently that one person at virtually every meeting points out the factual deficiencies in numerous applications Mr. Tom Shepstone is trying to ram through the Village Planning Board.

One of those applications is the Capital Hill Project. This is the one where Mr. Stern claimed there's a magic well with enough water to solve all of the municipality's water problems. This is also the one linked to Mr. Avaraham Bur Jacobowitz, who is alleged to be the main source of funding for Mr. Stern's United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove hate group.

We can't confirm that because, when asked to provide the most recent Form 990s for this alleged not-for-profit, Mr. Stern and Mr. Issac Ekstein, the group’s president, deleted the English-language version of the organization's website and refused to give this information. As it turns out, the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove had its not-for-profit status revoked by the IRS back in 2022.

Also linked to the Capital Hill project is Bernard "Bernie" Jacobowitz. (Note the last name.) This name may not be familiar to most of you, but if you recall, everything in South Blooming Grove that's happening right now ties back to the lawsuit Zalman Berkovitz, Solomon Witriol, Mendel Schwimmer, Bernie Jacobowitz, Joseph Strulovitch, Jacob Gold, Moses Greenfield, and Sam Wiesner v. Village of South Blooming Grove.

After they lost their lawsuit, these plaintiffs went on to form the company known as Keen Equities, which is the developer responsible for the Clovewood mega-development. Mr. Stern has extensive ties with many of them. Jacob Gold, for example, is Mr. Joel Stern's boss at Windsor Global and the second-largest investor in Keen Equities. So, Mr. Stern works for Keen Equities, which also ties him to Mr Bernard "Bernie" Jacobowitz, who is also tied up with Avraham Ber Jacowbowitz and the proposed Capital Hill project. 

At the previous planning board meeting, this one individual raised questions concerning the ties between Mr. Stern and the project, the mystery well (that the DEC has stated they have no documentation of), and the deficiencies found in the application. So, the application was delayed. Following that meeting, Mr. Kraushaar received a request from The Monroe Gazette to investigate the financial ties between Mr. Stern and the Jacobowitzs, which he did reply to. The letter is as follows:

Hi Dan,

As promised during the Thursday, August 15th, 2024 Village of South Blooming Grove Planning Board meeting, I did some digging into Mosayonu Grove LLC and did in fact find a conflict of interest involving Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Isaac Ekstein, both paid village employees.

In short, members of the Haredi community in Kiryas Joel reached out to me a few months ago to stress that their religious leader, Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum, was not responsible for what was happening in South Blooming Grove, but that it was his brother, Zalman Teitelbaum.

Working on behalf of Mr. Zalman Teitelbaum is a developer named Avrum Ber Jacobowitz. It's been alleged by these gentleman that Mr. Jacobowitz, acting on behalf of the Rebbe (Zalman), has funded the entirety of Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein's operations in South Blooming Grove concerning their organization, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove.

Regrettably, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein let the IRS non-profit status of the UJC expire due to failure to disclose the appropriate forms which would have revealed the source of their funding.

Mr. Jacobowitz's family is listed on the official voting roles of South Blooming Grove as residing at 20 Shannon Lane. If this address sounds familiar, it's because this is also the address of the new mystery well that was suddenly announced as being available as a "gift" to the Village of South Blooming Grove during the same meeting on Thursday evening. (There are actually 16 people registered to the same address, with 13 of them sharing the same last name of Jacobowitz.)

When asked to explain or disclose their relationship to Mr. Jacobowitz at a June 2024 Village Board meeting (the one held at 10:30am on a Friday after the regularly scheduled Monday meeting was abruptly cancelled at the last minute), both Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein refused to do so. That footage can be found here.

If you examine section 18-5 of the Code of Ethics, it's pretty clear about prohibiting village employees and other officials from using their position to further projects on behalf of others that they have a financial connection of: “No elected official, covered employee or Village employee shall directly or indirectly solicit or receive compensation or agree to receive compensation for services rendered concerning matters before any Village agency, nor shall any such person accept other employment or engage in any business transactions or make any investments directly or indirectly which create a conflict with his or her official duties."

I will be filing a formal ethics complaint with Orange County to investigate given that the Village does not have formal Ethics Board.

I am alerting you to this issue now, and formally requesting that anything involving the Capital Hill application be suspended indefinitely pending the completion of such an investigation.

I'm also requesting that you write me back to confirm receipt of this message and to confirm that this application and business concerning it will be suspended pending an investigation.

But, despite the acknowledgment by Mr. Kraushaar, nothing came of that email.

But what did happen was that all of a sudden, these restrictions on the ability to speak appeared at the September Village Planning Board and Village Board meetings.

In my opinion, these restrictions on speech are directed at one specific woman, whom Mr. Stern is trying to shut down to ram through the Capital Hill project (among other things) on behalf of the Jacobowitzs.

"If You Don't Like It, You Can Leave"

Should any of the boards meet between now and the end of the year, Mr. Stern will look to remove public comment, perhaps as soon as the next Board meeting in November. With the High Holy Days approaching, there will be no October meetings, and since the Village has a factual pattern of canceling meetings on a dime, often at the very last minute, these September meetings may be the last ones we'll have for the year.

Let's be generous, though, and assume that won't happen, and the November and December meetings will happen as scheduled. Until Mr. Stern acts to remove the public comment period, we need to take a moment to discuss the current sign-in-to-speak rules and the reduction of speaking time from three minutes to two minutes.

The bad news is that, yes, a municipality can force you to sign up to speak. This is no different from what the Town of Monroe does at its meetings, although honestly—and again, this is my opinion and not news—that policy needs to go.

Again, The bad news is that a municipality can also reduce the amount of time you have to speak. I have not yet verified this, but of the Towns, Cities, and Villages across New York State, South Blooming Grove may have the shortest public comment time for speakers.

The good news is you do not have to provide factual information when signing up to speak. In a statement from the New York State Committee on Open Government to The Monroe Gazette, they said:

"The OML is silent regarding public participation, and as such, a public body has no obligations to allow public comment at its meeting. Where a public body permits public participation at its meetings, the Committee has advised that public bodies may adopt reasonable rules, including limiting the amount of time each person may speak for, as long as the rules treat members of the public equally. OML-AO-5607. While reasonable rules could likely limit public comment on the Agenda topics, they may not limit comments to particular viewpoints. While public bodies can ask those wishing to make public comments to sign up to speak, it cannot require legal names and addresses. Those attending and wishing to speak should be permitted to do so anonymously. Since the Board has discretion regarding whether or not to accept public comment during meetings, the reason for revoking or amending its policies or rules would likely be irrelevant. (Emphasis Added.)"

I asked COOG to weigh in on submitting written comments. As you can see, I submitted the following to be included in the minutes of the 9/23 meeting:

"Dear Madam Clerk,

The following is being submitted as part of public comment for today's Village of South Blooming Grove Board meeting. I am BCC'ing it to multiple Village Residents, the Village Attorney, Chief Wakeham at the Blooming Grove Police Department, and the Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor to confirm that you have received this email, that the request was made, and that this letter is included with the meeting minutes. 

Town of Monroe Councilwoman Maureen Richardson, and legal counsel, have also been copied on this email.

During the previous Village Board meeting, Mr. Joel Stern made a series of false statements to Village residents. 

He again made false statements about the Village's water situation during last week's Village Planning Board meeting. I am writing to correct the record and request that Mr. Stern clarify his numerous false statements at this evening's meeting. 

If he is unable to attend, there is no reason why Mr. Stern cannot provide a letter to be read by Mr. Ugell or Mayor Kalaj to correct these false statements. If one cannot be prepared in time for tonight's reason. In that case, nothing prevents the Village from responding formally on the Village website or through Mr. Stern's The Blooming Grove Report.

Let's address these false statements in the order they were made:

-Mr. Stern claimed there is no EPA investigation of the Village of South Blooming Grove. This is false. EPA representatives have confirmed an ongoing investigation, and the Village of South Blooming Grove currently has open violations listed with the EPA. 

Please clarify why Mr. Stern lied to the public at the previous meeting.

-Mr. Stern claimed the Code Enforcement officer would take action on resident complaints; however, the Code Enforcement Officer and Building Inspector, Al Fuso Jr., sat through the entire previous meeting and failed to identify himself to any resident who brought up a code enforcement issue. 

When contacted at their main number of 845-344-5863, Fusco Engineering & Land Surveying fails to respond "promptly" (in Mr. Stern's words) to resident complaints. 

Please have Mr. Fusco explain to residents this evening how much his firm charges them to provide Building and Code Enforcement Services and clarify why he declined to respond to the litany of issues provided by residents at your previous village board meeting.

-During your previous Village Board meeting, Mr. Stern should have disclosed that the approved emergency $100,000 repair would benefit four properties he owns. 

Please have Mr. Stern provide Village residents with his most recent notice of disclosure, which all Village employees and officials must sign in accordance with NYS Municipal Law. This document should list any potential conflicts of interest and properties that they own in the Village, even if the property is owned through an LLC.

-Mr. Stern has repeatedly failed to disclose his connection and the financial contributions his organization — the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove — has received from the Jacobowitz family and Mr. Avraham Bur Jacobowitz. 

In addition, he has continued to state that plenty of wells are available at meetings. FOIL'ed documents provided by Orange County dispute this, stating there are three wells, and those wells have not been tested. Mr. Stern again repeated this false claim about the availability of the wells at last week's Planning Board meeting.

Please have Mr. Stern clarify his remarks about the fact that there are more than three wells available for village residents. 

Please also have Mr. Stern explain his relationship with the Jacobowitzs. One of those wells he claims to have available is tied to the Capital Hill project, which is brought before the Board on behalf of the Jacobowitz family. 

Please also have Mr. Stern provide documentation concerning these additional wells, should any exist. He has yet to comply with any FOIL requests on this issue. If these wells exist, there should be no problem providing documentation to the public to confirm this.

"Trust me, bro" is not, nor should it ever be, the official position of any governing municipality in the state of New York.

Mr. Stern has also stated that the Clovewood wells would provide water to the Village despite documentation by the Orange County Department of Health showing no plans for them to be connected to the municipal water supply. 

While we're at it, please have Mr. Stern explain his relationship to Mr. Jacob Gold. Mr. Stern has provided sworn testimony in the State of New Jersey that he is an employee of Jacob Gold at Windsor Global. Mr. Gold is the second largest shareholder in Clovewood and owns Keen Equities. 

Please have Mr. Stern explain why he has not disclosed his financial relationship with Keen Equities investors. Also, please have Mr. Ugell clarify whether Mr. Stern ever made the Village aware of his association with Mr. Gold during his litany of public comments in support of the Clovewood development.

-Stern claimed a study was done concerning traffic patterns on Route 208 in conjunction with Region 8 of the New York State Department of Transportation. He stated the traffic light that was added was permanent and done based on specs provided to them by the DOT. The DOT disputed this claim. Mr. Stern's illegal turning lane actively endangered the lives of commuters and residents in South Blooming Grove and created a nuisance that took time and resources away from the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department to address.

Please have Mr. Stern explain why he provided false information to Village residents about the relationship between the Village and Department of Transportation concerning traffic patterns, the traffic light on 208, and the illegal turning lane created by Mr. Stern, which Village residents must now pay to have removed.

-Please have Mr. Stern explain his repeated failure to respond to emails and other correspondence provided by Orange County officials dating back to 2022 concerning the ANUE Sewage Treatment system that was installed on his watch, which the Village of South Blooming Grove refuses to turn on. 

Do not allow Mr. Stern to explain the situation away by blaming previous administrations, as this system was installed during his time running this Village, as confirmed in emails sent between Orange County and Mr. Fusco. Operation of the ANUE system, or the lack thereof, has created a health hazard for Town and Village residents of Monroe, and the responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Stern and not the "shortcomings" of "previous administrations" as Mr. Stern routinely says in communications within The Blooming Grove Report and the United Jewish Community newsletter that he approves the release of.

-After speaking with representatives of the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department, The Village of South Blooming Grove told the Town of Blooming Grove Police that a resolution was passed allowing for the installation of Sabbath Sirens on Village property. 

Please provide the residents a copy of this resolution if one exists and to the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department.

Please clarify for Village residents who installed the Sirens, who operates them, what the maximum decibel level is for them to hit, and who is responsible for following those regulations. The Town of Blooming Grove Police has stated that the Sabbath Sirens are the responsibility of the Village. As it stands, the decibel level of the sirens exceeds 85 dba, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control, creates a verifiable health hazard for the residents living directly under the sirens on Dallas Drive.

Mr. Stern claimed that the Village owns Prospect Road. Documented evidence dating back to 2006 shows this claim to be false. Supervisor Jeroloman, copied on this very long letter, confirmed this.

Please have Mr. Stern explain why he is threatening legal action against the Town of Blooming Grove over property that the Village clearly does not own now or has ever owned, dating back to 2006. 

Please have Mr. Stern explain to residents why they should pay for such legal action despite the fact that it is based on a lie.

Mr. Stern claimed the Village always had a second garbage pick-up. This is false, as attested to by multiple previous village officials of South Blooming Grove and Town of Blooming Grove officials such as Mr. Jeroloman. 

Please have Mr. Stern explain why he stated this false information to the public about the second garbage pick-up.

While we're at it, consider this notice that your resolution this evening is deficient. It does not clarify how fees are calculated, how much Village residents can expect to pay for a second pick-up, or who is providing the service.

-Please have Mr. Stern clarify why the Village is pursuing this resolution while the New York State Comptroller's office continues investigating the second garbage pick-up arranged by Mr. Stern.

-According to 3 Constitutional Scholars, providing a benefit to one group of residents (if they should all belong to one religious group) at the direct harm of secular residents represents a violation of both the NYS Constitution and the Federal Constitution's Establishment Clause. Please have Mr. Stern clarify why he is opening the Village up for potential lawsuits concerning the violation of all residents' First Amendment rights to the separation of Church and State as governed by the federal government and New York State.

-Mr. Stern told residents that requests submitted to your office, Madam Clerk, would be taken care of "promptly." 

At previous meetings, we have heard from multiple residents stating that your office has not complied with their FOIL requests in over a year. I personally have at least six requests currently outstanding with your office that date back to March, with no guidance provided — in most cases – concerning when these FOILS will be fulfilled. This includes a FOIL stamped and received by your office on April 30th concerning security camera footage from March of 2023, where Mr. Stern can be seen removing documents after midnight from Village Hall immediately following confirmation of the NYS Comptroller's office. Mr. Stern was then seen delivering those documents to the UJC Headquarters on Merriwold. To this day, all I have ever received is an acknowledgment of this request.

Please have Mr. Stern and yourself explain your office's repeated failure to respond to resident concerns and FOIL requests when properly submitted.

Please explain, Madam Clerk, why your office cannot respond to what should be otherwise routine FOIl requests by residents of this Village.

-There is documented evidence of Mr. Stern repeatedly referring to residents of South Blooming Grove as "goyim." 

Within the Satmar community, the use of the term "goyim" is on par with a racist white Southerner referring to a black person as the n-word. 

Please have Mr. Stern explain the discriminatory and hateful language that he has used to describe the village residents he represents. 

In addition, previous statements made by Mr. Stern in his UJC newsletter refer to non-Satmar Jewish residents of the community as "Half-Jews." As a "Half-Jew," I am demanding an apology for this statement.

Such language made by a Village employee leaves the Village open for lawsuits and claims of discrimination filed against Mr. Stern, which Village residents would be responsible for paying.

Please have Mayor Kalaj explain why Mr. Stern is still employed by the Village despite documented evidence of his repeated use of this slur against non-Satmar residents and verifiable lies to village residents, as recorded here in this letter.

Oh. Sorry. One more thing …

It's a felony to destroy public documents, including surveillance camera footage requested, stamped, and received by the Village on April 30. Still, your office has not complied with this, as mentioned here.

This also includes documents provided by Mr. Stern from Chris Maderia at the Thursday, September 19, Village Planning Board meeting. Mr. Stern can be seen clearly destroying these documents, which were examined by the Planning Board attorney.

Given Mr. Stern's repeated pattern of deceiving Village of South Blooming Grove residents, as documented in this email, the destruction of public documents does meet the threshold of being a felony. I have contacted the Orange County District Attorney's office to request they pursue a felony charge of destroying public records against Mr. Stern.

In the words of your Mayor — should he decide to be present at this meeting — “it is what it is.”

And what it is here is a crime.

-B.J. Mendelson

Concerned resident of Southern Orange County.

What about Letters Like That?

You would think letters submitted for public comment would go into the public record. But according to COOG: 

"Similarly, the OML is silent with respect to written comments. No requirements within the OML require written comments to be read into the record or added to the written materials for a public meeting. The one exception is that if the Board plans to discuss particular written comments during a meeting, it would be required to make those comments available twenty-four hours before the meeting in compliance with § 103(e). I will note that any written public comments received by the Clerk would be "records" available under FOIL that could be periodically requested.

How decisions to make, amend, or revoke a public body's policies or procedures are also not governed by the OML and are, therefore, beyond our advisory jurisdiction. However, such decisions are typically made by a majority vote of the public body or a committee of the body. (Emphasis added.)

As you know, anyone aggrieved by the Board's actions or inactions may seek judicial review by initiating an Article 78 proceeding in the state Supreme Court.

To be clear: No vote has been held by any governing body in South Blooming Grove to restrict or otherwise eliminate the ability for the public to speak at their respective meetings. It was an arbitrary and capricious decision made by Joel Stern.

Some of you have asked what the American Civil Liberties Union has to say about what I've documented for you here. The answer is … Not much.

A spokesperson did comment on the Facebook speech restrictions, saying, in general, "the rule is that the government cannot officially — as opposed to a government official acting off the clock in a personal capacity — engage in viewpoint discrimination, such as banning or blocking posters or deleting comments based purely on the viewpoint expressed in those posts." I will follow up with them about the speech restrictions created by Mr. Stern to discriminate against the secular residents and will let you know what, if anything, they say. I haven't had much luck with the ACLU, and the Hudson Valley ACLU has been useless, not responding to any calls or emails sent to them by residents of South Blooming Grove asking them to intervene concerning their restrictions on speech, discrimination at the grocery store, and on and on and on …

When Mr. Madeira again encountered the sign-in-to-speak rules and stated he does not have to provide his name and address, Village of South Blooming Grove attorney Scott Ugell informed Mr. Madeira, "If you don't like it, you can leave." But as we've now established, once again, Mr. Ugell is wrong, and we can add that to the ongoing list of reasons he should be disbarred by the Supreme Court Appellate Division (among the other reasons we've documented that's been alleged, like hiring someone to threaten to kill a former business partner, and his cocaine-fueled trip to Boston involving a sex worker named Lenny.)

So, to be clear:

Yes. You do need to sign in.

No, you do not need to sign in with your real name and real address.

You can write down any name or address you like. I'm partial to using F. Joel Stern for a name and hope most of you decide to adopt that as your non-de plume. In terms of address, as I've shared in the past, I often use the street address of a marijuana dispensary in Downtown Anchorage, which is 541 W 4th Ave, Anchorage, AK 99501. Please feel free to use that address as much as you'd like, and if you're ever in Anchorage, I hope you will visit them.

“Public Comment Is Closed, Sorry.”

So, how else can I demonstrate that Mr. Stern, a religious extremist, is discriminating against the non-Haredi residents of South Blooming Grove? I'm glad you asked because something odd happened during the September 23, 2024, Village Board meeting at 34:53 in the above video.

As usual, Mr. Stern introduced a last-minute resolution. This one involves Efroim Halpert, whom we'll revisit for an upcoming story soon. Mr. Stern announced that Mr. Halpert donated “$250,000” in vehicles to the Village of South Blooming Grove's public safety division. He then insisted that Mr. Halpert receive a round of applause, which every Board member and Vilalge employee gave (yes, seriously) while Village residents were talked over and ignored. Mr Stern stated, “Public comment is closed. Sorry.”

Here's the thing with those donations by Mr. Halpert: The Village of South Blooming Grove does not have a public safety division. They do have people identifying themselves as representatives of this public safety division. We know this because The Monroe Gazette interviewed one of the drivers working on behalf of Mr. Stern's United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove during Passover. The driver stated that a Village "Public Safety Officer" was paying him "out of pocket" and reimbursing the expense of doing so with the Village. Naturally, the Village of South Blooming Grove, to this day, still needs to comply with FOIL requests concerning invoices and requests for reimbursement submitted during the months of April and May of 2024. It was only during the Summer, at the June meeting, that Mr. Stern presented a resolution requesting the Village retain special counsel Nora Murphy to pursue forming a public safety division. 

Mr. Stern claimed that the donation of $250,000 worth of vehicles (no information concerning the year, make, model, use, or condition of the cars was provided to residents) was coordinated with the Town of Blooming Grove Police Chief Wakeham. Mr. Wakeham has, once again, declined to respond to requests for comment, this time on whether or not Mr. Stern's statements here are accurate that the Town of Blooming Grove Police are “aware” of the donations. Mr. Stern has made false statements about the Town Police in the past that have required a public response from the chief.

Mr. Stern stated that these donations came at no expense to Village residents, which is another false statement.

When Village residents asked who would insure the vehicles, drive them, and maintain them, Mr. Stern and the Village Board talked them over and ignored them.

The bad news is, I spoke with the Comptroller's office, and yet again, they demonstrated that Orange County is the Wild West, and you can basically do whatever the fuck you want down here since there's very little in the way of governance on vehicle donations. I also flagged Mr. Halpert's donation to the IRS, who would not comment on the record concerning the matter.

The good news is, while it's clear the New York State government has decided not to do a single thing to get in the way of Mr. Stern — I'll remind you that Mr. Stern donated $10,000 to State Senator Skoufis, and Mr. Skoufis to this day has refused to write a letter to the DEC asking them to revoke the Stern-linked Clovewood project's permits due to multiple documented instances of malfeasance — I decided I wasn't going to take that laying down.

So, I sent the following FOIL request in:

September 24th, 2024

South Blooming Grove Village Hall

811 Route 208, Monroe, NY 10950

Dear Kerry,

If your Village attorney, Mr. Scott Ugell (Copied), has yet to advise you, please consider this notice that further non-compliance with FOIL requests opens you up to potential legal action. 

As I was also told to instruct you by the Orange County District Attorney's office, it's only a crime once you've been told you're doing something illegal and continue doing it. 

Consider this your formal notice that any resident of this Village will not accept or tolerate further non-compliance with FOIL requests.

Given your previous non-compliance with multiple FOIL requests, I have taken the additional step of copying COOG on this email and BCC'ing multiple SBG residents to confirm the day, date, and time that this request was submitted to your office. 

Under the New York State Freedom of Information Law, I am requesting the following records:

1. Records detailing the make, model, year, condition, and additional information concerning the three vehicles being donated to the Village of South Blooming Grove by Efroim Halpert that Mr. Stern alleges are worth $250,000 worth of value.

2. Email and Text records between Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Efroim Halpert concerning the donation of the vehicles from July 2024 to 9/25/24. This request encompasses emails sent from Mr. Stern's personal and professional devices and email accounts. 

This includes texts and WhatsApp messages sent from Mr. Stern's phone number, (removed) and Mr. Stern's personal email address: (removed)

3. Email records between Mr. Joel Stern, from personal and professional email accounts, and Chief Wakeham of the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department concerning this donation from July 2024 to 9/25/24.

Consistent with section 85(5)(a) of FOIL, please provide these records via email. 

If not all of the requested records can be emailed to me, please email me the portions that can be emailed and let me know the cost for reproducing the remainder of the requested records.

If my request is too broad or does not reasonably describe the relevant records, please let me know via email, and I will clarify my request.

As a reminder, you have five business days from receiving this email to acknowledge this request and then to either grant it or deny it. 

If any records are unavailable within five business days of receipt of the request and responsive documents exist, please provide a description of such records and a timeline for when access to the records will be provided. If you determine that certain parts of this request may be more easily produced than others, I am open to discussing a production schedule for records that will take longer to produce.

If you deny any or all of this request, please inform me of the reasons for the denial in writing and provide the appeal procedures and the name and address of the person or body to whom an appeal should be directed. If you determine that any portion of the requested records are exempt from disclosure pursuant to FOIL, please delete only the material claimed as exempt, inform me of the basis for the exemption claim, and furnish copies of those portions of the records that you determine are not exempt.

Please write back to confirm receipt of this email. 

It's not surprising that I have yet to receive a response to this email, and I likely won't by October 1, past the five business days a municipality has to respond to a FOIL request. (Yes, I plan on appealing. We’re going to take this one to court.)

But I hope this demonstrates to you that the Village of South Blooming Grove, specifically at the direction of Mr. Joel Stern, is actively discriminating against the secular residents and "half-Jews" like myself.

If you are a secular resident with questions, you get talked over and ignored. Or blocked on Facebook. Or threatened to have public comment removed entirely.

If you are a Satmar resident, you get a standing ovation from Village employees and Board members for an incredibly sketchy donation. The fact that the Board meeting stopped to give Mr. Halpert a round of applause during the same meeting that Mr. Stern threatened to remove public comment speaks for itself.

Oh. One more thing. Since this article was long enough, we'll get to Mr. Stern accusing Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor Robert Jeroloman of committing a felony on the same day that Mr. Stern was reported to the Orange County District Attorney for literally committing one.

More on that story soon. But we'll close with a letter I sent to Mr. Stern about his new restrictions on the speech of secular residents, that I want residents to be aware of:

Mr. Stern,

My favorite part of the day is writing these emails to you because you have clearly become rattled by them. That was a nice bit of projection last night, accusing the Town of Blooming Grove of committing a felony on the same day you received an email stating that you had potentially committed one.

Now let's get to our questions, which I am legally obligated to give you a chance to respond to:

1. Why do you continue to tell residents that the Clovewood Wells will provide water to the Village of South Blooming Grove residents when the Orange County Department of Health has, multiple times now, stated this to be false?

On a similar note, Mr. Jacobowitz's well has not been tested, and the DEC has no data on it. Can you explain why you're telling Village residents that this well is being gifted to the Village and will solve its water issues?

2. You were requested to provide an updated notice of disclosure concerning the properties you own in the Village, including the ones directly near the Dam. This documentation should include any parties in the Village, such as the Jacobowitz Family, Avraham Bur Jacobowitz, and Mr. Jacob Gold of Keen Equities. 

When can village residents expect this documentation to be provided by you that details any potential conflicts of interest you may possess?

3. Can you explain how you reached a $250,000 valuation for three used vehicles being donated to a "public safety division" that does not exist and may never come to fruition? I saw you asked for a big round of applause for this donation, but you did not clarify the costs created for maintaining them, insuring them, and driving them that would be incurred by Village residents when asked.

Does Mr. Halpert have business before the Planning Board? If so, that $250,000 donation you're claiming seems like it could be a problem and a conflict of interest that would prevent the Village from properly ruling on any property he has before them.

I'm sure you know that.

4. You stated that Public Comment "should be removed; it's wasting everyone's time." I would welcome an explanation as to why you feel that way. These meetings are recorded, and what is clear is that the public is asking you questions, and you're either not answering them or providing false information and don't like being corrected. For example, you stated that the EPA is not investigating the Village, and the EPA has said that they are.

Do you have a problem with women, Mr. Stern? Are you attempting to limit public comment so that particular residents can't continue to hold yourself and the Village Planning Board accountable for presenting faulty documents for approval?

And while we're at it: 

-Do you believe in the curse of ham? Are you discriminating against non-white residents in SBG because of this belief?

-Have you ever published any material calling the Jewish, non-Satmar residents in the area "Half-Jews"?

Have you ever participated in any meetings in which you referred to residents of South Blooming Grove as "goyim" at numerous points?

5. You stated that Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus is "a perfect friend." I'm sure he'll appreciate it when the public is made aware of your statement. I want to ask if you could elaborate on what makes Mr Neuhaus a "perfect friend." 

Do you believe the Orange County Department of Health's lack of enforcement action against the worsening water crisis, the hydrogen sulfide situation, and the polluted air from the rampant unpermitted construction is because of this friendship?

The bill always comes due, Mr. Stern. 

And not to let our County Executive off the hook …

Hi Rebecca,

At last night's 9/23/24 Village of South Blooming Grove Board meeting, Mr. Joel Stern referred to County Executive Neuhaus as "our good friend, Steve Neuhas."

As I'm sure you're aware, this is disturbing to residents of South Blooming Grove, who have seen the County Department of Health not take any action against the Village for three years worth of violations concerning the municipal water supply, for the Environmental Facilities and Services to not take action concerning the dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide being released into the Village of Monroe due to the direct inaction of Mr. Stern, and the Orange County District Attorney's office repeatedly fail to take any sort of action against Mr. Stern or his (verified) associates at Keen Equities concerning the Clovewood property.

So, I just have one question here: Could Mr. Neuhaus explain his friendship with Mr. Stern and whether or not that friendship has prohibited Orange County from taking any action against Mr. Stern since 2021?