Woodbury Town Council Creates Illusion Of Cooperation With Village
Woodbury Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, Town Councilwoman Teresa Luongo, and Town Councilman Brandon Calore offer cooperation, but no specifics.
The Woodbury Village Board Meeting on January 11th, 2024, was frustrating. To understand why, you must be aware of two groups formed since the November 2023 election. Both are attempting to pressure the Village Board to get what they want.
We’ll Start with the Woodbury Town Board
Town Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, Town Councilwoman Teresa Luongo, Unelected Councilwoman Sandra Capriglione, and Town Councilman Brandon Calore attended the village board meeting.
Supervisor Luciani is an employee of Rushmore Estates, which has business before the Village Board. As reported in The Photo-News, Rushmore has yet to complete a checklist of tasks requested by the village before the venue can be fully operational.
During the meeting, Luciani — speaking as Town Supervisor and not an employee — stated she looked forward to collaborating with the Village Board. Calore, who previously made disparaging remarks about the Village — comparing it to Newburgh with what I thought was a bigoted remark — did not use the time at the village meeting to apologize for those statements.
What Bigoted Remarks?
During the December 28th, 2023, Woodbury Village Board meeting, as seen at 12:16 in the video below, Councilman Brandon Calore debated with the Village of Woodbury Board about the proposed opening of a marijuana dispensary. After someone spoke in favor of the dispensary, Calore returned at 21:09 and rambled some more. Then Jimmy Ng spoke, followed by Freiband. Nothing Freiband said was accurate. Not during the first time he spoke. Not during the second time he got up to speak later. Woodbury Village Attorney Kelly Naughton did an excellent job shutting him down both times.
After another person spoke in favor of marijuana in Woodbury, Calore could not resist running his mouth again. He returned at 48:08. Here, he mentions that three municipalities opted into marijuana dispensaries: The city and town of Newburgh (Calore said Village, but it’s Town) and the Village of Woodbury. Then Calore said, “So congratulations, we’re tied up with Newburgh.” The mayor asked, “What’s wrong with Newburgh?” Calore did not answer. The Mayor asked again. Calore did not answer. After being asked a third time by the mayor, Woodbury Town Councilman Brandon Calore said, “I don’t like the drug traffic, man.”
After other members of the community spoke, including two Newburgh residents, Calore returned again at 57:19 and complained that no one who spoke in favor of the cannabis dispensary lived in Woodbury.
As a long-time resident of Southern Orange County, it’s worth pointing out that references to Newburgh often serve as a racist dog whistle. According to the US Census Bureau, only 31% of the city’s population is white. Calore did not respond to requests to clarify his statements to The Photo-News.
(2025 Editor’s note: I’m updating some of the older Monroe Gazette posts. The paragraph you’re reading now was written in January of 2025. To this day, Woodbury Town Councilman Brandon Calore never clarified or apologized for his remarks about Newburgh and the Village of Woodbury made during the December 28th, 2023 Village Board meeting.
The Monroe Gazette again contacted Councilman Brandon Calore again on January 13th, 2025, to ask him to clarify his remarks and if he would consider apologizing to those offended. Why does this matter? Because Councilman Brandon Calore is rumored to want to run for Mayor of the Village of Woodbury. If Mr. Calore has contempt for the Village, or worse thoughts about some of the surrounding municipalities, it’s important that residents know so they can vote accordingly.
In addition, Woodbury Town Councilman Brandon Calore has been asked whether he is a Proud Boys member. This question came after his promotion of an establishment Woodbury residents and former employees claim hosts Proud Boys meetings. Calore was first asked about this in November of 2024. He declined to respond. So we followed-up again on January 13th, 2025.)
Let’s get back to January of 2024 …
When she spoke, Kathryn Luciani did not mention which of the numerous issues she looks forward to collaborating on with the Village. In my previous reporting for The Photo-News, I identified the following issues that Woodbury residents have asked both the Town Board and Village Board to address:
The urgent need for volunteer firefighters and EMS workers.
The unhoused population uses the Town of Woodbury’s Walmart parking lot for shelter.
The dwindling water pressure and access to water during the Summer months.
The forthcoming cannabis dispensary.
It is worth noting here that the cannabis dispensary is a major source of contention between Councilman Calore and the Woodbury Village Board.
None of these urgent matters were discussed at the most recent Woodbury Town Board Meeting, where Luciani, Calore, and Luongo have ample opportunity to do so.
However, the three put a pay raise for the new supervisor on the agenda for an upcoming Woodbury Town Board meeting, demonstrating what they really prioritize.
I’m not against pay raises for government employees. This includes your elected officials. They’re all woefully underpaid. That said, they need to justify the pay increase. In Luciani’s case, she wants to increase her pay despite the 2024 Town Budget already being discussed and approved. A process that both she and Councilman Calore took part in.
Again, just my opinion, but I felt all this evening’s appearance by the Town Board members accomplished was creating an illusion of cooperation to placate a restless public.
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Speaking of the Public …
John M. Keller, who previously spoke at the Woodbury Town Board meeting about the need for the Village and Town to work together, again spoke at tonight’s Village meeting. But Keller, with his own connections to the Woodbury town government, did not list any of the specific things he wants the village and town to collaborate on.
This is really common at Woodbury Village and Town board meetings. Members of the public will get up and say they want the town and village to work together, but they never say on what specifically.
Keller also failed to understand how public comment works. At one point, he stated he did not want to be quoted in the local newspaper. This request not to be quoted preceded what Mayor Andrew Giacomazza described to The Photo-News as “anti-Semitic remarks.”
Keller repeatedly said, “They don’t care,” about the new owner of the Woodbury “junkyard,” Ephraim Goldberger, and whether or not he’d respond to the 30-day notice the building inspector gave Goldberger.
Keller’s comments came as the mayor stated that work was being done to clean up the property.
Keller declined to comment when asked for clarification on who “They” are.
Giacomazza told The Photo-News, when I asked who “they” refers to, that “they” are members of the Satmar community.
The mayor added there is “absolutely no place for anti-semitism in the Village of Woodbury or at Village Board meetings.”
The Town Board members, who spoke after Keller’s remarks, did not condemn Keller’s statements or even acknowledge them.
So, that's the first group.
The New Village Board Members.
As Maria Hunter, chair of the Town of Woodbury Beautification Committee, pointed out during this evening’s meeting, she is concerned that this current Woodbury Village Board's future votes will be 3-2.
Hunter said that if one board member isn’t present, Village businesses could end up deadlocked.
She also directly addressed Trustee James Frieband for failing to perform his duties at tonight's meeting.
(2025 Editor’s note: The paragram you’re reading was written in January 2025. Maria Hunter was spot on here. Although not every vote has gone 3-2 on the Woodbury Village Board, Trustees Matthew Fabbro and James Freiband often obstruct, delay, and sometimes vote against the majority. If you watch the video of this January 2024 meeting, you can see that in action for yourself.
In Trustee Freiband’s case, he offers rambling, incoherent comments, is rarely seen at the office, and routinely comes underprepared for meetings. Whether or not these issues are attributable to Freiband’s failing mental faculties or because he doesn’t care is unknown. He has not once replied to a request for comment by The Monroe Gazette. The only FOIL request he complied with from us came after we had to ask the Orange County District Attorney’s office for assistance. Despite all this, Trustee Freiband plans to run for re-election in November of 2025, creating the potential for a locally based reproduction of “Weekend at Bernie’s.”)
Earlier in the meeting, Woodbury Village Trustee James Frieband objected to approving an abstract because he said he hadn’t had time to read it. During public comment, Hunter called out Friedband's failure to read the abstract despite having 48 hours to do so.
Woodbury Village Trustee Matthew Fabro did not vote for the abstract's approval either. He spent most of the meeting looking to see how Friedband voted before casting his own.
(2025 Editor’s Note: Although not always the case, Trustee Matthew Fabbro still often looks to see how Freiband is voting before he renders a vote of his own.)
It’s unclear from the meeting what happened with the abstract's approval after Frieband’s objection. Not approving the abstract is a serious matter, as failing to do so would prevent the village from paying its numerous vendors.
I hope this is just the growing pains of new board members (Frieband and Fabbro) and not a preview of their term as Village Board members.
If it is a preview, the returning Village Board members will have their work cut out to get anything done.
They are faced on one side by a Woodbury Town Board seemingly more interested in politics and on the other by two Village board members who appear out of their depth as elected officials.
I hope I’m wrong. I usually am on such things.
(2025 Editor’s note: I was not wrong on this one.)
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