Yes. The Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats Thinks You're That Stupid
The latest scam perpetrated by Village Trustees James Freiband and Matthew Fabbro, information on this weekend's parades, and we talk about Mike Lawler's gaslighting about the Big Beautiful Bill
If you missed yesterday’s podcast, we already covered Woodbury Town Councilwoman Sandra Capriglione — and Woodbury’s MAGA Mayoral candidate, Brandon Calore — trying to torpedo an open space grant. One that would create nearly 30 acres of open space and parkland in the Village of Woodbury. So I’m not going to cover that again here.
This week, we also talked about the bad old days of Monroe coming back to life in the form of a cyberbullying campaign.
Here’s something new: We’re currently investigating what you heard at 18:49 (in the video above. Taken at the May 22nd Woodbury Village Board meeting.
In short, at last night’s Woodbury Village Board meeting, Village Trustees James Freiband and Matthew Fabbro again treated their constituents like idiots. Playing dumb and otherwise not acknowledging their latest harebrained scheme.
Basically, the latest Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats Con Job is to get on the ballot this Fall with a third-party line called “No Annexation.” However, both Mr. Freiband and Mr. Fabbro appear confused by the name. Trustee Freiband called it “No Annexation Party” and Matthew Fabbro called it “No Annexations.” David Yoffee, running for a spot on the Woodbury Town Board, also called it “No Annexations.”
Now, if you watch your Woodbury Village Board meetings, you know that both Fabbro and Freiband verifiably and factually voted to torpedo Woodbury’s efforts to get lead agency status on the annexation from the DEC.
We’ve been in touch with both the Woodbury Village Attorney, Kelly Naughton, and Orange County Attorney, Rick Golden, to see if Fabbro and Freiband are running afoul of any laws, as well as local rules and regulations governing the actions of elected officials engaged in deceptive behavior. (County Attorney Rick Golden basically stood on his head, instead of simply saying “no comment” to explain in long-winded fashion why he would not answer our questions, which is typical of the County Attorney. Woodbury residents could take Golden’s stonewalling to indicate what’s been suggested by elected officials in and around Woodbury: That Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus wants this annexation to happen.
Meanwhile, Fabbro and Freiband hope you’ll forget they voted no on granting the Village Lead Agency Status.
The local Democrats are banking on how stupid they — and State Senator James G. Skoufis — think you are.
Let’s assume, though, that we hear that this third-party ballot name is legal. The good news is, people will see right through this. Hopefully, if they haven’t yet figured out the low opinion Mr. Skoufis, the Freibands, and the Fabbros have of them, this nonsense will also wake them up to that.
The bad news is that “No Annexations” as a Third-Party Ballot line means you — yes. You, reading this — will have your work cut out for you. The best and only way to fight a scam is to declare it loudly and then let your friends and neighbors know about it.
We’ll do our part, and will have more on this story as it develops.
P.S. If you doubt that the Committee to Elect Woodbury Democrats are working with James G. Skoufis’s BFF, Clovewood Kathryn (Supervisor Kathryn Luciani, who took money from Clovewood developer Ziggy Brach during her previous attempt at running for Assembly) look real close at who’s names are on the following petitions for Luciani’s 3rd party ballot line, “Working4Woodbury.”
If there’s one thing we can say with certainty, Tyler Etzel Jr. and John U. Keleman are definitely not “Working4Woodbury,” and neither apparently is Supervisor Luciani and the unelected Councilwoman, Kelly Rinaldi. (Still no explanation, by the way, concerning why Rob Beckley, appointed by Luciani, abruptly resigned from the Town Board. Despite an election with multiple candidates running for office this Fall, Mrs. Luciani appointed her running mate, Kellly Rinaldi, to the board. It must be nice to shortcut an election and get yourself elected to office, huh?)
Look closely, and you can see in the picture above that John U. Keleman’s wife, and David Yoffe, the Democratic candidate for Town Board, signed the third-party petition for Rinaldi and Luciani.
Is that last one even a signature? It might be time for someone to challenge these petitions and find out.
Now! This was supposed to be a short post. We’re taking a vacation and will be back on June 1st. The reason for this break is:
June is the month of the primaries, so we fully expect June to be a wild month here at The Monroe Gazette.
We are behind on our FOILs and FOIA, and need the time to get that ship back on course. There are a lot of South Blooming Grove stories we want to publish, but a lot of them are tied up with these FOILS. For example: The Fake State of Emergency declared by South Blooming Grove’s Elon Musk, Joel Stern. The New York State Department of Transportation is telling South Blooming Grove residents they’re pissed and taking legal action. But the DOT also won’t talk to News 12 or The Monroe Gazette. So, for us to do that story, we need to FOIL the DOT and South Blooming Grove. And as you’ll recall, we’ve had to sue South Blooming Grove once already for documents. The odds are looking better and better every day that we will do so again. We don’t want to. But they’re really leaving us with little choice. Bottom line: I will take about a week to untangle that mess since there are So. Many. FOILS.
Who Doesn’t Love a Parade?
We have two Memorial Day Parades happening on May 25th.
The first is in Monroe. Formation starts at Smith’s Clove Park at 12:15 with stepoff at 1:30 pm
The second is over in Woodbury. The formation will start at 11 am on Bond Street. And there will be music at Jay’s Deli and at Victory Park at noon.
My Grandfather fought in World War 2 over in North Africa and Italy, and my great-grandfather fought in World War 1. Back when I was married, my ex-wife’s grandfathers also served in World War 2. This generation is almost completely gone, and since we find ourselves fighting the Nazis all over again — this time right here in America in the form of MAGA — the least we can do is attend these parades.
We should all learn from the courage and sacrifice of our men and women in the armed services and recommit to upholding our Constitution. Right now. While it’s under direct assault from President Trump and Congressional Republicans.
So, if you live in the area, I hope you’ll come out and support our troops. The Congressional Republicans did not this week, passing the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which—among other things—cuts millions in funding to Veterans’ Affairs and other programs and services our Vets rely on.
We’ll talk about Congressman Mike Lawler’s gaslighting involving the “Big Beautiful Bill” when we return. He’s been on the news saying, “The fact is, if we did not pass this bill, it would be the single largest tax increase in American history.” This is demonstrably false.
In fact, the “Big Beautiful Bill” does exactly what he claims it will do if it’s not passed: It’s going to make food, groceries, and everything else more expensive. All while cutting Medicaid and other critical services and giving President Trump some dangerous new authoritarian powers.
Here’s one example, taken from our friends at the Alt National Park Service:
This is what an authoritarian regime would do. Hidden deep in Trump’s 1,100-page bill that passed the House today is a provision that would block federal courts from enforcing contempt charges against government officials who violate court orders.
Sec. 70302 – Blocks courts from enforcing contempt charges against government officials, unless a judge required a monetary bond when issuing the original injunction.
“No funds appropriated… may be used to enforce a citation for civil or criminal contempt… unless the court required the posting of security in the form of a bond.”
What this means:
Injunctions are emergency court orders
- Judges issue them to temporarily stop actions, like deportations, bans, or drilling, while a case is being decided.
Judges often waive bonds in public interest cases
- A bond is a financial deposit meant to protect the losing side if the injunction is later overturned.
- Judges typically don’t require them when:
- The plaintiff can’t afford it.
- The case involves fundamental rights, not financial damages.
- The government is the defendant, and financial risk is minimal.
This section creates a dangerous loophole
- If no bond was required, which is common, this bill blocks any federal money from being used to enforce contempt.
- Translation: Officials can violate court orders and face no consequences.
- Even if a judge tries to hold them in contempt, they’ll be blocked from enforcing it.
Bottom line:
This isn’t budget policy, it’s a power grab. It strips judges of their ability to enforce the law and gives government officials a green light to ignore court orders. It’s authoritarian by design and it’s buried in the fine print.
We’ve been in touch with Congressman Mike Lawler’s office to see if he can actually back up his claims. We doubt it, but we did give him and his team a chance to do so.
And finally, before our work vacation — again, we’ll be back on June 1st — the following local businesses have provided a ton of support for the Airplane Park reconstruction project. This weekend, if you’d like to say thank you for their support of the Village of Monroe, we encourage Monroe Gazette readers in the area to pay some of them a visit.
5 Star Construction
876 Jerk
ALC Property Management
Amendola's Pizzeria & Restaurant
Bagel Boys
Bagel World
Beck's Hardware
Callahan and Nannini
Captain's Table
Chaverim
Cinnabon
Daylight Donuts
Empire Diner
Home Depot
Jake's Wayback Burgers
Jalisco Mexican Restaurant
Kelly's Party Rentals
Little Italy
Maggie's Celtic Cottage
McShack Jerk House
Monroe Farm
Nebrasky Plumbing
Outback Steakhouse
Planet Pizza
Shop Rite
Somni Tapas Restaurant
Stop & Shop
TAM Enterprises
Tequila Grille
The Family BLD
The MYLU Team
Tommy Trees
United Rental
Villa Positano
Village Hands
Village of Woodbury Highway Dept
Vulcan Construction
WB Mason
We hope to see some of you at the Memorial Day Parades, and if not, we’ll see you back here on June 1st.
As always you can reach us at bjmendelson@duck.com.