City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove ReGULAR meeting Monday December 27, 2021 8:00 P.M.  Call to order o Mayor Kalaj called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:24 p.m. on December 27, 2021, via Zoom Meeting #846 0033 0611 for the South Blooming Grove Village Hall located at 811 State Route 208, within the Village of South Blooming Grove, and having a mailing address of Monroe, New York.  Roll call The following persons were present: o George Kalaj – Mayor o Abraham Weiss- Deputy Mayor o Asher Guttman - Trustee o Yitzchok Feldman- Trustee o Zalmon Rosner - Trustee o Scott B. Ugell, Esq. – Village Attorney o Al Fusco- Village Engineer o Isaac Ekstein- Legislative Aide to Mayor o Joel Stern – Confidential Assistant to Mayor o Kerry Dougherty- Village Clerk  Correspondence o None  Mayor’s Comments o The winter is here, ice is on the road and the snow removal people are doing their job, I want to remind the public, do not park any vehicles on village roads, lets make it easier and safer for the snow removal people to maneuver when there is bad weather. Please take the garbage cans in, make it safer for the snow removal people to plow and salt our streets. It is very important, safe streets, lets do our part and keep the roads free of debris. Wishing all a Happy upcoming New Year, best of health to everybody and happiness. Let’s do better for our village in the upcoming New Year. Just because a resolution is presented does not mean it will be passed, it is up to the Board to pass the resolutions or not. He does not want the public to be under assumption, if it is on the agenda does not mean it is automatically passed, the Board has to vote for it to pass. Thank you.  Public Comment o Sue Anne Vogelsberg - A couple of months back, she believe it was July, we had an issue with the Mayor being away on vacation and nobody was able to respond to an emergency, she is wondering if the village ever did resolve those chain of command issues. Thanks the Mayor for having Belleville clean out the drains on prospect on December 15, 2021 which is helpful with the bad weather coming up. As of the County Website Imagemate on September 14, 2021, the title transfer took place for 206 Prospect and there is a 33 year old gentleman from Highland Mills who is the current owner. The County website still lists 206 Prospect as a residence, but it is being run as a school. 1  Village of South Blooming Grove ReGULAR meeting Monday December 27, 2021 8:00 P.M. She FOILed requests for the building permits and Certificate of Occupancy and is awaiting reply. She has notified the Department of Health and Orange County Planning. 1 Roanoke is another religious property but that is currently owned by Orange County, they own both the land and the building as of September 8, 2021. The prior owner was Cong Yetev Lev D' Satmar KJ, since the county now owns it versus a religious group will the village get reimbursed the tax revenue for that site? On the agenda it says that the village is entering a contract with the Village Engineers own company for building department services. Mr. Fusco then is going to be profiting from his position as a village employee, that doesn’t really sound right but perhaps she is misinterpreting it. She is requesting the board to contact the governor regarding her veto of Bill S1811 which would have helped to preserve our environment and open space, both of which are desperately need in our part of Orange County. Mayor Kalaj advised that he is never on vacation, he is 24/7, he has two phones, no matter where he is, therefore he is available, then he will call the people he needs to call. Don’t be under the assumption that the Mayor is only here for a certain amount of time; 24/7 and they do call him when it snows, the police department calls him, when it is an emergency, he gets calls, 1, 2, 3 am in the morning. If you need call village phone or the work phone. People know how to get in touch with him. Thank you. o Dawn Salka why is this webinar format only showing the person that is speaking, not the entire board. She was advised that it was on her choice of view on her Zoom option. o Bonnie Rum in response to the Mayor’s comment that he has two phones, there was a water main break and he was not available, so maybe both phones were not working, but that was an incident that is pretty strong in the resident’s minds. Mayor Kalaj asked when was this water main break? Ms. Rum was unable to provide an answer. There is an open meetings law, part E of Chapter 417 of the laws of 2021 that you must have all meetings, that require a quorum to have business done, they have to be available to the public whether we can comment or not. When you have these resolutions, they came out of meetings that you had and those meetings have to be available to the public. You might want to also explain the Public Officer’s Law Article VII to the board. Issac Ekstein advised that every meeting that the board has, there is a quorum where business is being conducted. It is by public notice and it is on Zoom and everybody is welcome to attend and comment as you know. The Village has an attorney and has a Mayor which stated earlier works full time and they constantly work on projects that they would like to bring up on the agenda, that is what an agenda is all about. The Mayor with the attorney is working on producing these resolutions and putting them up on agenda and then it is up for discussion at the meeting and as you will see later. Like for the Cannabis, Mr. Ugell produced two resolutions, one is to opt in some of it, one is to fully opt out. The Trustees will have to make a decision later, what they would like to do. That is how the village is being run and if you are on the topic of how a village meeting should be done and public notices and everything, how about you reach out to the Town of Blooming Grove as well, and you tell them how to public notices and those things because I think they could use a class on that too. o Joel Stern to answer Sue Anne’s question about Mr. Fusco whether he is a village employee and involves his whole business, Mr. Fusco is not a village employee, he is a contractor and now we are only adding services to his contract. We are very grateful, appreciative and thankful to Governor Hochul for vetoing the preservation tax bill which was discriminatory and racially motived. Mrs. Rum earlier made a comment about my accusations at a town meeting. He would like to reiterate himself that the moratorium that is being planned at the Town and this preservation tax bill are both rooted in racism and discrimination. Lets call it for what it is, it is Hasidic preservation, it is all 2  Village of South Blooming Grove ReGULAR meeting Monday December 27, 2021 8:00 P.M. intended from keeping Hasidic Jews from living in the town. The people standing behind it and I am not going to mention any names, have tried that for the past 16 years and they were and they still are a colossal failure from whichever way you want to look at it. The matter of fact is that this Mayor and this village board is sitting here tonight is just testimony to their failure and they are destined to fail again, and we will use every tool in our capacity to make sure that the illegally, racially and discriminatory moratorium is going to fail. Thank you and Happy Holidays.  Business o Resolution No. (170) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Approving application of 55 Mangin Road to enter into the Village Sewer District by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Trustee Rosner. 5 Ayes - Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. o Resolution No. (171) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove adopting proposed local law 3 of 2021 pursuant to Cannabis Law 131 opting out of licensing and establishing retail cannabis dispensaries and /or on-site cannabis consumption establishments within the Village of South Blooming Grove by Trustee Rosner, seconded by Trustee Feldman. 5 Ayes - Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. o Resolution No. (172) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing the Mayor to enter a contract with Fusco Engineering & Land Surveying, P.C for Building Department Services by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Mayor Kalaj. 5 Ayes - Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. o Resolution No. (173) - Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove Authorizing installation of additional play equipment at the village park and village ballfield located behind Rolling Hills Condominiums. 5 Ayes - Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner.  Abstract o Motion to adopt the Abstract by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Feldman, 5 Ayes, Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Feldman, Trustee Rosner, and Trustee Guttman.  Trustee Comments o Trustee Feldman wished everyone a happy and healthy new year. o Trustee Rosner wished everyone a happy new year. o Mayor Kalaj wished all a happy new year and lets work together for the good of the village in the next coming year.  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 8:50 p.m. by Mayor Kalaj, seconded by Trustee Guttman, 5 Ayes - Mayor Kalaj, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman and Trustee Rosner. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Clerk 3