City Council

Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 6, 2024 8:00pm  Call to order Deputy Mayor Weiss called to order the Village Board Meeting at 8:00pm on May 6 , 2024, for the Village of South Blooming Grove 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 Absent -George Kalaj - Mayor o Abraham Weiss – Deputy Mayor o Yitzchok Feldman - Trustee o Asher Guttman- Trustee o Absent -Zalmon Rosner - Trustee o Isaac Ekstein – Legislative Aide to Mayor o Scott Ugell Esq. – Village Attorney o Al Fusco- Village Engineer o Rosemarie Vega – Deputy Clerk o Joel Stern – Confidential Assistant to the Mayor  Correspondence o 58 Fort Worth Place – House of Worship Application, begin referred to the Building Department.  Public Comment o Bonnie Rum – My comment pretty much is about Joel Stern . He needs to be removed from any operation of the Village. The reason is he’s got a serve conflict of interest. He is the COO of Windsor Global, which is an investor of Keen Equities, the builder of Clovewood and that’s a conflict of interest which means he cannot perform his fiduciary duties and he needs to be removed because anybody who is elected, volunteered or employed and he gets a salary, needs to provide Fiduciary actions for the entire village and when he promotes Clovewood over the interest of everybody else that’s not fiduciary, he needs to go. He’s done some illegal things as Mr. Ugell should, I’m sure confirm because he made an illegal contract with the garbage, disposal people. He was not allowed to do that, but he did it anyway, and he knew he wasn’t supposed to and now the village has incurred quite a bill from Marangi that the villagers do not have to pay because its illegal. So how are you gonna pay that? He arranged the whole thing. You all voted for the resolution, so I don’t know what level of responsibility you have. The mayor signed the contract, I am sure, because he is the Mayor. Who’s gonna pay the bill? Mr. Ugell, who would pay to be responsible under these circumstances, to pay a bill that was illegal. Scott Ugell- I’m not prepared to give you legal advice nor do I agree with what you said about some suggestion that I might know about something, I don’t 1  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 6, 2024 8:00pm know what you are talking about. You have no right asserting anything that I do or don’t know. That’s very unfair of you. Bonnie Rum I am just assuming since you are a lawyer for a municipality that you would know. He certainly knew it ahead of time and I have said it in the past, its been videoed, live streamed, she imagines that’s several meetings while you were here, you knew he shouldn’t do it. She FOILed for the emails and I’m sure he got that information from someone else as well. He needs to go and if he doesn’t your complicint. o Barbara Hanley- In regard to Lake Shore Drive, she believes the road is getting cleaned up after winter, when will that happen and when will it be paved? She knows a senior citizen has fallen. Is there a plan for Lake Shore to be paved soon. Isaac Ekstein this is why we went out for the DPW Bid but Lake Shore is next on the list. Barbara Hanley two house have been raised what is happening with those properties. The board referred her to planning or building department. o William Hewlitt – The weekend of the 26th there are flying helicopters all day Friday and Sunday, he understands they have a permit for this. Where does the communication take place, his grandchildren were crying, his house was shaking. He was unaware about bulk items being taken by the garbage company, that was never communicated to him, how would he know. Communication needs to improve. People are not stopping at the stop signs by Sears and Houston. He shares the concerns about Mr. Stern, what seems to be clear conflict of interest. The police are here to protect the village but who is here to protect us from Mr. Stern and these clear conflict of interests that seem to be going on in this community. He also shares upon house raised on Houston Avenue, a new house goes up, he looks to his left another house raised and another apartment going up. He still has brown water, he does not see effective change or communication. o Chris Maderia – two things, what is this board, maybe Mr. Fusco is prepared to present what is going on with the water? What is the village’s plan with water? Think we could get an overview of what is going on with the water? What the village is doing about the water? What is the village’s long term plan is, short term plan is. There has to be some type of overlay of plan that you should be able to share with the village residents so they can start feeling comfortable about what is going on with the water. 59 trucks went up Galveston in December, that’s $25,000, you only budgeted $50,000 for water tankers for 2024 in the budget. You knew in September that you were trucking water, so you didn’t put it into the budget because a) you didn’t want us to know or b) you didn’t know what to do and you figured you would just do it on the fly. Somebody needs to start presenting to the public what’s going on with the water. Second, in March of 2022 there was a meeting here about a piece of land up off of Virginia that you all declared surplus, Mr. Stern fed you guys misinformation, not misinformation disinformation, there is a difference, he told you that land was surplus, what he didn’t tell you is that the Town of Blooming Grove turned the land over to you in September of 2020, six months prior, that land was given and deeded as green land, so you had no right to change the deed, and that’s what you tried to do, so he would like to know what is going on with that land, and you were also trying to lease it out in 2022. He would like to know what is going on with that land up there that is marked as green. Are we leasing it? What are you doing with it? How did you determine it was surplus, the Mayor sat here in the minutes doesn’t even know what surplus is, we need more information, by the time the meeting was over, you all passed it, oh surplus land, it can’t be surplus land, its intent and purpose was green land. The way it was left to be 2  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 6, 2024 8:00pm undisturbed, the 1995 map, he has a copy of both deeds, he knows you guys have it and you know it was done in September of 2021. He would like to know what is going on with the green land that belongs to us, the people, it doesn’t belong just to the village board, it belongs to the people and its time you guys start communicating, we matter too. We will work with you, we have no problem working with you, but you put us in a bad position all the time, because you hide things and you put things through the back door. o Jodie LoMeli– She is going to piggyback off of what Mr. Maderia said. At what point did you all become aware of who owns the property that’s trying to lease it? Who is leasing this property? You have a contract, it says that you have a contract and you are negotiating for the lease of 3 acres of that property. Attorney Ugell, it never went through. Ms. LoMeli is it going to go through? Ugell he is not aware of any plans. Ms. LoMeli that property is green land, it is deeded, she read from the deed, “…said premises is intended and designated as green area to remain in its natural state” and not only that she is going to be checking every single property that the village owns and she is going to check every deed and make sure that it remains in its green state, because that is how much of this property was transferred to you, we all will be checking and it better stay green.  Business o Resolution No. (22) – Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove declaring intent to be lead agency for sanitary sewer system rehabilitation. Motion to accept by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Trustee Weiss. 3 Ayes, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman. o Resolution No. (23) Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove authorizing the Mayor to sign all documents and Village Engineer to prepare all necessary reports, plan, etc. as the project Engineer for the sanitary sewer system rehabilitation. Motion to accept by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Trustee Weiss. 3 Ayes - Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman. o Resolution No. (24) Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove awarding the DPW Service bid to Cioffi, Inc. Motion to accept by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss. 3 Ayes - Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman o Resolution No. (25) Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove requesting the enactment of Assembly bill A9285 entitled Hotel and Motel tax for the Village of South Blooming Grove. Motion to accept by Trustee Feldman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss. 3 Ayes - Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman o Resolution No. (26) Resolution of the Village Board of the Village of South Blooming Grove requesting the enactment of Senate bill 1202-jj entitled Hotel and Motel for the Village of South Blooming Grove. Motion to accept by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss. 3 Ayes - Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman o Resolution No. (27) – Trustee Feldman made a motion to accept the application for a House of Worship at 58 Fort Worth Place, seconded by Trustee Guttman. 3 Ayes - Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman 3  Village of South Blooming Grove Regular Meeting Monday May 6, 2024 8:00pm  Discussion o With the new development, Al Fusco strongly recommended that the board act on the Water and Sewer. We discussed water, sewer, paving and streetlights, but water and sewer are essential and he recommends a $6,000 fee for each additional unit. Mr. Ekstein Should have a sweeping fee when a permit is taken out as well. Mr. Fusco will draft it for the next meeting. Mr. Ekstein Pat Ryan has reached out about a sidewalk grant for the village and hopes he can bring that to the Village. All documents were submitted for the grant.  Abstract Motion to accept the Abstract by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Deputy Mayor Weiss, 3 Ayes, Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, and Trustee Feldman.  Adjournment o Motion to close the meeting at 8:45pm. by Trustee Guttman, seconded by Trustee Feldman. 3 Ayes Deputy Mayor Weiss, Trustee Guttman, Trustee Feldman. Minutes respectfully submitted by Kerry Dougherty, Village Clerk 4