The corruption, collusion and dishonesty surrounding Rabbi Norman Lamm's son Shalom Lamm's Satmar housing development/village in Bloomingburg, New York reached a new low this week as the town's addled and corrupt board broke state open meeting laws to hold its first meeting in about four months.
The corruption, collusion and dishonesty surrounding Rabbi Norman Lamm's son Shalom Lamm's Satmar housing development/village in Bloomingburg, New York reached a new low this week as the town's addled and corrupt board broke state open meeting laws to hold its first meeting in about four months.
Steve Israel of the Times Herald-Record reports:
What if they finally held a Village Board meeting in Bloomingburg and didn't tell anyone about it?
That's what apparently happened early Monday morning in this eastern Sullivan County village that hasn't held a meeting since August, even as protests mount against plans for an apparently Hasidic housing development.
The only notice of the "emergency meeting" was a hard copy news release formatted as an email that was addressed to the executive editor of the Times Herald-Record. It was dated Dec. 23 at 7:30 a.m. for an 8:30 a.m. meeting that day. It appeared outside Village Hall.
Monday was, of course, the day before Christmas Eve.
That extremely short notice — without any reason or agenda — is an apparent violation of the state open meetings law, said Bob Freeman, executive director of the Committee on Open Government.
"If a meeting is scheduled less than a week in advance, they have to give notice at a reasonable time prior to the meeting," said Freeman.
"If the board knew Friday, that is contrary to the open meetings law. That (8:30 a.m.) seems to me to be a time when most people who would be concerned don't have a reasonable capacity to attend."…
But is the board itself even legal?
For the past few weeks, it has only had two members – the mayor, who has been accused of taking a quid pr quo benefit from Lamm, and one other member. The third member criticized the board for ignoring the will of the town's residents – who are overwhelmingly opposed to Lamm's development – and resigned.
The board's apparent corruption and the general sleaze that surrounds Lamm's Satmar development is well known in the area. Residents have protested against it – and did so again this week when the open meeting law was violated. And the press in the area has covered the issue.
But so far the state has not stepped in to stop Satmar and Lamm and their 396-unit townhouse development from running roughshod, by hook or by (it seems most often) crook, over this tiny 420 person town.
As for the violation of open meeting law by the town's board, there's "not much the state can do," Freeman reportedly said. "Embarrassment in the press doesn't seem to be working. The only alternative would be a lawsuit."