The Development Team

JOE BONURA Jr. A Poughkeepsie and Newburgh-based developer whose misdeeds could fill a volume, and perhaps one day they will. Bonura is embroiled in disputes over his properties and tax breaks in Poughkeepsie, where he enjoys a $1 billion subsidy — yes, that’s Billion with a B. Bonura was rumored to have sold his interest in the Kingstonian, but this has not been confirmed.

BRAD JORDAN Property owner and co-developer of the Kingstonian property, Jordan also owns a mall, a hardware store and building supply operation. In reality, Jordan is the shadow mayor of Kingston with seats on every commission that can help him make money. Jordan:

• sat on the Downtown Revitalization Initiative’s Local Planning Commission charged with allocating $10 million, most of which went to the Kingstonian or nearby projects, including some designed to buy the silence of groups that would normally object. Jordan left the LPC only after people complained about the blatant conflict of interest. The City removed his name from the LPC’s members, but his presence was documented in a radio show, the Daily Freeman, and the original LPC documentation.
• sat on the Kingston Local Development Corporation for at least 20 years. To avoid charges of conflict of interest, he resigned just in time for the KLDC to accept and then transfer to the Kingstonian 1.4 acres of City property.
• still sits on Kingston’s powerful Police Commission.
• sat, or still sits, on the DRI Uptown Transportation Improvements Project Advisory Committee, where he advised on how to configure Schwenk Drive to make things easier for the Kingstonian.

DAN AHOUSE Public relations architect for Team Kingstonian and founder of Stockade Strategies, Ahouse has launched a second propaganda arm by the name of Ulster Strong that purports to “bring balance” to economic development.

MICHAEL MORIELLO. Attorney with a most impressive signature, Moriello issued a vicious screed against the founder of a community group, in the process describing the fair and open public process he said Team Kingstonian was conducting, as called for under law. In fact, the process was anything but fair and open and Team Kingstonian did its best to suppress unwelcome opinions.

DENNIS LARIOS Brad Jordan’s engineer. Larios threatened on FB in April 2, 2019 that requiring an environmental review would kill the project. Most notable whopper: He told the Planning Board that 290 new spots would be available for parking defined as people not connected to the Kingstonian. (The truth: a possible loss of spots, which is why there’s valet parking elsewhere.)

My personal experience: I asked Larios what he thought about the geotechnical engineer’s report that not enough borings had been performed on the lacustrine soil. Larios replied that he hadn’t read the report. I made my public comment and noted that Larios hadn’t even read it. As I was walking out, I heard Jordan berating Larios, “Why did you say that,” and Larios replying, “She stuck a microphone in my face.”

City of Kingston

MAYOR STEVE NOBLE Team Kingstonian’s enabler-in-chief in the City. In 2019 Noble fired preservationist Marissa Marvelli from the Historic Landmarks Preservation Commission after the Commission recommended an environmental review and replaced her with Hayes Clement, a real estate agent and former Kingston mayoral candidate who was implicated in a campaign finance investigation. Noble also amplified Team Kingstonian’s platform of falsehoods about jobs, tax revenue and more parking.

• He repeatedly threatened the DRI grant would be withdrawn if the Kingstonian wasn’t built
• He cited cars parking in a mall when they have “no business” there as proof more parking is needed
• He inadvertently acknowledged the Kingstonian fails to comport with IDA law when he let slip that that the goal of the Kingstonian is to provide housing for wealthy seniors wishing to downsize

Noble gutted the city Ethics Board, then reconstituted it with yes-men such as people who found no ethics violation when an employee of Jordan voted in the Common Council. In 2021, Noble fired Miles Crettien from the Kingston Local Development Corporation (KLDC) because Crettien opposed transferring City property to the developers. Then, Noble violated the KLDC’s ban on involvement in political campaigns by publicly rooting for pro-Kingstonian challengers in a School Board trustee election.

MARISSA MARVELLI With a master’s degree in historic preservation from Columbia, Marvelli was eminently qualified to for her position as Chair of Kingston’s Landmarks Commission. She was a lead target for Mayor Noble’s firing squad because she wanted an environmental review. To learn how he got rid of her, see Year 2019, or this article in the New York Times.

LESLIE MELVIN This former Landmarks Commission member bucked Team Kingstonian’s bid to bury the Landmarks recommendation for an environmental review. Melvin insisted on reading the recommendation aloud at a public hearing and resigned from Landmarks in protest over Noble’s firings and attempt to suppress the Commission’s true findings.

GARY DANIELS/DAN GARTENSTEIN Pictures of his dog, Bear, and his children helped confirm that Kingston Attorney Dan Gartenstein had created a fake Facebook page using the nom de plume Gary Daniels. He used that page to smear opponents of the Kingstonian with false allegations they were “in the pocket” of a rival developer. When local community group KingstonCitizens reached out to the City to confirm whether Gary Daniels was Dan Gartenstein, someone took the profile down within the hour. Please see this satire piece with screenshots of the page, which contains pictures of his relatives and his dog.

Gary Daniels also conducted official business about the Kingstonian through private emails. This came to light when his private Earthlink address surfaced on email threads from the Albany-based lawyer for Team Kingstonian. Why would this be a problem? Exchanges from a private email, as opposed to official accounts, could be a way to avoid Freedom of Information (FOIL) requests. Interested citizens would have no way of knowing they need to FOIL personal, as opposed to official, email accounts. Moreover, people can delete emails from their personal account. So Ukraine, if you’re listening, when you’re done with current business, please find those missing Kingstonian emails.

Gary’s ties to Jordan go back a long way. About 15 years ago, Jordan tried to sell a flood plain to the school district so he could build a new high school, and Gary was a big supporter. For local coverage of the floodplain story, see, in chronological order, 1, 2 , 3 , 4, 5

WAYNE PLATTE This former Planning Board Chair went along to get along, which is no surprise, since the Planning Board serves at the pleasure of the mayor. Platte, the Deputy Fire Chief, was said to be angling for a promotion to Fire Chief, also at the pleasure of the mayor. He retired when that promotion failed to materialize.

SUZANNE CAHILL Kingston’s Planning Director. Cahill worked hard to muzzle Marvelli and the Landmarks Commission. Watch this clip of her and Gary Daniels trying unsuccessfully to block a Landmarks Commission vote on an environmental review. (The Commission voted unanimously to recommend a review.) In next this clip, a few months later, she and Platte refuse to read into the record the recommendation on grounds, according to Cahill, “There’s a question about deliberation.” There was no question about deliberation. Noble fired Marvelli and replaced her with a yes-man. The real question is why there’s been no deliberation in our deliberative bodies about this deliberate suppression.

DON TALLERMAN Poster child for conflict of interest violations, former Fifth Ward Alderman Don Tallerman owns a co-working and event space across the street from the Kingstonian site. Rumors have swirled for years that he or his relatives are personally invested in the project. Maybe that’s why no one blinked an eye when he complained that a tax break opponent, the watchdog group KingstonCitizens, was “holding a gun” to his family’s head and falsely accused the group of being “bankrolled” by a rival property owner.

A few years ago, one of his friends told me Tallerman was invested in the Kingstonian. A few hours later, the friend called me back to change the story, and now he said that Tallerman was invested in the area and the idea of the project. Subsequently, another friend recounted a conversation where one of Tallerman’s family members let slip that they were directly invested themselves, and then the family member begged the listener to not repeat it.

Conflict of interest highlights: Tallerman sat on the DRI Local Planning Committee tasked with allocating state grant money, most of which was allocated to the Kingstonian or nearby project. He ran for alderman in 2019, long enough to vote in favor of any Kingstonian-related resolution. Tallerman and his wife appeared in a video clip endorsing the Kingstonian. After KingstonCitizens complained, the video was changed to private mode.

STEVE SCHABOT An employee of Jordan’s at the Herzog’s hardware center, this Ward 8 alderman recused himself from one vote pertaining to the Kingstonian but voted in the remainder after the Kingston Ethics Board, newly reconstituted by Mayor Noble with Kingstonian supporters, decided there was no conflict of interest and Judge Richard Mott, who has always ruled in favor of Team Kingstonian, agreed.

RENNIE SCOTT CHILDRESS (AND WIFE) This Ward 3 Alderman has been a cheerleader from the start. For a selection of Scott-Childress spin, see Pols’ Baseless Claims.  Before the school trustee election, in May 2021, during an online meeting about the candidates. Scott Childress’s wife said anyone who suspected the challengers wanted to overturn the School Board’s vote against the tax breaks were “paranoid.” But Dan Savona, tenant of Jordan and IDA member who voted on the Kingstonian, was overheard complaining that his “side” could find only two candidates willing to challenge the incumbents who had voted against the tax break.

MILES CRETTIEN This small business owner in Kingston sat on the KLDC but Noble fired him when it was clear he opposed the giveaways to Team Kingstonian.

JOE McDOLE McDole resigned shortly after his appointment to the KLDC, citing “murky waters.” In the video where he appears to resign, Noble speaks over him to prevent him from expressing doubts about the KLDC. The Kingston Local Development Corporation is one of the many unelected bodies in New York State that fly under the radar and give away taxpayer money, often to cronies and insiders.

School Board

JIM SHAUGHNESSY School Board president and consistent foe of the $28 million tax break, more than half of which would be lost to the Kingston school district. The voters overwhelmingly returned him to the school board despite Team Kingstonian’s efforts to remove him.

HERB LAMB School Board trustee and tax break opponent who also won re-election.

ROBIN JACOBOWITZ The third school board trustee up for re-election in 2021. Even though she also voted against the tax break she was spared by Team Kingstonian because they could only find two challengers willing to run, and in Team Kingstonian’s eyes she was the least objectionable of the three who were up for re-election.

MATHEW BRANFORD Son-in-law of former Ulster County Legislator and main Kingstonian cheerleader David Donaldson. He challenged the incumbents but lost.

MICHELE MILGRIM Wife of longtime Cuomo operative and then former Ulster County Deputy Executive John Milgrim. She also challenged the incumbents and lost. For statements from Branford and Milgrim on the Kingstonian, plus more on the race, please see School Board Vote.

State and County

TOM SCAGLIONE Currently Mid-Hudson Regional Director at Empire State Development, Scaglione appears frequently at Gov. Kathy Hochul’s side. In 2020, he threatened School Board members that the DRI grant would be withdrawn if the School Board voted down the PILOT. But the threat was unfounded. See Cuomo Pressures KSD and DRI Grant Safe. Locally, officials said the remaining projects wouldn’t qualify for grant money, but the reasons were unclear. Also, it was also unclear whether state overseers had triaged other projects so that they never even appeared in documentation.

JOHN MILGRIM Until recently, Milgrim served as Deputy County Executive under Patrick Ryan, and in that capacity he pressured school trustees to vote for the tax break, made false promises that their vote would be honored, then fielded his wife in an unsuccessful bid to oust the trustees who opposed the tax break. Milgrim’s title these days is Director of Covid Operations for the Ulster County Dept. of Health.

A long time Cuomo associate, Milgrim’s history with the former governor goes back to 2007, when he took a job as spokesman when Cuomo was running for Attorney General. Later, he defended Cuomo from allegations of improperly favoring donors. Here’s one of Milgrim’s more dubious quotes, from a 2010 article in the New York Times on real estate: “Any suggestion that members of the real estate industry exert improper influence over this office’s real estate finance unit is laughable,” said the spokesman, John Milgrim. “The bureau is staffed with professionals of the highest caliber and integrity, and the bureau itself is a model for other regulators.” Honestly, the only thing laughable IS the quote.

Milgrim was also Director of External Affairs for the ill-fated JCOPE, which stands for Joint Commission on Pliable Public Ethics.

LYNN ARCHER As public outrage grew, legislators who once fell over themselves rushing to feed pigs at the trough now were rushing to point fingers at their colleagues. Legislator Brian Cahill and an official with the County Executive’s office who did not want to be identified said Legislator Lynn Archer had asked to call in the third party consultant who produced a second study showing a slight net benefit from the Kingstonian. But NDC first found a loss, and while Archer is in the real estate business, and voted to approve a more complaisant IDA, she also voted against the Kingstonian. She solved any dilemma by declining to run for re-election in 2021.

DAVID DONALDSON This longtime legislator spearheaded the ouster of Leverette, the former IDA chair who opposed tax breaks for housing. Donaldson also fielded his son in law, Mathew Branford, in a failed bid to pry tax break opponents off the School Board. Not only did Team Kingstonian lose that election, but Kingston’s voters didn’t like that Donaldson was carrying water for Team Kingstonian and they proceeded to throw him out of office too.

ULSTER COUNTY EXECUTIVE PATRICK RYAN While he was running for office, Ryan appeared disinclined to approve the project, as he explained in a 2019 RadioKingston interview. Once elected County Executive, he changed his tune, and was involved in at least three questionable incidents surrounding the Kingstonian.

Incident #1 April 2020 manufactured letter writing campaign to fire IDA Chair Randall Leverette. See this press release and photo, where a smiling Ryan holds up 20 letters from local businesses purporting to demand change at the IDA. Some of the signatories had no idea Leverette was the target.

Incident #2 Cooking the books with the NDC study. At the behest of former County legislator Lynn Archer, Ryan called in a consultant to determine the Kingstonian’s benefits. Instead, the consultant found there was a loss. Then, Ryan facilitated the meeting between developers, the IDA, the consultant and county economic development officials, and as if by magic, the consultant produced a second study finding benefits. Ryan tried to bury the first study, but someone leaked it, and both are linked in this article, which provides more details on what happened. Here’s a look at trickery NDC used for the benefits bunk in the second study. This second study mollified the people who signed the check, and accuracy had nothing to do with findings.

Incident #3 Pressuring School Board members to vote for the project. Before the crucial School Board vote in Dec. 2020 on the tax break, he called at least two, and possibly more, trustees to press for a Yes vote. In the case of Herb Lamb, it wasn’t even a half hour after he told Ryan he couldn’t support the tax break that Milgrim got on the horn to ratchet up the pressure.

NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF STATE DoS envoys “guided” the selection of projects awarded DRI grant money. But several members tasked with allocating the DRI money said the DoS steered them to the Kingstonian. This recounts how people had to meet in private to escape DoS oversight.

NEW YORK STATE HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE (SHPO) After intervention by persons unknown, this office reversed its findings of adverse impacts — although the only change was to add another story to the luxury housing complex. Here is the article from KingstonCitizens, a local watchdog group.

Industrial Development Agency (IDA)

RANDALL LEVERETTE Former IDA chair and long-time opponent of tax breaks for housing unless explicitly approved in the IDA law. Leverette felt market-rate housing failed to comport with the law’s emphasis on employment and prosperity and was concerned it would place burdens on the School District. Leverette holds a M.A. in Economic Development.

RICK JONES The Finance Chair of the IDA repeated common fallacies about “inducements” in general and the Kingstonian in particular during this Hudson Valley One podcast.

• “This might be a last gambit to get that garage built and to have the amenities of a hotel as retail in that area.” See Valet Parking to debunk that notion. Moreover, a tax break for Team Kingstonian’s hotel is an unfair advantage against the other nearby hotels and B&Bs.
• He mentioned concern about a rival developer. “What if that person had bought [Jordan’s property.] Would that have been good for Kingston?” But Jordan had no obligation to sell his property to the rival developer. Did he threaten to do so to secure his tax break?
• He said the nearby Revolutionary-era Senate building needs parking “if people want to stay over after a wedding or an event.” See Don Tallerman’s privately-owned wedding venue for who really benefits from the garage and valet parking the people of Kingston and Ulster County are paying for.

Jones’s biggest fallacy was the notion that applicants are “legally entitled” to a tax break. He said applicants “shouldn’t be disenfranchised from what they, in my opinion, were legally entitled to.” In fact, no applicants are entitled to a tax break, whether they qualify or not. They’re entitled to apply, but even if they meet the qualifications, they are not entitled to approval if the IDA decides otherwise. At least now we know what the real entitlement programs are.

JAMES MALCOLM IDA chair and steadfast cheerleader for Team Kingstonian, Malcolm announced in February 2022 he was stepping down from the IDA for “personal reasons.” In the fall of 2020, an economic consultant produced a study finding the Kingstonian would cause a $3.4 million loss to the community, but after intervention by Team Kingstonian, the consultant, NDC, produced a second study finding a $256,000 net benefit. Appearing before the Ulster County Legislature’s Economic Development, Tourism, Housing, Planning & Transit Committee on March 2, 2021, Malcolm praised the new study as something “everybody could live with.”

DAN SAVONA This IDA member was allowed to vote on the tax break even though he is Jordan’s tenant. A July 8, 2020 IDA presentation by the developers opens with some joking about Savona’s tenancy and whether a few slices of pizza would sway the vote.  The judge who looked at the question found no conflict of interest. In the months leading up to Team Kingstonian’s attempt to remove tax break opponents from the School Board, Savona  was quoted as complaining that his “side” could find only two candidates willing to challenge the School Board trustees who voted against the tax break, even though three were up for re-election. Why was his “side” anxious to replace the trustees? Perhaps so they could hold a second School Board vote that would produce a new, pro-tax break result to make it look like there was more public support. But the public saw through the ruse and soundly defeated the challengers.