BLOOMINGBURG, NY — Another document created by developer Shalom Lamm and called “highly confidential” has surfaced in the ongoing court battle between Lamm and the Town of Mamakating. In an email sent from Lamm to his associates in October 2013, Lamm says that Mark Berentsen, the mayor of the Village of Bloomingburg at the time, agreed to run for mayor again the next year after Lamm “guaranteed” that he would win the election.

The email concerning Berentsen said, “Ken and I had an extremely highly confidential meeting at 8 this morning with the Village Mayor. He has been as clean as a whistle, and our very biggest supporter. We all agreed to keep our conversation completely private.

“What prompted the meeting was our Administrative Assistant overheard a conversation that he was not going to run again for Mayor. We very much want him to stay in office. He opened our meeting by telling us he is not running for office again when we prodded him.

“We’ll tell you the entire story of our conversation when we meet—but he now knows the entire plan including changing of zoning and annexation. We told him of the properties we acquired and the scope of everything.

“We GUARANTEED to him that he will win the election if he agrees to run, and agrees in advance to work for the annexations and zoning changes. He said he needs to appoint all new zoning people and all of the committee members and would want our help to convince them to serve.

“Subject to his wife agreeing—HE HAS AGREED TO SERVE.

“This is a very significant development for the future of the entire project. Gut shabbos.

“Shalom”

Berentsen, who supported Lamm’s controversial development of 396 townhouse units called Villages at Chestnut Ridge, ultimately did not win the 2014 election after challenges to many voters were upheld. His challenger, Frank Girardi, who opposed the development, won the election.

The Sullivan County attorney’s office later made a deal with Lamm and the challenged voters to settle a discrimination lawsuit. The terms of the settlement made it very difficult to challenge any future voters in the village, and in the 2016 election Russell Wood, who was chair of the planning board when the development was approved, was voted into office as mayor in March.

Earlier this year, a marketing document was unsealed by the federal court showing that Lamm envisioned 5,000 Hasidic families living in the village in the near future, and the document indicated he misrepresented important elements of the development to officials and residents.

Lamm is suing the Town of Mamakating in federal court because the town zoning board of appeals (ZBA) declined to allow construction of a mikvah to move forward. At the time, the Bloomingburg planning and ZBA functions had been merged into Mamakating’s, and the new village board is working to reverse that arrangement.