Latest news with #IncorporatedVillageof
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Pirate's Booty' Founder Goes Rogue, Attempts City Council Coup
At 9:44 on the morning of Monday, March 10, Robert Ehrlich — the snack magnate behind Pirate's Booty — stormed into the city offices of Sea Cliff, N.Y., and falsely proclaimed himself mayor. According to a statement provided by the Village of Sea Cliff, Ehrlich proceeded to demand office space and declared the entire staff fired 'effectively immediately,' with the caveat that they could all reapply for their jobs at a later date. The cheese puff king, who had three supporters with him, cited a 2009 New York law called the Citizen's Empowerment Act as basis for his claim. The law empowers citizens to dissolve or reformulate their town if they get the backing of at least 10 percent of the town's voters. Under the law, Ehrlich said he was mayor of a new village, called the Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff Residents, and claimed to have an envelope with 1,800 signatures ― but no one was allowed to see them, because the signatories were afraid of retribution. 'I'm interpreting the law any way I want, the way Trump would interpret laws as he sees fit,' the businessman told the Sea Cliff-Glen Head Herald, apparently without irony. 'It's called trickle down politics, which is what we're doing.' He also compared his actions to someone invading another country ― but in a good way, or something. 'When someone takes Austria or Ukraine, they don't go and ask for permission, they just do it,' he told the paper. 'I'm asserting my rights to have a free, open life, and have transparency.' Town officials told Ehrlich his claims lacked even a kernel of truth. Police escorted the snack man and his three backers from the building after about an hour 'of escalating hostility.' 'While Village staff remained calm and professional throughout the incident, Ehrlich and his associates raised their voices, used profane language, made outlandish claims, and engaged in direct harassment of Village personnel,' the city said. 'Despite multiple requests to leave, they refused, creating a hostile and disruptive environment that required police intervention.' Undeterred, Ehrlich embarked on a write-in campaign to unseat the incumbent mayor, Elena Villafance, in an election held this Tuesday. Ehrlich proclaimed himself the victor 30 minutes after the polls opened, according to the New York Post. A final ballot count, however, showed just 62 votes in his favor and 1,064 for the incumbent. He told the Post in a followup interview that 'voter suppression' is to blame for his loss, and compared himself to Anne Frank. Social Security Chief's 'Turn It Off' Comment Is Latest Insane Turn For Beleaguered Agency Elon Musk Could Be Briefed On Top-Secret U.S. Plan For Potential War With China Maine Inn Owner Reveals Damning Impact Of Trump's Canada Rhetoric On His Business Detentions Of European Tourists At U.S. Borders Spark Fears Of Traveling To America
NBC News
20-03-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Pirate's Booty founder stages Long Island mutiny, declares he's mayor and tries to fire village staff
The founder of Pirate's Booty Snacks lost his chaotic bid for mayor of a tiny New York community after claiming that he was the village leader and had the authority to replace the entire local government, officials said Thursday. Elena Villafane, the incumbent mayor of Sea Cliff, defeated Pirate's Booty Snacks founder Robert Ehrlich, 1,064 - 62, on Tuesday in the village that's about 26 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan. Villafane had been running unopposed for her third two-year term when Ehrlich jumped into the fray a week ago Monday. That's when Ehrlich came to Village Hall and "presented a statement falsely asserting his authority as mayor, demanding access to office space, and declaring that the entire Village staff was fired effective immediately but could reapply for their jobs," according to a village statement. "While Village staff remained calm and professional throughout the incident, Ehrlich and his associates raised their voices, used profane language, made outlandish claims, and engaged in direct harassment of Village personnel," the satement said. "Despite multiple requests to leave, they refused, creating a hostile and disruptive environment that required police intervention." The brazen assertions stunned village officials who said they'd never seen or heard from Ehrlich before in any civic context. "To the best of my knowledge, he has never participated in any government entity, in any volunteer agency, any board or commission," village administrator Bruce Kennedy told NBC News Thursday. Ehrlich rejected election results, calling them 'rigged' and counted in secret. He said poll workers weren't properly checking rolls — and he'd supposedly know, claiming his own supporters made repeated visits to the voting booth. "So one of my supporters voted three times," Erlich claimed to NBC News. "Another one voted four times and they didn't even realize that he was coming in that many times. " Ehrlich insists he and other village residents have power, under the "New York Government Reorganization and Citizen Empowerment Act," to completely replace the current village government structure with another. "I don't want to dissolve the village. I want to consolidate the village," said Ehrlich, who calls himself the duly elected mayor of the 'Incorporated Village of Sea Cliff Residents.' "Consolidation means that one entity, the ruling entity, the residents, who actually are the boss of the other entity, could then absorb that entity into this entity, making everything run the way it is now, except without the abuse and fear and threats that come to this village." Ehrlich's primary beefs with village government are remarkably pedestrian, saying services are not delivered in a timely manner and not enough is being done to revitalize business on the main drag of Sea Cliff Avenue. "They really could not care less and do not want businesses to thrive," he said. "The place needs foot traffic. It needs people from the outside coming into Sea Cliff, from (other North Shore Long Island communities such as) Roslyn, from Great Neck." Ehrlich said he's collected 1,900 "votes" at his coffee shop for the past four years, saying such an unusual ballot has holy precedent. "Nineteen hundred votes since our election," Ehrlich said. "The longest election in history was from 1268 to 1271, when they couldn't find a pope. So actually, I have the longest election in history." In theory, Ehrlich or anyone else could submit a petition with 10% of the village's registered voters asking for Sea Cliff to be dissolved. Once such signatures are verified, a village-wide vote would be held to ask if Sea Cliff should be eliminated and then folded into the town of Oyster Bay, Kennedy said. "He had a FedEx-type envelope that was sealed that he was waving around," allegedly with petition signatures, at the March 10 meeting, Kennedy said. "And when he was asked, 'Do you want to submit that?' and he said 'No.' " As a write-in candidate, Ehrlich had virtually no chance of winning on Tuesday. When asked if he might take another shot at running for mayor in two years, utilizing more conventional methods that could land him on the ballot, Ehrlich said: "No, I'm mayor now. Why do I have to wait two years? I am mayor at this moment. I can write an executive order."
