Stop the Commack Cemetery Rogue Board

🚨 URGENT NOTICE TO COMMACK RESIDENTS & COMMACK CEMETERY LOT OWNERS: Stop the Rogue Board and Financial Malfeasance

By John E. Donegan, Lawful Lot Owner & Board Member

Our historic community asset, Commack Cemetery, Inc. (located at 450 Townline Road), is in severe jeopardy. A rogue faction currently acting as the cemetery board is operating completely outside New York State law, hiding financial records, violating local environmental mandates, and attempting to force unauthorized meetings to secure their power.

State regulators and the New York State Attorney General’s office have been formally notified. If you own a plot, have family buried here, or care about Commack’s local environment, you need to know exactly what is happening behind closed doors.

1. The Illegal August 29th Meeting Campaign

The corporate bylaws strictly mandate that the official annual meeting of lot owners must take place exclusively on the last Saturday of February at 8:00 PM. Despite this absolute restriction, this rogue faction has aggressively attempted to force unauthorized meetings every single month since March, culminating in their latest attempt scheduled for August 29. This relentless campaign is an illegal attempt to push through unauthorized resolutions outside the legally mandated annual cycle.

2. Extreme Financial Concealment & Missing Treasurer

Commack Cemetery is currently operating in complete violation of New York State Not-for-Profit Corporation Law (N-PCL) without an appointed corporate Treasurer. Instead, a corporate accountant named Ken Lipner was hired. Mr. Lipner has systematically withheld the cemetery’s books and records from the public. I have repeatedly requested the official financial documents from April 2025 to the present day, and Mr. Lipner has continuously refused to provide them. Lot owners are being forced into a voting assembly completely blind to where the cemetery's money is going.

3. Illegal $15,000 Payouts & Federal Tax Fraud

Whistleblower evidence reveals that under a past administration, the board unlawfully extracted $15,000.00 from public cemetery trust accounts—money meant strictly for permanent grounds maintenance—and funneled it to a past superintendent Shea and his spouse and then to Superintendent William Heberer under a fraudulent "emeritus" pension title. Furthermore, in 2024, federal IRS Form 990 filings were falsified to place a non-lot owner Marybeth Heberer Medolla the past superintendent daughter on the ballot to rig a board election against me, a legitimate lot owner—an act the perpetrators explicitly admitted to in recorded meetings.

4. Unauthorized Retaining of Secret Counsel This rogue faction held clandestine, secret meetings to illicitly hire an outside attorney, Jason Fendley, Esq.

These meetings intentionally excluded our duly elected Corporate Secretary, Julia Minerva. Because the Secretary was locked out, a lawful quorum could not be established. Jason Fendley is NOT the lawful attorney for Commack Cemetery. He is acting strictly as private counsel for a rogue faction using cemetery trust assets to pay his fees.

5. Environmental Defiance & Unauthorized Land Exploitation

The Town of Smithtown is now involved. Smithtown Director of Environmental Protection David Barnes and Town Attorney Martin Simon explicitly mandated that replacement white pine trees must be planted in the exact area from which they were unlawfully cleared in the Garden of Meditation. Instead, the rogue faction scattered them sporadically along the eastern edge to hide unauthorized clearing. An attorney Mitchell Hirsch, Vice President of the Commack Cemetery acting for this rogue faction admitted to the Town that they were actively clearing this eastern section to create new burial plots without a board meeting, without minutes, and without sustaining corporate votes. To make matters worse, acting President James Walker completely bypassed all state-approved mapping grids to bury his own wife in a non-developed, non-burial grave area—the exact location I was personally denied the right to purchase.

6. Retaliation Against the Whistleblower Secretary

To hide this corruption, the rogue faction sent a hostile letter to Corporate Secretary Julia Minerva, demanding she stop using official letterhead because she correctly listed me, John Donegan, as a lawful board member. She properly signed her letters to the Town of Smithtown in her capacity as Secretary, yet the rogue faction retaliated against her. In that very letter, they unlawfully elevated a completely non-elected individual, Jeana Foggia, allowing her to sign as a board member without a single lot owner vote.

What is Being Done Right Now

This rogue group is treating our public cemetery trust as their own private province. We are fighting back:

• A formal emergency grievance has been filed with NYS Division of Cemeteries Director Lewis Polishook and NYS Inspector Kerry McGovern.
• This matter has been escalated directly to Deputy Attorney General Jill Faber under Attorney General Letitia James.
• Every board member holding a New York State professional license is being reported to the NYS Office of Professional Discipline for ethical violations.
• We are moving forward in the Suffolk County Supreme Court with an emergency lawsuit to legally cancel the August 29 meeting and demand a State-Appointed Receivership to strip this rogue faction of their power and freeze the cemetery's bank accounts.

How You Can Help

If you are a Commack Cemetery legal lot owner, do not comply with or validate any unauthorized meetings called by this rogue board. Stand with us to demand full financial disclosure and a clean, lawful election.