Town Attorney Leaves Mic On, Calls Business Owner an Ass

Be careful what you say. Especially in a public forum. A town attorney, who left his mic on during a virtual meeting, was heard calling a central New York business owner an ass.

The Sullivan Town Board held a virtual meeting to discuss compliance issues at The Wild Animal Park and the drive thru safari after the town sued owner Jeff Taylor last June. "Despite fully knowing he was required to obtain the proper permits and zoning designations and approvals, Mr. Taylor elected to proceed to open a new and unapproved drive-thru safari business on land not approved or zoned for that use," town officials released in a statement. "He also failed to obtain the necessary Planning Board approvals required for such a business."

The lawsuit was put on hold while Taylor got the proper permits needed.

"We're extremely close," councilman Jeff Martin said during the January 20th board meeting. But when the discussion turned to Taylor building a fence, things turned heated.

"He doesn't want to do the fence. He's being an ass," town attorney John Langey can be heard saying in the meeting.

"Wow the town attorney just called me an ass in a public forum," Taylor responded. "We see how there's a biased towards me when I'm spending tens of thousands of dollars and the town attorney calls me an ass."

Langey apologized but said, "I call them as I see them."

The meeting finally got back on track with board members agreeing to vote on the future of the Wild Animal Park at a special meeting, Wednesday, January 27th at 5pm. "It has been a long frustration road and has cost us nearly $50,000.00 and lots of sleep," said Taylor. "Hopefully tonight he will be a little more professional."

You can watch the board meeting below. The fencing discussion begins around the 12:50 mark. You can join tonight's special meeting (1/27) on Zoom if you're planning to speak at - https://bit.ly/3sVUYXY.
Meeting ID: 875 4491 2720
Passcode: 959125

If you are not speaking at this meeting, you can watch on the Town of Sullivan YouTube channel, which will only allow you to view the meeting live.