Majumdar Slams Grand Island Racism, Says Even His Disabled Dog Became a Target of Lies
- Niagara Action
- 3h
- 12 min read
On Friday, October 17th, Niagara Action published a story titled "Staley Road ‘Mob’ Targets Brown Resident During Grand Island Zoning, Town Board Meetings."
While writing that article, Niagara Action reached out to Sumit Majumdar for comment and did not receive a response. On Tuesday, October 28th, we received the following response from Mr. Majumdar that we are publishing unedited. He also included a variety of photos and videos to include, which we have done.
His response read as follows:
Majumdar: Racist Attacks at Grand Island Meeting Crossed the Line When They Denied My Disabled Dog Exists
When you originally contacted me for a statement regarding the October Zoning and Town Board meetings on Grand Island, I was not sure I wanted to make a statement. As you can imagine, the entire experience of having neighbors attack me personally - all of whom had never met me – at a Zoning Board meeting for a fence and an agricultural building was traumatizing. Having had time to reflect on everything, and knowing that if people did this to me they can and maybe already have done this to others, I am ready to share my feelings on what happened.
After a number of friends who are prominent and well-respected residents of Grand Island spoke to me about what a beautiful place it was to live, I purchased a home here in 2024. I am an environmentalist and grew up in a rural area, so having acreage where I could do agriculture and rehab animals was always both a dream and a goal for me. In addition to purchasing the property, I have invested a significant amount of money upgrading it to make it more environmentally friendly, preparing it for agriculture, and making it safe for my family and our animals. All the upgrades performed have only enhanced the value of the property.
My family and I looked forward to moving into our home this year.
In order to finish upgrades to the property, I applied for a variance for a fence and an agricultural building. I expected to attend a normal, well-governed Zoning Board meeting which would discuss the items on the variance requests. I was simply not prepared for the toxicity and hatred I walked into. No private citizen of any race or ethnic background should ever be subjected to anything like what occurred in that meeting, and frankly I hope this serves as a wake-up call to those in government on Grand Island to ensure it never happens again.
Thirty-six people, by proxy or in-person, ganged up and accused me of being a criminal. I was verbally attacked, degraded and intimidated. The hostility was so intense that one of the speakers even openly admitted to trespassing on my property.
I have never spoken to or met any of these people, yet they felt free to attack me at a Zoning Board meeting where I was requesting variances for a fence an agricultural storage building.
It was aggressive.
It was uncalled-for.
It was FALSE.
It was completely irrelevant to the purpose of the meeting.
It was not controlled and shut down by members of the Zoning Board.
As the only minority in the entire room, I was faced with a large group of people expressing that I was not welcome in their community. It might be different if I were opening a business on Grand Island and people opposed it, but this is my HOME! Yet, people felt completely justified and comfortable stating openly that they did not want me living here.
The barrage of accusations, insults and outright lies at this meeting was improper at best and harassment at worst. The Grand Island officials who sit on the Zoning Board did absolutely nothing to stop it. In fact, they seemed to welcome it and joined in.
For example, a Zoning Board member made comments regarding the agricultural area being insufficient for an Agricultural District designation without asking me what was on my application or surveying the site. They were wrong—it is sufficient.
To add insult to injury, the agricultural designation was not before the Zoning Board to decide. There is a process for that, and the Zoning Board is not a part of it.
To express a personal opinion this with zero knowledge about my specific Agricultural District application or the ability to affect my application – from a position of perceived authority sitting on the Zoning Board – was inappropriate.
To further highlight how poorly this was handled by the Zoning Board, after (i) allowing the repeated character attacks that had nothing to do with the variance application, (ii) allowing residents to tell me I wasn't wanted in the community, and (iii) allowing the entire group to stand and face me so that I could see everyone who “was against [me],” a member of the Zoning Board said the Town “has spoken.” The statement made clear that their decision was not based on merit, but based on the slanders, personal attacks, and hatred that the “mob” had expressed.
At no time did the Zoning Board take control of the meeting and end the comment period once they heard the repeated personal attacks against me. There was no instruction given to refrain from making any comments except for ones pertaining to the requested variances. It was open season on me, and they allowed it.
The Zoning Board clearly saw nothing wrong with what was occurring before them. Instead, they succumbed to a mob and essentially joined it.
I was not offered any opportunity to defend myself or correct the outright lies leveled about my business, nor did I ever think it would have been necessary. The Zoning Board allowed that meeting to escalate so far off track and become such a cesspit of hate that a State Trooper was called into the meeting after it had started. I wholeheartedly appreciate whoever made that call.
I also appreciate that, without me asking, multiple Grand Island residents who were NOT with that group escorted me to my vehicle to make sure I was safe in the parking lot.
All I could think after the meeting was how is this happening in 2025 in a suburb of Buffalo? And also that I couldn't be the only one it's happened to.
This is why I'm responding to you. People feel emboldened to spew hatred because no one calls them out, making them more emboldened to repeat it in the future.
I've heard that some have claimed your previous article was a "hit piece." How ironic. All Niagara Action did was quote them. What people like this really dislike is having a spotlight on their actions. They bully people and feel self-righteous about it. The only way to deal with that type of hatred is head on.
I don’t believe I should need to defend my right to live on Grand Island or justify to people who live in the same Town as I do what type of person I am, but at this point these false allegations were left at my doorstep and need to be addressed.
This hatred is founded on lies created for, I believe, some racist agenda. I'm a visible minority and have dealt with racism my entire life. Racism hides behind demonizing narratives to justify despicable behavior. In this case, the attempt has been to demonize me to justify not wanting me living "in their community." As disgusted with this group's behavior as I am, it’s the false allegations and false witness that I find most disturbing, and it needs to be dealt with.
So, in response to the numerous false allegations made against me at the Zoning meeting, let me set the record straight regarding them. First, even though this has nothing to do with my home or the Town of Grand Island, the DEC never shut down Buffalo Biodiesel Inc. It never happened. Period. End of story. BBD is fully operating, unfettered and with the full written consent of the DEC.
While I understand some people are trying to use a Buffalo News article to justify claiming these things (which again are still not relevant to my home or variances for my home), you have to understand that the article was written by someone just out of college who has no understanding of how the DEC or this business operates. The company was never shut down, it never had its volume restricted, and it has no limitations now. While it would be logical to require a basic understanding of subject matter for a journalist to be able to report on a topic, but unfortunately the Buffalo News doesn't operate that way. "Fake news" and sensationalizing things in order to generate "clicks" are real things.
Although it has nothing to do with my home on Grand Island, I would also note that – far from acting in secret or operating as a polluter – I was actually invited as a guest speaker at a DEC Christmas party where Buffalo Biodiesel’s operations and their positive environmental impact were highlighted.
Again, though it is entirely irrelevant to my home or the Town of Grand Island, the New York State Attorney General never found that BBD was using the courts to bully and intimidate small restaurants. The NYS AG never even made the allegation. BBD has never been the subject of any legal action by the NYS AG. This is a matter of public record. If this mob did the "due diligence" they claimed to have done, they would have known that.
Further, BBD was not sued by 27 restaurants for “leaky barrels.” BBD sued those 27 restaurants for breach of contract—they are defendants. Those same restaurants are still in court as defendants and represented by Attorney Michael Collasano who filed an action trying to flip the script and have those defendants portrayed as victims. His attempt to do so is a violation of the Civil Practice Law and Rules and is pending our motion for dismissal and sanctions against Attorney Collesano for violations of those rules.
Regardless of its impending dismissal, the action isn't about leaking barrels. To put it in perspective, BBD services approximately 28,000 commercial kitchens including hospitals, universities, major grocery chains, and government and military facilities. The company has litigated breach of contract actions as needed in New York State Supreme Court for nearly a decade. The suits it files represent less than one percent of its account base because most locations honor their contracts. It is worth mentioning, however, that after filing more than 1000 suits over a decade, the company has never lost a single breach of contract case on the merits. This should indicate how above-board the company is.
Moving on to the completely bizarre allegations made that do involve Grand Island and my home: I do not have oil drums at my residence, I do not dump biodiesel into my lake, and I am certainly not running Buffalo Biodiesel out of my house. The claims are not only absurd but insulting, and they’re yet another example of people who insist they did “due diligence” before speaking against me, while in reality they know nothing at all.
For perspective, Buffalo Biodiesel is one of the largest used cooking oil collectors in the entire country. It’s complete lunacy to think I could possibly park a hundred semi-trailers at my house. And if I tried to fit all of our employees into a single agricultural building, there wouldn’t be physical space for anything else. These accusations show a complete misunderstanding of the company’s scale. Or maybe it’s disbelief that a minority entrepreneur could build a multi-state environmental company over 20 years of hard work and dedication. Which is ironic, because isn’t that exactly what the American Dream is supposed to be?
Since these people do NOT know me, as I said, I’m an environmentalist. I’ve been one my entire life. Many people talk the talk. I actually walk the walk. I’m proud of my company and my actions.
Contrary to what was said at the meeting, I have no criminal record, have never been arrested and have never had any type of criminal allegations levied against myself or my company. Again, the "due diligence" they claim to have done should have shown them that.
Frankly, my credentials speak for themselves. I am considered to be both nationally and internationally a leading expert in the used cooking oil collections business for contracting, collections and processing. I remain a regular resource for Bloomberg regarding green markets, having answered 1000s of analyst questions. I have also been cited as an expert in the industry and used as a resource by the federal government. I am a limited partner and Lead Energy Advisor to Verite Capital Partners, and have received awards from the Department of Defense for my contributions and support of those serving in the military as well as from police organizations for my active support for them. I was also honored and recognized by the NYS Senate for my charitable work.
While my overwhelming positive record does speak for itself, it still should have no impact on a variance application for a fence and an agricultural building. I absolutely should not have to disclose it to avoid being told I'm not welcome to live in the community or to avoid personal attacks by people who have never met me. I shouldn't need to list these things in hopes that I'm "good enough" for the community in which I will live. It begs the question that if this is not sufficient enough to be welcome in Grand Island, what are the incredibly outstanding credentials of those who felt free to publicly pass judgment on me?
As a final thought, the truly lowest point was when this group decided to target one of my dogs. In a revealing example of their complete lack of credibility and how far they were willing to go to make up anything to discredit me, they gave false witness and stated that not only do I not have a disabled dog, but that I don’t have any dogs at all. They apparently came to this conclusion because their repeated surveillance of my property – including literal drone flights – failed to capture her image. The entire thing is despicable.
I have dogs and one of them – Aero – is disabled. She is a chocolate lab, she’s real, and needs special accommodations. Aero has had two surgeries on her legs to allow her to walk - requiring rehab, has had eye surgery to protect her sight, has survived MRSA, and suffered a spinal stroke resulting in the loss of functionality in her right hind leg. Only through years of rehab has she had some use of her leg restored.
Aero loves our home on Staley Road and has been there countless times despite the fact that we have not moved in. She likes to swim in the pond and chase after her toys. Not only does Aero need a front fence over 3’ tall, but so do our other animals because the last thing anyone needs is a dog running onto Staley Road where many of the drivers are speeding in excess of the 45 mph speed limit. Any dog can figure out a way to get over a 3’ fence, even if disabled.
To add insult to injury, a Zoning Board member stated that my reason for wanting the variances – including my disabled dog needing a fence that will block her from Staley Road – was a "self-inflicted problem." I am unclear whether she was asserting that my dog's disabilities were my fault or implying that I should have put my dog down to solve my "self-inflicted problem." Either way, it was an outrageous comment. I can defend myself. Aero can’t.
I have given refuge to disabled dogs for a long time, including one with double elbow dysplasia and another with a degenerative nerve disease so progressed he needed a wheelchair and chronic care. I find great joy in providing a loving life for animals who would otherwise be outcast or put down, yet these people went so far as to claim I have no dogs at all.
When you are the target of this level of hatred, when stories are made up about you to this extent, and when you are made to feel this unsafe it is easy to look at everyone with suspicion. It's natural to believe all people are like that, but the reality is they aren’t. There are so many good people on Grand Island who have been welcoming and inclusive.
These people see what happened for exactly what it was and are the quiet heroes—like the ones who called the State Trooper or who walked me to my car because they felt I needed the protection and support.
There are those online who have made the story go a bit viral, saying “no, not here,” that conduct isn't acceptable on Grand Island. Then there are the people who have called and stood with me, reminding me that this ‘mob’ does not represent all 20,000+ residents of Grand Island.
But this small group’s voices are loud and their tactics repulsive. Evil thrives only when good people do nothing, so I can’t sit idly by and let it go unaddressed.
My parents taught me to leave things better than I found them. So I hope my experience will be a catalyst for positive change going forward. If you are in a leadership position in government, your job is to be fair, impartial and not allow bullying or racism. If you are a community member, speak your mind but do so respectfully and truthfully. If you need to violate someone's rights or attempt to degrade their character in a public forum to prove your point, you need to rethink your point.
You can't choose who is in a certain community, but you can choose to be inclusive and treat everyone with respect. You can choose to find common ground by talking to someone rather than sow division by making up things about them—the same lesson we teach our children.
Although this has been jarring and painful for me and my family, I hope this results in positive change so no one else has to endure what I did. We all deserve that level of respect and peace to enjoy our homes.
-Sumit Majumdar
Majumdar Slams Grand Island Racism, Says Even His Disabled Dog Became a Target of Lies