Suzanne Viscomi speaks at the Red Bank Borough Council meeting at which she was removed from the Libary Board of Trustees. (Photo by Brian Donohue. Click to enlarge.)
By BRIAN DONOHUE
Red Bank Mayor Billy Portman removed the president of the Red Bank Borough Board of Education from her separate post on the library board of trustees after an investigation found she “much more likely than not” said two years ago that a prominent local immigrant rights advocate should be deported.
Borough of Red Bank labor attorney Jonathan Cohen speaking before the meeting of the borough council on July 24, 2025. (photo by Brian Donohue)
Suzanne Viscomi, who ran an unsuccessful independent campaign for a council seat against the victorious Portman-led slate in 2023, was removed immediately from her spot on the 11-member Red Bank Public Library Board of Trustees, Portman announced at the meeting of the Borough Council Thursday night.
Portman’s move followed a presentation by the borough’s labor Attorney Jonathan Cohen, who described a pair of investigations, the first by a library attorney and the second by himself, into comments Viscomi was accused of making at the library “around December 2023 or January 2024.”
Cohen said Viscomi had participated in a storytelling workshop where Julie Flores-Castillo, a staff worker with the American Friends Service Committee, shared the story of how her father had been deported to Mexico when she was 14 years old.
Viscomi discussed working on her own story of being born in Ecuador and adopted by an American family, Cohen said.
After the workshop, Viscomi spoke with since-departed Library Director Eleni Glykis about Flores-Castillo’s story, asking how she was able to remain in the US if her father was deported, Cohen said the investigation found.
Glykis responded by saying Flores-Castillo was a native US citizen, Cohen said.
Cohen said Glykis recalled Viscomi then replying: “That doesn’t make sense. She should be deported too.”
Cohen said he had interviewed Viscomi and found her denials of the comments to be not credible. He recommended Viscomi’s removal.
“She hasn’t expressed any regret for having made this comment,” Cohen said. “She seems to tell this story – which I think lacks credibility – that she never made the comment.”
“To me, as a hearing officer, I find it not credible,’ it’s much more likely than not that Ms. Viscomi made the remarks about deportation and based on that information.” He added later, “Ms. Glykis has no reason to lie.”
Taking the dais during a public comment period moments later, Viscomi vehemently denied the charge, attacked the two investigations as bogus and saying her removal was driven by politics. 
“This has been devastating as an Ecuadorian nationalized citizen, that I would make such racist statements about deportation,” she said. “It’s absurd. You can’t even get the date right. You can’t even tell me when this happened. How dare you suggest I made a racist comment based on hearsay?”
She continued: “People like her should be deported? That’s people like me. I’d be talking about people like myself should be deported. That’s ridiculous.”
“There’s no way in hell I would I ever do this because this could happen to me,” Viscomi said. “I could be deported.”
Viscomi was followed by three speakers who delivered impassioned defenses of her long history of community involvement and personal character and decried her removal, including a fellow member of the Red Bank Borough Board of Education, on which Viscomi has served for 15 years.
Board of Education member Jennifer Garcia (speaking as an individual and not in her capacity as a board member) described Viscomi’s recent support of workshops helping staff respond to families’ immigration issues and advising faculty on how to respond to possible raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“She supported every single one of these things,” Garcia said. “These are very serious allegations and something that needs to be reconsidered.”
Mechanic Street resident Wayne Woolley recalled when the borough’s former Republican chairman “hatched a scheme” to identify undocumented students in the schools and report them to ICE.
“It was Sue’s intervention that effectively derailed this plan,” Woolley said. “It was a plan that she appropriately described as disgusting. That doesn’t sound like the actions of someone who would actually say what she’s been accused of saying.”
Locust Avenue resident Gay Steinbrick called Viscomi’s removal “shameful.”
“You’re doing exactly what you’re accusing Donald Trump of doing,” she said. “You’re going after an individual because she doesn’t align with your politics.”
Viscomi serves on the volunteer Library Board of Trustees, whose members serve at the discretion of the mayor. Her term was to have ended at the end of 2027. In 2023, she ran as the only independent candidate in a race between two slates of candidates for mayor and council. She finished 11th out of 13 candidates. Her current term on the board of education ends this year.
Asked about his decision after the meeting, Portman said he removed Viscomi after finding the investigations into the incident had sufficient merit to boot her.
“I’m confident with the decision of the hearing officer,” Portman said after the meeting. “I would have preferred not to have to deal with any of this at all. It came to my attention and it had to be dealt with.”
Asked if Viscomi could have made a mistake or simply misspoke, Portman replied: “There’s things that just cross the line. That to me, I don’t think that falls into the category of making a gaffe.”
Four public speakers spoke in favor of Viscomi’s removal, including one public school parent who spoke via Zoom expressing concerns about her serving on the Board of Education in light of the allegations.
Flores-Castillo (pictured at right) about whom Viscomi allegedly made the comments, also took to the dais.
She addressed Viscomi, who was still filming the meeting as part of her regular Facebook Live webcasts of public meetings.
Suzanne Viscomi livestreams her own firing from the Red Bank Public Library Board of Trustees during a meeting of the Mayor and Borough Council. (photo by Brian Donohue)
“Just because you look like me doesn’t mean you represent me in any way shape or form,” Flores-Castillo told Viscomi.
Following the meeting, redbankgreen requested copies of both Cohen’s investigation and the initial probe conducted by the library.
Both Cohen and Borough Attorney Greg Cannon said they would not be made available to the public or to the media.
Asked by a reporter if they agreed with Portman’s decision, Deputy Mayor Kate Triggiano, and council members Ben Forest, Kristina Bonatakis and Laura Janone all said they did. Council member David Cassidy was absent and council member Nancy Facey-Blackwood left before we finished our post-meeting interviews.
The incident carried echoes of a controversy in 2021, when council members and then mayor Pasquale Menna accused Viscomi of turning the name of then-borough administrator Ziad Shehady into a racial slur. A tape of the zoom meeting revealed her bungling Shehady’s name, but not quite uttering the word “jihad” as she had been accused.
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At the time, Viscomi admitted to a tendency towards verbal gaffes, saying she was “tongue-tied” and “not a polished speaker.”
Glykis, the library director whose testimony forms the heart of the case against Viscomi, left Red Bank to take a job at the Elizabeth public library in January 2025, a year after the Viscomi conversation occurred.
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redbankgreen editor Brian Donohue may be reached via email at [email protected] or by calling or texting 848-331-8331 or yelling his name loudly as he walks by. Do you value the news coverage provided by redbankgreen? Please become a financial supporter if you haven’t already. Click here to set your own level of monthly or annual contribution.
