By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Longtime borough resident and public figure Suzanne Viscomi was removed from her position as a trustee of the Red Bank Public Library by the mayor after an investigation into an alleged inappropriate comment she made during a conversation with former library director Eleni Glykis. Viscomi has denied she made the comment, relating to a person’s deportation, but Mayor Billy Portman chose to remove her from the volunteer position at the library after an invesitgation.
Residents were sharply divided on the issue. Some came to Viscomi’s defense, arguing that the council’s decision was based on “hearsay,” while others urged the governing body to investigate further and “scrutinize” Viscomi’s continued role as a member of the board of education in light of the matter.
At the borough council meeting July 24, Portman announced Viscomi’s dismissal from the volunteer library trustee position, which she has held since 2018 and was set to continue through 2027.
Viscomi unsuccessfully ran for borough council in 2023 as an independent candidate against Portman’s Red Bank’s Ready slate.
“A lot of the appointments for the volunteer boards and committees in town are done by council. Some of them are just done at the pleasure of the mayor. This is one of those positions,” Portman said. “It’s not a paid position, it’s a volunteer position. And I had appointed Ms. Viscomi to the library board a few years ago. It came to our attention at some point that there was a potential problem.”
According to Portman, the library did its own independent investigation and, based on the results, the council appointed labor attorney Jonathan Cohen to act as the hearing officer to probe the matter.
Allegations Explained
Cohen described the alleged incident that occurred nearly two years ago. In December 2023 or January 2024 – no one is clear on the exact date – an exchange purportedly occurred during a storytelling workshop held at the Count Basie Theater, where Julie Flores-Castillo, a community activist, was sharing a personal story about her father’s deportation when she was a child. Viscomi was working on her own story at the workshop, about her journey from Ecuador and being adopted by a family in the U.S.
“Where it really went afoul,” Cohen said, is shortly after the workshop when Viscomi allegedly asked Glykis how Flores-Castillo was still in the United States if her father had been deported.
When Glykis explained that, under the U.S. Constitution, someone born in the country is a citizen, Cohen said Viscomi allegedly responded by saying, “That doesn’t make sense. Essentially, she should be deported, too.”
Cohen said the specific language “particularly struck” Glykis, who he said is a daughter of naturalized citizens herself. Glykis did not immediately report the matter to the board, although “she should have,” Cohen said. But she did share the information with Itzel Hernandez, the immigrant rights activist in Red Bank, and Candyce Valor, the current library director.
Cohen said he found Viscomi’s denial of the comment “odd,” noting she remembered specific details about Flores-Castillo’s story – like her trip to Washington D.C. and meeting then-U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez – yet claimed she didn’t recall the entire conversation about deportation.
Cohen concluded it was “more likely than not” that Viscomi made the comments, “but the only people who know what she said would have been her and Ms. Glykis. And Ms. Glykis credibly told the story to numerous people contemporaneous in time.”
Cohen added that a “library trustee is a volunteer appointment, somebody that you put on who is supposed to reflect your values and the borough council’s values in the community. My recommendation is to remove Ms. Viscomi from the position of trustee. She hasn’t expressed any regret for having made this comment. Cohen believed her version “lacks credibility.”
Portman accepted Cohen’s recommendation “effective immediately” and said a new appointment to the library board will be an- nounced at the next council meeting.
Viscomi Denies Claim
Viscomi vehemently denied the allegations, calling them “absurd.” She said it is “devastating as an Ecuadorian naturalized citizen that I would make such racist comments about their deportation. How dare you suggest that I’m racist and I made a racist comment on hearsay?”
“You can’t even get the date right on when the remarks were said. I didn’t even talk to her (Glykis) in December, nor was my story even written until January,” Viscomi added.
She further defended herself against the investigation by pointing at Flores-Castillo at the meeting and saying, “That’s people like me. I would be talking about myself to be deported. That’s ridiculous, absurd.”
She also responded to Cohen’s comments about expressing regret: “I’m not going to regret something I didn’t do.”
Viscomi noted her nervousness about immigration issues. “I look like I should be stopped when I walk around town,” she said, noting she experiences fear, too, so would be unlikely to make that sort of comment. “This could happen to me,” she said.
She also took exception with the way the investigation was handled, noting no one had been placed under oath, and said she felt anyone would have a difficult time remembering exactly what they said nearly two years later.
“But I do know my integrity and know what I stand for,” Viscomi said. “I am so honored to be an American, to be a citizen. That is my motivation for all my volunteering.”
Residents React
A heated exchange between residents ensued, with some defending Viscomi’s long-standing contributions and others supporting her removal to maintain the borough’s inclusive values.
Resident Kaitlin Gilday, a parent with children in the public school system, questioned Viscomi’s eligibility to serve on the board of education. “If she isn’t fit to serve on the board of trustees in a volunteer capacity, I’m just wondering how this affects her being allowed to sit on the board of ed,” Gilday said.
Resident Wayne Woolley defended Viscomi. “For anyone who hasn’t noticed, Sue is the fierce advocate for the Red Bank Public School students, all of the public school students, regardless of their immigration status,” he said. He described a time when she fought to protect the rights of students with parents who were immigrants. “Now that doesn’t sound like the actions of someone who would actually say what she’s been accused of saying.”
“Sue’s been an official … on the board of ed for over 15 years,” resident Jennifer Harold Garcia said in support of Viscomi. “She shows up, she lends her own time, her personal resources, her own money… (and) she clearly never publicizes any of this.”
Resident Gay Steinbrick called the in- vestigation “a witch hunt” and “shameful.” “You’re doing exactly what you’re accusing Donald Trump of doing. You’re going after an individual because she doesn’t align with politics,” Steinbrick said.
“This is not what Red Bank should be… I am absolutely disgusted that this is how you would treat one of our Red Bank citizens.”
But Cohen defended the investigations. “While it’s true that we don’t have a recording of Ms. Viscomi making a comment,” he said the fact that Glykis told two other people who also remember it made the comment “much more believable.”
“This isn’t about opinions or political motives,” said Flores-Castillo at the meeting. “It’s about responsibility for the impact of our words and actions and those who are supposed to serve us.”
Flores-Castillo filed her candidacy petition for the Red Bank Board of Education at 3:50 p.m. July 28, just making the Monday deadline, the Monmouth County Clerk’s office confirmed. Flores-Castillo, Viscomi and two other candidates will be vying for three available seats.
The article originally appeared in the July 31 – August 6, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
