Oyster Bay hired, now fires, anti-Muslim traffic expert on mosque

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A rendering of the proposed mosque in Bethpage. Credit: Muslims on Long Island Inc.

Updated October 9, 2025 8:07 pm

Daily Point

Biased Florida consultant used Google Maps to make his findings

The Town of Oyster Bay, already mired in controversy over its refusal to allow the expansion of a mosque in Bethpage, announced late Thursday it was terminating its recently chosen outside traffic consultant after he was accused of being virulently anti-Muslim.

“We are shocked and outraged to learn of this, and are immediately dismissing him from the case,” said Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino in a statement to The Point.

The town’s initial effort to bring in Florida consultant Jeffrey Buckholz, who admitted that he did most of his analysis via Google Maps and spent five minutes at Masjid Al-Baqi at the corner of Stewart and Central avenues, came more than three years after the project was first studied by two different consultants. One chosen by the mosque and one chosen by the town both found no adverse traffic impacts, according to court documents.

Mosque attorneys had sought to have the court reject Buckholz’s testimony.

“We welcome the town’s decision,” said mosque attorney Diana Conner, with Linklaters, adding that it would “serve the truth-seeking process” and “ensure that only experts of integrity are before the court.”

A source familiar with the situation said the town’s outside counsel hired Buckholz after concluding that the previous reports had not accounted for any potential increase in the number of people who might utilize the building. The source said that the town’s attorney used an organization called the Round Table Group, which is a third-party provider of experts. Buckholz’s resume, the source said, was “impeccable.”

But the mosque’s lawyers noted that it took only a cursory look at Buckholz’s LinkedIn page to see a host of troubling, racist and anti-Muslim posts and comments.

“We didn’t have to dive that deeply for this guy,” Conner said. “But the more we dug, the more we turned up.”

Beyond anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant commentary on his social media, Buckholz also was expelled from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for badly beating a classmate and was banned from bidding on Florida Department of Transportation contracts after other violent behavior.

In a deposition last week that stretched from before 10 a.m. until nearly 8 p.m. with a transcript running more than 500 pages, Buckholz said others might see him as a bigot and admitted commenting on a variety of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant or racist social media posts.

In response to a post that said New York City Mayor Eric Adams “presided over a celebration of the prophet Muhammad — the exact figure invoked by the 9/11 hijackers,” Buckholz wrote: “They want to conquer us — just like they did England. Fight back NOW!”

In explanation, Buckholz said he’s “just against the whole concept of importing a culture from outside the U.S. to damage our culture.” He said celebrating Muhammad and making “holidays out of them” is “attacking our culture.”

In explaining another post related to Shabana Mahmood, a Muslim woman who serves as home secretary for the United Kingdom, Buckholz said, “It would be [a] question as to whether ... that she’d have more responsibility to Sharia law or to the laws of England.” In explaining why he liked a post about Denmark banning the burqa, Buckholz said “I think they’re protecting their culture and I have no problem with that.”

It’s unclear how Buckholz was chosen to evaluate the mosque project. Sources said they did not know whether he bid on it through a Round Table Group website or email blast, or whether the firm reached out specifically to him.

“It’s difficult to believe it’s a coincidence,” Conner said.

Buckholz said during his deposition that he had already billed the town $5,000. According to court records, he is being paid $225 an hour.

In his deposition, Buckholz said he had been to Long Island “a bunch of times,” but when asked to clarify, he noted that he’s been to Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, and to Brooklyn.

“That’s about as far east as I’ve been on Long Island,” he said.

Until, that is, his five minutes in Bethpage.

The Buckholz controversy emerged years after the town first assessed traffic at the mosque site. The town’s initial consultant, which first reported on the project in 2022, was L.K. McLean Associates, known as LKMA, which has offices in Brookhaven and Hicksville and on its website bills itself as “the partner that Long Island relies on.”

In April 2022, LKMA concluded that a new mosque would not lead to increased traffic, noting that even a small traffic increase was “not likely to result in detrimental impact on the adjacent roadways.” It then updated those findings in two follow-up reports, including one in August 2023.

“Based on our review of these materials, it is LKMA’s professional opinion that no significant adverse environmental impacts pertaining to transportation resources as a result of the proposed action are likely,” the updated report said.

But despite that report, and a variety of sign-offs by town agencies, the town’s planning board ultimately denied the mosque’s application, eventually leading the mosque’s owners, Muslims on Long Island Inc., to file a lawsuit in federal court.

The town brought on Buckholz to assist in that case. He issued his own report last month and said during his deposition that previous traffic studies were “deficient.”

Now, mosque attorneys said, the deadline for adding additional consultants has passed, so the town likely will have to rely on its initial consultant’s report.

But the mosque’s lawyers said Buckholz’s history and his report are symptomatic of a larger issue, noting that the town had originally agreed to a settlement in August, but town residents responded with anti-Muslim sentiments in petitions and other postings. Town officials later backed out from the settlement agreement.

“We are surprised at the lengths to which the town has gone to defend this indefensible case by doubling down with experts like Mr. Buckholz, who is egregiously biased against Muslims, including our client,” Conner said. “This is emblematic of the town’s pattern of repeatedly trying to launder discriminatory practices in the vernacular of land use issues and Mr. Buckholz’s report is just the latest chapter of that.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com