Despite political turmoil, Greenport voters stay the course

Veteran Greenport Village Trustees Mary Bess Phillips and Julia Robins won re-election late Tuesday night, following Village Mayor Kevin Stuessi’s unexpected public announcement late last week that Ms. Phillips and her husband owe about $100,000 in property taxes and utility bills.

Six candidates were vying for two open seats on the Board of Trustees. Ms. Phillips and Ms. Robins’ faced off against interior designer and general contractor Roric Tobin, Margaret Rose de Cruz — who has worked with the Southold Town Anti-Bias Task Force — and Greenport firefighter Scott Hollid. Village Planning Board chair Patricia Hammes was a late entrant to the trustee race, launching her campaign as a write-in candidate on Saturday.

Ms. Phillips was the top vote getter with 150 votes, while Ms. Robins earned 135. Mr. Tobin received 131 votes, Ms. Hammes collected 118, Mr. Hollid 111 and Ms. De Cruz 53.

Vote counting lasted until after midnight as election officials waded through absentee ballots and tallied write-in votes.

On Wednesday morning, Ms. Phillips was succint in victory.

“The village spoke,” she said in a text statement.

Late Tuesday night, Ms. Robins said via text that “it has been an honor and a privilege to serve Greenport for the last 12 years. I will prioritize maintaining our infrastructure and preserving our waterfront community with availability, civility and respect.”

Late Friday, village mayor Kevin Stuessi issued a public statement claiming that he had sought and received Ms. Phillips’ resignation as deputy mayor after learning that she and her husband owe as much as $100,000 in unpaid taxes and town utility bills.

In a statement Friday evening, Ms. Phillips confirmed she had resigned as deputy mayor, but said it was not over the debt, but because she, “did not want to be deputy to a mayor I don’t believe is currently acting in the best interests of the residential and business community in the Village.”

In a letter posted to the village website, the first-time mayor said he “felt it necessary after I became aware of significant indebtedness to the village,” to make the information public and noted that he “immediately notified counsel to work with the treasurer to collect.”

Ms. Phillips, in a Saturday afternoon statement, said Mr. Stuessi had been aware of her debts and her efforts to work out a payment plan well before his public revelations on Friday.

“When the mayor told me he had lost confidence in me some ten days ago, much less when he went public yesterday, he was already aware that the village and I had a pending resolution,” Ms. Phillips said.

Mr. Stuessi, who is also contending with personal financial issues and concerns about his management of village affairs, confirmed in a Monday email to The Suffolk Times that he had known about the Phillips’ debts “in recent months.” He did not provide an explanation as to why he decided to go public with the information on the Friday before the election. Mr. Stuessi is in the middle of his first, four-year term and was not on Tuesday’s ballot.