Incumbents Win Race For Greenport Village Board Of Trustees: Officials

GREENPORT, NY — In the end, Greenport voters remained loyal to their longtime elected officials: On Tuesday, incumbents Mary Bess Phillips and Julia Robins won the race for two open four-year seats on the Greenport Board of Trustees.

The pair bested four others vying for the positions, including political newcomers Margaret De Cruz, Scott Hollid, and Roric Tobin. In the days before the election, a new write-in candidate, Patricia Hammes, also emerged as a candidate.

According to Village Clerk Candace Hall, the count was completed at 12:30 a.m.; polls closed at 9 p.m. The final tallies as of midnight were as follows: Mary Bess Phillips, 150 votes; Julia Robins, 135 votes; Roric Tobin, 131 votes; Patricia Hammes, 118 votes; Scott Hollid, 111 votes; and MargaretDe Cruz, 53 votes.

The win came after a tumultuous week in the village: Just days before the election: Greenport Village Mayor Kevin Steussi posted a message on the Greenport Village website announcing that Trustee Phillips had resigned as deputy mayor. He accused her of "significant indebtedness" to the village in an amount over $100,000.

Phillips later pointed out that she had resigned only as deputy mayor, not as a trustee or candidate in the election.

Phillips sent out a statement to Patch after Steussi's announcement: "Because Mayor Stuessi has apparently tried to influence Tuesday's election by publicizing, on the Friday before Election Day, the fact that my struggling businesses are significantly behind in their property taxes and electric bills and claiming that's why I resigned my position as deputy mayor, I must make this statement. It is true that I have resigned my appointment as deputy mayor. It is also true that a week before I resigned, the mayor told me that he didn't trust me with the village in his absence because of my businesses' indebtedness, and I told him he should have whoever he wants as deputy mayor; that's his prerogative."

She added: "But it is not true that I resigned because of my businesses' indebtedness. Indeed, I resigned nearly a week after that conversation. I resigned because I 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. Many know that as deputy, I often defended the mayor. I was no longer comfortable doing so."

And, said Phillips: "I have always believed that personal financial troubles are precisely that — personal. The mayor set rumors flying about my financial situation and then made the topic public by speaking to the press. So here is what I am willing to share: The COVID shutdown in 2020 deeply damaged three of our family businesses, and the challenges of the fishing industry since have prevented my husband and I from enabling the businesses to fully recover. Two years ago, the village and I started negotiating a being-finalized payment plan involving lump sum payments and then monthly payments that I am expecting to sign contracts for before the end of next week. My husband and I look forward to bringing our businesses current on all bills as fast as possible, a goal we've never stopped working to achieve."

Phillips concluded: "In my many years of belonging to the Greenport community, I have known many others to struggle with their finances from time to time, including others in government. Indeed, Mayor Stuessi surely understands that even when people are working very hard, life can make it very difficult to pay key bills sometimes."