Greenport mayor faces backlash over management vacancies

Village administrator role remains unfilled for more than a year

After more than a year without a village administrator — a position Greenport Village Mayor Kevin Stuessi has managed himself — fellow village officials are all but demanding that the mayor finally fill the role.

Last week at a village board meeting, Greenport Village Planning Board Chair Patricia Hammes blasted the village board for what she characterized as an ongoing failure to fill a series of vacant positions she has been inquiring about for at least six months. Later in the meeting, three of Stuessi’s four colleagues on the board publicly insisted that the village hire a new administrator.

Among the budgeted positions that remain unfilled, according to Hammes, are village administrator, which has been vacant since Paul Pallas retired more than a year ago; director of public works; a community development director; a full-time building inspector — a job that remains vacant since last fall, after former building inspector Alex Bolanos was terminated following a lengthy medical leave — and two code enforcement officers.

‘Seeking clarity’

“I would respectfully ask the board to address [these] questions, since the director of public works and community development roles were budgeted for the current fiscal year but left unfilled,” Hammes said. “How were those funds allocated for those positions used? There were significant budget items, and village residents deserve transparency and accountability as to where those expenditure amounts went.”

She went on to contend that a plan for fortifying the management structure at Village Hall has to yet materialize, due in part to an apparent “shortfall in staff empowered to handle meaningful tasks.”

“I'm seeking clarity on behalf of the village community regarding the planned management structure at Village Hall, particularly in the areas of community planning, day-to-day operations and enforcement through the building department and code office. Given the significant amount of feedback from residents over the past year, I believe the community deserves to understand the board strategy for adequately staffing and managing these functions.

“As planning board chair, I would personally make the point that I also express extreme concern regarding ongoing difficulties I have in obtaining timely and substantive responses from Village Hall,” Hammes continued. “There appears to be a shortfall in staff empowered to handle meaningful tasks beyond basic administrative processing. This has led to an over reliance on legal counsel or the mayor to resolve routine issues and inefficient and often inappropriate use of resources.”

Hammes has been publicly challenging village officials to hire more staff since at least last October, when she and Zoning Board chair John Saladino made separate statements at a tense village board meeting, critical the village trustees’ management of day-to-day operations.

At that meeting, Hammes contended that since Stuessi took office in the spring of 2023, the building department’s monthly reports have “become increasingly incomplete and, more recently, have disappeared altogether from the agenda.”

She said that architects, contractors and residents are unable to get records requests or building permits processed and that the village’s responses to their queries are “often incomplete and inaccurate.”

The planning board chair continued to hammer home the point at last week’s meeting.

“I want to reiterate the importance of the village's compliance with [a] section of the code which requires monthly reporting of building permits, certificates of occupancy and code violations and actions taken in connection therewith, in the Trustees meeting minutes. This transparency is also essential and should not depend on individual inquiries or [freedom of information] requests or anything like that. The village has historically done it, and I respectfully request for the third time, that the village re-institute this.”

Last fall, Stuessi told the Suffolk Times that he did not intend to fill the role of village administrator, saying “the intention is not to replace that role because the administrator — historically, in most places — is more of a clerical role.” He has since promised to hire an “infrastructure director.”

The mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article.

‘Timeline’

Later in last week’s meeting, veteran trustee Mary Bess Phillips seemed to echo Hammes’ frustration when she repeatedly took issue with budgeting for the position infrastructure director.

“I can’t find any civil service title for that [position],” Phillips said.

“Mayor, I’m just wondering if we have already gone out soliciting that type of work online, or are we just putting this title to it?”

Stuessi responded that the “title is likely going to be modified … as we talked about in executive session — essentially the same role [as] village administrator, focused on long term capital planning.”

Phillips noted that “we have been discussing this topic for two years now” and asked the acting village attorney if a resolution could be drawn up to put a “timeline for the mayor to bring to the full [village] board [a report on] action on getting some type of person into this position within a certain period of time.”

Phillips went on to say of hiring a new village administrator that “the community has been asking for it. The staff has been asking for it.

“The mayor has been trying to do a great job at doing a great number of many things, but I think it’s time we have [a new village administrator] … I think it’s just time that we need to set a goal of getting this accomplished.”

Trustee Lily Dougherty Johnson also weighed in, saying that “the majority of this board thinks we need a village administrator.”

Newly-appointed Village Deputy Mayor Patrick Brennan concurred with his colleagues.

“I think it’s very important that we have a village administrator,” he said, turning to Stuessi. “That’s what I’m most interested in — not a variation on it, not splitting the job between two people or two departments. I think this is our opportunity to clarify for the village what this job is. And a reminder — you don’t have to vote for this.”

Brennan went on to note that “I’ve been asking the mayor to provide an organizational chart that’s updated, because I’d love to have a clear picture of the village staff and organization, heading into this budget process, and I still don’t have that.”

Phillips again insisted that a deadline be placed on filling some kind of administrator position for the village.

“Whether it's called infrastructure director or village administrator, whatever, I would like to see within a certain time period, perhaps in the next month, the next two months, the job description from the mayor that he's been talking about and getting input from us … I want to put a timeline on it so that it has a goal of getting accomplished.”

New deputy mayor

A Suffolk Times investigation published in March detailed allegations of financial and municipal mismanagement by the mayor, who was accused by Bolanos of overriding cease-and-desist or stop work orders the former building inspector had issued for serious safety hazards, and in other cases targeting individual business owners for what Bolanos described as selective code enforcement.

The allegations included a surprise announcement by Stuessi on the eve of a village election that then-deputy mayor Phillips and her husband owe the village about $100,000 in back taxes and utilities. Stuessi sought and received Phillips’ resignation as deputy mayor, and last week appointed Brennan to fill that role for a one-year term. Phillips was subsequently re-elected, and has said she is actively paying down the debt. Stuessi was elected two years ago to a four-year term and was not running in the race.

Last month, Stuessi appeared to be driving with a suspended license in an incident caught on camera following the Times investigation, which determined that Stuessi’s license has been suspended twice in six years for failure to respond to summonses.

Toward the close of the four-and-a-half hour joint regular board meeting/annual organizational meeting last week, Brennan addressed his new role as deputy mayor.

“I only accept this role on my terms,” he told the mayor. “I intend to take a very narrow view of …. any authority that your appointment confers.”

Brennan went on to say that “the mayor and I had a couple of candid and very frank conversations about this, and it’s important for me to point out: a trustee derives their authority from the voters … I only accept the role on my terms, meaning explicitly there is no quid pro quo between the mayor and I.

“There’s no agreement to do anything whatsoever,” Brennan continued. “That’s the only way I can manage the conflict between the authority of the appointment and the authority and responsibility of being a trustee. I’m happy to do the role to the extent that it’s required and to serve … but I reject any idea that there’s an agreement or quid pro quo.”

“Well there shouldn’t be,” the mayor interjected, “because it’s illegal based on New York state law.”