HUNTER — Controversy surrounding Hunter Mayor Michael Papa has turned the sleepy ski town into an inferno of outrage with residents accusing him of disrespect and abuse of his position at a time when his fate as village leader is on the line.
The village election is March 21, and Papa faces opposition from four candidates including former mayor and current highway superintendent Alan W. Higgins.
“It’s a heated political environment now before the election,” said Building Inspector Carl Giangrande. “There’s no shortage of people who have opinions. It’s a lot going on.”
Residents have commented on social media that Papa has overstepped the bounds of his office, calling emergency meetings when they are not necessary, assigning duties and making personnel decisions for personal gain and wasting town funds on pointless undertakings.
Village resident Susan Holm said she has been on the receiving end of the mayor’s verbal tirades, and that he uses expletives during town meetings.
“He verbally abuses,” Holm said. “He’s not a nice person. He’s a bully. I call him Mussolini.”
Higgins confirmed Holm’s allegations, saying he has witnessed Papa’s abuse of Holm at a number of board meetings.
“She called him out on one or two things he did,” Higgins said. “He didn’t like that. He attacked her on many occasions.”
On one occasion, Holm came to a meeting with information she obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request to Village Clerk Kathleen Hilbert.
“He called her liar,” Higgins said. “He was mad she got the information.”
After the meeting, Papa shifted FOIL responsibilities to Trustee Dorothy Grasso.
Papa strongly denied the allegations.
“There is a small group of village residents who disagree with any type of progress I’m trying to make in this village,” he said. “I don’t see it the way they see it. I see it as an assertive form of leadership.”
Papa said residents and staff dislike his holding them accountable for not doing their jobs. One example he provided is that the village is not in compliance with the New York State Comptroller’s office due to the last treasurer not submitting reports for the past six years.
“I’m holding village employees accountable for their jobs, if they want to see that as being a bully,” Papa said.
He said the village has not seen economic development in decades, something he is trying hard to change.
“Drive up and down Main Street and you won’t see one open store,” he said.
Papa denied allegations of verbal abuse by providing context to one of the incidents where he said his speech was less than professional.
“There was one meeting that got a little out of control, and I’m not proud of my behavior,” he said.
He said a resident had come to the meeting intoxicated to insult the board.
“I spend hours and hours of trying to make things better,” Papa said. “When someone comes to a board meeting intoxicated and throwing stones at what a volunteer board is trying to do, I have no tolerance for that. It won’t be tolerated.”
Holm and Higgins said one of Papa’s most-used phrases is “I’m the mayor.” They also agree that the mayor was not always as combative as he is now.
“Michael Papa went from being somewhat reasonable to being a raving lunatic,” Holm said.
Added Higgins: “I helped Papa get elected, get signatures, etc. He was a different person than he is now.”
“I think his administration has been high on drama and low on leadership,” Giangrande said. “I’ve been code enforcement on the mountaintop in two villages, and I’ve worked under seven administrations, and I’ve never seen the toxicity and dysfunction as much in any other administration.”
Giangrande was recently removed from the planning board, a result, he believes, because he defended his position as both planning board member and building inspector at a board meeting, a viewpoint with which Papa disagreed.
Giangrande said he had consulted with the village attorney on the legality of serving as building inspector and on the planning board. The attorney assured Giangrande that it was legal.
“I believe that the expulsion had more to do with my public defense of my office and the independence of the planning board than any conflict [of interest] which does not exist,” Giangrande said.
Holm and Higgins also accused Papa of misappropriating funds by recently using money from the town budget to demolish a home that was scheduled to be demolished by the home’s owner in two weeks.
“He really wanted this thing demolished,” Higgins said. “He called an emergency meeting with an hour’s notice, not giving the public any time to attend the meeting. During the emergency meeting he declared a state of emergency for the village based on the property being a danger to society. He declared a state of emergency for this house.”
At the meeting, the board of trustees voted for the village to take the house down despite the village attorney’s arrival minutes after the vote to inform the board that the new owner had plans to take it down. Papa denied the attorney’s request.
“It’s been in disrepair for many years,” said Higgins. “The light at the end of the tunnel was already there. Why would you bring government in on it? The village spent $38,000 in legal fees, the removal, asbestos removal.”
Giangrande confirmed Higgins’ story.
“I condemned the property in May last year, and we’d been making efforts to have the owner assume the responsibility of either repair or removal. When the time came for the owner’s contractor to be issued the permit, which was done, pending the arrival of the insurance documentation, I got a call from the mayor that I should rescind the permit because Tweedie Construction and their documentation with our attorney.”