Rumors raise Garden City Village tempers

Tempers flared when the new mayor of Garden City accused trustees from two sections of the community of trying to sabotage the village's long-standing community agreement.

Mayor Donald T. Brudie said at Thursday's village board meeting he heard from several people that the trustees representing the Estates and the Eastern sections had allied to try to take control of the eight-member board. The move would ensure they had five or six votes.

"This is not a community agreement," said Brudie, who took office on April 5 and is from the Central section of the village.

Since the village's 1919 incorporation, the governing board of trustees has been elected by a villagewide nonpartisan vote under the provisions of the Community Agreement Party. That accord rotates the mayor's position among the village's four sections -- Central, Western, Eastern and Estates.

"I think you are not a dictator in this process," Eastern Section Trustee Dennis C. Donnelly told the mayor. "I think your characterization is somewhat slanderous."

Residents at the meeting were upset about the mayor's comment that the property owners associations from the Estates and Eastern sections would want to break up the village.

"There is no conspiracy as far as I am concerned," said Kathleen Auro, former vice president of the Estates Property Owners Association. "Perhaps you should check your sources."

The dispute started when the mayor expressed discontent with rumors of an effort by the Estates and the East sections to change the village's executive staff.

"I think you might be making a very, very big mistake," Brudie said. "It's the people that you see up here that run the village."