Former trustee (1991-1997) Eileen Collins, a resident of the West, defended her reasons for challenging Trustee John Mauk in this year's village election.

She quoted a line from her favorite movie, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, that states: "The only causes worth fighting for are lost causes." Although she doesn't believe Garden City is a lost cause, she does believe many residents are concerned about the direction the current board of trustees is going in.

"I have integrity and I have dignity," Collins, who is proud to have received 163 write-in votes, said, "and I have a right to challenge and I did."

Some residents, however, criticized her failed attempt to run across the village's Community Agreement. Adopted back in 1919, the agreement boasts "government without politics" and states that each section of the village - East, West, Estates and Central - has two of its residents on the board of trustees, assuring equal representation, at all times.

Collins was insulted by a particular letter printed in the Garden City Life that stated the Committee To Save St. Paul's (CSSP), of which Collins is former executive director, urged her to run.

"Imagine a [former] president of the East decides to write a letter about me filled with absolute lies," she said, noting, however, for the record, that the Committee to Save St. Paul's - specifically members Peter Negri, Tom Poole and Ed Keating - never approached her to run for trustee.

"That's a lie," she said. "It never happened. For the record, Peter Negri was in Florida when the challenge came about. For the record, Ed Keating and I don't speak. For the record, the only one I spoke to was Tom Poole and that was a personal, private conversation ... The Committee to Save St. Paul's never asked me to run. It was my right as a citizen."

Trustee Mauk, who earned 334 votes, told Garden City Life in an emailed statement that it would indeed be interesting to run against Collins in a "fair and open" villagewide election. However, he said, "With the Community Agreement still firmly in place ... the secret nature of this write-in effort was nothing less than an attempt by a few people to steal the election while no one was looking. No matter how it's spun or justified, I don't think this can be viewed any other way," he said.

Trustee Mauk believes the failed attempt sought to capitalize on the fact that very few residents bother to vote in the general election. "That's because most residents expect the candidate choices made in their POAs to be honored. That is the very essence of the Community Agreement and, if it were not generally followed, fewer than 100 voters could easily skew an election to their liking," he continued.

"Mrs. Collins castigated the writers of recent letters to the newspaper for having the temerity to suggest that the write-in campaign was orchestrated by the Committee to Save St. Paul's (CSSP)," Trustee Mauk added. "The group's leadership has been especially vigorous - after the fact - in countering charges that they were involved. I can understand why they would want to disassociate themselves individually from this failed effort by the group's former executive director.

"Nevertheless, 'Me thinks they doth protest too much.' Based on past behavior, I think people can be forgiven for assuming this was yet another attempt by the CSSP to silence any strong differing opinion regarding St. Paul's. I take the group's leaders at their word when they say they were not directly involved this time. They have certainly orchestrated efforts with similar objectives in the recent past, however, and their supporters have their fingerprints all over this latest foray."

Collins, who was serving as trustee when the village first purchased the St. Paul's property, noted loud and clear that she opposes rentals at the site and will fight until her "last breath" to stop that from happening. "Put in condos," she said. "Put in something for seniors 55+ ... Include public use. We bought it for the people..."