Less than two weeks before Hunter Mayor Michael Papa faces four challengers in the village election Nancy Kern writes a story in Columbia-Greene Media with the headline "Mayor abuses power, bullies." Hunter Building Inspector Carl Giangrande says, “It’s a heated political environment now before the election,.... There’s no shortage of people who have opinions. It’s a lot going on.” Village resident Susan Holm said of Papa, “He verbally abuses,.... He’s not a nice person. He’s a bully. I call him Mussolini.” Current highway superintendent Alan W. Higgins is running against Papa, and said he witnessed an incident where Papa verbally abused Holm after she got back results from a Freedom of Information Law request to Village Clerk Kathleen Hilbert. “He called her liar,” Higgins said. “He was mad she got the information.” Then, after the meeting, Papa moved FOIL responsibilities to Trustee Dorothy Grasso instead of the village clerk. Papa denies 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.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.