Brennan was sworn in on Monday afternoon ahead of the village’s regular board meeting, according to Devlin. She’ll finish Leon’s term, which was set to expire in March. If Brennan wants to run for a full term, she’d have to file a nominating petition for the March election along with any other interested candidates. Brennan said she’s not sure if she’s going to run next year. Right now, she said, she’s happy to support village board members and have the opportunity to learn more about the issues they’re dealing with.

“I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth in and helping out,” she said.

Two village board vacancies will be on the ballot in March, including Leon’s. Trustee Peter Holderied, whose third consecutive term will end in 2023, won’t be eligible for reelection in March. The village’s trustee positions are four-year terms and can’t be filled by the same person for more than three consecutive terms.

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About Brennan

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Brennan, 43, is an economist, and she works remotely for Vermont-based nonprofit MVP Health Care. She and her husband have a 3-year-old daughter who already loves ski season. Originally from Lake Placid, she traveled to London for graduate school and spent 17 years in the United Kingdom before returning to this village with her family in August 2021. Since she’s been back, Brennan said she’s had a goal of getting involved in the community. She’s spent some time volunteering with the Lake Placid-North Elba Community Development Commission.

When asked if she noticed a change in the village’s political landscape after her 17-year absence, Brennan noted both the changes and the familiarity she saw in the community after returning. She said people in the community are talking about different things and the board is facing different issues — like addressing short-term vacation rental regulations — but that “at the end of the day, it’s just such a wonderful, collaborative place.”

“It’s very open, it’s really friendly, and it feels like that sort of core of the essence is absolutely still there,” she said.

Brennan acknowledged that the village is facing some “tough problems” right now.

She’s joining the board in the midst of an STR moratorium and after the village board and the North Elba Town Council have spent months reworking their STR regulations. And there’s still some work to be done — the town and village are now finalizing their drafts of STR regulations, which will then be presented to the public in a public hearing.

When asked about her stance on STRs, Brennan said she believes that “there needs to be the right balance.” She believes that the village board has worked hard to find a balance with their regulations by recognizing the financial support STRs provide to people while making sure that people in the community can live in their homes “without undue disturbance.” She said she wants to parse through the details of the STR regulation process with the rest of the village board.

When asked what she sees as some of the key issues in Lake Placid, Brennan said she sees Lake Placid as having “universal” issues.

“To a large degree, I think the issues are kind of universal in terms of what we can do and the extent that the board is able to support that sense of community,” she said. She did not specify any one particular issue.

Brennan said she’s done a lot of national policy work, market assessments and board work with national nonprofits in the past, and she hopes her professional skills and knowledge of the Lake Placid community will come together as an asset for the village board.

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Appointment process

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A village mayor has the authority to appoint a new trustee without approval from the board, according to state village law. Devlin said he consulted village department heads and the rest of the village board before appointing Brennan.

When asked to address concerns among some in the community that the appointment process wasn’t transparent enough, Devlin said that he followed village law.

“The law reads that it’s my discretion as mayor to pick anyone I want to fill in a vacancy, and that’s what I did,” he said.

Devlin added that he didn’t solicit the general public for interest in the position — he said he made “some quiet inquiry and picked someone.” He said he sent an email to village department heads and village board members asking for their feedback before he made the appointment.

“Is it a total democratic appointment? No, but that’s not what the law requires and, you know, I did go above and beyond what’s required by the law to talk to different people at this end,” Devlin said.

Village board members on Tuesday voiced support for the mayor’s choice when asked for their thoughts about Brennan’s appointment. While Holderied said he’d only met Brennan once before the village’s meeting on Monday, he thought she seemed “bright” and that Devlin did “a lot of homework” before appointing her. Trustee Jackie Kelly worked with Brennan on the Community Development Commission, and she believes Brennan will be a “great asset” to the board. It might take Brennan some time to understand the community after being abroad, Kelly said, but she believes Brennan will ultimately be a “good thing” for the board.

Trustee Marc Galvin said he’s known Brennan for a long time. He echoed Kelly in saying she’d be a “great asset” to the board, and he mentioned that she’ll bring more youth and gender equality to the board. Galvin noted that “Art was great” about including the village board in the selection process. Galvin said he got a chance to talk in-depth with Brennan about her appointment before it became official.

“I feel like it was a really inclusive process and it didn’t have to be, according to what the mayor can do,” Galvin said.