Current deputy mayor Patrick O'Donnell is stepping down "within six weeks," according to the Times Herald-Record, and so far the only person to express interest in the job is Pete Healey, a nemesis of the current mayor:
One potential candidate has stepped forward but doesn't expect to get the nod. Former village Trustee Pete Healey came within a whisker of being elected to the board last year. "I should be appointed, but it's not going to happen," Healey, who has had numerous conflicts with [New Paltz mayor Terry Dungan], said.
In its own article about the state of affairs, the New Paltz Times asks the obvious:
Which leaves the question, who will the board appoint to fill out his term until the village board election is held next spring?
And reporter Erin Quinn helpfully interviews Town Supervisor Toni Hokanson and Councilman Jeff Logan to get their answers. (She asks Dungan, too, who keeps mum.)
Hokanson has a few suggestions:
She said it was her hope that the trustees will appoint a "replacement that who is open minded and objective -- perhaps Mark Portier or Michael Zierler (both former trustees) will come back for a year?"
And Logan, it turns out, is a Healey supporter:
"[S]ince Pete Healey only lost by a handful of votes it should be a no brainer that they appoint him, assuming he'd want to take the position, since he was the next highest vote getter."
According to Legislative Barbie's Brittany Turner, who seemed to know about O'Donnell's departure long before either newspaper did, giving Healey the job would be a sort of divine justice:
[I]t seems only fair that Pete Healey be appointed to fill out the remainder of the term. God knows it would be HILARIOUSLY AWESOME.
