The vote — a 3-1 decision — came four days after Supervisor Roy Holzer announced on the town’s Facebook page that he was calling a special meeting at the Community Center, and he would be making a motion to appoint Preston, who is currently the operations manager at the Whiteface Mountain Regional Visitors Bureau. She is also the widow of former town Supervisor Randy Preston.

Holzer said he also posted the meeting announcement on the Jay Community News website and at the post office.

When opening the meeting, Holzer apologized to his fellow board members: councilors Darin Forbes (deputy supervisor), Tina Terry Preston and Tim Follos.

“When I put out the public notice on being transparent, they were my personal views,” Holzer said. “They weren’t speaking for the town board members as a whole. I stand by my comments.”

Preston was on the ballot for town council in November 2021 and came in third place. Voters chose Follos and Tina Terry Preston to fill the two open spots on the board.

After his apology, Holzer turned the meeting over to his deputy supervisor, he said, because he had already made up his mind publicly.

“We have decided to fill the position with a candidate that we feel is best qualified based on experience, up to date on town issues and basically past running for office,” Forbes told the audience of more than 30 people. “It has nothing to do with any of the candidates. They’re all great in their own right. Everyone that is sitting here has agreed that the next election cycle, if we have four candidates this strong running, we are going to be a very lucky town.”

After reading the supervisor’s special meeting announcement on Facebook, a number of residents contacted the board members, and three more people expressed interest in the open councilor’s seat. They were Stephanie Gates, who was on the ballot in 2021 but said she wouldn’t take the position if elected because she had just begun a new job at Northwood School and wasn’t sure if she could dedicate enough time to the town; former town Councilor Rarilee Conway, who decided in 2021 to retire from town service and not to run for reelection; and Mindy Goddeau, who is currently the village treasurer in Lake Placid.

After the deputy supervisor’s opening remarks, Tina Terry Preston thanked everyone who contacted her about the appointment.

“We have had a lot of division in our town, and that’s no secret,” she said. “But I think now is the time that we need to start coming together, working together regardless of what the outcome is today. We are not going to make everybody happy. It’s just not going to happen.”

Tina said she tried to answer as many emails as possible because it was important to listen to her constituents’ viewpoints. The town board members, she added, were there to listen.

“So please, start making your voice heard, and please start coming to the meetings and talking to us,” she said.

Forbes then asked audience members if they would like to make comments about the appointment. Several people, including Gates, voiced opinions, and all except Gates said they would like to see Michelle Preston be appointed.

“I would very much support appointing Michelle because I feel like it’s really important to have somebody who is a known entity, and I think a lot of people know how Michelle works and what she’s capable of,” Conway said. “My letter of submission was really in lieu of Michelle.”

Conway said she was willing to spend time as a town councilor until the end of 2023 if she was needed. McGreevy’s town council seat expires on Dec. 31, 2023. Holzer has said that because McGreevy submitted her resignation after June 20, it’s too late to put her seat on the ballot for this November’s election.

After about 10 minutes, the town council went into executive session to discuss the appointment.

During the executive session, Gates spoke to the Enterprise about her desire to be the next town councilor. After a year in her new position at Northwood School, she said, she feels she has enough time to dedicate to the town. If the town council didn’t appoint her, she added, she expected to be on the ballot in November 2023 for the position.

After the executive session, Forbes explained that the town council members talked about all four candidates and about waiting to fill the position. Then Holzer made motion to appoint Michelle Preston to finish McGreevy’s unexpired term, Forbes seconded the motion and Tina Terry Preston voted in favor.

When it came time to cast his vote, Follos didn’t say “yea” or “nay” to the motion.

“I vote for Stephanie Gates,” he said.

“So you vote nay,” said Town Clerk Dawn Stevens, who was sitting next to Follos.

“I vote for Stephanie Gates,” he repeated. “Nothing against Michelle.”

Then the meeting was adjourned.

After the meeting, Michelle Preston said she was excited about her appointment.

“I can’t wait to get started serving the town in more of a capacity than I have been for the last 20 years,” she said, adding that her first goal is to try to bring unity back to the town.

“We’ve had a lot of division in town lately, and I’d like to see where our board will work together,” Michelle Preston said. “Nothing against Paula. Paula was fantastic, and I’m sad to see her leave because I think that she was a very calm voice on the board, and it was a huge detriment to the town for her leaving. But I’m hoping that I can bring some balance back to the board again.”

As for running for reelection in November 2023, she would not commit either way.

“I won’t make promises yet,” she said. “We’ll see.”

After the meeting, Follos explained why he voted against Michelle Preston’s appointment.

“This was not the right way to go about this, announcing it four days (before the special meeting), appointing someone just over a week after the resignation without other people being given the opportunity to express their interest,” Follos said. “This was essentially announced and then ratified. There was no outreach, as far as public input. There could have been. There could have been many different ways to go about this.”

Follos also explained why he would have voted for Gates instead.

“Stephanie Gates represents a large segment of the community that has been disregarded for a long time,” Follos said.

Follos wondered why the meeting was being held during the work day and why this appointment couldn’t have waited until the town council’s next regular meeting.

“I don’t think that it’s a dire emergency that we need to have a new town board member within a week, or eight days after the resignation,” Follos said.

On Friday, Aug. 19, Holzer defended his decision to make the appointment quickly.

“It wasn’t an emergency,” Holzer said in a phone interview. “It was more dealing with that business at hand because we have so many issues going on, I want a full board. … Let’s say, God forbid, something else happens to another one of us, it was imperative for me to fill the position as soon as possible. Politics did not enter into it.”

Holzer also defended his decision to call a special meeting and announce his choice to replace McGreevy on the board.

“From my perspective, it was the only way to do it,” he said. “It was just a few months ago she had circulated a petition, put her neck out to run for the position herself,” he said. “And the reality is she got 170 votes.”

Holzer acknowledged that he and Follos differed in their approach to filling McGreevy’s seat.

“I said to him, I said if there were no other people that would have run in the last election, and if the last election weren’t so close … I would have been the first one to say, ‘OK. We’re going to accept applications. We’re going to interview and appoint that way.’ But this just made sense,” Holzer said. “The town’s been kind of contentious lately, and I thought a quick appointment, justified appointment, would be the best thing for the community.”

Holzer also pushed back on any speculation that his choice of Michelle Preston was politically motivated. After all, he said, he is a Republican and she ran as an Independent in 2021.

“Anyone that know me and knows Michelle,” he said, “her and I sometimes can be like oil and water. So it’s not because I’m on Team Michelle or anything like that. This is simply the right thing to do.”

Preston’s first meeting as town councilor will be on Sept. 13. Anyone wishing to run for the four-year term in the 2023 election can submit nominating petitions early next year.