In-park commissioner takes job in Maine

Hogan promises to remain to perform town and APA duties

By Gwendolyn Craig

Johnsburg Supervisor Andrea Hogan has taken a new job in Maine as the executive director of the Vinalhaven Land Trust. Hogan told the Explorer in a phone interview Monday that she will be working in her new position remotely for the time being. She will remain supervisor and commissioner of the Adirondack Park Agency until the terms expire, she said.

The North Country Gazette wrote about the move this weekend, raising questions about the validity of her Adirondack Park government jobs and her residency. Her biography on the land trust website said in 2022, Hogan “was delighted by the opportunity to join the VLT team and move to the island full-time.” It also noted that Hogan’s husband is working on the island just east of Rockland. 

Vinalhaven is an island town in Knox County, where Hogan has had a second home for four years. Her new job “feels like the perfect marriage between the advocacy and public policy work she had been engaged in for decades,” according to the land trust’s website.

Hogan said when she does make the transition to New England, she will keep her home in the Adirondacks. 

Hogan told the Explorer she was mystified by the interest in her day job.

“Like many of the other supervisors I work with, I do have a second job, but I have not moved to Maine,” Hogan said. “My primary residence is still very much Johnsburg. What I said at the land trust, I am excited about the opportunity to live and work in Maine full-time, and that is exactly what I will do, when my obligation to the Town of Johnsburg is over.”

Hogan, a Democrat who has been supervisor since 2018, said her term is over at the end of 2023. Her APA commissioner term ends in June 2023.

Keith McKeever, spokesman for the APA, said Hogan is one of five in-park board members. Those seats require full-time residence in the park, but out-of-state employment “does not disqualify a board member from continuing to serve their term.” Gov. Kathy Hochul will have some additional updating to do on the board. Commissioners Mark Hall and Ken Lynch are already serving on expired terms. Commissioner Dan Wilt’s term will expire in June along with Hogan’s.