Mayor Picks Former Aide For City Parking Director

Mayor Sebastian N. Giuliano has picked his former administrative assistant for the city's new parking director.

Geen Thazhampallath, 37, chief administrative officer for the town of Stratford since March 2010, worked closely with Giuliano for four years beginning in March 2006.

The selection of Thazhampallath still awaits approval from the Middletown Common Council at its October meeting.

"Geen's strength as a consensus builder and knowledge of the community will be a core asset in this capacity," Giuliano said. "He has a proven skill set as a project manager and is proficient in budget operations, facility maintenance, public safety and community relations."

Giuliano said Thazhampallath was at the top of the list of 10 candidates chosen by the interview panel. "I interviewed all three. I thought he was the best choice. All three finalists brought different things to the table. Geen really had most what we need right now."

Thazhampallath, a licensed attorney, lives in Middletown. "I am looking forward to working with the Chamber, Downtown Business District and Middletown's community again," Thazhampallath said.

"He has a community relations orientation about him," Giuliano said. "With him, the learning curve will be much shorter. He was my administrative assistant for four years, he served a term on the Board of Education for four years, he's used to dealing with all the people he'll need to deal with."

"The mayor approached me about an opportunity to come back home to a place that's close to my heart," Thazhampallath said. "My main driver for [interviewing for the position] is I have two children under the age of 3." When he spoke with his wife about the idea, he said, "It became apparent this would be a positive thing for me."

"This is more about family-driven circumstances than anything else for me," Thazhampallath said.

Giuliano said his only involvement in the process of whittling down the parking director candidates was in picking the committee. "I didn't step foot in the room. They interviewed people, they came back and said, 'here are the top three.' He actually was ranked number one after that process."

If chosen, Thazhampallath says he won't leave his Stratford position until sometime in November.

"I have many commitments to fulfill in Stratford. Mayor Harkins has been fantastic to me. It's a beautiful town. I feel obligated to follow up on a couple of big things I still have on my plate."

This is a union position, earning $40.46 per hour for 40 hours weekly or $84,156.80 annually.

"My forte will be to build upon the technical advances" made former parking director Tom Hartley, Thazhampallath said.

Hartley was parking director from March 2010 through May of this year. He left to become executive director of the Bethlehem, Pa., Parking Authority.

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