nothin Hausladen Puts On 2nd Hat | New Haven Independent

Hausladen Puts On 2nd Hat

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Doug Hausladen, the city’s transit chief, is taking the wheel of a second public agency, the New Haven Parking Authority. For a while, at least.

Tony Bialecki, who chairs the authority’s board, said the board has decided for now not to replace David Panagore, who resigned as executive director to become city manager of Provincetown, Mass.

It will enlist Hausladen (pictured) to run the authority, overseeing policy and negotiations with partners” (like the state and Yale-New Haven Hospital). Chief Operating Officer Sammy Perry and other managers will be called on to continue handling day-to-day operations of the agency, which has 113 employees and a $25.8 million annual budget.

The authority, a quasi-governmental body, manages 8,000 parking spaces at the Union Station, Air Rights, Temple Street and Crown Street garages as well as surface lots all over town.

The board also plans to start meeting bimonthly rather than monthly. Bialecki said it hasn’t been determined whether the authority will add extra dollars in payment to Hausladen on top of his $90,000 city salary.

it is definitely going to be an acting position,” Hausladen said. This is going to be a transition period” for the authority.

During that period, the authority will seek to convince the state to renew the leases to run the terminal and garage at Union Station. The leases, which expire in mid-2017, provide about $1 million of annual revenue for the authority, according to Hausladen. Without that money, the authority would need to look at restructuring.

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Also, the authority is in the midst of redesigning its entrance to improve the flow of pedestrians and private shuttle stops, along with passenger-car kiss-and-ride” drop-offs. (Click here to read about that.) The authority is also building a 77-space lot across form Goodfella’s restaurant at Trumbull and State streets.

Hausladen, as both an authority member and city director of transportation and parking, has been involved in all these projects.

Hausladen said Wednesday he’s also interested in looking at how the authority can continue promoting alternative transportation; it installed bike racks and a tire-filling and repair outpost at Union Station.

At the end of the undefined transition period, the authority would decide whether to search for a permanent new executive director or to combine the position with city transit chief. That wouldn’t be unprecedented: Until the 1990s, John Cavallaro simultaneously held both positions. Under the authority’s charter, the city’s traffic engineer” (i.e. director of traffic and parking) automatically holds the top executive spot unless an executive director is specifically named.

That’s always a possibility,” Bialecki said of combining the two positions. It needs a lot of examination just to determine how well it works. People looked at it over the years. They looked at the parking authority the other way [too] — the parking authority taking over parking meters and meter maids. We’re not going in that direction.”

He added that the authority doesn’t plan on making any major structural changes in the near future: There’s no rush on reevaluating the structure of the authority. I want to reassure all the people who work for the parking authority — they go to work every day, they do a great job out there.”

Panagore had been working as executive director on an acting” basis until earlier this year, when he was chosen for the position at the conclusion of a national search.

Aliyya Swaby Photo

Hausladen, left, during bike ride to Hartford in May to lobby for a bike-lane bill.

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