After interviewing four of the eight candidates for the job of Town Building Official, on Dec. 14, 2015, the Board of Selectmen voted to appoint David W. Maiden. Maiden started work with the Town of Westbrook earlier this week on Jan. 4.

Maiden will fill the slot left vacant when former town building official Roger Zito retired. Carl Brown had been filling in for Zito over the past year as an assistant interim building official. Brown, with positive marks for his work as interim building official, was one of four candidates interviewed for the building official post. However, when he was asked if he would accept the post for the salary offered, he said he would not.

First Selectman Noel Bishop, the town’s labor attorney, and the Town Hall union representatives recently established a new higher salary range of $58,000 to $65,000 for the union position of building official. However, though this range is close to those of other small towns, some put a higher salary range on this job.

Maiden was hired to work 40 hours per week for the Town of Westbrook for an annual salary of $65,000, the highest end of the building official range.

Bishop said of the board’s finalist, “Maiden is highly credentialed and was the board’s unanimous choice. We liked that he has managed major projects and the breadth of his experience. He has also said he wants to be a visible part of our community.”

His $65,000 in annual compensation puts him at the high end of the town building official salary range.

Maiden brings to his new role 16 years of experience working as a building official for three different Connecticut towns. His most recent work is as a construction project executive and project manager for a construction company. For the past five years, he served in that role for Centerplan Construction in Middletown, working on various projects including the College and Crown commercial project, a 230,000 square-foot urban mixed used building in downtown New Haven; the Hartford Yard Goats Stadium; the Storrs Center Phase II; Branford Service Plaza; and Quinnipiac University Bobcat Den.

Before joining Centerplan Construction, he worked for nine years as the building official for the Town of North Haven. He was terminated from that role after contractor complaints led to an audit and criminal investigation that found no crime had been committed, though the department had not followed policy and had mishandled billing. Bishop said Maiden raised the incident during his interview and addressed the issue to the committee’s satisfaction.

Maiden’s résumé notes he has several licenses and certifications supporting his new role, including a Connecticut Building Official license, an EPA Certified Renovation Contractor certification (2012), an Unrestricted Massachusetts Construction Supervisor License (2015), and a LEED AP from the US Green Building Council (2009).

Health Educator Chosen

The Board of Selectmen also on Dec. 14, 2015, appointed Natalie Giusto to the part-time post of health educator in the town’s Department of Health. She will report to Town Director of Health/Registered Sanitarian Sonia Marino.

Karensa Mansfield, hired in August 2015 as the town’s first part-time health educator, left the town’s employ recently to take a full-time post with an area health district.