If Catherine Hillmann’s new job as New Hyde Park’s new village clerk and treasurer seems to have a familiar ring, it should.
She is following in the footsteps of her mother.
Her mother, Maryellen Hillmann, is village clerk in Hempstead and actually tipped her daughter off for the first municipal office she held.
Hillmann, 28, had graduated from Dowling College in Oakdale in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing business administration. Her intention at that time was to find a job in purchasing in the corporate sector and she spent her first year after completing her studies at Dowling working for Bruckner Supply in Port Washington.
Then her mother heard about a position open in Oyster Bay Cove for a deputy clerk treasurer. Hillmann applied, was hired and stayed in that job for three years.
“I just took it for the time being and wound up getting into it. I just kind of fell into this,” she said.
Her next position was also as a deputy clerk, this time in Williston Park.
The opening in New Hyde Park that became available when Patrick Farrell became village administrator in neighboring Floral Park, presented an opportunity to Hillmann to move up.
So Hillman applied.
After a hiring process that last several weeks, Village of New Hyde Park Mayor Daniel Petruccio introduced Hillmann at Tuesday night’s board meeting as the new village clerk and treasurer.
Hillmann had actually already been on the job a couple of days at the time of the introduction and said she liked what she saw of her new working environment.
“I think it’s a very nice place to work. Everybody here has been very nice in helping get acclimated. I’m hoping that it will be a nice fit, which I think it will be,” Hillmann said.
Hillmann said she’s enjoying her current career track and said she enjoys working on municipal budgets “until it gets heated.”
And she exudes confidence about the task at hand.
“I’m good at it. It’s always something different,” she said.
Municipal service runs in Hillmann’s family beyond her mother. Two of her brothers are policeman in New York City and a third brother is a city fireman
“We’re all civil service,” she said.
And her mother is pleased with her career choice.
“I guess she’s just happy that I have a full-time job with benefits and I’m not employed,” Hillmann said.
A Seaford resident, Hillmann said she enjoys running and working out in the gym in her spare time. She said she also enjoys reading mystery novels, a pastime that may come in handy for someone who sorts out the financial intricacies of municipal budgets.
