By Thia James

UPDATED: Prince Albert names Jim Toye new city manager

Oct 28, 2013 | 9:02 PM

The City of Prince Albert has appointed the now-outgoing city manager of the City of North Battleford as its new city manager.

Jim Toye will be leaving his position in North Battleford after 13 years in that role. He will take over the position in Prince Albert on Jan. 2, 2014. His appointment was formally approved by council during Monday evening’s meeting. Members of council had discussed his appointment during a closed-door in-camera meeting on Oct. 21.

Mayor Greg Dionne made the announcement – a last-minute addition to the evening’s council agenda – and praised Toye for stepping up in every organization that he’s worked in. He pointed to the fact that Toye had been the co-chair of the North Battleford HUB, as well as the chair of the North Battleford Justice Committee, among his roles and achievements.

“And his resume just goes on and on,” he said.

Dionne also noted that Toye was the city manager in a city which built new facilities and had been through a water crisis. “So, what I like about him [is that] he’s a Saskatchewan boy, he’s not from Ontario, so he’s experienced with dealing with the local government and the federal government. And we’re just really excited to have him on board.”

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When contacted via telephone Monday night, Toye welcomed the challenge of taking on the city manager job in Prince Albert. “Prince Albert is a very progressive community. And for me, moving from a city of a population of 14,000 to 38,000 will be a good challenge for me,” he said.

And after more than a decade in North Battleford, he called leaving that city “a bittersweet thing.”

“Bitter in the fact that I’m leaving a community where I’ve lived for over 13 years to a new community, but, I think as a person, as a professional person, you only want to challenge yourself. And I think that I’ve accomplished a number of good things in the community here. I’m looking forward to getting to Prince Albert to be part of a team who works with a strong administration team and all the employees of the City of Prince Albert to kind of build our work plans around the strategic plan that’s set by city council.”

Toye plans to meet with senior administrators to get a good understanding of who they are, what they do, and find out what challenges they may have. He also plans to meet with city council to find out what their issues are, what the strategic plans are and what goals council would like to accomplish. From there, his senior administrators would build their work plan around what council would like to have done.

He said he has an open-door policy, which means he can talk to anyone. “That doesn’t mean when someone comes to my office, I’m going to agree if they’ve got an issue with the city policy or with what the city’s done. But I can explain that policy to them … and tell them exactly what that policy is, so I like to engage people. I like to engage the community. I want to get out into the community, I’m a community person. I’m a member of Rotary, I’m a member of the Knights of Columbus. And I have regular meetings with the chamber.

“So, I want to get out to the business community. I want to get out to the community, so people know who Jim Toye is. And if you’ve got an issue with the city, I will hope they’ll come to my office and talk to me about it.”

Dionne's high praise for Toye’s management style

Prince Albert’s mayor had high praise for Toye’s management style. “He’s a very pleasant person. He’s not intimidating. He believes [in trying] to solve problems instead of adding to them. I think he’s going to unite our staff. He’s going to lead our staff and he’s really going to be an asset to council, especially with all of the experience that he brings.”

Toye’s hiring comes more than a month after former city manager Robert Cotterill was let go. The city then appointed its director of corporate services, Chris Cvik, to the acting city manager position, a term which will expire in November.

The city had posted the position in major newspapers in the province, on the SaskJobs and City of Prince Albert websites. Toye had applied after he saw the position posted in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. According to his employment contract – which was an attachment to the report recommending the approval of Toye’s appointment – his term as Prince Albert’s city manager is set to expire Dec. 31, 2017, unless it’s extended.

Toye will not have a probation period, and he will have an annual salary of $195,000. His salary will increase by two per cent each year.

Toye has already indicated what changes he would like to make, Dionne said. “One of the things he was working on before he became the candidate for the city manager is what he wants to do is bring North Battleford, Meadow Lake, Lloydminster, a bunch of us cities together and do massive purchasing for, ie. we all noticed that we did natural gas under a one-year contract. Well, next time we bid it, we’re going to bid it as five or six cities so we can even get a cheaper price.”

He said Toye plans to do the same with water treatment chemical purchases.

“So, I was very pleased when he brought those forward because, as you know, part of my commitment to the residents is that I’m going to try to cut costs. And this is a good way to do it.”

Toye has visited Prince Albert many times prior to his appointment and was interviewed by all members of council last week, Dionne said.

The incoming city manager had to give 60-days’ notice that he would be leaving his current job in North Battleford, and that announcement was made during Monday evening’s council meeting there.

“He will be here coming to quite a few of our meetings, our budget process, he’s committed to do that and rightfully so. He wants to, so that he has knowledge.”

As well, with Toye, there’s a “totally different attitude coming into that office,” the mayor said and continued to contrast the incoming and former city managers.

“It’s certainly a change in management style. He’s non-confrontational. He’s approachable. Yes, I do think it’s a change in style. He’s from Saskatchewan.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames