Ucluelet’s municipal office has a new chief administrator at the helm.
Mark Boysen has been granted the captain’s chair and is expected to arrive from Victoria, with his wife and two young kids, by June 19.
“We love him,” exclaimed mayor Dianne St. Jacques in an interview with the Westerly News. “All his references were outstanding and he’s a great team player as well.”
She said this is Boysen’s first crack at a CAO position, but added he has “lots of experience” in municipal work.
“He’s got lots of great energy and professionalism and many, many, skills that are going to fit in wonderfully in Ucluelet,” she said. “It was important to us, and our team here, that we get somebody who’s a really good fit and he is.”
Ucluelet’s council has been seeking a new top staffer since Andrew Yeates, who had held the CAO position for eight years, resigned in March.
St. Jacques said council’s initial reach out for applications yielded 41 applicants, who were narrowed down to four before interviews began and four became two.
She said each of the two finalists were brought back to Ucluelet and spent a day exploring the community and mingling with the district staffers they’d be working with.
“We got a chance to observe the interactions and the candidates got a chance to see what life in Ucluelet was really about,” St. Jacques said.
She said it was important for council to collect feedback from the district’s managers to ensure a good fit was found for the top spot.
“They’re the leader of the team,” she said. “This is the fellow that’s in charge of the administration of our village, so it’s important that he’s passionate about Ucluelet, which he already is and we know that he cares.”