City manager Roy Hardy came to Humboldt all the way from Ontario, but the transition has been an easy one, despite the rough winter.
He’s been involved in local government for over 20 years and when he found the listing for the city manager position in Humboldt, it caught his eye.
“When the opportunity came up in Humboldt I took a look at it and saw a number of things that were very interesting and they were doing a lot of planning for the future; there was going to be some growth here,” Hardy said. “They were looking for somebody who had experience in implementing change.”
He applied for the job and after he came out and met with staff at the city, that sealed the deal. He started working here in June of last year.
He’s lucky he got the job too – he admitted he wasn’t a Roughrider fan in the interview.
“The first interview question that council put to me was, ‘Are you a Roughriders fan?’ and I said ‘Yes, I am. The only problem is the Roughriders that I grew up with wore black, red, and white,’” he said. “My staff have ensured that I’ve turned green and I have enjoyed the transition to being a different kind of Roughies fan.”
He’s had a myriad of varied jobs such as working in a small business, working with youth employment centres, and as a social services administrator.
“I always sort of had my hand in working with people and making career decisions and those types of things in the human resources development area,” he said.
He went back to school and got his masters – 25 years after getting his bachelors degree – and then worked as a county administrator, followed by a position as a chief administrative officer (CAO).
“I’ve always had an orientation toward people and being able to help,” he said. “I think at the same time I also like the challenges that municipal government brings to people. This job is never the same. Sometimes the circumstances are similar, but the issue is that your day can be filled with doing a myriad of things.”
He enjoys helping shape Humboldt’s future and figuring out how he wants to leave things for his successors. Another favourite part of his job is working with the staff at the city.
“The environment here is that there is a good group of people that can work together, and I think that is one of the things that I found, is that everybody in their own way … is committed to providing service in the best way they can,” he said.
As city manager, he has a variety of duties. His main duty is to lead the senior managers (the heads of public works, leisure services, the museum, etc.) and make sure they’re working together. He’s the development officer, so when there are prospective investors, he works with them to find opportunities for them. He is also responsible for the human resources function as well and sees that council’s policies are being followed.
For the upcoming year, he’s most excited about continuing with work on Centennial Park and building the fieldhouse/theatre.
“That’s going to be a great project because there’s been so much done here in the city because of the Uniplex and how it developed. All we’re doing is adding one more piece to the puzzle and it’s going to provide such a greater range of services to the region,” he said. “It’s going to help us grow as a city.”
No matter what he’s doing, he finds the job rewarding and challenging.
“I can go home at the end of the day and say I got some stuff accomplished,” he said. “It’s always interesting to try and figure out what a typical day is like.”
