A new name at Economic Development?

Not that there has been any public announcement made by the Mayor or City Council, but it appears that Prince Rupert has finally settled on a new Economic Development Officer for the region.

Almost four months after the departure of Derek Baker from the office, a read through of this Globe and Mail article offers up the name of the new man for the job, with Paul Vendittelli apparently the successful applicant.

He will join the roster of a City Administration that has seen a fair amount of change in just the last year, with the comings and goings making updates to the City Hall directory a full time job.

In keeping with the theme of recent management announcements of late, the City has yet to officially reveal his arrival to the office to the public, though we imagine they settled on his appointment after discussions in one or two of the plethora of closed sessions that this council seems to hold.

It's a theme that we recently saw with the arrival of a new recreation consultant, a surprise hiring that was never advertised, nor mentioned as an urgent requirement in any previous council sessions.

Hopefully, the City gets around to the introductions at Economic Development at the next Council meeting on Monday.

And maybe, while they're at it, they could explain as to the lengthy the process that went into hiring the new Economic Development officer and offer up some thoughts as to what he may bring to the job in providing economic development to the region.

As for Mr. Vendittelli's job ahead, it's a rather ambitious task to take on, with the city cash strapped in recent years, funding for economic development initiatives in the past has been rather limited.

Offering up another talking point for the night for Council in public session. Where they could perhaps provide a review for the public, as to  how much funding they now intend to provide for the office and where they see the economic development office position evolving towards in the future.

Now that the position is apparently filled (with information delivered to the Local Governmernt Civic Info BC portal), we await the puffs of white smoke from City Hall and maybe a notice on their own website.

Or, maybe we'll just wait for details from another item in the Globe and Mail, some time in the future.