Meet HP’s New Town Administrator

The new Highland Park town administrator’s lifelong career interest has been in municipal leadership.

Tobin Maples’ first day was June 5, and he came to the town from Fair Oaks Ranch, where he served as city manager for nearly seven years.

He started his public service career in North Texas and has always admired Highland Park.

“A lot of us in the industry have always looked at Highland Park as the model, so when this opportunity presented itself, knowing that my wife and I wanted to get back to the metroplex, we seemed like, at least in our eyes, that we were the perfect fit for the community,” Maples said. “It was certainly an area that I wanted to come compete for the position due to that rich history of being an organization that cares.”

Maples is transitioning into the position and becoming familiar with town operations by meeting one-on-one with elected officials and paid staff. Some of his first action items include the annual budget and addressing capital improvement projects, parking, and aging infrastructure.

“I imagine I’ll be spending a lot of time digesting, learning what our challenges are, then trying to develop win-win solutions with our residents and our business partners,” Maples said.

As a town leader, he’s learned that meeting with elected officials regularly is valuable to know what’s going on in the community, what they’re hearing, and what’s working versus not.

“You can’t fix a challenge or a problem unless you know about it, so when that’s disseminated to me from council members, it’s a wonderful thing, and then the staff and I can shape and frame the solutions from there,” Maples said.

He said his experience is unique because he spent almost 11 years working in private sector executive leadership between city manager roles.

“It allows me to manage city operations simultaneously from two different ownership perspectives, the local government administrative perspective and then the private sector owner’s perspective,” Maples said.

Maples’ work history also includes working as city manager of Argyle, assistant city manager/executive director of community services in Pearland, director of development services in Wylie, and a planner in Irving and Mansfield.