BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The executive secretary of the state's medical watchdog panel is retiring and will be replaced by Gov. John Hoeven's staff attorney.

Rolf Sletten, 57, has been the state Board of Medical Examiners' top administrator since 1983. Duane Houdek, 57, will take over the post on Dec. 15. Houdek has been Hoeven's legal counsel since August 2003.

Hoeven hired Ryan Bernstein, 28, to replace Houdek as staff attorney, effective Nov. 30. Bernstein worked as a policy assistant on Hoeven's staff during the 2001 Legislature.

Sletten said he and his wife, Michelle, bought a condominium in Mexico, and intend to spent winters there. His last day on the job is Dec. 31.

"My wife and I decided many years ago to do this, after our daughter graduated," Sletten said Wednesday. Medora Sletten graduated from Bismarck High School last year and is attending college in Minnesota.

"I'm excited about the future but there is some sadness," Sletten said of retiring. "It's been a great job and the board has always been good to me. I really have mixed feelings about it."

The 12-member panel, which licenses and disciplines doctors, has been listed among the best performing state medical boards in the U.S. by a nonprofit consumer advocacy group. The Public Citizen Health Research Group calculates the rate of serious disciplinary actions taken by medical boards per 1,000 doctors in each state.

North Dakota has ranked in the top 10 for more than a decade for its oversight of doctors.

"This board has really developed a reputation of public service and watching out for the public of North Dakota," Houdek said. "It's a privilege to work with them."

Sletten, a former assistant Burleigh County state's attorney, and Houdek attended law school together at the University of North Dakota.

"It should be a very smooth transition," Sletten said.

"Rolf has been brilliant in his years at the helm," said John Olson, the board's lawyer. "He has established a bar that is pretty high."

Olson said he's known Houdek for years. The board, he said, will be in "excellent hands" with Houdek as executive secretary.

Bernstein said taking over Houdek's job as the governor's legal counsel should be "a lot of fun and very interesting."

Bernstein, who grew up on a farm near Souris, in Bottineau County, was a student representative on the state Board of Higher Education from 1999 to 2000, as an undergraduate at North Dakota State University. He received his law degree from UND.