City Introduces New City Manager
Jim Puffalt took his most recent journey into Moose Jaw as a sign that his decision to become the new city manager was the perfect move for himself and his family. Driving in from North Battleford, Puffalt encountered a nasty spring snowstorm with white-out conditions, conditions that became so bad that at one point he had to pull over because visibility was so poor. “We stopped for five minutes and then headed down, and as we got to Moose Jaw the weather started to clear and it got nicer. So I knew it was a sign that I was supposed to be here,” Puffalt said with a laugh.
The City of Moose Jaw held a press conference on Mar. 29 to introduce Puffalt as the new city manager, taking over the position from the departed Matt Noble. He comes to the community with over 20 years in municipal government that includes city manager positions in Dauphin, Man., Estevan and most recently North Battleford.
“I’m a Saskatchewan kid, and in this industry you look at moving up through Saskatchewan and through the larger cities and larger places,” Puffalt said when asked about choosing Moose Jaw.
“Moose Jaw is kind of a place that in my line of business is a place to look to be. I’ve had a pretty good history with Moose Jaw, I have family here and my uncles have lived here for a number of years. I’m fairly familiar with the area, too, I lived in Estevan and my kids played hockey here, so we’re pretty comfortable with the area.”
Puffalt officially takes over the position on May 7 and will be moving to Moose Jaw with his wife Monique and three children. He expects to essentially hit the ground running after taking some time to get acclimated to his surroundings. Once he has a feel for the system, it’ll be a matter of dealing with the myriad of issues every sizable city has on a daily basis. “Everything I’ve done since I’ve started has been scalable as we move to a larger size community.” Puffalt explained. “The systems come, you have your background, but you have to see what the current conditions are and be able to manage these operations because every council is different, every city administration is different. “The past few years as I’ve come into different communities, you have to look at the gaps, if there are any. And you have to be customer service based, my job is probably one of the ones where I can be a conduit for everybody and if information needs to get to city council, I can get it to them. If our front line people need something I can get them that information and make sure everyone has what they need to do their job.” Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie said that hiring Puffalt was a unanimous decision by city council and that his past experience in a multitude of areas of concern to Moose Jaw made the difference.
“We had some very strong candidates, but Jim came to the top,” Tolmie said. “We looked at a lot of things and some of the challenges we’re facing, and Mr. Puffalt is very engaging and has a very good sense of the community and he wants to be involved in the community.
“We talked about customer service, and that comes from leading from the top and council wants to close that gap with administration so we can walk together step-for-step. So I feel this will be a very good relationship between council and the administration, we need to work together and while we always say that, we’re excited that he feels the same way and we’re looking forward to that.”