It's a key position is the day to day operations at City Hall as well as the long term planning. Moose Jaw is still on the hunt for a city manager following the resignation of Matt Noble this winter.

Mayor Fraser Tolmie says there has been a lot of deliberation that has gone into finding someone to fill the position, which included hiring a committee to go through applicants for the job.

"We hired a recruiting company that specializes in this and we have had interviews." said Tolmie. "There's been some really good candidates and council is going to be deliberating on that fairly soon and will hopefully be making an announcement in the near future."

Matt Noble held the position from the summer of 2013 until January 15th, 2017 and his resignation came as a surprise to many.  His tenure as manager was dotted with heated debates and even arguments with some councillors who accused city administration of going over council's heads or in some cases, not doing their jobs.  Noble was quick to defend the actions of city staff, saying they only carry out the decisions made by council while trying to provide the best service to residents.

Following the announcement of his planned resignation, Noble told our newsroom that it was his choice to leave after ongoing issues.

"There's only so much I can talk about at the present time, but I've been coming to work with council for a period of time and been unable to resolve some issues. So basically we're in a position where there's a contractual issue that's in dispute."

Noble couldn't get into details, but said he was not happy about submitting his resignation. During his time at City Hall, Noble implemented several new management strategies and focused on updating procedures that seemed to be stuck in the past.

Prior to Noble being hired, Garry McKay was the city manager before he was eventually fired in a surprise announcement by Deb Higgins, who was mayor at the time.  No explanation was given for the decision, simply that council wanted to explore new leadership.