After a two month search, the City of Moose Jaw has announced the hiring of a new city manager. Monday night, council approved a five year contract to hire James (Jim) Puffalt.

Originally from Broadview but most recently working for the City of North Battleford, Puffalt will be paid $190,000 to run the day to day operations of all of the different departments. According to the contract, Puffalt's first day is set for May 7th.

Puffalt tells us why he decided to come to Moose Jaw;

"I think its really just a natural progression for a career, I'm a Saskatchewan boy born and bred. When you start in this line of business you always look to the bigger communities as the places you want to get your career too. I went to Manitoba for 9 years, and it was one of the happiest days of our lives when we realized we got to come back to Saskatchewan, you just cant get it out of your blood".

"I really believe in customer service and that starts with me, and that starts with me and council. We have to create a working relationship and be able to work with people, and we have to do that for our citizens. We all have the same end goal in mind and we want to provide the best possible service we can to our customers, and look after people in the community".

He says working with City Council will be key;

"We have to work together. They cant make a good decision if I cant get all of the information to them. 25 years of experience - its important stuff. I've gone through tons of different programs, different ways to do cast iron, different ways to engage the community. There's all these different options and things to consider. We're on the same team, we just have to find a way to work together."

The position became vacant following the resignation of Matt Noble in November, who carried on his duties through the middle of January. At the time he told our newsroom that there was a contractual issue that's in dispute with city council but couldn't go any further.