North Battleford has found its new top executive.
It was announced Monday night that Jim Puffalt has been named city manager and will take over officially Jan. 27.
Puffalt has over 30 years of experience in municipal management. He was Estevan's city manager for 12 years, departing in October in a shakeup of administration ranks there.
He agreed to take the North Battleford job in December and spent the holiday period finalizing details of his contract with the City. That was finalized in early January, making the hire official.
In speaking to the Regional Optimist, Puffalt indicated he looks forward to coming to North Battleford and cites his own personal connection to the area. At one point he lived in Wilkie, where he was town administrator for four years.
"I used to play ball back in the day and we played in North Battleford," said Puffalt. "It was kind of the community we all went to for shopping."
He said he put his name in for the position in November.
"I knew Jim Toye had done a good job there," said Puffalt, adding "it looked like a great opportunity to come up north and get a little bit closer to my wife's mom and dad."
Puffalt met his wife while working as town administrator in Elrose, where he worked from 1982 to 1988. He also worked in Dauphin, Man. as city administrator prior to his move to Estevan.
He noted the challenges in Estevan during his time in that community due to the massive economic growth the region experienced due to the Bakken oil boom.
"Growth, certainly, since '05 was right through the roof," said Puffalt. "We did a lot of good things."
Puffalt says he "can't hardly wait" to arrive in North Battleford and intends to be at the Jan. 27 council meeting. He expects his family will follow in the summer.
In speaking to reporters Monday following council, Mayor Ian Hamilton welcomed Puffalt's hire.
"We've been in some discussion over the phone since his hire," said Hamilton. "He's been undertaking a lot of investigative work right now, we sent him a lot of reports, we've sent him the OCP (official community plan), we've sent him the budget, policies procedures - quite a raft of information he is working on right now."
Hamilton called Puffalt "quite an accomplished individual" and said "we're looking forward to having his experience here in North Battleford and I think he'll bring a lot to the table."
That leaves only a new finance director to be hired, a position vacant since Matthew Hartney's departure to Huntsville, Ont. in September.
That search has been ongoing since the early fall, but Hamilton said it was decided in December during the tail end of Toye's tenure as city manager it would be "only fair that the new city manager, once he is in place, be the one to make the final call on the finance director."
It's anticipated recruiting for the finance director position will likely start up again in February.
"It's very critical we get that position filled," Hamilton said.
