Whatever Happened To….

By Robert Thomas

It was a “retirement” that that was short-lived.

And it’s a question of whatever happened to former city manager Jim Puffalt who officially retired from the city of Moose Jaw in late April.

It now appears after a very short lived retirement Mister Puffalt is now the new Director of Transit for the City of Saskatoon.

According to his LinkedIn profile he started his new job with the City of Saskatoon sometime this month.

A SCREENSHOT OF JIM PUFFALT’S LINKEDIN SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT

In his new position Puffalt will - according to his profile - lead all aspects of Saskatoon Transit and work alongside the over 400 employees employed by Saskatoon Transit to provide a safe, reliable and efficient public transportation system.

During his tenure as city manager with the City of Moose Jaw there were many attempts to revitalize the transit system.

Attempts which included route analysis and changes, trying Dial A Bus service to save Saturday service, new buses and finally the total abandonment of Saturday service due to the lack of ridership.

FORMER CITY MANAGER JIM PUFFALT - CITY OF MOOSE JAW HANDOUT

Puffalt’s transition to city manager was one of hit the road running due to his predecessor’s, Matt Noble’s, sudden departure and legal claims of constructive dismissal that ended up with a court case against the City being filed. None of Noble’s allegations were ever tested in court and the case has yet to be dismissed.

On his first day in the job Puffalt had to deal with problems surrounding the lengthy closure of High Street West that was occurring during cast iron water main replacement.

The lengthy closure had massive financial impacts on High Street businesses as traffic could not readily access their shops or avoided High Street completely.

Although Puffalt’s official reason for his departure as Moose Jaw’s city manager was “retirement” MJ Independent learnt it really was because his five year contract was up and Council decided not to extend it and gave notice with one year remaining. The agreed to notice.

During his first four years with the City of Moose Jaw Puffalt’s had a solid annual performance review. He had received a 4.6 out of 5 score in each of his first four years before Council decided not to extend his contract.

Puffalt was replaced by Maryse Carmichael who became city manager in May of this year.