This year's City of Moose Jaw operating budget includes a new position in administration — chief officer to the city manager.
When city manager Maryse Carmichael asked for a chief of staff to assist her management duties, first thoughts were this was like a military management setup.
In the RCAF, where Carmichael was trained, all commanding officers have a chief warrant officer (CW0) assisting.
15 Wing has three CWOs — the 15 Wing commander, the No. 2 Flying Training School and the Snowbirds Squadron.
The duties of a CWO vary. Basically, they are an advisor and the eyes and ears of the commanding officer so that the person knows what's going on.
The commander and the CWO almost seem to be joined at the hip, spending a lot of time together.
The city chief of staff will likely assume a similar job.
The idea of a chief of staff is controversial drawing criticism online and on the streets from taxpayers thinking it a waste of money.
Well, maybe not.
The city manager said she needed the position to work on open files that were started and never completed due to changing priorities.
That may also have been an issue with past city managers. In over 40 years of covering or working closely with others reporting on city hall, Yours Truly knows of at least two, maybe three city managers, who left behind a stack of unfinished files when they left.
Another issue: angry taxpayers feeling ignored when they never got responses to letters.
Things just didn't get done. Files get stored and ignored as new issues arise.
Business experience shows that management works best when it can focus on one or possibly two major issues.
Everything else takes a lower priority and awaits attention.
The City of Moose Jaw is no longer a peanut and popcorn operation.
Total annual budgets run over $110 million with operating budget over $52 million and the capital budget over $62 million.
Within those budgets the city manages water, solid waste and sewage utilities, a bus system and an array of projects as well as delivering parks and recreation, police, firefighting and economic development services.
The operation has around 400 employees.
On a day-to-day basis, there must be a lot of so-called fires to put out plus regular duties and planning ahead.
It would be difficult to find a complicated $100 million business operation without a chief assistant helping the CEO.
Time will tell but the new position should develop more responsive and efficient city hall operations.
Ron Walter can be reached at [email protected]
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
