MOOSE JAW — City hall has hired a new chief of staff, whose first project will focus on enhancing customer service and support while equipping in-house leaders with tools to respond to residents’ inquiries.
Rhonda Smysniuk began working for the City of Moose Jaw on June 1 in a new role that . Council allocated $124,552 toward hiring a chief of staff to support the mayor and city manager’s office; this money is not the full salary but includes costs for things like furniture and benefits.
During a recent interview, city manager Maryse Carmichael said she was “really excited” about hiring Smysniuk and watching her take on projects and lead them to successful conclusions. Smysniuk’s portfolio will be strictly project-driven, as she will focus on areas that Carmichael gives her.
The chief of staff’s initial focus will be on addressing customer service, customer support, supporting residents, supporting the community and ensuring city employees and leaders are well-equipped to respond to customers, Carmichael continued.
Smysniuk, who came over from SaskPower, has a strong background in government relations, stakeholder engagement, communications and is a certified project manager, the city manager noted. Smysniuk also worked with the Ministry of Highways and helped SaskPower with its nuclear power projects.
“I think her (biggest) strength is she can tackle any project, and I’ve seen this already,” Carmichael said.
The “beautiful thing” with Smysniuk is that she will be able to understand the engineering branch’s operational activities because of her project manager background, while she will be able to support the community services department’s parks and recreation branch because of past experiences, the city manager continued.
All those strengths will enable the new chief of staff to take “a global view of what is happening” at city hall and within the city with customer service, while administration can then focus on how best to enhance this area, Carmichael added.
Carmichael didn’t think that Smysniuk would take any extra duties off her plate, but instead, would likely pursue activities that the city manager has wanted to do during the past two years but hasn’t been able to.
“… I came here wanting to make the place better than what it was when I arrived,” the city manager remarked. “I think there’s a lot of opportunities (to do that).”
Carmichael compared the City of Moose Jaw to “a great big bus” barrelling down the highway at 100 kilometres per hour, where employees provide everyday services to residents — such as keeping water flowing through taps and toilets, maintaining the pools and mowing the grass in parks — while the vehicle is moving.
The city manager added that city hall is preparing to launch its online e-permitting system and begin work on some major capital projects, so the organization needs people who can take those projects from start to finish and lead those completing the work — and Smysniuk is the person to do that.
