Wells gets 20 administrator applicants — so far
Just two weeks after Ronda Allis completed her last day as city administrator in Wells, Mayor Dave Jacobson has something to get excited about.
The City of Wells has received 20 applications, so far, for replacing Allis in the top post.
“I think it’s a fabulous number of applicants,” Jacobson said. “We (the council) are really excited about it.”
The mayor said that the list includes some “very interesting applicants.”
“At least nine or 10 of them have degrees in management, and five of them have masters degrees in city related management,” Jacobson added.
The Wells council is currently reviewing and evaluating all of the applicants. Jacobson said that should be completed this week.
After that, they will appoint an interview committee that could include both council members and citizens. The interviews are not yet scheduled. That would depend on the schedules of the applicants and the council.
“I think we will probably interview five of them,” Jacobson said. He hoped they could start before the June 9 regular council meeting.
Jacobson added that they have no plans on hiring an interim city administrator. He said that the department heads are all stepping up, and he expects that the council will have some additional duties as well.
“We had one or two companies contact us that have people who do that (interim administration), but I think we won’t need them,” he said. “We are way ahead of schedule and cautiously optimistic we will find someone soon.”
Jacobson said that the city does not have any big building projects at this time, so they are doing alright without an administrator for a couple of months. Any big projects will have to wait, he added.
If there is a silver lining in having Allis leave at this time of year, it is that colleges are graduating students right now, and there are a lot of job seekers, Jacobson said.
Allis left her post in Wells on May 15. She took a position in Mankato with Region Nine Development Commission as the Interim Community Development Director and Transpor-tation Coordinator.
“I wish her well in her new position,” Mayor Jacobson said. “She did a good job for us. She was very knowledgeable and had an excellent resume when she came here.”
Now they have 20 more resumes to read through and evaluate. There also could be more, as the position is advertised as “open until filled,” so more could be on the way.
“That would be great,” Jacobson said.