Blue Earth’s city administrator may be a finalist in her own right for the North Mankato post, but she’s also lending a helping hand in filling a similar position in Wells.

Kathy Bailey could find out by the end of today whether she has been selected to replace Wendell Sande, who retired in May after 16 years in the city’s top appointed position.

“Getting hired isn’t my main focus right now. I have plenty of work that’s keeping me busy,” she says.

Bailey was among three finalists interviewed that included Afton interim City Administrator Ron Moorse and former Melrose City Administrator Brian Beeman.

In all, 24 applied for the North Mankato position that has a salary range of $74,868 to $111,300.

The Blue Earth City Council hired Bailey in July of 2008 over three other candidates at a salary of just under $65,000.

Council members just completed a job performance review for Bailey and gave her a “satisfactory” rating.

Although happy with her job in Blue Earth, Bailey says the North Mankato position came up unexpectedly and was too good to pass up.

“The area is very familiar to me. I lived there and have family members who lived there. It’s definitely an opportunity for me,” she says.

Wells officials have wasted little time in trying to find a replacement for Jeremy Germann, who resigned effective July 27.

On Tuesday, Bailey was in Wells helping sort through 26 applications for the city administrator’s position.

“We have some good candidates with some positives they could bring to the community,” she says.

Interim city administrator Brian Heck says he, Bailey, Council member Ann Marie Schuster and Bill Bassett of the League of Minnesota Cities spent two hours looking over the applicants’ qualifications. He says the list has narrowed down to six and the City Council will be given an update at its meeting Tuesday night.

“It was the feeling of the hiring committee we might have to trim two more candidates. We’ll see what direction the council wants to go to do that,” says Heck.

Once finalists have been chosen, their names will be made public and the full council will be conducting the interviews.

In deciding who to hire, council members will have to determine how much they want to pay the new city administrator.

Germann was hired in October of 2008 at an annual salary of $43,500. He was in the final year of a three-year contract and was being paid $71,000.