A former Winnebago Council member will be stepping up as the new City Administrator.

The city hired Chris Ziegler at a starting salary of $52,000. He will officially begin on Monday, Dec. 3.

Ziegler had announced at the July 10 council meeting that he would not be seeking re-election to the council at the beginning of next year.

However, when former Winnebago City Administrator Austin Bleess resigned from the position in October, Ziegler announced he was going to leave the council even sooner than anticipated.

It was his desire to apply for the City Administrator position so he resigned as a council member in order for his application to be considered.

The council selected Ziegler to be interviewed as one of the top six candidates out of 11 applicants. From there he was chosen as one of the three finalists and was interviewed on Nov. 1.

He was offered the position after the second round of interviews were conducted at the special meeting.

It was announced on that day they would extend the offer to Ziegler.

He signed his contract for employment between himself and the city on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

Wendell Sande, of South Central Service Cooperative and current interim administrator for the city of Winnebago, has been handling the duties in the office for the time being.

“It’s fairly simple, he entered in an offer and acceptance basis,” Sande says.

Ziegler lives in Winnebago and is the director of business management for Human Services of Faribault and Martin counties.

He has experience working in the city office and with much of the computer software the city of Winnebago uses for budgets and payroll.

As stated in his interview, Ziegler is confident and ready to be working with the current city employees.