Marthasville should have a new city clerk in office within two weeks, according to city officials.

Aldermen Tuesday night voted unanimously to authorize Mayor Dave Verges to appoint a city clerk after spending the last month reviewing applications.

City officials declined to disclose the name of the front-runner. Board members interviewed the top three finalists a second time in a closed session meeting held prior to the start of Tuesday’s regular open session. A fourth candidate was scheduled to be interviewed, but dropped out of consideration after getting another job.

The new hire will be paid $12 an hour and work 32 hours a week, for an annual salary of $19,968. The person is expected to start almost immediately.

Overall, the city received 29 applications for the position.

“We had some very, very excellent people,” Alderman Jim Struckhoff said.

Once the applications were reviewed, the board narrowed the field to six individuals, then to four. 

The city hall restructuring has been in the works for some time and was advocated by Verges, who participated in the interviews but was absent Tuesday. He previously said he preferred city hall to be open to the public as close to 40 hours on weekdays as possible. Currently, city hall is open sporadically throughout the daytime hours on weekdays and then at night on other days.

Becky Adams, current city clerk, was not interested in the position since she already works a full-time position at Patients First. She will continue to work for the city to help train her replacement.

Under the current arrangement, Adams  works around 16 hours weekly. She is present at city hall for around three hours four nights a week and for a few hours on Saturday mornings. Kim Dames is employed as the city treasurer and works 12 hours a week.

However, it has yet to be determined whether a second part-time employee will still be needed, according to Struckhoff.

The city had employed a third part-time employee serving as collector, but that position was eliminated after the city contracted with the county for tax collection services.

In previous meetings, Verges said the daytime availability of employees made more sense compared to the current setup. If a second part-time employee is kept on, he envisioned both employees having a few hours that overlapped when both are in the office at the same time.

In the current 2010-2011 fiscal year, the salary for Adams is $10,000 and $9,000 for Dames.