Still time to consider candidates for La Crosse County administrator, says Kruse

The door is still open, but not for long.  La Crosse County may still screen some new candidates before picking a successor to Steve O’Malley as county administrator. 

County board chair Monica Kruse tells WIZM’s La Crosse Talk PM that she hopes to have the selection made before year’s end.

“At some point, we have to say, this is it, we’re ready to do the interviews,” Kruse said.

The chair says applications for administrator could still be accepted for another couple of weeks. A field of 48 applicants has been narrowed down to a smaller group.

“About 20 percent of them meet criteria for what we’re looking for in an administrator,” she says, “and now comes that really hard part of vetting them, and weeding them out” to a manageable number.

Kruse added they would like to have a new administrator by the end of the year. Steve O’Malley, La Crosse County’s first administrator, retired in August after 18 years on the job. Jane Klekamp is the interim administrator.