FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The search for the city’s first new electric superintendent in 35 years has been narrowed to two candidates, Fairhope Human Resources Director Bryan Seibt said Monday.

Current superintendent Aaron Norris announced last year that he would retire in 2008 but expected to remain on the job during the transition period.

He started as superintendent in 1973, after working seven years with the electric utility in Troy, Ala.

The starting salary for the job is between $95,000 to $110,000, Seibt said.

“One of the applicants met with the mayor last week,” he said. “We gave him a tour of the city’s warehouse operations.”

Seibt said that Scott Sligh of Albertville, Ala., also met with a committee of city departmental managers while in town Friday.

The other candidate is Joel Mahnken of Garden City, Kan., who will interview for the job Feb. 11, he said.

The two finalists for the position were selected from 19 applicants who submitted resumes and city applications by the Dec. 14 deadline.

The position to plan, direct, manage and oversee the daily operations and activities of the city’s electric utility was announced Nov. 1 and advertised in newspapers and trade publications throughout the Southeast, Mayor Tim Kant said in December.

The job description lists the following as “acceptable education, experience and training:”

• A bachelor of science in electrical or civil engineering, or a field directly related to the management of a municipal utility;

• A master’s degree in public or business administration is desired;

• Ten years experience in engineering, operations and/or business management for an electrical utility, five years of which must have been in a senior management capacity.

Both Sligh and Mahnken are professional engineers with state licenses, Sligh in Alabama, and Mahnken in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

Sligh has been employed since November 2006 with a private engineering firm and prior to that worked for two and half years as electric superintendent of Decatur Utilities. For the eight years preceding, he was a senior engineer with Alabama Power Co.

Sligh received his bachelor of mechanical engineering in 1995 from Auburn University.

Mahnken has worked since 1997 as director of public utilities for Garden City, Kan. From 1992 to 1997 he was public utilities director of Ponca City, Okla., and superintendent of utilities of Fulton, Mo., from 1990 to 1992. He was director of public works in Fulton from 1989 to 1992 and city engineer of Wellington, Kan., from 1986 to 1989.

He received his bachelor of science in civil engineering in 1983 from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Kant said current efforts to fill the position are similar to those used when the city’s new planning director was hired.

“We had about six people come in for that job,” Kant said. “Gregg (Mims) was one of the last in, I think. They all look good on paper, but they’ve got to be able to work as part of a team.”

The resume and applications of Sligh and Mahnken were obtained Monday in response to a public records request filed Jan. 3 with the city clerk’s office.

The other applications were received Jan. 17 but those two were withheld and replaced with a one-page memorandum stating that the candidate “has made a specific request that his or her resume and any and all other documents pertaining to their application for the open position of electric superintendent remain confidential, so as not to put their position with their current employer in jeopardy.”

Both applications obtained Monday were signed by the candidates and included the following provision: “I understand that once I submit this application, the application becomes the property of the city of Fairhope and then my application may be considered a public record subject to disclosure to the public.”

Kant said if the current candidates do not meet the city’s needs, he will review the other applications or advertise the position again if necessary.

“I want to make sure that the electric superintendent carries on the same high level of service to the city’s electric consumers and is there for them when they need it.”