After a special Magnolia City Council meeting Jan. 4 to interview applicants for the open city administrator position, City Council members and Mayor Todd Kana chose Don Doering as the new Magnolia city administrator Jan. 7, Kana said in an email. This decision comes less than five months after former City Administrator Paul Mendes died in late August.

Doering currently serves as the city manager for the city of Edna, Texas, where he has maintained this position since March 2015, Kana said in the email. He previously served as the city administrator for the Texas cities of Schulenburg and Teague as well.

Doering also has previous experience in managing homeowners associations, Kana said.

"[He's a] really nice guy and [is] really excited to be coming here," Kana said in the email.

Kana said Doering's start date is to be determined, but he said Doering hopes to be working in the city of Magnolia before the end of the month.

"We started with over 20 applicants ... we had a scoring process with the applications as well as for the interviews and he was at or near the top for myself and council members," Kana said in the email. "We think he will be great for Magnolia."