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Council offers input on concept plans
Lino Lakes searches for interim administrator BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
A search is underway for the city’s next interim administrator. City Administrator Sarah Cotton has submitted her resignation. Her last day with the city of Lino Lakes will be Friday, Nov. 15. She has accepted the city administrator position in Andover. “One city’s loss is another city’s gain,” said Mayor Rob Rafferty. Cotton served as the city’s finance director for almost five years before being selected as the city administrator after former City Administrator Jeff Karlson retired in 2020. “It is extremely important that we try to address as much as we can in short order if there is any
BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
LINO LAKES — Now that the council has weighed in, two developers may choose to move forward with proposed developments.
SEE CONCEPT PLANS, PAGE 5
“It is really important that we get moving on this thing. We don’t have a lot of time.” Rob Rafferty Lino Lakes Mayor
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Council Member Dale Stoesz said he didn’t think the city has time to consider a large pool of candidates and suggested simplifying the interim administrator search as much as possible. He also asked about whether the city could consider a candidate who didn’t have city administrator experience. “Given some of the issues that are before the city right now, you for sure probably want someone with some city administrator experience,” Cotton said. “Certainly SEE ADMINISTRATOR, PAGE 9
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possibility of trying to get someone with experience in here to work side by side with Sarah,” Rafferty explained. Cotton responded, “Typically, when councils find themselves in this situation you want to move rather quickly to identify who that person might be and get them in that role so when I depart, they can take over.” She explained the council has two options — it can choose to appoint someone internally (i.e. a finance director, community development director), or it can seek external can-
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Wilkinson Waters Wilkinson Waters LLC is proposing a development located on North Oaks Farm Inc. property. The parcels are located south of County Road J/ Ash Street/ CSAH 32, west of Centerville Road/ CSAH 21 and north of Wilkinson Lake Boulevard. The development contains four parcels totaling approximately 76 gross acres and comprises a mix of residential housing types and commercial development. North Oaks Company LLC submitted a Planned Unit Development (PUD) concept plan for review in September 2015. The concept plan included two parcels totaling 46 gross acres and consisted of a residential mix of single-family homes, twin homes and senior housing rentals totaling 136 to 161 housing units. According to City Planner Katie Larsen, the proposed development did not meet density requirements and did not move forward. This time around, the proposed land uses
didates. She said because she was concerned about the city staff’s current workload and no one staff member had expressed interest in the temporary position, she recommended the council look outside of the city. Cotton said that typically, retirees can serve in that role or an administrator who is “in a transition” and not currently working for a city. One name that has come up that the City Council is interested in talking to is Dave Pecchia, the city’s former police chief of nearly 17 years (1993 to 2010). Cotton suggested she could reach out to the League of Minnesota Cities for a list of retired city administrators who are available for temporary positions.
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