Ken Sorensen Appointed to Wayzata City Council

Sorensen’s Background

Sorensen, who has most recently served as Vice Chair of the Wayzata Planning Commission, will now help shape the future of the city in his new role on the council.

Sorensen’s professional background includes nearly 40 years with M.A. Mortenson Company, a commercial construction firm with revenues exceeding $500 million.

During his tenure, Sorensen held the position of Senior Vice President and continues to act as a Consultant, playing key roles in managing large-scale construction projects and guiding the company’s strategic growth.

In addition to his practical experience, Sorensen holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University.

His education and industry expertise are expected to bring valuable insights to the City Council, particularly as Wayzata continues to navigate its development and infrastructure needs.

Sorenson has also thrown his hat in the ring seeking the seat in the November election.

Vacancy on Council Creates Need

On July 18, Council Member Cathy Iverson submitted her notice of intent to resign from the Wayzata City Council, effective August 6, due to her relocation outside the city limits.

With Iverson’s term set to expire at the end of this year, the City’s Charter mandates that the Council appoint a resident to fill the vacant seat.

During a workshop on July 23, the Council deliberated on how to proceed and decided to appoint a preferred candidate without conducting a broader solicitation and interview process, given the short time remaining in the term.

Appointment Process Diverged from Previous Selections

During the agenda item discussion, the Council and City staff acknowledged that appointing a candidate without soliciting applications differs from the process used in previous appointments.

For example, when Molly MacDonald was chosen to fill the vacancy left by newly elected Mayor Johanna Mouton, there were 10 applicants in that process.

City Manager Jeff Dahl recapped the previous workshop discussions from two weeks prior, “…the council discussed not necessarily who should be appointed but the process, and there were two options. One was the council should do a more thorough vetting process similar to what we have done in the past… …or should it just expedite the process if there are some good candidates there are appoximately four months left, do we need to kinda bypass and not be as thorough given the nature of the circumstances and move accordingly.”

Dahl indicated that the direction at the workshop was to consider the appointment at the first council meeting without soliciting applications, “So with that, based on the consensus from the workshop, staff would recommend that there is an appointment to fill that council term tonight.”

Unanimous Pick

Mayor Mouton indicated that the motivation to pick a candidate immediately was to be able to continue to process land use applications, “…for me what’s concerning and most important in terms of expediency in filling the spot are land use applications, we have applicants that have invested months if not years and thousands of dollars and have a tremendous amount of financial capital on the line, if a motion doesn’t pass because it’s a split vote, and there are only four of us, it doesn’t move forward.”

Council member Jeff Parkhill stated, “I think given that we are not going in a broad way… I think it’s important that we look at people that we know, that we have worked with, that we have experience with, thinking specifically that the two people that come to mind are people off the Planning Commission and I think that Ken Sorensen and Larissa Stockton would be really great additions to the Council.”

Council members Molly MacDonald and Alex Plechash agreed.

A motion was made by MacDonald and seconded by Parkhill, passed 4-0.

Sorensen will be sworn in on at the next council meeting on July 20th.