In 2016, Mark Linder retired from a 31-year career in public administration, serving cities throughout the South Bay region, including San Jose. Now he’s running the Town of Windsor as the new interim manager while the community recovers from the events of last year and important decisions that will affect its future approach.
The Windsor Town Council selected Linder from four potential candidates after former town manager Ken MacNab announced his resignation in September. The town announced Linder had been selected to succeed MacNab in November, and he was officially appointed to the interim position on Dec. 1., beginning a transitional period Dec. 13 that overlapped with MacNab’s last weeks. Linder officially took over at the start of the year.
Linder is originally from Ohio, but spent his youth traveling around the Midwest with his father, a pastor, who moved about every five years for work. Eventually, he landed in Minnesota where he completed high school and graduated with a liberal arts degree from Macalester College in Saint Paul in 1969.
After college, he worked as a community organizer in Lincoln, Nebraska, where he met his wife. The pair moved to California in 1977, where Linder continued working community organizing and consulting jobs, in addition to a stint as vice president of a mortgage company. In the 1980s, Linder ended up working as assistant general manager for a former client, Santa Cruz Metro Transit District, which provides bus services throughout Santa Cruz County.
“When I landed a career in the public sector, I finally found a home. It just took me until I was 40 to finally figure it out,” Linder said.
In 1989, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck, its epicenter near Santa Cruz, Linder found himself running the city’s bus system while the general manager was working in the emergency operations center.
Linder then transitioned to assistant city manager in the City of Los Gatos, a town of similar size to Windsor, where he handled labor negotiations and worked on projects that had been stalled following the earthquake, like building a downtown parking lot and extending trails.
In 2002, Linder’s career took him to the City of San Jose, where he worked in senior city management until 2006. The demands of serving San Jose’s one-million-person population (at the time) led Linder to leave for Cupertino, where he worked in the parks and recreation department.
“I needed a break, so I went over to Cupertino,” Linder said. “I love San Jose, but I was getting tired of 70 hours per week. I was happy to have something a little less crazy.”
After Cupertino, Linder moved into the role of city manager in the City of Campbell, where he worked until his retirement five years ago. Since he retired from Campbell, he had been doing consulting work, but said he was ready for a challenge.
That’s when the interim position opened up in Windsor.
When asked why he thinks he’s particularly qualified to manage Windsor while it looks for a permanent town manager, Linder said, “I think partly because I’ve been through challenging times throughout my career, and my sense was that Windsor was going through some challenging times related to the wildfire, related to the issues that the previous mayor had brought about — and the whole COVID thing.”
“I felt that because of my experiences in emergency situations, turnaround situations, poor morale situations — not that Windsor has that — that this could be a really good place for me,” he said.
Furthermore, Linder said Windsor was a better fit for him than other towns where he had applied for interim positions because he and the council had an easy rapport with one another during his interview.
“The interview with this council was just thoroughly enjoyable. It was like a conversation. And I could just tell that this council is really committed, very authentic and very genuine about caring for their community, and that this was a council that I would want to work for. None of the others hit that in the way that this council did,” Linder said.
Interim town manager positions are limited to a period of about six months. With the timing of Linder’s appointment, however, which will end right around the start of the next budget year in July, there’s a possibility he could do two six-month terms.
But he said he didn’t plan on working beyond June because he thinks Windsor will benefit from a permanent replacement sooner rather than later.
Over the next six months, Windsor is going to make some pivotal — and difficult — decisions, something Linder is looking forward to helping the town through.
“I look forward to the projects that are going to be important. You have key decisions related to the Civic Center project, the special election coming up in April and some redistricting decisions,” Linder said.
He’s also excited to continue the town’s collaboration with the Windsor Unified School District (WUSD), look at the finances as the town stares down a potential structural deficit, and working on developing the ethics code the town council began pursuing in response to public outcry over the Foppoli scandals.
“These are important times in the town,” Linder said. “Decisions that are made now will really have an impact on what kind of town Windsor will be.”
According to Councilmember Debora Fudge, recruitment for a permanent town manger will not begin until after the fifth council member selected in April’s special election is seated in May.
“We’re not starting recruitment immediately. We want the fifth council member to be able to weigh in on that,” Fudge said.
In the meantime, Fudge said she had every confidence in Linder to run the town.
“I think he’ll be a very good town manager,” she said.
Renting just outside Windsor in unincorporated Sonoma County, Linder has been getting to know the community by taking daily walks around the Town Green and downtown, where he frequents coffee shops and chats with locals. He and his wife have been enjoying checking out the local restaurant scene, exploring Shiloh Ranch Regional Park and reconnecting with friends who live in Kenwood.
