The Sherburne County Board voted unanimously Tuesday to eliminate the position of deputy administrator. That position is currently held by Luci Botzek, who is now in her seventh year with the county. The vote came after a discussion at a workshop about reorganization in the administrator’s department In December, the board approved a plan to eliminate the vacant position of budget director, revise an administrative assistant position to a lower grade and add the new position of accounting specialist as part of the process to make the department more efficient with fewer staff. At the same meeting, the board also approved a Phased Retirement Option (PRO) agreement with Administrator Brian Bensen at Bensen’s request. Under the PRO agreement, Bensen, who has been with the county for 35 years, would have continued as fulltime administrator until Aug. 1, 2013. At that point he would change to half-time (20 hours), but still hold the position as county administrator. Since that December meeting, discussions have taken place about the restructuring process and there were concerns about not having a fulltime administrator. Tuesday, Bensen said after discussions in his department, he and the commissioners decided to rescind the PRO agreement (which had not been filed) and remain on as fulltime administrator. He said one of the reasons the board cited was to avoid confusion about authority and responsibilities within the department. “She (Botzek) would probably take on more responsibility if I was here less. And I think that was part of the concern, that it would happen without a conscious decision,” said Bensen. “You might get something agreed on and discussed. Then do you wait until I come back for approval or is it okay for Lucy’s approval? We looked at the confusion it might bring.” He said the board also wanted to make sure they had a process for selecting a successor, and that would be difficult if there were two people already “sharing” administrator responsibilities. “Having a definite process to hire someone was important to the commissioners,” said Bensen. “I’ll let them know when I’m going to retire with enough lead time for them to go through a lengthy hiring process.” Botzek, whose position will officially be eliminated Feb. 1, is back with Capitol Connections, a government relations firm she was part of before she was hired by the county in 2006. Tuesday, the board voted to draw up an agreement to have Botzek continue as the county’s NorthStar Commuter Rail lobbyist. “That was one of the reasons I was hired originally - to work on NorthStar and to do legislation. I’ve been working on NorthStar about 50% plus of my time since I’ve been here,” she said. “I’ll be working on the effort to change the payment of NorthStar operations from property tax to sales tax, so the county is treated the same as other counties.” head shot of Luci Botzek and also a picture of Brian Bensen