The Fargo City Commission met on September 29, 2025, beginning with an executive session at 4:00 PM to discuss negotiating strategy and legal advice regarding annexation with the City of Harwood and Applied Digital Corporation. The regular meeting convened at 5:00 PM. The commission approved a consent agenda, conducted multiple public hearings, discussed the 64th Avenue Interchange, received an update on the Resource and Recovery Center (formerly the Downtown Engagement Center) relocation, debated the full-time mayor position, approved transit route changes, and adopted the 2026 final budget.
The pleasure of allegiance. Are you ready? I pledge. Through the play. United States of America. And to the Republic, which is there. One individual. Thank you. Roll call. Cole Pack here. Pepcorn? Here. Strand? Here. Turnberg here. Mahoney. Here. We're going to start with uh highlights of the police department's wellness program. That we have video that was shot in regards to that. It's a new program that we started that's working very well. Number one priority is taking care of our personnel, obviously, the most important asset. It's important for our profession as a whole, but specifically for our department. And it's a huge recruitment and retention tool. Officers deal with and see so many things throughout their career throughout their days that a lot of people don't really understand. It's kind of an interesting thing. I've sat around a campfire before with different people that aren't cops, and the question is always is what's the craziest thing you've ever seen? What is the craziest thing you've ever dealt with? And I always ask the question what's your definition of crazy? What's your definition of the craziest thing that you've ever seen? To me, that's completely different than what somebody who hasn't gone through that or gone through different things. So it's an interesting conversation to have with people as to what the craziest thing I've seen or gone through. Officer wellness is incredibly important. So they're able to go out and do their job and do it well. And also outside of their employment, it's important for them to have the healthy and happy life outside of work as well. A lot of times officers will experience what is called acute stress, and that typically happens anywhere from three to thirty days after a critical event. And so it's really important that we're able to take opportunities to meet with them and help them work through those incidents in order for them to process through it and move on to the next critical event. There continues to be a stigma when we talk about mental well-being. However, I feel like we're getting away from that stigma. But it is critical that people recognize the amount of tragic and critical incidents our law enforcement officers are exposed to in a monthly basis, is more than what the average person is exposed to in a lifetime. Officer wellness is a value in our department, and uh it's a huge component across the board. And we don't offer it just for our swarm personnel, but our civilian personnel as well. Um everyone's received resiliency training. The services are available to everyone in terms of our wellness coordinator and the mental health support. I think it's a really big thing. Uh it's a big thing in the law enforcement police profession, and our department is excelling in that area. We want to keep the ball rolling in that direction, and we see the positive results that it that it brings back. We've heard from our personnel about how certain trainings and how things we have done helped them get through certain traumatic events, and I think that's that's huge. Very good. Is there a motion to approve the order of agenda? So moved.