Fargo City Council Meeting Summary - December 8, 2025
Fargo City Council Meeting Summary - December 8, 2025
The Fargo City Commission convened to address planning approvals, significant annexation disputes involving data centers, and key infrastructure updates. Key discussions included the withdrawal of Fargo's annexation request for the Harwood ETJ to facilitate a potential expansion of the City of Harwood, raising concerns regarding fire safety and environmental resources. The council also reviewed a new total compensation strategy, construction updates, and proposed changes to resident comment policies.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the minutes of the November 24, 2025 regular meeting.
- Approved consent agenda items 1 through 35, with the exception of items 4 and 13 which were moved to the regular agenda.
- Approved the order of the agenda, moving items 4 and 13 to the regular agenda.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Olivia Fisher (Fargo Resident): Expressed support for allowing the continuation of public comments on international issues (specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), arguing that silencing residents on these topics contradicts city proclamations and does not disrupt meeting decorum. She requested that the council postpone voting on any new comment policies until the next meeting to allow for public digestion.
- Christopher Cohen (Fargo Resident): Expressed support for allowing same-day sign-ups for public comment slots (currently pre-registered only) and proposed changing the rule from prohibiting "profane" language to prohibiting "obscene" language to align with First Amendment protections regarding profanity. He argued against requiring IDs unless a resident is a repeat offender providing false names.
- Olivia Fisher (Fargo Resident): Expressed concern regarding the priority of holiday market infrastructure over homeless shelters, noting empty holiday huts outside the Civic Center while residents remain unsheltered. She advocated for temporary pallet shelters.
- Olivia Fisher (Fargo Resident): Expressed strong support for a city resolution condemning recent racist comments by the president regarding Somalian neighbors and urged Fargo to follow Moorhead's lead in issuing a statement to protect local Somalian residents.
- Christopher Cohen: Restated that public comment guidelines must be legally supportable, noting that prohibiting the naming of individuals or specific topics under current law may be unenforceable or violate the First Amendment.
Discussion Items
- 45th Street Park Editions 2 & 6 (Zoning & PUD): Commissioner Strand expressed interest in whether any city incentives would be requested for the new Center of Innovative Ventures and Entrepreneurs (CIVE) development. Staff indicated incentives have not been utilized since 2007. Commissioner Pepcorn expressed opposition to the reduction of existing incentives, arguing they are vital for retaining businesses and that losing them would cause property taxes to rise. Staff clarified that support exists for incentivizing mixed-use developments that align with the growth plan, provided they follow the new Land Development Code (LDC) and receive EDIC approval.
- Borg Edition Subdivision: No significant discussion occurred; staff noted the operation would likely continue as is.
- Annexation (West Half Section 3): Commissioner Kolpak moved to withdraw Fargo's annexation of 303.2 acres in the Harwood ETJ. Commissioner Pepcorn expressed strong opposition to entering a mutual aid agreement with the data center if annexation proceeds, stating opposition to allowing Fargo firefighters to enter an unknown building with hazardous chemicals without prior planning. Commissioner Strand clarified that withdrawing Fargo's annexation would allow Harwood to proceed with its own request.
- Annexation (East Half Section 3): Commissioner Kolpak moved to submit the 256-acre annexation (Fargo ETJ) to mediation due to objection by Ferrical Properties. Commissioner Strand voted opposed, citing uncertainty regarding the specific legal outcomes.
- Annexation (North of Section 3): Moved to continue the annexation of land north of Section 3 to December 22, 2025, to ensure all landowners have been served and no objections remain.
- Construction Update: Presented a recap of the 2025 season, noting 31 contracts valued at nearly $92 million, including the replacement of 19th-century infrastructure. Commissioner Turnberg noted the discovery of artifacts (glass bottles) during demolition projects.
- Total Compensation Philosophy: Introduced a new strategy to be "market competitive" (95-105% of market average). Commissioner Kolpak expressed support for the plan but requested that it include metrics for different pay buckets, employee feedback integration, and a long-term financial sustainability strategy. Commissioner Strand expressed support for the focus on retaining current employees and prioritizing their value in a constrained hiring environment.
- Resident Comment Policy: Commissioners discussed restricting comments to agenda items versus allowing general topics. Commissioner Turnberg expressed support for focusing on city-specific issues to maintain decorum. Commissioner Pipcorn expressed support for limiting comments to agenda items as the council is a business meeting. Commissioner Kolpak expressed support for the current policy allowing general comments and noted comfort with the status quo.
- Water Meter Resolution: Established a $50 penalty for failure to place a meter after notifications and a $30 monthly opt-out charge to cover the cost of continued manual meter reading. Commissioner Strand expressed support for transparency regarding the timeline of these measures.
Key Outcomes
- Vote Carried: Approved the withdrawal of the annexation resolution for the 303.2-acre West Half of Section 3 (Harwood ETJ), triggering Harwood's ability to annex the property.
- Vote Carried: Approved the motion to submit the 256-acre annexation of the East Half of Section 3 to mediation.
- Vote Carried: Approved the continuation of the annexation for the north parcel of Section 3 to December 22, 2025.
- Vote Carried: Approved the resolution establishing the water meter opt-out charge ($30/month) and the penalty for non-participation ($50).
- Vote Carried: Approved the Resolution establishing a bridge cost-sharing agreement with the City of Moorhead for the 12th Avenue Bridge engineering project.
- Vote Carried: Approved the City of Fargo Total Compensation Philosophy and Strategy.
- Vote Carried: Approved the application for a property tax exemption for building improvements.
- Vote Carried: Approved the 6th Edition of 45th Street Park and the 2nd Edition of 45th Street Park rezoning and subdivision.
- Action Item: Staff instructed to research and potentially draft a motion to restrict public comment to agenda items if commissioners desire a change from the current "above law" standard.
- Action Item: Mayor Kolpak requested a follow-up on the specific metrics and financial modeling for the compensation strategy in future updates.
Meeting Transcript
Call the meeting to order. I invite you to begin with Pledge of Allegiance. I invite you to join us. Roll call. Call Pack here. Capcorn. Here. Strand. Here. Turnberg? Here. Mahoney. Here. We have a short video showing the Fire Academy graduation ceremony in which we graduated Fargo Firefighters, West Fargo Firefighters, and Warhead Fargo Fighters. Initially I did kind of go the nine to five route, pursuing a degree graphic design marketing at the University of North Dakota. And through those two and a half, three years that I was there, I realized that that wasn't for me. I didn't want a desk job. I didn't really want the nine to five. So I moved back home. I worked at a fencing job for a bit, and um it was more of a job, it wasn't really a career, and I was still searching for that kind of career path in the midst of being in the rural department. I heard about the opportunity for Fargo, and that's really what this is what I want to do my career in. Again, I think that was one of the things that I found out as I came to the academy that I wasn't expecting is how close our fire department, our police department, and our paramedics work together. Using just kind of that general terminology, you know, we don't necessarily speak in code and acronyms, which was kind of another thing that you automatically think when you think of a paramilitary organization, is that there's gonna be a lot of that coded language. And we seem to do it very, very well to use general terms to communicate with each other. So the whole metro, I mean, it's really awesome because we all work really well together. I mean, we'll help Moorhead out. We'll help West Fargo out and then as well as Sanford. I mean, they're obviously covering all three of them. But then we had a PD ride along, and that was awesome to kind of get to know a couple of them and kind of see what they go through on their day-to-day life. And it's just it's been really nice kind of working and actually seeing all that and how they kind of uh do it or what they do it. First started Academy, it was very stressful. We went right into medical, and I have absolutely no background in anything medical, like put a band-aid on it, and you're good to go. That was quite a bit of learning, quite a bit of stress. Studying every night for that was it was a lot to learn, but it was a really good experience to learn about. And uh in those first couple weeks, the guys in your class, you really just started making friends with everybody, started kind of figuring everybody out, and it was that was one of the best parts of the Mr. Kolpak, they look pretty young, but great team, huh? Yeah, it was a great group. Good. Is there a motion to approve the order of the agenda moving items four and thirteen from the consent agenda to the regular agenda? I saw move. Sir Second. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the November 24th, 2025 regular meeting? So moved. Sir Second. Second. All those in favor say aye.
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