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.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Is there a motion to approve consent agenda items one through 35 excluding items four and thirteen, which have been moved to the regular agenda.

So moved.

Sir Second.

Second.

Well, call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Pepcorn.

Hi.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Wow.

I got all public meetings in.

Oh, we can start at 505.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Public hearing number 38, uh 36.

It's uh 45th Street Park 2nd edition and 45th Street Park 6th edition.

Uh approval recommended by Paddington Commission 9425 zoning change from limited industrial with commercial overlay.

Uh uh plan unit development master land use.

First reading of the rezoning ordinance, first reading of the rezoning ordinance, one is for 45th Street Park 2nd edition, one is for the 6th edition.

And a plat of the 45th Street Park 6th edition.

Donald Cresson, I'm sure will make sense of this.

Thank you, Don.

I'll do my best, sir.

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioner's Donald Cress of the Department of Planning and Development.

As the mayor has read the uh lengthy uh introduction there.

Uh so this property is located here on 45th Street South, just south of Main Avenue.

You've probably been by this many times, this rather large building uh by the Roars uh development.

Uh so there are several items here.

There's a minor subdivision, there's a zone change and a planned unit development.

Uh we've got an extra graphic here.

So just this can clarify some things, Mayor.

The area bordered in black here is where the area to which the uh PUD zoning and the master plan apply.

The area bordered in blue is the subdivision.

So this property here, this long property is actually Cass County Drain number 40.

This is owned by the uh Southeast Cast Water Resources District.

Um it's underground here, it's open here and open on the other end, but it's it's underground here.

They've been parking on it for many years.

Uh so that's they're part of the the zoning, but they're not part of the plat.

And then here are just some uh views of it.

Uh we have an added attraction that the uh case planner put in.

We have summer and winter versions of the same pictures here.

So again, you've probably been by this many times.

There, this is the rear of it.

Looking at the back there on the uh east side, that would be looking down the again the east side there, looking north.

And just and then that's uh on the south edge of the property looking down Cass County Drain 40 there.

So that location of Cass County Drain 40 will come up a little later in our presentation.

Uh the zoning here on the subject property is uh general commercial and limited industrial with a conditional overlay.

The new zoning will be uh uh general commercial with a planned unit development overlay.

The uh subdivision plat includes uh pieces of uh several 45th Street Park editions, the third, the fourth, and the fifth edition, and then approval of this plat also includes the approval of a subdivision waiver for drain drain setback since we're right up against the drain here, Cass County Drain.

We looked at in the photograph a moment ago.

Normally when you subdivide when you plat, you would have a hundred and seventy-five foot setback from the center line of the drain.

Here the drain is underground.

It doesn't need that setback.

It's two large pipes as you've seen there, and working with our city engineer and Southeast Cass Water Resources District.

We determined that that entire setback 175 feet is not required.

There is sufficient room on the Cass County drain property to uh access the drain for future maintenance.

So that's not depicted on the plat, but the approval of the plat includes that waiver.

Um this is provided by the applicant here, an overview of the cove as they're calling it here, uh Center of Innovative Ventures and Entrepreneurs, and the applicants representative might speak to that uh in a later in our presentation.

Here is the uh master land use plan.

We'll note that north is on the right here, the north is on the right.

So this is 45th Street out here.

Um they're planning to take the fronts off the existing building.

Uh you saw some of the work even started on that already, and then build an additional building out here, and then this would be uh three all three uses because the commercial uses are allowed by the underlying general commercial zone, and then the PUD would allow both residential and industrial uses.

So it's a very uh genuinely mixed use development here.

And then uh there's potential for two future buildings here, these aren't here yet.

And then this area back here is uh got a couple potential uses.

It may just be a commercial space, but if this is uh gets a daycare operator to operate in here as part of to serving the residents here, there would be uh a green space out here.

This parking lot would be converted into a green space.

That's what this graphic shows here.

Uh so there's quite a variety of activities that could be taken taking place here, as you saw in the applicant's uh description here.

There's working and living and uh commercial space there.

Uh these are just provided by the applicant.

We'll just scroll through these.

Again, the applicants representative might wish to talk about these, but these are renderings of what it would look like on the site there in the future.

A little outside green space corporate there.

This would be between the two the two buildings, the the new one they're gonna build on the west side.

Just looking like that.

Uh the summary of the planned unit development overlay here again includes all three types of uses.

There's a minimum density, uh, parking has been uh adjusted in the uh planned unit development, and then there's some setback and landscaping adjustments and dimensional standards.

Going on a little bit more here.

Uh, we usually include building standards such as uh building materials, site design features, screening features that uh reinforce the uh the planned development.

These are things that can often appear in our conditional overlays uh to uh for the design of the site quality and the building quality.

Uh just a quick summary of the parking uh modifications there.

That's described in your staff report.

This is all described in uh Megan's staff report there.

And the uh applicants representatives, Nate Volmouth of Goldmark Design and Development, and Shannon Norris Jones of Roars are with us this evening and may wish to address the commission.

Staff appreciates the cooperation of the Southeast Cass Water Resources District in reviewing these entitlements.

Planning commission's recommendation is stated in the staff report and shown on the screen.

That concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Commissioners.

So anyone president wishes to speak to the zoning change and whole ordinance changes.

Thank you, City Commission.

Uh Nate Volmouth with Goldmark Design and Development.

Uh we've worked uh a long time with staff on this, and I think Donald did a great job explaining the project.

Uh Shannon and I are here for any questions that you might have.

Any commissioners have any questions?

Mr.

Stran.

Thank you.

Um really an interesting looking project.

I'm just wondering, are there any is there any expectation of of requesting of the city any incentives?

And I'm also wondering were any incentives involved involved with the initial development over there on 45th.

Do you know the initial final um commissioners?

I don't believe there were any incentives at the initial development.

The initial development was started in actually, I think it was completed in about 1996.

And I don't believe that we utilized any incentives until uh the a project the first time we utilized incentives in my recollection was in 2007.

Uh we would anticipate putting in an application for incentives under the new policy put forward by the city that would uh allow a pilot uh to be to be used for uh commercial redevelopment like this.

And obviously, what we're looking at doing here is increasing the value of this site significantly.

Uh currently on the 13 and a three-quarters acre site.

I would say probably close to doubling it with the new construction and the reconstruction.

But um obviously if you wanted to do something less than doubling it, we would be fine with that as well.

Thank you.

Mr.

Piprone.

So, Mr.

Chair, and the we're redoing the LDC, and so I do think, and maybe Nicole, if you want to, if you don't mind making a comment about that, but this would be a project where we would have it evaluated by the group before we would do anything anyway.

And so I but it would have to uh follow what the new LDC code uh and I don't know if Nicole, you can you speak more fluently about all those things uh than I do, but uh I do think it's uh it's something we'll look at.

But can I just add while Nicole's coming up?

The incentives are under attack.

Uh and so if we're not careful, we're gonna lose all of our incentives.

The school district, the Cass County Commission, uh and so if we're not careful, we'll all the businesses will just say skip it and go someplace else.

And that's what's happening now.

And what most people don't realize is if you lose your incentives, then businesses start come stop coming here.

And then do you know what happens in about 20 years?

Your property taxes go up for residential.

And so they'll look back and go, gee, I guess those were actually a pretty good deal.

And so we have to be very careful because literally that's what's happening.

And then obviously, we were just I was talking with Jim Gilmore ahead of this.

Uh this is the political season, and this is easy, easy target uh to say, hey, we need to quit giving money away.

But just and all I am sorry for rambling on, but let's say it's a 10-year incentive.

After the 10 years are done, it goes on forever.

And so it's it's uh the mayor and I have been on the EDIC, and our return on our investment, we could uh we could retire if people were investing with us because uh it's it's thousands of percents that the that our our taxes have gone up because of these incentives.

Nicole, I'm sorry you should have walked a lot slower because I talked a lot longer.

Sorry about that.

I maybe shouldn't have sat in the front row as well.

But um no, so just uh to quick summarize uh uh the land development code is as you know as part of the growth plan looking at incentives as our full financial package.

Uh a lot more coming this uh early spring on um feedback and public engagement opportunities.

Um then Jim can speak a little bit more to what's in front of EDIC and the future uh city commission as part of the commercial policy updates.

But we were really excited about this project as it works with the future or the I keep saying future growth plan, the current growth plan that we just adopted.

And um it identifies this area as a uh neighborhood center, and so this idea of live work and play at this higher density location is exactly what the type of thing we would want to incent.

And so um you'll see a lot more uh in the coming months of how incentives with the growth plan land uses could couple together to kind of encourage these higher intense uses as something for your consideration and for the public's consideration moving forward.

So hopefully that was clear on um on what we're seeing there.

But uh to answer your question, Commissioner, and I think Jim could speak to it more.

Um Edic has been looking at um incentive policies changes.

Nicole hasn't the problem then too is sometimes we have too much office space, so this is a unique way of doing this.

I think of the weather today.

You could come to work and eat there and do everything there.

You don't have to leave till you go home versus another place where you have to go out, get something to eat or whatever.

This is gonna be all encompassed, and I think your idea, Shannon, is that maybe a med tech or some kind of company comes into that area and could have synergy from different companies working together.

Is that correct?

Uh Mr.

Mayor, you're exactly correct.

Um what we're looking at doing here, and I think is an important probably uh experiment for the region is we have a lot of vacant office space, commercial office space in Fargo in the region, really probably across the country since the way that people work post-COVID has changed.

And so we are working on reinventing the office space that currently exists to make it enticing for people to uh come into the building and and work in a in a on-site setting versus a remote setting.

Most of what we're seeing is a lot of uh workforce has switched to a remote setting.

Companies are saying we don't need to rent tens of thousands of square feet like we did one at one time.

And so we're looking at creating uh both uh a more engaging environment, as you're suggesting, that has uh some retail opportunities, it has restaurants, it has different service providers.

Um, excuse me.

Uh I forget who mentioned it, it may have been Mr.

Cress.

We are working yet to get a daycare provider in there.

Uh we had hoped to have one lined up, and that kind of has uh fallen apart, but we are still working in that direction, but really creating an environment that meets a number of needs of either the residential tenants who are living in the apartments or the commercial tenants who are working in the building.

Um and obviously they can be both.

Uh I we believe that if this goes well, that it's uh a model that could be replicated in other vacant commercial spaces across the city and the state.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions?

Is there anybody else?

Anyone else present who wish to speak to the zoning change?

If not, I'll close public hearing.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion?

We'll call vote, please.

Pepcorn?

Pulpak.

Hi.

Strand?

Yes.

Turnberg?

Hi.

Mahoney?

Aye.

Item 37, applied to the Borg edition, approval recommended by the planning commission.

Donald Crest to explain as well.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Uh the Borg edition is a major subdivision located here on 7th Avenue North and 25th Street on the southwest corner there.

Again, you've probably been by this one many times.

Uh close-up uh photo here.

There's a City of Fargo Public Works property adjacent here.

Probably familiar with that as well.

Um here's a couple of photos of the site from different perspectives there, right on the corner of 7th and 25th.

And uh some locator maps there to show where those are, looking along the uh the uh frontages there.

The zoning here is LI Limited Industrial, the zoning will remain as that.

Subdivision plat here, it's a major subdivision because it dedicates this existing uh uh street and utility easement on the corner here.

The plat also adds negative access easements as you've been by there.

That's pretty open driveway on most of that property.

This will restrict the access to a few points as uh shown here on the plat.

And also the plat adds a uh 10-foot wide street or the wide sidewalk and utility easement on the property frontages.

The applicant's representative, Tony Ucal of MBN Engineering, is with us this evening and may wish to address the commission.

Planning commission's recommendation is stated in the staff report and shown on the screen.

This concludes staff's presentation.

Thank you, Commissioners.

What are they planning on putting there?

Um I I don't know, sir.

I I they I believe their operation is going to continue, perhaps Mr.

Yukal will have some more information on that.

Okay.

Does anyone present who wish to speak to this zoning change?

Anyone present wishes to speak?

If not, I'll close the public hearing to have a motion.

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any further discussion?

Well, call vote.

Pepcorn?

Cole Pack?

Aye.

Strand?

Yes.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Mahoney?

I'm not sure.

Thank you.

Commissioners.

Item 38, annexation of 303 uh acres, more or less located at the west half of section three Township 140 North, range 49 west of the fifth uh principal meridian, Cass County, North Dakota continued from the 1110 meeting and 1124 regular meetings.

Jim Gilmore and Ian McLean to explain.

This is the land that is in the Harwood ETJ that we had the executive session on the site.

Evening there.

Okay.

Jim, do you need any comments tonight?

Um just several weeks ago the recommendation was to go to mediation, but after executive session, I think you have some other thoughts.

I don't have anything else.

Do I have a motion?

Mr.

Chair.

Mr.

Kolpak.

I move to withdraw the annexation resolution of 303.2 acres, more or less located in the west half of section three, Township 140 North, range 49 west of the fifth principal meridian, Cass County, North Dakota.

Sir, second Second.

Second Any discussion?

Commissioner Strand.

Explain the motion again, please.

To withdraw the annexation.

Correct.

Excuse me, Mr.

Chair.

Yes.

Commissioner Strand, yes.

It's to withdraw the annexation resolution of the West Half Section 3.

And will that trigger another action subsequent to this?

So Mr.

Chair.

No, it will not.

Harwood is already has a petition with apply with applied digital to annex this land.

So essentially, as soon as our withdrawn is official with the vote tonight, they will be able to uh annex the uh West Half.

Mr.

Pepcorn.

So just to clarify this for everybody, I think it'd be good.

This is the Harwood ET.

The next item is the Fargo ET.

So I just think it would be good to explain that.

And if you don't mind me adding one more thing, the thing that uh that we need to insist on is we do not want our firefighters going to fight a fire in this data center.

And if you don't mind me adding one more thing, the thing that uh that we need to insist on is we do not want our firefighters going to fight a fire in this data center because they have not gone through a planning process like we do, where we have the fire department review what's in that building, what are the access points?

Uh and so uh that's we're gonna we're gonna make sure Ian writes something clearer on this because this is a big deal.

We are not gonna jeopardize our firefighters going in and fighting a fire in an unknown building with very dangerous chemicals.

And the other the reason this is a big deal is because right now we have a mutual aid agreement with Harwood, and so I I'm totally support that, but I will not support having a mutual aid agreement with this data center.

That that's it's a very big deal, and so uh I I I think we need to insist on that, and I think that's gonna jeopardize their their whole thing because uh what they're relying on as us, and and the Fargo firefighters are the ones that fight we we the hazmat team is Fargo, and so that's what they're trained in.

And so there if they think they're gonna call for us to go into a building where we don't know what's in it and and jeopardize our firefighters?

Hell no.

So good luck with that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mr.

Strand, do you understand the motion now?

I I'm still trying to sort this out.

If we withdraw our request for annexation, what what will what would we expect Harwood's next move would be?

Yeah, Harwood has already initiated an annexation of the same property.

Theirs can not go forward because ours has to be come to some conclusion first.

As ours comes to a conclusion, they could complete their annexation uh relatively soon.

Thank you.

Mr.

Strand, we looked at a variety of different solutions to this problem, but it was Ian's recommendation that if you withdraw your annexation movement, then basically a Harwood would proceed with annexing this area.

And we don't have to have any legal agreement with the Harwood uh council, we just have to assist, and then Harwood could go on and annex this area.

Any comment or questions?

Oh, thank you.

Any other discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Do you want to close the public hearing?

Pardon?

Want to close the public hearing?

Oh, sorry, I'm sorry.

Glenn Knutson from Fargo.

I'd like to speak to both annexations, and I realize this next one.

But there's some things that uh, how do you handle if Harwood annexes this, and they say, go ahead, build these, and they say we've got the right to do that.

Has there been an environmental study, and maybe there has been about the impact of water?

Um I'm aware of other places in the country that have had this type of construction done, and it's had a dramatic negative impact on the groundwater and the water supply.

Fargo has a limited water supply for the size of the city.

Oh, we're relying on the garrison diversion to eventually get built.

But I'm 73 years old, and they were talking about that when I was in high school.

And it's gotten as far as Cheyenne, North Dakota, but that's gonna take a while to get here.

And we could have a water issue because these is gonna demand a lot of water.

What's how is Harwood or how is Fargo going to handle treating this chemical in the water without investing a whole bunch more into our water treatment systems?

And like I said, how about groundwater?

Next thing is energy.

Computers take a lot of energy.

And I came to the last meeting and I heard digital talk about well, there's lots of energy in North Dakota.

That's right.

There is I own the mineral rights to some land in eastern North Dakota.

When I was a senior in high school, they came out and drilled, and they told us in Nelson County, you've got natural gas.

But guess what?

There's no way to get that natural gas to Fargo.

There's no way to get the natural gas right now from western North Dakota that's being burned off to Fargo without a whole bunch of infrastructure.

Who's gonna pay for that?

Then you've got the whole situation of uh the electric rates for the citizens of Fargo.

What's going to happen to my electric rates?

And how are they going to be impacted by this?

It looks great to have a commercial enterprise come in, an industrial enterprise come in, that could possibly be a huge tax base.

But I wanted you to think too about the future of Fargo and planning for the future growth of Fargo.

Right now, the only place that Fargo can grow is to go south.

And north.

We can't go west because we've been cut off by West Fargo and Horace.

I mean the har yeah, Horace.

And south, you've got this long narrow strip.

That increases your police and fire coverage.

Going north.

What I see happening is you're gonna the this would be divided.

Harwood had had half, half Fargo would have half.

Commissioner Pipcorn said, who's going to take care of the fire?

Who's going to take care of the police?

I don't think Fargo, I don't think Horace is, or Harwood rather, has got a huge police force to maintain patrolling this type of a data center, which is going to require security.

And as was mentioned, the fire.

Right now, my taxes keep going up.

We had to take sales tax to pay the fire department.

And we're going to have to hire more firemen to cover this.

And you're not going to, and then what are we going to do for incentives for these people to come in here?

I don't know.

I haven't heard what that program is.

And yes, you give the incentives, eventually you get the taxes back.

But in the meantime, where's the infrastructure coming?

Where's the water coming from?

Where's the impact studies that have looked at all of this been done?

And I think that it's very easy to jump way ahead because somebody comes in here and says, we want it today.

You've had other people.

I've sat at board meeting or your board meetings where they've come in and demanded that we get incentives to build.

And then what happens is a year later, the guy sells his business and he walks away with a whole bunch of money.

The business is currently laying off people because uh their sales are going down, so this idea that we're gonna hire a whole bunch more people for my business never worked out.

Have any of those things been considered?

It's real easy to look at things and not take the whole thing into account.

And my main concern right now is water, energy, and as Mr.

Pepcorn said, fire and police services.

Thank you very much.

Is there anybody else wish to speak to this issue?

If not, I'll close public hearing.

Just some facts I want to get out there, just as you brought up some of the questions.

A lot of data centers do use a lot of water.

This particular data center is going to recycle, so it's a little bit different, so that's not the water usage that we've seen in the past.

When they have all five buildings done, they are going to consume 20% of the electricity in the state of North Dakota.

So it is a concern how much electricity is going to be consumed and how that's going to happen.

You mentioned the Red River Valley Water Supply Project, and we're actually 40% in the belt of that.

Probably have three more bienniums and should have that completed.

So that is moving forward, not as fast as I'd like to see it, but it's still moving forward.

We have almost 400 to 500 million into it right now.

And that project is going forward.

And then finally, the real questions you're asking if they're with RET, all those questions with public hearings, with le hearings and stuff would be questioned and answered.

Our inspection department, as Commissioner Peckhorn talked about, would be in there, fire department would be in there.

And that was our concern when they built a hundred billion dollar building.

And as you know, they're going to put $3 billion worth of equipment in these buildings.

So yeah, we're very concerned about that.

And today's comment about the risk to our firefighters.

We normally our fire department inspects goes in, makes recommendations, says here's what you should do.

By the way, you need this at this location, you need that at that location.

And that's part of our frustration and why they started.

The annexation was to bring people to the table so we could mediate many of these things.

And we found that the company we're working with just was not do that.

So Mr.

Strand.

Thank you.

And bear with me just so I and so the public gets what we're doing or what this decision means.

If this passes, Commissioner Kolpack's motion passes, it says that that west section, we're the Fargo's walking away from it.

Fargo is no longer looking to annex it.

Fargo's letting Harwood move forward with its request to annex that.

There's no more quibbling about that.

That's what this motion would do.

Thank you for making the public understand that as well, Commissioner Strand.

Any other discussion?

Commissioner Pepcourt.

Can I add a couple more things?

So they talked about this is not going to have an impact on electrical rates.

That means nothing to me.

So once again, we have to have Ian write something up saying if if in if our electrical rates go up, that that data center is going to be responsible for those increases.

That's the first thing.

And the next thing is is Sean Aradnik here?

Maybe isn't here.

So in the inspections department, our next thing is going to be monitoring sound.

Because the mayor and I and Jim went to that site and it was loud.

And so we want to make sure what are our policies, how loud are is acceptable, what are the fines if it is loud?

And so we need to start having all those all those things in order.

But uh we can the other thing a lot of people don't realize is the city of Fargo treats uh Harwood's wastewater.

And so right now we have an agreement with them uh that there's a certain amount of houses that uh and a certain amount that we're agreeing to.

And so uh that's that's a big deal.

And then in the future, right now Harwood is on a well system.

Down the road, wells will not be allowed, and so they'll eventually have to get into our water system too.

And so uh there's lots of there's lots of tools in our toolbox.

But I I I I know and I do know John has hesitated a little bit because of this, but this is our growth area.

We need to protect our rights for the citizens of Fargo 50 years from now.

This is not as much about the data center as this corridor that we need to protect.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just to make one correction, Commissioner Pepcorn, they're on Casworld water.

They're on they don't have their own wells.

West Fargo had its own wells, but uh Harwood has Casor water.

So, Mr.

Chair, who supplies Casparrow water with water?

I know that, but I want you to who supplies it?

City of Fargo.

You know what we need to do?

Raise the hell out of those rates.

Any other discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Colpac?

Aye.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Epcorn?

I strand?

Yes.

Mahoney?

Aye.

Now we're gonna go to the east half of what we're talking about.

The item 39 annexation at 256 acres, more or less in the east uh half of section three, Township 140 north, range 49 west, and fifth principal meridian, Cass County, North Dakota, less those parcels line within said east half legally described in those instruments recorded, the office of the recorder, Cass County, North Dakota.

This was continued from 1110 and 1125 and uh 1124 25.

Uh Mr.

Kolpak, you have a motion that we've been suggested.

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

I move to submit the matter of the annexation of 256.87 acres, more or less located in the east half of section three, township 140 north, range 49, west of the fifth principal meridian, Cass County, North Dakota, less those parcels lying said within said east half legally described in those instruments recorded at the Office of the Recorder, Cass County, North Dakota, to a committee for mediation as provided for in North Dakota Century Code, Chapter 40-51.2.

And Ian, could you be so kind as to explain why the east half is in our exit territory, what the difference of the two sections is, please?

Yeah, so section three, there's a west half and an east half.

The west half is in the Harwood uh ETJ, the east half is in the Fargo ETJ.

The property owner, which is Ferrical Properties, has objected to Fargo's annexation of the property.

So therefore, 100 percent of the owners of the property have objected.

Therefore, Fargo has the choice of either withdrawing its annexation or moving forward to a mediation with the landowner to try to try to resolve the annexation dispute.

Jim, would you explain where our infrastructure goes on that west half where our infrastructure sits?

I mean, the South Paul Diamonds are immediately to the south.

I know we have some listations there.

Um I think they may be a forest main, but on the uh eastern edge of the property, we have uh like water and sewer that has, or at least to me, a sewer that is extended all the way up along that section.

As you noted, this isn't the uh Casseral Waters service area, and so they are responsible for riding water in these these areas.

As you noted, this isn't the uh Cash Row Waters service area, and so they're responsible for providing water in these these areas, but yeah, they're right adjacent to the city, and so they could easily hook up.

I have a motion to have a second.

We'll second it.

Further discussion.

Roll call vote, please.

Oh, public hearing again.

Uh is everybody in the public wishes to speak.

Anybody in the public wishes to speak?

If not, I'll close the public hearing.

Now do I have a roll call vote, please?

Call pack?

Aye.

Hepcorn?

Hi.

Strand?

No.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Item 40.

Uh annexation of.

Oh, you want to continue this one?

This could be a continuum to 1222 25.

Do I have a motion?

So move.

Second.

Second.

Any discussion?

Ian, do you want to explain this one?

Yeah.

So this land is north of the section three that we were just discussing.

Um, we had served, I think, one of the landowners.

We want to serve the rest of the landowners to make sure that nobody objects before we move forward with annexation.

That's why we're continuing to this future date.

So you can talk to the landowner.

Yeah, we want to make sure that none of them have an objection.

Okay, so we'll settle that on the 22nd.

Hopefully, yes.

Okay.

Moved and seconded.

Uh roll call vote, please.

Call pack.

Hi.

Pepcorn?

Hi.

Strand.

Oh.

Turnberg.

Hi.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Construction update.

Town knockless.

Good evening.

Here to provide uh construction update, probably a little more of a recap, quick recap of the season this year.

So there have not been any uh injuries or accidents on any city of Fargo projects since the last uh construction update.

Uh always like to remind people that Fargo Streets is a great spot to find information about any of our projects.

Uh we do keep this up to date the best we can about current statuses, um, looking forward to future projects as we know them.

And then we also do have an archive page there of past projects where uh the public can find more information about past projects.

So this is our CAP map uh from this year.

Every color uh on the on the map here is a project that we worked on, um, a varying scope and scale.

And so we worked all the way from 52nd Avenue north this year down to 76th Avenue South, which is a distance of about 12 miles, uh, and east to west on the very west edge uh on Grayland Drive South.

Uh did a seal coat there and all the way over to uh Grandwood Drive North, which is on the far northeast uh corner of the map here, uh which is a distance of six miles east to west.

I just want to real quick highlight some of the projects, uh some of the new development projects uh up north.

Uh one of them was interstate business district.

Um we do um hire Vern Winton to take some of these photos uh on an annual basis.

Uh helps us with some of the the record keeping on some of these projects.

But uh this was a new uh commercial and uh limited industrial development uh in North Fargo.

Um next project is Dakota Commerce Center North, uh uh North Second Edition.

Uh so this is immediately north of the Amazon facility.

Um scale is difficult to comprehend here.

This block length east to west here that we're looking at is is a half a mile.

And so this is a large development, and you can see uh the construction starting on one of those sites.

Uh also want to just highlight some of our uh core neighborhood reconstruction projects.

This is in that Longfellow Woodcrest neighborhood that I've highlighted in in recent uh capital improvement plan presentations.

Um can kind of see a couple of the projects that we've worked on here over the last couple years, and we do have plans to continue into this neighborhood uh in coming years as well.

On the south side of town, um 45th Street uh was one of the large projects that we undertook in in South Fargo this year.

Uh this was a concrete pavement rehab project.

Um the whole goal of this is is uh as I've talked about uh pavement deterioration curves in the past and pavement preservation.

We want to invest the money now because by doing it now, we save money in the long run.

And so these these projects are are impactful to the public, but really important to extending the life of our infrastructure.

Another project just want to highlight uh Selkirk place third edition.

Uh, this was a new residential development um in South Fargo this year.

You can see Selkirk um second uh edition, uh just north of 67th, which is the the east to west roadway that goes over the drain there.

Uh that was just completed last year, and it's essentially all filled in at this point, uh, where you can see the basements um and some newer structures south of 67th Avenue.

Uh that project was just completed and within a couple weeks looked looked like that.

So there's a lot of demand for uh the single family residential, like this.

I also just want to provide just a brief uh summary of some of our um of what we did this construction season.

First of all, uh it's always nice to be able to report that all the work that was required to be completed this year was finished as planned.

And so we don't have anything carrying over that wasn't meant to.

Uh and so that's always uh a sign of a successful season.

Uh ultimately we had 31 different uh construction contracts awarded, valued at just short of 92 million dollars.

Uh and as part of this, these projects, uh, there's a number of things we did, just highlighting a few here.

So uh over a mile of sanitary sewer mains replaced, over 200 sewer services replaced, nearly three miles of water main, 75,000 square yards of pavement, um 758,000 square yards of asphalt pavement seal coated, nine miles of curb and gutter replaced, and 58,000 tons of asphalt paved.

Also want to um nerd out here a little bit and highlight some of the oldest infrastructure we replaced this year.

This was on NP Avenue from Broadway to 8th Street.

Uh the sanitary sewer that we replaced on part of this project was uh installed in 1893, and that original project included uh about 1,300 feet of sanitary sewer and services.

Excuse me.

Three catch basins at the time, this would have been a combined sewer system uh with a storm sewer, two manholes, a flush tank, and a lamp hole.

I had no idea what a lamp hole was, so I had to do some Googling, but it's a vertical pipe placed between manholes that allows a lamp to be lowered into the pipe and allows inspection to take place in that in that main.

Um water mains that we replaced as part of this project were originally installed in 1912.

Those were actually a replacement to what they called the old six-inch water main.

Uh, they were upgraded to eight inch water mains.

Uh also the contractor was required to deliver a sprinkling cart frame.

Uh, likely would have been used for dust control on the dirt streets before they were paved in the section in 1930.

And then I thought it was also interesting that the original paving project was financed by special assessments, obviously a tool we still use for um replacement of infrastructure and new infrastructure.

Here's uh here's what we have.

I I share this because we uh engineering department stores these records, and we do find these records to be very valuable.

So uh this is uh uh what the um plan sheet looked like for the sanitary sewer uh in the 1800s.

You can see in the bottom right corner, those are the items that were installed as part of the project.

Uh here's an image of what we had for records for the water main replacement, and you can see the reference to the old mains uh that they tied into uh on Broadway, but also that they replaced on NP Avenue.

And this was the cover from the paving plan sheet that includes the location and comprising, very similar to what we do today uh for improvement districts uh utilizing special assessments.

Now, our plans today look very different.

This is uh a plan uh from the underground utilities.

Uh blue is water, green is sanitary sewer, pink is storm sewer.

You can see a plan view, so an overhead view up top, and then a profile view down below.

That's how we uh ensure that everything's gonna fit in the roadway and we have no conflicts.

Likewise, this is what you see today in our plan sets for paving.

Uh, this one is showing the jointing layouts, all those types of things are planned out before uh we even get to construction.

So, one last thing the cost of that original sanitary sewer, all that work that was done in 1893 was done for 1,690.

Uh, as this year, as part of our project, just the cost to remove the two manholes that were were placed in 1893.

Today's dollars that cost us 1,353.

The total work we did for just the sanitary sewer portion of this project in 25 was 226,000.

So you can see costs have drastically drastically changed.

With that, happy to take any questions.

Uh, really, just one last thing.

Um, there's a lot of hours that go in to this work uh by the staff in engineering.

None of it would be possible without them.

They they spend a lot of time ensuring that what our residents are paying for, we're getting um and it's it's hopefully infrastructure that lasts a really long time because of their oversight.

So just want to highlight that as well.

I want to say, Tom, thank you to your staff.

They did a wonderful job, and the product now looks beautiful.

It really looks gorgeous, but it's really fun to watch the history, which many of the staff also has historic background and understand some things that we run into.

But uh I'm glad to hear that uh you gave us some cost comparisons.

I sometimes would like to go back to 1893, but whatever.

Same.

Any uh comments or questions?

Tom, did you find any cool artifacts?

Turnberg on every project, especially in the downtown.

Uh, there are a lot of glass bottles and trinkets that that get discovered.

So we do have many many of our staff members that are part of those projects, they they hold on to those things and kind of display them as trophies in their office spaces.

Thank you, Tom.

Good job.

Thank you.

Recommendation to approve the city of Hargo Total Compensation Philosophy and Strategy.

All right, good evening.

So over the last few years, we have been working towards adopting a compensation philosophy.

Um historically, we've really taken the approach of being market competitive or matching the market, and we just hadn't formally adopted a uh philosophy to date.

So we are hoping to do that tonight.

Um, just to refresh on what a total compensation philosophy is.

Again, it's really just a formal statement that helps to guide decision making related to all things employee comp and benefits.

I want to start with a little background on the development of the draft comp philosophy that's in your packet.

We developed an internal survey that city admin and all of our department heads participated in.

The survey asked a series of questions uh related to compensation benefits and and what our relevant market area is.

And I provided some examples of compensation philosophies from other cities throughout the country just to get an idea of how they approached their overall philosophy.

Um there I provided uh a draft of our total comp philosophy and strategy, and that's been revised based on feedback that's been received throughout the process again from all of our department leaders.

And so we arrived at the draft that you have in your packet this evening.

Uh and then, of course, we we uh reviewed the draft with the FAR committee as well.

So the total comp philosophy is shown on the screen.

I want to highlight just a few key points.

Uh at this city, we want to be an employer of choice and ensure that our comp and benefits system is equitable and comprehensive.

As you all know, we use first an internal job evaluation process to develop internal equity, and then we use market surveys and data to ensure that our pay is competitive within the relevant target labor market for each position.

And then finally, we have to ensure, of course, that our our comp philosophy aligns with the city's financial position.

So just to briefly expand a little bit on what we mean by market competitive or matching market.

So in the green box, you can see we consider that at market.

So we would consider a city of Fargo position to be at market when the pay is within 95 to 105% of the applicable average market target.

So again, ideally, this is the target in a market competitive plan.

You can see in the orange box, this is still considered to be within target.

Um so if a city position is within target, we're within 90% to 110%.

Um still within market, but not as ideal as being in that green box at market.

And then outside of market, you can see on both ends the red box.

Of course, if we're less than 90% of the market average, we're considered to be lagging.

If we're more than 110%, we are considering to be leading the market.

So again, our goal would be that green box, the 95 to 105, so that we are market competitive or matching market.

As you know, our regional surveys collect base pay and variable pay, um, as well as benefits and time off, so that we can ensure that we are competitive in the area benefits as well.

So uh in developing the the philosophy and strategy, one of the first steps that we looked at earlier this year at a cabinet retreat was to look at where our applicants are primarily coming from.

As you can see on the chart, approximately 71% of our applicants come from North Dakota.

20% are coming to us from Minnesota, and approximately 9% from other areas throughout the country occasionally will receive an international applicant as well.

So this information is helpful again to really determine how we want to define our region for purposes of studying the market data.

Once we established our philosophy to be market competitive or to match the market, we needed to determine what the appropriate market is within our region and which cities within our region are really the most comparable.

So we again asked our cabinet group to rank 38 cities from 12 states throughout the Midwest in order of comparability to the city of Fargo, considering factors like population, operational size and scope, as well as geographic location.

And ultimately, we landed on 20 cities in seven states, including North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado.

You can see those top 20 cities listed on the screen.

So again, ultimately, these would be the cities that we would invite to participate in any of the surveys that we put out.

And if we are studying a position, just an isolated position, these are the cities we would reach out to to collect that data as well.

So for our regional comp and benefits survey, we initially had a three-year rotation planned.

However, in 2025, we really our focus was on public safety compensation.

So we weren't able to get to those other groupings of departments.

So in early 26, we intend to survey as many benchmark positions from all three of these groups that we're able to accomplish within within early surveys in early 26.

We also intend to do some comparisons as we typically do with private sector and just the local market as well for certain positions where we're hiring more on a local basis.

So in early 2026, we plan to continue the work that started a few years ago in reviewing our overall pay structure.

The new market data that's collected in 26 through our regional survey and other sources will help to inform any proposed structure changes that we might bring before you.

Any questions or pushers?

Mr.

Kopak?

Yeah, I have a couple of comments and some recommendations.

So thank you for the for sharing the information.

I I really encourage this to be an evolving living document that we truly utilize for our philosophy of compensation number one.

Also really appreciate landing on the 20 cities as benchmark cities and the work that was done to include the cabinet members on landing on those 20 comparable cities.

One thing that I think is going to be really important now, given the employee survey results and the fact that pay and benefits was the number one issue identified as part of those 433 comments is that we include those input sessions we're having with different employee groups, that feedback is part of pay and benefits into this philosophy and strategy moving forward, as well as include the three employee groups that we have, City of Fargo employees and the two public safety groups, as part of that conversation and input, I think will be really really important, especially given the annual review and inclusion of public safety sales tax discussion on those that was which was part of the agreement of that passage of that sales tax.

So that would be my first request.

Secondly, when I look at the document, some of these statements, and I know at this point it's just a guide, but like competitive base pay with variable and supplemental pay, such as longevity on call, call-in, shift differential.

Um I would like to see metrics added on what are the goals to each of these different buckets that we've identified here that right now really don't have what is the threshold or what are we trying to achieve definitively here.

Maybe it's part of a dashboard that's created on how we're making this a living document and how we continue to evolve compensation and pay, given that again it supports our number one asset, our employees.

And then along with that, and I know I've asked for this before too, the associated personnel strategy for long-term sustainable financial support, um, and how if we make these decisions and changes, that modeling that needs to happen, so we know that we're fiduciarily able to continue to support any changes coming in the future.

Um and then I I guess the last thing that I'll add is um I would like to I'll I'll be bringing this back like I will, the input session and action plans for the employee survey for regular updates, and I'll ask for that within intervals that are um you know respect respect respectable, um, but also to ensure that we are including that employee feedback that will be part of that action planning that is the result of the employee survey results.

So just some of the things I'll be looking for, but um appreciate this start and um look forward to ongoing updates.

I hope you are taking notes.

It's a lot, but she'll give it to you afterwards as well, Joe.

Any other comments or questions by the commission?

Do I have a motion?

I'll move for approval.

Is there a second?

Second.

Further discussion.

Commissioner Straunt.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Jill, and to your your department.

Um as we're as we're looking at this going forward, it's occurring to me that things have changed also.

You know, um in the old days, not the old days, um but in the past, I would have made a primary focus of of hires and diversity of applicants and diversity of hires and things of that nature.

Well, we're not really hiring many people now.

I mean, we we were not creating new FTEs to speak of.

We're we're really pulling in our belts.

So as I see this approach now, and I applaud you for it, it's to support and uphold the people who are our our workforce now, and to prioritize their valuing, their value of them going forward, and so that everybody knows that's how I think I hear this.

Because that's where we're at.

Is that a good synopsis?

Yes, we we absolutely have to focus on retention of our of our current employees.

Um, of course, some turnover is inevitable as people reach retirement and and are choosing to retire.

Uh, and so we also have to have our pay structure be competitive so that when we need to hire, we have a pay structure that that supports hiring really strong talent and bringing them to the city.

And mayor, the last comment I'll make is uh a lot of cities are challenged with this whole topic of retention of current employees and one city I heard recently at the National League of Cities has kind of taken aback that there was a there's a uh a mindset starting to surface out there that because of the budgetary constraints and the limits on ability to keep growing unfettered, that they're they're making decisions to not necessarily lead the market with their employee force.

We're not doing that locally.

We're still prioritizing our workforce.

Uh, and we're not saying, oh, second is okay.

But there are that's starting to happen out there where people are making cautious decisions.

We can't anymore be the leader in the local market.

And well, I'm glad we're not there for the sake of our workers and for the sake of the results that we're expecting of them.

Yeah, as Deputy Mayor Colpak had indicated, we really hope to learn a lot through our employee discussion groups more specifically on pay and benefits and of course all of the other topics too.

Um more specifically what people are looking for.

Um, and and you know, if if there are more options out there that we need to provide, or entirely different options that our employees are looking for.

Uh so we have a lot of good information now following the survey, but those discussion groups are really going to help us drill down and understand how to retain what are our current employees looking for, and then how do we position ourselves when we do need to hire to be attractive to applicants?

Mr.

Golpeck.

I just have one follow-up because it you reminded me um Jill that that and not all of the benefits in addition to compensation cost money.

If you're talking about work-life balance with employee feedback, what could that look like?

Um we haven't looked at leave accruals and how we do that for some time.

There are different things we can look at with employee input, and we can change and maybe you know do a paradigm shift in how we've been thinking about it with that input that's so invaluable.

So being creative on some of those other ancillary benefits, I think is going to be really important as well.

Agreed.

Only other comment I'd make is when you looked at employee comments.

Sometimes you did get some suggestions that might work for retention.

You know, it's just some suggestions different employees make, and I'm sure Joe, you've read them all.

But uh just uh we should look and take those seriously if there's a different way of of doing it to help incentivize our employees.

I think that'd be helpful.

Yeah, absolutely.

Any other discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Call pack.

Hi.

Turnberg?

Hi.

Epcorn?

Hi.

Strand?

Yes.

Mahoney.

Aye.

33.

Discussion regarding resident comment policy.

This was requested to be brought forth and discussed.

And uh Mike Redinger is going to leave the suggestion.

Yes, sir.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Thank you for the time this evening.

Uh at your last meeting on November 24th, the commission discussed the resident comment policy, just asked for some time at this agenda to talk about that.

What I did was just collect some of your background information and materials to support your discussion.

There's no staff presentation tonight.

This is really the city commission's discussion.

But I did want to just highlight what I included in the packet.

Uh, the first were just two previous agenda items and the minutes that were related to those from earlier here in 2025 in September, as well as just about a year ago in November of 20 and 24, uh, when uh resident comment was discussed and various options and alternatives.

Also included the minutes from those meetings so you can see what the discussion entailed at that time.

I've also included just for your background the current guidelines uh for resident comments, as well as an excerpt from your governance policies that's policy number five as it pertains to the process for resident comments, and then also included the minutes from uh 2018 uh where the broadcast policy was established for this room, the commission chambers.

So, again, no staff presentation this evening, just simply looking for uh your directives, uh your discussion points.

We'll take that into consideration.

We'll come back with any kind of modifications or changes you would like to see.

Uh if not, then we will continue with the uh status quo, uh, which is televising the resident comments at the end of the meetings, uh allowing for the virtual and allowing for individual comments on the items.

Again, uh fully consistent with the law changes in the 2025 legislative session uh with the Senate Bill 2180.

So on again, no staff presentation, happy to answer any questions, but if not, we'll turn this back to you, Commission, for your discussion.

We do have two speakers on this, so we'll hear the speakers and open for commission discussion.

Olivia Fisher is virtual.

Olivia.

Are you there?

Okay, now we can hear you.

Go ahead.

Okay, thank you.

Um, hey Olivia Fargo resident.

Um, I just wanted to speak tonight to say that if there are any proposed motions that you guys discuss, um, we would ask that you guys wait till the next meeting to actually vote on it so that you can give yourselves and the public time to digest the discussion had here tonight.

Um, that would also give the community members who aren't able to attend or watch this meeting uh the chance to send input your way before you make any big policy changes that affect them.

And then I just wanted to touch on two things that were brought up at the last meeting, possibly uh removing the ability to comment on international issues.

Um suggestion that international issues don't affect us here in Fargo, North Dakota is a wild misconception.

According to Not My TaxDollars.org, over $9 million of Fargo tax theer money funded Israeli weaponry in 2024.

Weaponry that has been used to slaughter thousands of Palestinians, some of which being relatives of residents here in Fargo Moorhead.

I don't know about you, but I would prefer my tax dollars go towards housing and food for my neighbors, not bomb.

If any of you can't bear to hear your constituents take two and a half minutes to talk about that every once in a while, that says a lot about who you are deep down, lest we forget the Fargo Moorhead proclamation from 2024 that reads our cities condemn all forms of violence and bigotry towards the Palestinians.

Why are residents being silenced from supporting the purpeted values of the city by condemning genocide during public comment?

Might I add that the brutal tactics used by the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians are being taught to and used by American police forces.

It is not a coincidence that we are seeing increasingly violent arrests happening across the country.

Violence that is funded by and accepted by American politicians internationally will always come back around to harm the American people as well.

God forbid Farbra residents use the right to free speech to urge you to care about these atrocities.

This commission has rarely had to sit through more than three comments during the non-agenda comment periods at meetings this year, so it's pretty obvious that these attempts to silence residents about these potential issues are not about disruption of the meeting.

To me, this seems to be personal opinions about what some commissioners don't want to listen to.

May I remind you that you are public servants?

You work for us if residents can sit through the entirety of these meetings with you every other Monday.

I promise you can handle listening to residents speak for a maximum of 30 minutes about issues that may be hard for you to hear about.

Olivia, I'd remind you a little bit to be careful about motivation that you think the commissioners are.

I think you should keep your talks to what you want to talk about in your topic.

But sometimes you bring in the fact what a commissioner might be feeling or thinking, and that's not part of our public comment.

So I would just advise you just in the future as you can comment to what you would like us to do.

But I think you have to be a little bit careful about where you think the motivation of a commissioner is.

Yes, I'm Christopher Cohn, Fargo resident, and this is primarily for um the public and Fargo residents because I've already given the city my comments on this.

But uh I think um the guide regarding the guidelines for resident comments in Fargo, I think it should be allowable for uh people to sign up at the meeting, and that is if there are still slots available.

So there's up to 12 slots available.

And um because that's the way people often arrive here uh ready to talk and they can't, and uh not everybody knows about the pre-registration requirement.

And I don't think um it would hurt anybody to do this now.

Um, there's been discussion of one incident, one person that I know of who was thought to have given a false name.

Um if we want to address that, then I think that um what you could do is um require a uh piece of ID in the event of a second a repeat offender.

So, you know, we wouldn't have we don't have to burden everybody with showing their IDs, but if someone comes back, we already know that they have previously been here and gave a false name, then that would you can then require the ID.

Uh I propose the following changes to the actual language, and that is uh vulgar or profane language will not be tolerated.

I would say substitute that with obscene.

Obscene language will not be tolerated because profanity is a legally is legally perfected uh protective speech, and it's frequent and common par parlance these days, and it's not necessarily attacking and defamatory.

Uh we all sometimes say it when we're not even aware of it.

And um disorder and um but disorderly conduct law does prohibit obscene language, so that's where that's where I get the word obscene.

So uh defined as quote, in a public space place abuse uses abusive or obscene language.

Thank you.

Now it opens up for uh commission discussion, uh close public hearing.

Uh we have uh any comment you haven't signed up.

We only had two people signed up.

There wasn't any anything on the what else.

It's it's the uh agenda item, and we have two people signed up.

Um last time discussion, too, and I had a comment on that as well.

It's actually not a public discussion, it's agenda item discussion.

Well, you need to make more clear the sign on websites on the website of the Mary I assume it was on the website.

Yes, okay.

Commission discussion, would you like to change anything?

Because what you're asking is Ian will research that and come back to us on our next meeting if there's something any of the commissioners want to change on our public policy or any discussion items.

Mr.

Turnberg, you had one item you were thinking about, but well, we have I've I've discussed with other cities and some other local cities stick to agenda items.

I am fully fine with any city of Fargo item.

Now it doesn't make sense to bring up school issues to a Fargo City Commission, just like it wouldn't make sense to bring up city commission issues to a park board meeting.

We each have our own space in our own jurisdiction.

So to me, focusing on the city of Fargo, not Palestine and global issues is not impeding free speech.

You can go ahead and protest and speak all you want, but it keeps the meeting with decorum and on focused on target and what we're trying to discuss.

That's my opinion.

Would you like Ian to at least research that and bring back a motion that could be addressed by the commission?

Sure, and I I think that's a great idea.

We can move to postpone this for next week.

We can I'm sure we'll all hear plenty from there's no motion on anything tonight.

Well, I'm all Mike did was give the recommendation gave us what our process is.

If we want any motions, we have to ask staff to develop the box.

Okay, sure.

We can get feedback from other residents.

I don't to mean I've never heard anyone wanting to squash anyone's ability to speak.

We don't want people who show up with fake names, which happens.

Um and to have outbursts, there needs to be decorum in these meetings, and I believe that's all we're asking for.

It's nothing to um we're just being transparent.

It's not to squash anyone's rights.

So I think looking into, I think we've actually are doing more than what's even required by law.

So perhaps Ian, if you could just make sure that that is the case.

Yeah, you are correct, Commissioner.

We are going above and beyond what is required by law.

By law, all we have to allow is public comment on the current agenda and at least one meeting prior.

So be December, you know, at the next meeting, December eighth agenda and December 22nds.

We have at least allow public comment on those agenda items.

That's the bare minimum.

We go above that.

We obviously allow public comment on anything.

City of Fargo has always gone above that, but that could be brought as a motion to go back to what the state recommends to then have a discussion on the commission if they wanted to proceed with that.

Any other suggestions by any other commission?

Commissioner Kolpak.

Yeah, I'm I'm just gonna share.

I'm comfortable with where we are now with the current policies we have in place, and I'm comfortable continuing with just 12 general comments at the end of every meeting.

Um, and you know, for two and a half minutes each, I think um most people abide by ensuring it's issues of you know in germane to the city of Fargo for the most part.

And um I'm I think we have vetted this to death, and I think um I'm comfortable with where we are today.

Any other comments, Commissioner Pipcorn?

Just real quick, that that's really this is the it's the city commission as a business meeting uh to conduct the the agenda items.

And so to have it be an open where people have can talk about all these topics under the sun, that that's really not maybe there should be another opportunity for that.

I guess that's that's the challenge.

Because to me, a lot of people watch this like it or not, you know, and so and it's on video, so you can go back online.

And so a lot of people, but but to have it be on topics that have nothing to do with the city of Fargo, then that but some people that's important to them, and they're citizens of Fargo.

So that's the conflict, I guess.

So I but to me we should focus on the issues that we're acting on.

That because that's what we're here, that's what we want to hear.

And and I I'll just give you my own perspective.

People that call in have a much less impact on me than Mr.

Cohn coming here and talking, because that means it meant something to him to come here.

Takes courage to come and stand in person versus uh and that's just me.

It doesn't have the same impact on the phone.

I totally get some people have challenges, and so that's difficult for them.

But that's that's just my comments.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mr.

Strand.

Thank you.

And and it this is a little bit of a t uh uh of a of a variation of the topic, but in regard to us requiring the recording and the the the transmission of of of public comments, that whole topic, you know, we we were gonna shut that was suggested we shut off the recording after the meetings.

It's also been raised recently that we have some boards and commissions meeting without recordings of them happening also.

So it's just something in the periphery that might be tangentially directed to this if we're requiring reporting, recording of public meetings, and we're not always doing it, or we're doing it in other space that's not easily do it done.

But I've had a citizen reach out about that as well.

Uh Michael, we're no action tonight, but Ian's been instructed to possibly bring back a motion that restricts it to agenda items, as I would understand it.

Uh 44 application for property tax exemption for improvements made to buildings to have a motion.

I'll move.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Pepcorn.

Hi.

Turnberg.

Hi.

Mahoney?

Aye.

Bendel.

Uh item number four.

Resolution establish water meter charge for failure to place meter and opt-out charge.

And this is something that I went through the utility committee and had great discussion.

I just had my water meter change.

The guy came in and took maybe an hour.

Um looks like a great thing that's in my house now.

I cannot tell you how it works, but I know magically you will know how much water I use.

And I will know if I've got a leaky toilet.

So that is correct.

That is correct.

Sometimes it goes fast, sometimes it takes a little longer as an hour.

It is a little longer than expected, usually it takes 20 minutes.

So but yes, it's going to provide us that additional information when people are running their sprinkler systems to whether an individual has a leak in their house where their toilet continuously runs.

So those are the benefits of of our new meters.

Now we do have a situation where we've we've been very successful with this project so far to date.

You know, we've been doing it for about a year, about a year and a month.

Um we have about sixty-five percent of them done.

Now we're talking uh 30,000 meters across the city of Fargo.

So we've got 65 percent.

We've just climbed over the 20,000 meters installed in the last year in Fargo.

So that's that's really good.

Our residents are doing a great job of scheduling these appointments, taking the four hours out of their day to meet our installer and go through it.

However, we're gonna reach a point here as we get to the end of the project where we're gonna end up with that 20 percent that either do not want to participate or just are refusing to call us and schedule appointment or even work with us to try and uh upgrade a meter.

Um, what we're looking at is we at least want to get in there and and replace the meter with a new meter that maybe it doesn't have the radio technology in it, but it need they need a new meter.

And so what we've done is looked around the country, what's going on and offering an opt-out.

And so we've got an opt-out amendment here as part of this uh resolution tonight, and then the fees that would go through it if they were to opt out.

Now, if we get somebody that does not contact us through this whole process, and after we send them two or three additional mailings, um they still continue to talk, not contact us.

We are probably gonna send them a mailing and say, hey, we're asking tonight that the commissioner proved that by this resolution that we can attack $50 bill on their bill, water monthly bill, and hopefully they will contact us to start the process.

We want to work with our residents, not penalize them.

Then we also are asking for a $30 a month charge if someone chooses to opt out.

Now the whole project was based around the fact that we would not need meter readers anymore.

People walking down the sidewalks collecting this data, and that was the importance of the project.

And so as we reach this level and as we continue to move on, we're gonna find that we have two people on this block that haven't signed up and got it changed, and three people on the next block.

And so we're gonna have to continue to employ a meter reader, a vehicle, and then all the equipment that goes with it to upgrade it to continue doing walk arounds.

And so, as part of that, that's why we've asked that the commission authorize us to charge a $30 extra month month for the opt-out fee.

Now we will go through that with the person that wants to do that, because maybe they're a little uh nervous about the radio frequencies and additional how it's affecting their health or or something in their house house.

And we don't want to get into you know asking health questions, and nor is our place.

So we want to offer them this with the rules and have them sign up for it and put it in writing and sign on it that they're accepting these terms.

So what we've got is the second reading of the the amendment to the municipal code 16-02, and then the the fees, the resolution establishing the fees.

Mr.

Stran, you wanted this poll.

Do you have some questions?

I I mostly I just want the public to hear this again.

You know, that this is unfolding to not be surprised, you know.

Um there might be others out there too.

Like I get my our I see our I don't see our bills.

I get they're electronically, and all of a sudden there's an automatic withdrawal from my bank account.

So those subtleties, like I'm not sure how I would get a notice or not if I was one of those people that wasn't complying if I don't see the bill.

Uh I just see the payment.

So but but I wanted the public to hear this from Ben and from our public works and to remind them this is unfolding, why it's unfolding, to know that there's a timeline and to know we need their cooperation and help.

That's correct.

And and to date, we've we're on our final round of three letters to every resident in the city of Fargo.

And then we're gonna send another letter to try and encourage and provide some additional information in that letter about what is taking place before we actually go down the road of sending them another letter saying, hey, if you don't buy this date, this is what's gonna happen.

But your next letter is gonna point out the fine.

Yes.

They will point it out, it won't go into place.

We're just gonna educate, and then we'll do a final letter that states that if you do not comply by this date, then we will then begin assessing the fine.

Because this is a big project for us.

I mean, this when you're talking 30,000 meters.

I I am very happy, and I know Troy is too that we're this far along already.

We want to finish this and get as many people done as we can to provide the savings that we can for eliminating those positions or putting them to different positions to to different departments is what we're gonna do, and not have to retain those employees within the meter reading department.

You have a motion, so move.

Sir, second.

Any further discussion?

Relights on did you want to say something?

My meter appointment is scheduled for this Wednesday.

So then on the record.

Finally, yeah, uh, actually, Mr.

Chair, I had my meter and match your meter, so you're getting all my bills from the roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Hi.

Colpack.

Hi.

Turnberg.

Aye.

Mahoney?

Hi.

And then, John, you had a question about the item number 13 bridge costure agreement with the city of Mooret and Project QR 25 B.O.

Tom Knockbus to explain.

And while Tom's walking up, it's not so much that I had a question.

It's that I just want to ascertain that we're all voting for this.

You know, we've had this pedestrian bridge topic downtown that went up and down and all over the place and then ultimately died.

I don't expect this here.

Um, but it's it's it's something I'm personally in favor of.

I'm excited about this, and it's one of those projects down the road.

We'll be glad the city did.

But just to make sure, there might be somebody out there in the world who says, why did you vote for this allocation for this pedestrian bridge?

Well, we're gonna go on the record formally, and it's not just on consent when it's brought up this way.

Um just a reminder of what this one is.

Um, this current uh project, we had received one and a half million dollars from the federal government for a raise grant uh that allowed us to do uh environmental dock and final plans um for the 12th Avenue Bridge over the Red River.

Um we need to get through this process.

That gives us the information necessary so that we can actually go after a construction grant uh for that work.

And so uh what this agreement is is it's just related to the engineering portion.

Um as we've gotten into this, uh we have a limited grant.

We're doing everything we can to stay within um those grant dollars, but as we're going through that environmental process, there are some things that are outside of the original scope, and so we wanted to address it earlier on uh with the city of Moorhead if needed, that we now have an agreement that if we do go over the million and a half dollar grant, we have a funding mechanism of how we would pay for that.

And so that's that's all this item is.

And then maybe just uh as an update for city commission, we're anticipating on being back here in two weeks and provide an update on both the 12th Avenue Bridge, where we're at in that process, uh, and then likewise with the 40th Avenue Pedestrian Bridge.

And Tom, just to be clear, a 12th Avenue Bridge and a flood event goes out at how many feet?

That's a great question.

It's pretty low.

Um I don't know the exact number though.

Okay, it's 24 feet.

But the reality is is that what happens and why we've gone for this brick grant is we feel that when the Northsiders or the Northsiders want to get home, but when we have a flood fight, that that goes out.

And if we have a truly epic flood fight, 35, 37 feet go through the city, that bridge goes out at uh 24, 25 feet.

So the reality is if we build a new 12th Avenue Bridge, that bridge would be bloodproof, and that Fisher Pepcorn and I have always talked about that.

You need to have the protection throughout the city, so north-south you can get it to get to your home or get to wherever.

So the bridge grant was a federal project in which we got the federal money to go.

As we go forward, this would be a combined cost, state of Minnesota or City of Moorhead, City of Fargo, maybe the state would get involved, but then federal money.

Most of the time, commissioners turned to be federal money that puts up 90 percent.

But uh in the past, infrastructure money was available.

Now we don't know what when this might happen.

But this is the first step to get the engineering done.

If the engineering is done in solid, then we can proceed with possible plans.

So any other discussion?

Make a recommend.

I make the recommended motion.

Is there a second?

Second?

Second, any further discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Pepcorn?

Aye.

Kolpak?

Aye.

Turnberg?

Aye.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Commissioner Simon updates.

Commissioner Strand to start.

I just have a very, very brief update, but it's at Rome.

Surprisingly important one.

Um we're already serving up to 70 people in our winter warming program.

Imagine that.

That's almost my hometown.

You know, in in the program to save their lives at night.

So our public health department and our people are delivering these services and saving lives.

And accommodating the changing times and not knowing where their home is one day to the next.

Thank you for the work you're all doing.

And and uh just 70 people.

Something.

Richard Colpak.

Yeah, I have two updates, both public safety related.

Um, some fun, some fun events.

The first was last night we had the Fargo firefighters and Fargo police officers hit the ice for the annual battle of the badges, which I attended at the Shields Arena.

It was a great turnout.

Went to the Home Town Heroes Fund.

Um and the Fargo PD was looking to defend their title.

Um but after a hard-fought game, it came down to a shootout, and Team Fire came away with a win, taking it 7-6.

Teamwork sportsmanship and community spirit were on full display with all of the families there in support as well.

And as I said, it helped raise for the Fargo Force Fargo Force Hometown Heroes Fund.

So thank you to everyone who came out to the stands and supported this important cause.

And I'm guessing we have some sore firefighters and police officers today.

Maybe not.

Never mind.

They're not sore.

I'm looking at Chief Zabolski.

Then the Metro Fire Academy, we started today's meeting with a video of this, but we honored the graduation the 13th class of the Metro Fire Academy here in Commission Chambers, which is Moorhead West Fargo and Fargo working together.

We had six Fargo firefighters.

I was able to have lunch with them the day before.

Had some of the Captain Whirlinger's famous Chile.

And by sharing resources, the Academy not only saves money, but it also produces firefighters of the highest quality who provide the very best service to our community.

So thank you to everyone who participated and the families and friends who showed up on Friday.

Those videos are great.

I have nothing to report this time.

Mr.

Turnberg.

Tom Knock Moose did a much better job than I could at um discussing engineering and all things going on in that department.

And I have a very long list of wonderful activities and events going on at Fargo Libraries on my Fargo City Commissioner Facebook page.

The library always has things going on and great participation, right?

Yeah.

Mr.

Pipcorn.

But you're not going to the national title playoff game, isn't that an update?

Oh, sorry.

Public comments.

Are you on?

Can you hear me again?

Yep, we're okay now.

All righty.

Hello again, Olivia Fargo resident.

Um I obviously couldn't make it downtown this evening, but as of yesterday, there were still several little huts sitting outside of the Civic Center just down the hill from you guys for residents who are unaware.

These were set up for the holiday market that has been happening during the last two weekends of November.

There are sizable shacks that have been left empty in an area that our unsheltered neighbors tend to frequent.

Well, I and other residents are very grateful that the warming center has opened up.

Seeing these huts pop up two weeks before it opened was frustrating.

These shacks sat there empty while people were freezing outside.

This to me says that the city of Fargo prioritizes holiday shopping while we're keeping our residents warm.

One of the decor pieces for this market was a big sign that said, you belong here in bold letters.

I just felt like a slap in the face to the homeless people who aren't allowed to exist outside in Fargo without being deemed as suspicious.

There's a company called Pallet that makes temporary shelter units that are comparable in size to the ones outside of the civic center.

They provide enough space for someone to lay down, store their belongings, charge their phone if they have one, and warm up.

They don't have running water, but if they were placed near the deck, folks wouldn't be far from a shower and restrooms.

These hubs have a lot of benefits compared to staying at a standard shelter or warming center.

Other cities have implemented the pallet units that are seen success.

By providing a private space for individuals to rest and be safe, the city would be lessening the traumatic impact of their current situation.

Thus making it easier for them to transition to permanent housing.

Some of the pallet shelters are big enough for two to four people, which would also prevent the struggle of houseless families and couples being split up between shelters based on gender and shelter bed availability.

We need to be willing to put funds toward effective solutions at shelter residents if we really want all Fargo residents to feel like they belong here.

To that point, I others would love to hear from each of you on the accordantly racist comments recently made by the president about Somoleans.

Our Somalian neighbors deserve to know if you care and what you are going to do to prove that you care.

According to KDRR, the Moorhead Council just announced that they are working on a resolution regarding this.

You need to follow suit if you want Somalians on both sides of the river to feel safe and protected.

This is of utmost important as we see increased ice presence in Minnesota.

Regardless of your personal opinions on the Trump administration, everyone should be condemning the blatant races of he's doing about our neighbors.

Thanks in free Palestine.

Our next speaker is Christopher Cohen.

Yes, Christopher Conegan, Fargo resident.

So I wanted to make clear in my previous statement that I'm asking for the guidelines for resonant comments to be made be made supportable under the law.

So I don't think that's too much.

I don't think there's too much vetting that has to be done for that.

I can do it free.

You don't have to have the city attorney do it for you.

Additionally, there's um the verbal uh prohibiting verbal attack on a commissioners.

No, you can't do that.

That's not that's not in the law that I know of.

You can prohibit threats of violence because that's illegal.

So let's change it.

Terrorizing law prohibits threats of law.

Um also um it uh um it it prevents um showing malice with rest and with reckless disregard of the truth, knowledge of falsity, or with reckless disregard for whether it is too prohibited.

Just put that in there and make the document legal so you're not requiring them to do things that you are not legally allowed to require them to do or not do.

Um uh you um uh telling them they can't name people.

No, you can't do that.

That's protected first amendment speech.

They can name you, any of you, and they can name city staff.

And I don't do it because I don't think it's uh I don't think it's very useful.

It makes it personal.

And uh I would advise other people not to, and you could advise people in the guidelines to please not do so, um, but that they may do so.

And uh they might have legitimate uh gripes.

Who who are who are who's to judge what gripes are legitimate, which are not.

I've gotten smarter as I've gone along.

So um uh also um uh oops.

Uh defamation law prohibits oral communic can communication concerning a natural person made with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth.

Okay, I guess I did cover that.

And then um I think they can't be required to give their name.

Only in writing, and they have to give their address.

The address is exempt from an open records act.

You cannot make them say their name.

Give them a number one through twelve.

Thank you.

That's the end of our public comments.

Our meetings adjourned.