Roll call, please.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

Here.

The Federal Communications Commission or FCC has an initiative to roll out a high-speed broadband internet access to every resident in the United States.

And that includes in our community where they want to try to get the latest technology to make our residents or businesses more productive with a very high internet speed that can go back and forth.

So that's part of the process.

But what they've done is they've allowed companies to go into our right-of-way without our ability to deny them of that right.

So we have to work with them to get what we want, put them where we want them to be and stuff like that.

But there's no ability for us to say no, you can't do it.

That's part of the broadband initiative nationwide.

Oftentimes I think a lot of the residents and adjacent landowners really think their property goes all the way to the curb.

And the right-of-way doesn't.

I know they're asked to maintain it.

They're asked to maintain the sidewalk, mow the grass, but it's really part of the public right-of-way.

Then you add that utility in the newer area of the town, and it gets to be a lot of your front yard can be used for other things, even though it's your property or shared with the city.

So there is a lot of misconceptions.

Public right-of-way really starts back of sidewalk across the street to the back of the sidewalk on the other side.

So that's the way we call the public right-of-and that's where all of the obviously the road that you use to get to it from your house, but there's so much stuff buried underneath the road.

You have storm sewer, sanitary sewer, water mains, but then you have all the private stuff.

Gas for heat, electricity for lights, fiber for internet.

You know, all the things that our residents use are oftentimes buried in the right-of-way.

In some of the newer areas of town, we also have an additional ten feet on each side of the sidewalk on the property side of the sidewalk called a public utilities, but that's just for burying other or the other various underground utilities that are used by our residents.

You know, like I said, gas, electricity, internet, all those things are oftentimes buried in that utility easement as well.

So just gives us more space to put our stuff in, put their stuff in, and not crowd the right-of-way.

So if we have an emergency, we're not digging on top of everybody else.

We can actually dig down and fix the water bay, fix the sanitary sewer, things like that.

First thing you're going to see is all the locate flags.

And those are all the flags that all the existing utilities are putting in to protect their stuff that's underground.

And that can just be a sea of flags in some place.

If you want to give us a shout, we could put a dot on a map and kind of you know let them know that there's something in that property so they can look for it.

A wire to a hot tub or uh sprinklers, or if you have a pet fence that's underground and stuff like that, they know it's there.

They'll try everything they can do to avoid it.

But it's really on the homeowner to let us know that that stuff is there because that's the homeowner is really the only person that knows it's there.

Probably the primary benefit is there's another choice.

You know, we have a lot of incumbent internet providers that are been in this town for years, and this is just another choice.

You know, whether it's better value, better pricing, or they think that they need to drop around and make sure that there are choices, and you can use the new people, you can use the ones that are already being uh already installed here.

So I think they're the benefit of choice and competition and all the things that go with it.

City of Fargo's created a website, it's Fargo ND.gov slash fiber.

If you need more information, you know, reach out to the email address and send us an email and we can try to answer some questions as well.

Interesting.

That was nice to know.

Uh is there uh motion to approve the order to the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carried.

So motion approved the minutes of the December 8th, 2025 regular meeting.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor again say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Is there any discussion?

Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Colpac?

Aye.

Epcorn.

Aye.

Trimberg?

Aye.

Strand.

Uh Mahoney, I'm sorry.

So items uh 28 and 29 have both been withdrawn.

Do I have a motion to accept the withdrawal?

Second.

Second.

All those in favor say aye for both items.

Aye.

Motion carried.

Item 30, public hearing continued to 12126.

Is there a motion to continue this hearing to January 20th, 2026?

So moved.

Zero second.

Second.

Any discussion.

Ian, did you want to explain this one, please?

We're just waiting to see if we get um objections of more of more than 25% of the uh landowners.

This is the property north of the uh data center that we've been talking about in our previous meetings.

So we will know by uh January 20th.

So we'll have a hearing on that date.

Okay.

Any questions?

Roll call vote, please.

Colpath.

Hi.

Chernberg.

Hi.

Epcorn.

Hi.

Strand.

Yes.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Public hearing.

Application to transfer FA alcoholic beverage license from Farther South Hospitality Points with Four Points of Sheraton to Fargo Ventures doing four points of Charitan located at 5064 23rd Avenue South.

Angie Burr to explain.

Yes, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Fargo South Hospitality LLCs sold to USH Fargo Ventures LLP.

They are keeping the same business as the four points by Shared and the doing business as they are also keeping the same FA license, so there is no change there.

It's just a transfer of owners.

The owners are from Sioux Falls, but we do have a local manager on on file and all of that in case PD needed anything or we need to reach out to them.

So there were no concerns, and I'm looking for a motion to approve this transfer.

If not, uh, do I have a motion?

I'll make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Roll call vote, please.

Epcorn?

Aye.

Chernberg.

Aye.

Kolpak.

Aye.

Strand.

Yes.

Mahoney.

Aye.

Number 32.

A recommendation to transition to the Fargo Youth Initiative.

This is some interesting discussions with the school system and us and trying to figure out something that works, but it sounds like Nicole, you've come to a good solution.

Yes, uh, Mayor.

Um good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Um thanks to our liaison commissioner, uh, Commissioner Kolpak in discussions with the Fargo School District.

Um has uh proposed a transition for Fargo Youth Initiative.

Um the history of Fargo Youth Initiative in October of 2012, the City Commission voted to support their creation of the Youth Advisory Commission.

And um in 2013, the City Commission voted to adopt a resolution approving the creation of the Fargo Youth Initiative with a mission to empower the voice and unite the youth of Fargo through action and teamwork.

Uh since its inception, a great group of smart caring and committed young leaders representing grades nine through twelve from public and private schools in Fargo have met regular regularly to discuss opportunities and issues facing young people in our community.

Um as you know, over the last year, the city has conducted a review of several of its volunteer advisory boards over the past year, and um we found an opportunity for an evolution of the Fargo Youth Initiative to a new broader community-based governance model that has emerged.

And in your packet is um a suggestion that um working with the Fargo School District and the Boys and Girls Club of the Red River Valley, uh CEO Robin Nelson.

Um there's an agreement to partner along with the Fargo Parks District and potentially Cass County Commission to broaden um the support and involvement of other governing agencies.

And so we would still propose having a liaison commissioner in this year and in the future, um, but that takes the planning department out of being the administrators, if you will, of the operations of the Fargo Youth Initiative, and instead pass that on to the Fargo School District.

And so for tonight, there's still a lot of discussions in process, and we have Isabella, she's our uh chair of the Fargo Youth Initiative.

We also have school board member Kirsten Nelson here, and our staff Catelyn uh Christie, who've been supporting the Fargo Youth Initiative over the years.

And um tonight we're really just looking to um see if the city commission supports this idea of the transition.

Um there'd be uh MOUs and appropriate documents that we would work with our city attorney in that transition paperwork, if you will.

And so we're glad to answer any questions.

And Isabella might have some comments that she might make or also here for questions.

Yeah.

So good evening, everybody.

My name is Isabella Meyer, and I'm the chair of the Fargo Youth Initiative.

Um we are definitely looking forward to this evolution as we've been calling it of the Fargo Youth Initiative.

Uh some of the things we've been most looking forward to include the future collaborations.

We've been able to work really closely with several different people throughout the years, but we've been able, but with this evolution, we would be able to broaden our horizons to work more so with issues outside of the city, working with entities such as the school board and with Fargo Public Schools a little bit more engaging on issues that involve youth outside of the city as well as um with city issues as well.

It would also provide an opportunity for more public visibility with the youth and what we kind of do and what we stand for.

And it would also give us more youth involvement within the Fargo Youth Initiative.

And with this, we'd be able to extend an invitation to a little bit more of the entities that we have available with our city just for them to receive feedback from us.

It's been able to bring um bring more of our issues to light and bring more of our feedback, which has created more of an impact within our community.

A couple of the highlights from FYI over the years include our event that we hosted last year and in years previous called Impact Fargo.

At this event, we had several different students.

Um we had many students from all around the community, all of the different high schools, and we had different leaders come in and educate the students about different issues, including um homelessness, public health, and a couple other issues.

That was one of the most impactful things that we've been able to do, and it really brought in a whole new group of people interested in civic engagement and public policy.

Another thing that we do is we've done a few summits over the years.

I myself was involved in an anti-tobacco and an anti-suicide summit where I was a speaker and a presenter at both of these events.

These have been great as we have been able to rally the youth towards issues that directly impact us the most and give our feedback to those who make the rules around it as to what would actually help us the most.

That is one of the reasons why we believe FYI is incredibly important, because it enhances the youth voice within civic engagement.

Like I mentioned previously, many decisions are made for us without involving us.

The Fargo Youth Initiative has been a great way for us to be able to share our voice and our opinions on what actually works and what we actually need.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Kolpak.

Yeah, thank you.

This is really an exciting evening.

Um, and a lot of students have been part of these groups over the years, beginning in 2012.

Robin Nelson just walked in, she's CEO of Boys and Girls Club, graciously offered one of their locations for the regular meetings.

Superintendent Steiner was with us for a couple of the meetings, very engaged.

Um and as the motion says, the next step will be creating the related MOUs and opportunities to expand vision.

But really, not only is it about more community engagement and civic engagement, it's about creating our future leaders, which is so important.

So we really thank you for stepping up.

Robin, thank you.

Catelyn, Christine, thank you, and Nicole have all worked really hard on this, and and Dr.

Steiner was unable to be here tonight.

But um, it really did take a village to find a new home for this, but I think it's the next iteration of greatness.

So really exciting evening, and um, I'm happy to make the motion that's presented in front of us to authorize staff to work with the city attorney's office and other related parties to prepare the necessary MOUs and related documents to successfully transition Fargo Youth Initiative in its current structure and implement the resolution as outlined.

Sir Second.

Second.

Any further discussion?

Really good when the school board and the city could work together on this initiative and find a home for it to work.

That's about sounds like we'll be doing great work.

We continue to need to have the voice of the young people to know what they want.

So appreciate the hard work you've done.

And uh it was great to see the young young children or growing up adults almost when we had those events and they would interact with different people.

I think it was really fun for us as leaders to hear what the youth wants, and that was also the youth got to figure out what they wanted to do in many areas.

So I know many of the students that have been in your role have gone on and gone on as a great thing, so I hope the same for you.

Can I add one more thing, Mr.

Chair?

Robin Nelson was part of the original formation of this group years back, so this is full circle for her, along with the former commissioner Melissa Soblik, who was also excited to hear about this transition.

So call vote, please.

Colpack, aye.

Strand.

Yes.

Epcorn.

Hi.

Chernberg.

Hi.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Update on bridge projects 12th hour north for the South Pedestrian members.

Jeremy Gordon to explain.

Good evening, Mayor Commissioners.

Good to be in front of you tonight.

Um thought it'd be a good uh good time of the year to bring a couple of important projects to the forefront.

This is just informational for you.

Tom Knockmus here, City Engineer is also here to answer any questions.

And Jeremy McLaughlin from uh Houston Engineering, who is the engineering outfit on both these uh projects.

So two projects, so like you mentioned the 12th Avenue North former toll bridge over the Red River, um, and 40th Avenue South, a new pedestrian bridge over the Red River.

So I'll go over the 12th Avenue uh North Bridge first.

Here it is, looking northeast over Moorhead.

You can see it's uh relatively low in nature.

Uh the project team on this, there's a lot of folks involved in this.

Uh both cities, Fargo Moorhead, got the North Dakota DOT involved, Metro Cog involved, uh MINDOT, US DOT through Federal Highway, and then the Corps of Engineers.

Obviously, here's the project location.

Um the ball fields on the west side there.

So why are we looking at this bridge?

So there's a purpose and need for every federal project we do.

The need is it's built too low to withstand major floods over the Red River Valley, and we need to re-construct it to a higher elevation.

The deficiencies are pretty obvious, but it's flood-prone, poor pedestrian access in the area, tying into the parks, uh poor pavement, and then the intersection operations at Elm Street are failing at times.

So thankfully, we haven't seen too many pictures like this in the last 10 or 15 years.

But uh it's always exciting when it does go under, it goes under underwater at about 27 feet flood stage.

So here's the existing uh kind of geeking out on you here, little engineering cross-section.

So the blue line is the water, and the black lines are the bridge and the piers.

So that's what it's like today when we hit a hundred-year flood.

You'll see another slide, and I'll test you on that.

So the current funding today we are funded through the USDOT through a raise grant.

Um and the million and a half goes to Houston and its project partners.

Uh, they're doing the environmental document, traffic analysis, public outreach, public meetings, and then really the engineering style, uh, soil borings, geotech analysis, the water and the hydraulics, uh, and then as soon as we get to a certain point where we want to, we know what we're gonna build, they'll get into the into the design, plan preparation, and cost estimates.

So there's a lot of challenges, as most projects do.

Um, bridge projects in particular have more.

Um first moving from west to east, I guess.

The intersection at Alm 12th, I'm sure Commissioner Pepcorn loves that intersection occasionally at uh eight in the morning at five o'clock at night.

The park, there's parks on both sides.

Um there's a ball field on the south and then a parking lot on the north.

Those present their own issues when you use federal funds uh when you have federal funds potentially affecting parkland, you have to step very softly and make sure everything every uh everything is analyzed and the end product ends up being a benefit to the parks.

So uh we don't have a bike trail going over the bridge, we have a narrow sidewalk.

Um yeah, we want to get the bridge out of the future hundred year poster version.

So we've come up, we wanted to look at two alignments, but it's really boiling down to one alignment on the North Dakota side, it's pretty much in the same spot.

But as you go over to the Moorhead side, uh it looks like the existing alignment's gonna be end up being too close to the the housing to the south of the road, so it will get shifted a bit to the north.

There's more room there.

Um, and it can it can really stay in on uh city-owned land.

So here's the second profile.

You we we want to build a bridge over that future flood, and that's the top line on here.

So, like I said, the NEPA document, um, this is like a project booklet.

We look at uh we solicit all kinds of government agencies.

Uh we look at water, we look at parkland, we look at noise, we look at uh cultural resources, we look at wetlands, and that goes into this document.

So, like I said, we have to look at the two parks.

Um to the north is Tree Foil Park, to the south is Jack Williams.

So they as part of this, they did look at the intersection of Elm Street.

Um look at a four-way, a two-way, four-way mini roundabout and a traffic signal.

Um in the future, the all-way stop condition is really unacceptable.

Operations, so they're really recommending either a mini roundabout or a traffic signal at that location.

You may or may not have seen our mini roundabout as you travel the countryside.

The closest one would be in Detroit Lakes as you come off a highway 10 and head down to the lake.

They basically fit within the existing right-of-way at the intersection, and they're fairly efficient.

So uh the soils in the Red River Valley are something else.

So it's trying to build on very soft um soil.

So to build a bridge over the in the Red River Valley, it's it's very unique.

Um we we had uh Brown out there taking soil samples, looking at what's under under the ground there.

Um we we had Houston doing the hydraulic analysis, and then uh also on the structural analysis.

So when you think you gotta come up with a design, you have to do all these things in unison.

You know, this might work, this may not work.

So it's really iterative process.

So this project's uh we're moving along with it.

Uh we just got started in the spring.

Um we're uh off there to the upper right.

Um I think we're moving along.

We've got a public, we had a public meeting in September, two of them, one in Fargo, one in Moorhead.

Um the environmental environmental doc is really starting to be towards the end of it.

Um we're here in front of you today.

We're gonna come back for a decision on what uh what you guys would like to build, and then we'll move into design, and then uh we'll look at funding opportunities for this project.

So the project is expensive, 27 to 30 million dollars estimated.

Um at the time there's no funding allocated for construction.

We anticipate to look for a USDOT grant in some fashion this year.

Um all those DOT grants are competitive nationally, and you really gotta set yours up, you really got to tell your story on yours and how you can set yours apart from others in the country.

And we have no fun no local funds set aside at this time.

So what's next?

Like I said, we're gonna come back to you probably in month, two months to uh decide should we go, should we not go, and then what's the intersection type you'd like to see at Elm Street.

And then after that, uh Houston and the team can start putting the design together, plant sheets together, and uh we can get moving.

So I I'll pause there for any questions specifically for this project.

Any questions?

I think John had a question.

I do.

Jeremy, I'm I'm I'm recalling our conversation about the North Broadway Bridge and and the debate about whether to do it and who could fund it and and all that.

And when we had that conversation, we weren't committed, and especially with the costs of building out of the flood zone.

And that seemed to be an okay thing at that moment.

What's changed?

Well, Broadway is very unique.

Um the road gets into the floodplain as you come from the south.

So you have to traverse a long ways in the floodplain.

In this situation, the banks go up much quicker.

Um, we were we were tasked to look at one that would be flood flooded and one that would be above it.

In that the one that would be above it, the bridge would just be so long it was cost prohibitive.

So in the Broadway situation, it was I think it was nearly 20 million dollars, but that would be a flooded bridge.

Um it still costs the same.

And there's a bridge, a redundant bridge very near near it.

And I'll just join uh I I support building out of the flood zone after what we've all been through.

I think your traffic counts are 12th chairman or higher, too.

So would you look at your traffic counts makes more sense to do 12th Avenue?

You have no other space that you do that unless you come down to Maine.

Right.

I mean, once once we were we removed the toll, went from basically 2,000 to 12,000.

That's a huge increase.

Mayor, uh help me understand the history too.

Wasn't this a toll bridge privately built?

Yep, 1985.

So what happened and how did that all shift to public?

Just remind me of that scenario, that narrative, if you could, Jeremy.

Uh so in 9 I obviously wasn't here in 1985, but there was a 30-year agreement to build a toll bridge, and at the end of the 30 years, it would become public property.

So that so that's what ended up happening in 2015.

But more had wanted to purchase it sooner, so we went ahead with purchase thing before the 30 years were up, was it not?

Uh no, it was pretty much 30 years.

They want the bridge owner wanted to hold on to it, and we threw more had forced the issue.

Well, one thing, one thing that we have found through this analysis is that bridge was built low, kind of for a reason.

Um it just fits better if it's built lower to get it out of the floodplain.

You really got to extend into Moorhead uh quite a distance.

Okay, John?

Yep.

Okay, go ahead.

Next part.

Okay, uh the new pedestrian bridge, 40th Avenue South.

Um on our side, it's the River Drive where it turns into 40th Avenue on the other side, it's 50th Avenue where Blue STEM is located.

So this has been in our plans um for quite a while.

It was in the Go 2030 comp plan identified uh pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and then transportation linkages across the river.

It was identified in our bike gap study in 2019, and then we began looking for federal money in 2021.

And we had ours secured, uh, but Moorhead didn't have theirs for a while, and then they finally secured it earlier this year.

So here's the location, and here's the tentative footprint of the project.

Here's the profile view.

You can see it's uh a lengthy bridge, steel truss over the water, concrete beams uh outside of the water.

And here's some renderings.

So the steel trust would be very similar to what we've seen in the lift bridges.

But this would permanently be built above the hundred-year floodplain.

So this would not be lifted, this would permanently be built.

There's a similar bridge on the north end of Grand Forks on a pedestrian bridge.

So this one uh it's got uh a lot of funding sources in it.

The project cost is right around seven million.

We have federal aid on both sides, Minnesota and North Dakota.

Um we've got uh carbon reduction funds on the Minnesota side, uh federal transportation alternative money on our side, and then local funds, both from City Fargo and Moorhead.

And our timeline uh they're currently in design right now, wrapping up the environmental document.

They're looking to have uh plans completed this spring, and then we'll be bidding it out a year from now with construction to hopefully begin in 27 and wrap up in 28.

I guess I got ahead of myself, but uh yeah.

So I can answer any questions on that one.

Any questions to the commission?

Mr.

Stern.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jeremy, the only odd question I have, maybe not the only one, but about this access from South Fargo on 40th Avenue over to Blue STEM.

Are there any security issues or security issues with us creating an access point on the backside of Blue STEM, which the school district owns?

But I I I just wondering, will we uh be a seeing traffic of pedestrians and people and vandalism and stuff at night that wouldn't happen because they didn't have access before?

I'm just wondering about that.

Yeah, I mean you bring up a good point.

Uh we are planning to light this.

Um so the lights will work after dark.

We typically don't have that on pedestrian facilities, but we will.

So the blue the uh troll wood area has a lot of has a lot of pedestrian-sized lights in their campus that would extend on the path to the bridge.

And on our side, it's really not too terribly long to get to the street.

Um, but that is a good point.

And we also have some concerns about the local neighborhood with parking during events.

So we we'd have to think about how this is gonna operate.

No vote tonight, just information.

Yep.

Thank you, Jeremy.

Thank you.

Recommendation renew contract with Axiom X Enterprise, Chief Sabowski and Travis Tavanowitz to explain.

Five years ago, we voted on a contract to get uh cameras, body borne cameras.

It's some COVID money, and it helped us get through that decision.

But we knew in five years we'd have to go back and rediscuss this.

Oftentimes Axion has five-year, ten-year contracts.

You're gonna come tonight and talk to us about a 10-year contract, right, Chief?

Right.

And uh thanks for the opportunity of a full vetting earlier today at the finance committee.

You've got a uh similar shortened version here for the commission tonight.

Um the AC has done a lot of the work on the meat and potatoes, is gonna cover that.

I will uh finish up with privacy policy issues, how we intend to use it, and first certainly happy to stand for any questions.

Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Chief.

Thank you, Commission.

So uh we have before you here tonight our Axon contract renewal, which is a 10-year contract.

Um Axon is the city's current provider as it relates to uh to all of our services that was competitively selected um back in 2021.

At that time, CARES funding was used, um, and that that money was dedicated at that time, which then brought us to to kind of where we are here today as we as we work through this.

A lot of late evenings, early mornings is also with the city attorney involved.

So we appreciate all the help that everybody has given us.

But as we work through these things, we have a we had a number of different obstacles that we are trying to accomplish, all while maintaining the axon ecosystem.

The uh one of the first obstacles was just funding.

So as presented this morning, we have the public safety sales tax as the money was dedicated at that time, knowing that the axon contract was going to be coming for renewal.

So what we have here today is maintaining the single fully integrated evidence platform already in use.

That's extremely important to us because as this relates to costs, it would be extremely costly to replace this system and it put into effect another system, also as it relates to data and the migration of bringing all the data that we have created into a new system would be costly.

Also, thinking about the data as it relates to, say on premises, that would be extremely expensive considering the amount of data that the police department creates in a very, very short period of time.

One of the important details on this slide is executing this agreement by December 31st, secures 2025 pricing, uh protecting us from inflation and a substantial increase in 2026.

So, with that, what uh what public safety and operational benefits are we going to see?

The fully integrated body worn systems in car video, digital evidence, all of that uh in one bundle creates uh a number of efficiencies for us without having to retrain or uh come back to uh to contract negotiations here in the near future.

The expanded training as it relates to de-escalisation tools and realistic simulations.

So, what I'm talking about there is the VR uh platform, so we would have a weapon system similar to our firearm and our taser, as well as realistic simulations as it relates to mental health episodes and people in crisis.

So we would be able to train without having to use a lot of space and/or getting volunteers, which can of course uh can kind of change the training dynamic.

Uh drone as first responder improves our situational awareness before officers arrive, and that's extremely important as we as we think about critical incidents, um having information ahead of time, knowing what we're what we're coming into, andor even the approach in itself.

Um that could be detrimental to our officers, so having that view firsthand is extremely extremely important.

Um it also enhances transparency and accountability while reducing risk not only for and liability not only for us as uh as an officer but also for the city.

I think if you would would speak to the city attorney and this in the state's attorney's office as well, that video evidence is certainly enhanced prosecution and and other things related to efficiencies on their side.

So the financial impact, the public safety sales tax assumes taking on the first years two through six at one million annually.

Uh we reallocated some funds so that we can take care of the rest.

Um the operating budget also included 134,000 of axon related costs already.

Um so we would be budget neutral for the first uh five years or into the first five years of this contract.

Um the anticipated shortfall would be absorbed into the police operations budget.

So overall, the contract uh estimates savings of 8.6 million over 10 years or 865,000 annually.

As I suggested earlier, if we are able to execute this, this has substantial savings for us, um, just over eight million dollars.

So as the HC referenced, uh this technology is not new.

It's an expansion of what we already have.

Uh we've had a regional drone team since 2018.

All the other things that exist in our axon contract are part of this renewal, along with uh the enhancement of the drones as first responder option.

Uh for those that would ask questions relative to privacy or fourth amendment concerns.

Uh our department deals with this uh regularly on a routine basis with all of the equipment and tools that we have, and currently with body worn cameras and with drones, and these are all public-facing types of uh operations.

Uh we are bound by the Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.

So the drones aren't uh going out and looking into windows or uh private areas.

These are public areas types of uh things where they're deployed.

And in public, there is in general no right to privacy, so that's perfectly legal within the Fourth Amendment.

We have safeguards and policy in place that will help guide that as well, just like we do with our existing technology, our flock cameras and our real-time crime center.

And we intend to use this through the real-time crime center to deploy these.

And so the big change is not what we have, but how we use it.

Many of our scenes and calls for service that are higher priority are dynamic in nature.

By the time the call comes in to dispatch and squads are sent and squads arrive, these scenes are very often very different from what was first described.

Or sometimes they're described improperly, people are under stress, et cetera, and things have changed.

So getting the drone out to these higher priority scenes ahead of the officer will provide valuable and very necessary intelligence about who's hurt, who's injured, where's the suspect, who's armed with any weapons, what direction are they going, where are they now?

Because oftentimes people have moved from the original location, especially if they were a suspect in a crime.

And provide that to the responding officers so that they can make that approach more safer, be aware of that intelligence, and the likelihood of locating and arresting that offender has also increased.

It's also increased their safety.

And then intelligence is valuable as well.

There is a very big difference between surveillance of a person and general overwatch and call for service.

So a lot of times as a comparable uh global positioning type devices that are placed on people's cars for criminal investigative purposes require a warrant.

The same application really applies here when using a drone or even a camera, in that we don't follow a person from point A to point B to point C without any type of criminal activity occurring.

If they commit a crime, of course, just like a pursuit, we could follow them to help them get located.

But this is not a surveillance type of vessel.

This is for that overwatch, the intelligence, the response, and uh the safety of all of those involved, just as we have been using it up to this point, but we will definitely maximize our ability to get it out quicker.

Uh we don't have uh this particular proposal would give us three drones for first responder use.

Um there's not a uh there wouldn't be the ability to respond to every call for service with a drone.

We would concentrate on our priority one calls for all of these purposes uh and then evaluate from there going forward.

The other piece of this too is think about missing children.

We have a lot of kids with autism and other missings that come to us uh at all hours of the night.

The drones have the ability for thermal imaging at night to locate persons.

We've had many instances already where this would have been very helpful.

Uh so another public safety piece to the to this uh product.

Um we've worked with this vendor for five years.

Uh they are very top of the line and they're very well known within the policing profession.

Uh I have 10 years, over 10 years of experience working with this vendor.

They are not only high quality, but they are reliable.

If there's an issue, they respond immediately, they replace equipment, and along the way, all of our equipment refreshes will get addressed.

I think there was a question about weather as well.

A couple weeks ago, I think it was mayor and deputy mayor.

Um, we had the opportunity to have them in-house in a snowstorm with some pretty good winds and operated the drone without issue.

Uh in fact, pretty great clarity.

And so the other piece to this is Alaska, the state of Alaska, and now Anchorage PD just signed a contract for similar equipment, utilize these very same drones up in the Alaska wilderness.

So we think they're pretty robust and reliable.

Um I think that the plan that was put together, appreciate the uh cooperation of finance, uh, the assistant chief and uh and our city attorney in putting together a financially prudent and responsible proposal that will keep costs from going up over that 10-year time frame while we're able to continue to enhance and build out this technology and public safety.

And uh we would request you to consider that recommended motion and happy to take any questions.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Um Chief A and AC, I think this is amazing technology to bring to our community.

And and the results I hear from other jurisdictions across the country is they have nothing but success story after success story after success story of of what they've been able to accomplish with these uh technologies.

Five years ago when we implemented body cams, it wasn't everybody didn't want it.

You know, there were people that were saying you don't need to, you know, this is a privacy issue at times.

And I'm guessing, first of all, is is anybody right now opposed to body cams anymore?

I mean, I isn't it pretty universally uh appreciated and welcomed and successful?

I would say yes.

I would say if you told the police department they're no longer going to have body cams, we're probably gonna lose caps.

Because I think over time everyone has seen the benefit not only from recording of what's happening, uh, but also the safety issues and and the crime solvability factors.

Uh I'm sure that we don't have data on this, but I think anecdotally in talking to everyone, including the uh folks in the criminal justice system, it's reduced trials and things of that nature because it's pretty hard to refute for a lot of those types of cases, especially traffic and all those those types of uh things.

And and just wait till we tell the public that a senior citizen walked away from a nursing home and the inclement weather was going on and that our system found him before he froze to death.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, we just it was about a week ago we had a suicide uh, unfortunately, and we searched for that person, but we couldn't find them.

And uh this technology, likely we would have been able to find them if you know if he was still alive at that time.

Who knows?

Yeah.

My last question, bear with me, Mayor, is there's folks who interpret this as like we're gonna fill the skies with drones, like New Jersey has this issue, had this issue with all these drones for about people wondering where they are and what they were and why they're there.

You're talking three drones?

Correct.

And in the bigger picture of 13 million, how much of that is really the drone technology versus continuation expansion of the real-time crime center and body cams and those technologies.

It's about 234,000, right?

Yeah.

Very, very small portion.

So it's really not just a drone program you're talking about.

It's mostly a renewal of the existing contract uh with that enhancement to it, yes.

Thank you for going down this path and bringing us to the future.

Do you want to make a motion then, John?

I'll absolutely make the motion.

Is there a second?

I'll second and I have some comments.

Mr.

Kolbeck.

Yeah, I think it's important for the public to understand we're really looking at this as a decision that was made five years ago, and three of the sitting commissioners at that time were part of the unanimous decision to commit to this technology, and that's um what we've been doing here.

This work began and just really started in January when we looked at the police side of the public safety sales tax planning and how we were going to expend those dollars after the citizens of Fargos decided to pass that public safety sales tax um after a lot of hard work from the fire department as well.

Um it was a line item at that time that was as was stated earlier from AC to include that line item as part of that public safety sales tax on the police side.

Um and so these negotiations truly went on for months, beginning in January throughout the entire year.

They're ending now at the end of the year, but we were able to retain 2025 pricing.

And without it, it would have gone up another 8.6 million dollars in cost to the citizens.

And so I commend the work of this collaborative team from the negotiations that happened.

In the end, this is really about public safety and efficacy on using all of our resources.

I've I've done more research since of communities who have implemented this technology, and the efficiencies continue.

The results continue.

Um, Fargo is too big to not have this, and we certainly can unravel this.

So the last point I'll make is that um I appreciate the c the way that this was forecasted to be sustainable.

And and it's the way that I hope we look at all of these technology investments, because when you once you're committed, you're committed, and you've got to be able to forecast and understand how you're gonna pay for it into the future.

So I appreciate that.

Truly, my last comment is one of the requests I had as part of this is that we have to have an intentional communication plan with the public so that they understand the implications of this moving forward and make sure we're engaging them and getting their feedback as part of this process.

Yes, uh, Commissioner, to that uh point as discussed earlier.

We will uh integrate this into our neighborhood meet meetings and uh push out you know the the successes, uh the benefits of it through our social media as well, and get the media involved also and let them report some of that to the public.

But um, you know, just looking at the real-time crime center and the success and the positive feedback we've had from that, this is like the next iteration of that type of technology.

Yeah, you know, Mr.

Chair, can I make one more comment?

Mr.

Phoenix, yes.

I'm sorry.

Um you you bring up a good point because that was another constituent question I had today was how are we manning these?

And it was um the we're utilizing the real-time crime center staff.

And the training will come from Axlan as well, that's just part of this contract.

So um another important point for the public.

So thank you.

Mr.

Pepgard.

Sir, just a couple of quick things.

First of all, I I don't think it's appropriate at all.

Obviously, we're gonna have new leadership in six months uh to be making a 10-year commitment.

And then on top of that, the commitment is $13 million, and right now uh we we don't have anything near the ability.

Instead, we had a Moody's drum grade.

What we should be talking about is how are we going to address our debt?

We've been downgraded.

And instead, we're talking about spending $13 million over 10 years.

So to me, that's uh it's a non-starter.

I I voted and I would vote again to support the acts on cameras.

They have been great.

Uh that's been a great thing, and I would support that now.

I would support a one-year term, but 10 years that I would not support that for anything.

Uh and so that's my comments, Mr.

Chair.

Well, it's been good that uh Susan Thompson and her team had this in our budget when I looked at the sales tax when it came in, it was looked at in that regard.

And I don't think that the AC could have got a discount of 8.6 million if we don't make a 10-year commitment.

So it's smart, smart money to do this.

And going forward, you have a methodology of paying it over 10 years.

It does not affect the budget.

So it's uh a thoughtful discussion of an issue that uh I think has come to an area where it is something that we truly need.

Any other comments or discussion?

Mayor?

Mr.

Star.

I'm I'm just curious, uh, Commissioner Pepcorn's question of if this were a one-year contract instead of an expanded 10-year contract, what would that cost be to just continue for one year?

I don't know the answer.

What would that answer be?

It's it's very difficult to nail down just the one year, the typical contract iterations are five years.

Um at the five-year contract, we're you're looking at between two and three hundred thousand dollars more per year by going with a five-year contract.

And then by going to ten years, you are eight million less?

Yes.

Eight and a half.

Just eight point six.

Bear with me.

How much will this affect staffing?

Because that's an issue always is having enough boots on the ground, enough staff and enough people and personnel, and we're expanding our boundaries and expanding our needs.

How will this complement or not your staffing issues, Chief?

Right.

Oh, thank you for that question.

Um we still are very focused on increasing our staffing levels.

That's the other part of our public safety sales tax funding.

Uh this piece was in there already in 2025, and so uh with a little bit of addition within that that portion of the public safety sales tax.

It doesn't affect the rest of the monies that are in there to support positions.

So uh our plan, as you may recall, was working within the parameters that were there was a three-year plan to add 27 more smart positions into the department and get sufficient boots on the ground.

So uh going forward past that uh based on what happens with the technology.

This may be somewhat uh help us that direction, but not at this juncture because we are far behind in that as well.

So we're trying to approach this from all angles to provide uh the best you know technology and continue to build the boots on the ground for the community.

Okay.

Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

Cole Pack, hi.

Epcorn?

No.

Turnberg?

No.

Mahoney.

Hi.

Susan presented some of the issues in this regard, but I just want to remind the commissioners at the finance office and the uh auditor's office spent a great deal of time trying to figure this out.

And one of the things I had tasked uh Susan with when Michael had tasked her with us as well.

Is there ways to be more efficient?

And we could look at all the functions of the auditor's office and the finance office, and to make what seems uh sensible changes in those offices to have better efficiency and perhaps find some cost savings either in positions or in staff or different way of being efficient.

I feel that uh Susan has done a great job at looking at that and presented us a very good solution to some issues that we have with that area.

And I think uh we'll go ahead and present it again today, but want to remind commissioners if you have trouble with the policy or position or recommended motion, please discuss that issue in motion.

But uh please do not disparage my director or the different people in the departments.

So go ahead, Susan.

Thank you.

Um as you said, we did have a very thorough discussion today at 10 o'clock.

We also talked about this at the November Finance Committee and at the August Finance Committee, and there's a summary document in your packet.

So I wasn't planning to go through the the slides.

Um Archie can pull them up quickly if you'd like me to do that.

It's about four slides.

So the recommended motion is what you had presented today in the finance committee to us.

The recommended motion is what was adjusted based on the comments that we have.

Um so it adds the six-month trial period for the um restructure.

Colbeck to speak to that because you would ask for the six-month review.

Why you wanted to do it in the structure?

Well, Mike Yeah, it's uh kind of out of context without the presentation.

We can do that if you'd like.

Okay, I would I think that's probably good for the public to pull those out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And let's do that first and then I can speak to some of the comments from this morning.

Thank you.

All right, we'll breeze through the things that are not related.

All right, so these are the high points of the auditor's office restructure.

So what we are asking to do is to uh transfer the duties that are specifically finance related within the auditor's office to the finance division.

Um there's there's not a lot of them.

It has to do with special assessments, the project accounting and the certifications, um, debt payments, and some cash management.

Uh then in conjunction with this, we had been looking for more of a permanent home for records requests.

Currently, it's with communications.

Uh we think a better move would be to place that with the auditor's office since they are tasked with maintaining the city records.

Um, and then the final item is um to appoint the finance director as also the acting city auditor.

Um the reason for that is the city auditor is actually a position that's required by century code.

They're required to sign off on the special assessment certifications, and since we are moving that calculation to the finance department, it made sense that the head of finance would sign off on those rather than someone that's not involved.

Uh so I just wanted to point out a couple things that people might not be aware of.

Uh the first bullet is that the auditor's office is actually a division of the finance department.

There are four divisions.

It includes finance, third floor, assessor's second floor, uh, auditor's office, which is on the first floor, and municipal court also um reports up to the finance department.

Um this was um new to me that that people would have a question about this, I guess, just because I work in it every day, but I want to make it very clear that you know the auditor's office.

The term auditor is a legacy term.

It's from century code decades ago.

Um doesn't necessarily have the same meaning that you and I might think of today.

But the auditor's office wasn't intended to, and it does not provide internal audit functions.

Uh the finance department implements policies and procedures for internal control purposes, and we monitor those.

Um and the city of Fargo contracts for a very thorough annual external audit.

Um there is a similar model to this in Grand Forks.

The finance director in Grand Forks acts as the city auditor, and I just found out that the city administrator in West Fargo is the auditor in West Fargo.

Um I listed the job descriptions as I mentioned at the meeting today.

It's a bit of a hodgepodge, which sometimes happens when you have someone in a role for 25 years.

It's very easy to add on one-offs on an occasional basis, but then when you go to try to replace that person, it's just a very broad ask when you're looking for candidates.

So that's where this next slide shows what was assigned.

So we're posing, and we've already moved this is uh reassigning the finance tasks to the third floor finance department.

So that's project accounting, debt payments, banking relationships, the special assessment certification, as I mentioned, that is required to be done by the city auditor.

Um then what will remain in the auditor's office are those kind of customer-facing uh customer service oriented items, such as business, liquor, pet, and gaming licensing, records management, utility billing, parking tickets, and elections, and new in January.

We will move the records requests.

And then the last item will be shared between myself and Angie Baer, uh signature attestations.

Um the intent of that is to sign that the mayor actually signed something, but more than that, that the mayor had the authority to sign something because it came from the commission.

And so since I sit in commission meetings, I thought that made make more sense for me to do that.

Um this was just a quick example of the work that went in that was involved.

I have about an inch thick stack of job descriptions that I had evaluated.

This was a template that my team started in September where we went through all of the duties that um are on the auditor's job description and assigned them.

As you can see, it's kind of a random mix, so it's not overly burdening one person.

Um then this was just uh what the org chart will look like, current and the future.

In addition to this, we're also working with the meter readers.

Those positions will be no longer needed with the automated meters.

But we want to move one of them to public works to help with locating.

And the second one will be retained in the auditor's office to help with all the reporting that we get from the automated metering.

We can call people and tell them that, for example, their water has been running all day.

So the summary of this is we're hoping this creates some efficiency.

It aligns our expertise and it does involve cost savings.

The net impact of this will be over 100,000 a year.

And then let's go back to the amended motion.

Well, I have a couple more questions, if I may, Mr.

Chair.

One of them is these changes, if once voted on would become effective once Mr.

Sprague is officially retired, correct?

Correct.

Which is my understanding originally would actually be in February.

Is that correct?

When is he?

Well, he's on an a medical leave, so it's still a little bit um variable, but the date he gave me originally was January 2nd.

Okay.

Okay.

And as long as we're understanding so let me just add why I asked for this to be more about I originally just said let's come back in six months and look at the job descriptions to make sure we are fully capturing the real impact on both departments because finance has been extremely busy with Tyler implementation.

Recently, some staff retired and and and left.

Um and and the workloads there that we have been talking about have been have been very um intense.

And so I just want to make sure we are fully understanding the impact of this given the questions that were asked this morning.

So I said let's come back in six months and look at the job descriptions that right now will have be implemented once Mr.

Sprague is officially retired.

Um I think you would be more wanting to say it's not a trial.

You'd like to move the motion to have it happen, and then in six months look at it and see if we need to modify it.

Modify any and update any job descriptions and or responsibilities.

It's not a trial for six months.

It would convert to what you recommended, and then at six months we would relook at it to see if we need to make adjustments.

Because I think we are concerned about the records request, might need another person.

And I think uh we're concerned as a Commission, we're we're you know, you're changing a lot of different things, but we are just want to make sure you have the support you need.

Because you are cutting the budget by 100,000, but you may need staff to help communications.

We don't know that.

But we feel we need to have some timeline in there that we come back and look at it as a commission to see if we need to make any additional changes.

Is that Mr.

Chair, and it's the for the public, there really truly are efficiencies realized as part of this plan as it's laid out.

So that you know that that's something every commissioner has been asking for as part of the budgeting process and ongoing sustainability is with the reality of 3 percent property tax cap.

So um so I can yeah, I certainly would say that we let's try it for six months, come back, revisit the job descriptions, and the rest of this verbiage for a motion.

I will make that motion.

So our second.

Second.

Mr.

Strand, you had your hand up.

You wanted to say so.

I didn't.

Just from my sense of clarifying from our earlier discussion today.

We we Commissioner Kolpak had suggested we revisit the positions and the job descriptions and relative information to the positions.

Then as Commissioner Pepcorn and others were talking about the departments and the historic roles and where will those all go as I heard it today.

We were s suggesting not just looking at job descriptions, but in six months from now, reaffirming that this pilot was a good idea and that it works.

Commissioner Pipcorn, is that kind of what?

Commissioner Pepcourt.

I'm just looking forward to in six months.

There's going to be some new leadership because this is uh to have the city finance director recommend that she also become the auditor.

That's that's not appropriate.

Thank you.

The word trial was my interpretation of what we meant, and I think I floated it by a few other people.

Um, but if you want to change it, that's perfectly within your purview.

Mr.

Kolpak.

I just want to be clear to the public that this uh the auditor position does not produce and provide audits for the city.

That oversight does not exist as part of the audit responsibilities.

It's an old legacy term that has a statutory commitment and requirement for every city and municipality to have named an official city auditor.

And so using that as a scare tactic to me, to the public is misrepresentative of the real impact here of what we're suggesting to happen and confusing the term auditor, like the hen in the in the Fox in the hen house concept just isn't the case here.

So I just want to make that perfectly clear to the public.

Mr.

Stran, my concern is that you are going to move people around and move functions around.

It's going to be functioning for six months.

It would be hard to reconvert it back to the old session.

I would be more inclined to re-look at it in six months and see if there's any changes we need to make.

And Mayor, the Commission would have the power to do that if ever they chose to, regardless of any at any point.

Susan, I asked earlier, because I was curious, I was really kind of surprised by your answer.

You're already the director of one of our entire departments, the finance department, which is overseas assessors and auditors and others.

You are already overseeing those departments.

You're going to be taking on the title of auditor.

And you're not even going to you aren't fighting for an increase in wages?

No, not for not for this role.

We are making adjustments within the auditors department for those three top people because they are getting additional responsibilities.

From that spreadsheet that I showed you, we have allocated out the finance duties that are moving to finance amongst several people, and it fits within their existing work responsibilities, so it creates some efficiencies.

As far as the director position, you know, I see that as a little bit of work during the certification process to make sure I am understanding, so I'm comfortable signing that and you know, sitting in on commission meetings and feeling comfortable attesting.

So you know, I'm not asking for an adjustment for those duties.

Last thing I'll say, Mayor Mayor and Commission is uh a few weeks ago I was traveling to the National League of Cities with the North Dakota League of Cities Executive Director and our legal counsel for the League of Cities.

And so I threw this question at them because it was I was just curious.

What are your thoughts on combining auditors and finance directors?

And they basically said that's what it is everywhere, pretty much.

I didn't expect that answer, but that's it was no surprise.

They see us naturally going there.

That's our State League leadership.

Any other discussion?

Roll Call, please.

Colpac, uh Strand?

Yes.

Epcorn?

No.

Turnberg?

No.

Mahoney.

Item 36.

Recommendation proceed with lease agreement, relocation of the resource and recovery center.

I want to thank the Commissioners for your previous support to start a new chapter of how and where we provide services for our unhoused neighbors in Fargo.

As we look back to the efforts this year, I want to highlight how the City of Fargo showed up and provided leadership.

We cleared the camps along the river corridor, referring individuals to services and support.

The City Commission revised the City of Commission or Fargo ordinances to improve the community safety and protect property owners.

Fargo is supporting the United End Homeless Task Force with United Way of Cost Clock Class Kontinuing conversations with our Metropolitan Partners.

And resource and recovery center is an opportunity to continue this progress and move forward.

Earlier this fall, we identified the right location to move services after years of planning, community and business meetings, and input from our nonprofit service providers.

Commissioners, we have arrived at the best plan to do the most good and for the most people in Fargo.

The process leading up to this moment has been thoughtful and intentional, and it is time to bring it home and move forward.

Since the Commission's approval of the lease agreement of a resource and recovery center in October, I have met with over 30 individuals and businesses throughout the community, not just those downtown to discuss how we move forward.

Resoundingly, they have said that the CVI services need to remain, but moving them out of downtown is necessary.

Supporting our nonprofit service providers, we can serve people in a single location that is better for everyone.

In fact, there are over 35 different nonprofit organizations that want to participate in the new center.

Sanford Health, for example, is willing to join the center with provided needle medical services of psychiatric services, podiatry services, and nurse navigator services.

They are willing to participate in the medical clinic by the family health care clinic.

This new location will limit time travel to address these needs and provide services to take care of people, be more efficient, support our downtown business owners, residents, and visitors.

The continued support of the communities needed.

We've done a lot of work to prepare for this moment, and I want to thank the individuals and businesses that I've met with for their consideration and support.

In particular, I wanted to acknowledge the Fargo More and West Fargo Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Community Partnership for their involvement and their active support of this relocation.

Now we need to keep this momentum going.

I'm calling on all our residents to support the nonprofits that will occupy the resource and recovery center and consider our donation to the FM Area Foundation fund that has been stabled for this project.

Commissioners.

This is the time as now to proceed with lease agreement and to relocate these services in early 2026.

I'm requesting that we proceed with relocation at this time and support those in need at a location that better needs and moves downtown and far go forward.

We have looked at uh with Brenda Derry, we have looked at the cost.

We continue to bring the cost down.

We continue to modify the different lease improvements, and I think we have a better product that's out there.

We have over 35 nonprofits are going to participate, and we anticipate more people stepping up as they can offer their services to work within that space.

I have two speakers in this regard.

Christopher Cohn, you're up first.

And then Rocky Schneider, you are after him.

Yes, Christopher Cohn, Fargo resident, and I'd like a written response to this comment, please.

So uh based on all information that I've seen.

I think the Fargo Brewing was the the was the superior site.

Uh and uh the uh you know the contract we were shown at the October meeting that you approved wasn't filled in.

The blanks weren't filled in, so it didn't it didn't give us the lease costs.

They had earlier been estimated to be, I think it was a million dollars.

I'm thinking that's a million dollars a month.

I mean a year.

And um, which was similar to um um actually in Fargo Brewing it was 500,000.

So Fargo Brewing had half the leasing costs, and it was just about the same size and all on one floor.

And it uh was outside of downtown, so it could make business owners downtown happy, but it was near downtown, which is what the consultants recommended.

And um the uh rehab costs for both of those buildings are five hundred thousand dollars.

And I'm assuming that uh private interest would rehab either one of them.

So um for other users, it's it was just a better location to maybe closer to downtown.

So uh you know, at the town hall meeting, also the people made it clear that they they were for they supported these services to continue, but they wanted it to remain downtown.

And that seemed to have been disregarded.

I I don't know why.

Um that was that was also my uh opinion.

Thank you.

Rocky Schneider Good evening, I'm Rocky Schneider with the Downtown Community Partnership.

I want to start by saying thank you to the city and police department and everybody else that took part in the holiday lights parade.

We had 9,000 people downtown and Brave the Cold, and it was very successful and a lot of partnerships, both on the Moorhead side and the Fargo side, and it's fun to see all of our first responders and public works and everybody else get together to make those things happen.

I'd love to talk more about that.

We have a lot of exciting things going on downtown.

We had a record breaking Chris Kindlemart, 19,000 people came to it.

We have new businesses and restaurants open on Broadway.

Um, you know, we have sold out blenders concerts that are just packing downtown.

Our visitor traffic is up since small business Saturday in in November, and so we're really excited all about all that.

But yet we're here talking about the engagement center again.

Um really appreciate the mayor's leadership over the last month or so on holding these couple dozen meetings.

I think they've gone a long way to I don't say rebuilding the trust is maybe too strong, but I think you know, getting that narrative out there about what the city is working on has been really helpful.

And I get a ton of questions about this topic.

Um, what we end up reading in the news is usually about the nuances of the services and things that it's not really the the bigger picture always, and so this was really nice to hear.

And so this was really nice to hear.

Um this is something that while I'm here representing downtown is former planning commission member, and we've been planning for this move and resource and relocation center for a decade as part of the city in focus plan.

I remember working with prior city administrator Bruce Scrub trying to find grant funding for this center back then before COVID even happened.

And so this is something that has been studied, it's been vetted, and I think you know, these private partners are stepping up with substantial commitments, you know, lowering the city's burden on this.

This is how nonprofits work, this is how this partnership can work.

The private entities in our community are amazing and they're appreciative and they really want to help.

I think what I'm here and been told to say is that they want to see the city act.

Um they want to trust that the city is going to lead on this, and we can go into the new year looking forward and not backward.

And we know that the current location is is not designed for what it's handling right now.

I think we saw the article in the paper today, and um know that that's not treating anybody well, not treating the city well, not treating those providing services well, and uh I think we can all do better, and this is a big step forward on it and really appreciate it.

I want to thank everybody for their efforts on this and anything we can do to continue to help, we're more than happy to hear to help.

And Merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Thank you, Rachel.

Do I have a motion?

So move.

Second, and then comment.

Any discussion, Mr.

Kolpak.

Yeah, I want to say I've been part of some of these private efforts to raise funds with the area businesses and other conversations.

There was also a meeting um with the North Dakota Department of Health that went extremely well around supporting this concept of resour resource and recovery center, um, as long as many community partners and this the the downtown engagement center has to move.

The building was never intended to be used for this reason.

Um, and so you know, the idea here is to is to test this with support of some local area organization and and and um programming, but also eventually working with the state to continue to find funding long-term sustainability for this concept.

And so um commend the staff for the hard work and um the creativity and innovation um in getting us to this point.

And I also want to thank the downtown businesses that have um been partners in this as well, but clearly um you know, have have rightful concerns.

And the last thing I'll say is, you know, as a commission long before my time, met much investment was made, as we've talked about many times in downtown, and um we owe this to to that work and to innovation and entrepreneurial ship too to get this done.

Any other discussion?

Mr.

Turnberg.

Mr.

Chair.

Can you um clarify how much money is needed to actually move?

And did I read that correctly?

We have 500,000 raised.

Is that it?

We have pledges for more money, and money is coming in.

The FM Foundation has a list when they should report on us on a weekly basis.

We think it was initially we thought it would be a cost close to two million.

We think we're getting down to 1.5 million, and we have some commitments of uh some businesses that will help us if we're having difficulty closing the gap.

I've met with 30 businesses.

I plan on meeting with 30 to 40 more businesses, and that's been very positive with all the businesses we met with.

Any other discussion?

Commissioner Strain.

Thank you, Mayor, and and commissioners and those of you who uh have um put your fingerprints on this effort.

There's there's it's a it's a really tough place to be between a rock and a hard place.

But bottom line, our city has choices to make, and and we're we're leading with heart to try help people in need, and people who are falling through the cracks of the system.

You know, we we have uh 80 people or so, is the report staying in our our evening, our our winter warming center.

That's that's a small town in North Dakota, and those are people's family members.

They're all somebody's like brother or sister or family or friend or circle or neighbor, and and and and yeah, they're not all from here, but but this is what Fargo does.

It draws people to our community.

We we serve all kinds of people from the region.

I just I don't know that we have magic bullet.

I don't know that we have uh uh an answer that will guarantee in two or three years this is this is all right or or not.

But I'll I'll say an old saying I learned 50 years ago from a friend in college.

It's not always whether you make the right decision or the wrong decision.

It's making the decision right.

And this is on us to try and make this the best example of what can be done in a community facing these human challenges.

And they're and they're just they're there.

So all of us get to put our our our our effort into and our best thinking into and our leadership into the best we can do to make this as right as possible going forward.

I I agree with Commissioner Kolpeck and the DCP and others that you know geez, we have a spectacular downtown.

And we have stuff going on in our downtown.

Do you remember when Fargo was like 30 years ago?

I do.

I was I moved here then back then to my business to downtown, and it was empty and it was vacant.

And I remember one time a business leader saying, We need to get rid of those people.

I go, well, let's the answer is fill it with all these other people so that you don't see those people as much.

Because those people existed here then too.

Those people.

You know, but thank goodness our our our people have invested in our downtown to make it a shining example in the country.

You know, those of us who travel to other cities and see their downtowns, some of them are just empty and dismal.

And we got a spectacular downtown.

But it's on us to keep keep supporting our investors, supporting our businesses, supporting those who've made it uh put their vision and their futures on the line.

And it's also on us to try help those who don't have that uh that wherewithal and social capital to make it day-to-day easily.

So I hope this works.

My commitment is to try and make it work.

My commitment is to try to contribute to the public health and the harm reduction folks and to the nonprofits to to try our level best to do our best.

And and not doing this, I can say this clearly, isn't our best.

Any other discussion?

Strand?

Yes.

Colpak, I Pepcorn, no.

Turnberg?

No.

Mahoney.

I have my recommendations for the following appointments on Board of Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission.

I so move.

And residents, Renaissance zone, sorry, you had add one more.

You move all three, Dave.

I move all three.

Is there a second?

Second.

Any discussion or comments?

Roll call vote, please.

Pepcorn?

I churnberg?

Aye.

Kolpak?

Aye.

Strand.

Yes.

Mahoney.

No update other than to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

That would be nice.

Mr.

Turnberg.

Um I will have library activities on my Facebook page, so you can check those out, and that is it.

They're pretty active, aren't they?

They have a lot of stuff for the kids.

Lots of stuff.

And adults.

I have no updates.

We're talking about axon.

That was pretty much my thing on police fund.

Mr.

Colpeck.

Yep, I have a couple slides.

Um speaking of holiday spirit, I was um had the opportunity to judge this year's department decorations again across City Hall, and there were some pretty creative options out there.

So the planning and development department for the second year in a row won the overall award with the Charlie Brown theme.

And I have to say Mark Williams was Charlie Brown.

Um the inspections department took the community spirit award with the classic 1950s theme.

Um that's the one in the upper right.

And then we had a special award this year, the assessor's office won for the most beautiful and most effort.

So those were our three winners for this year's City Hall decorations.

Mr.

Strand.

No, I have one more.

Oh, there it is.

Yeah, this was just a picture we talked about, the um the boys and girls club having their first meeting in the new um boys and girls club location by Rose Creek.

So that was them Sunday walking through the first efforts with the facilitation of Robin Nelson of Boys and Girls Club, talking about their new vision, mission, um, and where they're going to be headed.

So thank you all for that vote tonight.

Unanimous, it's nice to see the support of our youth.

And then the fire department, I was able to contribute ringing um two shifts in and the fire department day for the Salvation Army.

I'm honored to serve as the Salvation Army's Red Kettle campaign chair this year, and crews were stationed, and this is metro-wide across uh all of the hornbachers and other places for bell ringing.

Um and so many thanks to the firefighters.

It was a very cold day that day, I will add.

If you were outside ringing the bell.

So more bell ringers are needed.

And the last, the police department.

Um, I was able to finally attend my first beat meeting, the first two I was at other board meetings and couldn't make it, but um attended the beat five meeting at the new sports facility.

Um and there were about 10 citizens there with really good questions, um, and a number of officers there sharing their expertise and answering questions.

And so I just really encourage you when it's your turn in your neighborhood to attend these meetings and to continue the importance of community policing together.

So those are my updates.

I think on that it's really nice for them to meet the younger officers when the younger officers met the neighbors, just for them to know who to call and who they're dealing with.

And I think in a couple of the neighborhood meetings, you had people, even Dave that were Northsiders that there were patrolling the north side that knew the north side and all the hangouts Dave used to be at.

But I mean it was uh interesting that you had some officers that had come back to Fargo and are actually working our beats.

And I I think the neighbors really like that.

Commissioner Strand.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, I I I'd like to extend to the commission uh uh uh uh an invitation from Paula Ekman, the chair of the airport authority board of directors.

And uh she has suggested I know how excited we were when they had the grand opening of the parking ramp.

Uh well, the pretty soon the the entire new terminal will be secure.

And she's asking us if we would like a a group tour for executives.

I and somebody has said, well, you can only do two at a time.

I'd I'd I'm open to us all touring it and getting it and seeing it.

And and but if you're all up for that, we'll have Kimber follow up on that and and see what our options.

I I'm not afraid of a quorum being present at uh at the airport authority.

We could have the press there, it doesn't matter.

Absolutely.

We want the public to see.

I just came in the other day after you are all in a blizzard and boy, that parking ramp is a nice addition in our city.

But anyway, to follow up with Kember if you'd like to join us.

I would Kember, if you could help us with this invitation to uh with Chair Ekman to tour it.

I'm looking forward to you all seeing it as well.

Public comments.

We have two sequels speaking tonight.

Uh Gert, Carroll would be first.

Gert, Carroll.

Gert, you come over to the speakers here and to this podium here, you're coming the right way.

And you'll be given uh two minutes and thirty seconds.

You'll kind of hear a beep when you get close to the end okay.

Uh I should just note this is my first time doing this.

That's okay.

Try to relax.

Just you and tell us what you want to tell us.

We're happy to listen.

Yeah, so I wanted to talk about uh public transportation in Fargo.

Um I know that there have been proposed, I want to say shifts or changes or cuts to certain routes, bus routes and whatnot.

Um I also wanted to offer a bit of a different take on things.

Um especially with and I'll try and keep my thoughts in order here.

I did write something down, but I'm not really using that at the moment.

Uh the first thing I will say, especially with public transit, is that it has never really been given a lot of time and care and attention that it needs here in America in general.

This isn't just North Dakota, this is North America.

This can go, you know, from California to New York and back and forth, although I think New York City covers its transit pretty well.

Um I just wanted to propose routes, more routes to West Fargo.

I wanted to propose the possibility of a route down further through South Fargo, uh as well as over to Horace possibly to open up job opportunities for people who might otherwise not be able to get down there if they don't, if they can't say afford a vehicle or own one.

Um that's the first thing.

Uh second thing, as somebody who has to use public transit to get around town, uh I do find that it is uh useful to have.

But like I said, expanding it would be nice.

Um I also have to use Uber to get to work, unfortunately.

Uh and I would like to uh also propose the second idea.

Again, I'm not sure how much of this works, but for the second idea, um instead of using services like Uber and Lyft, which take a large chunk from drivers, uh that the city and state possibly institutes its own rideshare service.

This could be another route for revenue in the future.

I don't know.

This is just an idea that I got speaking with Uber drivers while taking those rides.

And it's something that I just wanted to put forth.

So that's it.

Thank you.

Gert, you may want to talk to Commissioner Strand, who use the question around transit.

If you want to have a private meeting with him sometime, give you suggestions, you could easily do that.

Absolutely.

Christopher Collin is my next speaker.

Yes, Christopher Cohen again, Furgo resident, and I'd like a written response to this comment, please.

Uh so I'd like the public to know that at the November 29th Arts and Culture Commission meeting.

Um I was not allowed to speak uh as required by state law.

And furthermore, it was neither broadcast nor recorded.

Now I know it was in the medal arc room and it's not specifically set up for a broadcasting that I know of.

Although uh I think they use um Microsoft Teams conferencing for that, and anybody who's on that or using that can also broadcast.

So there were there was that ability to do that.

Um I don't know why it wasn't recorded.

And in fact, for the past two years, none of the ACC meetings have been recorded.

And this is uh uh opposed to sever September 10th, 2018 public meetings broadcast and recording policy that says every effort will be made to record and broadcast city-related public meetings not held within the city commission chambers as technology and staffing resources allow.

It was from 4 to 5 p.m.

Communication staff work those hours, and um so uh the and the technology is uh uh it's allowed by technology.

So every effort um that's a pretty high standard, I think.

Um and then lastly, I want to say that um uh I want the public to know that if you if you contact the city, you write a letter, or you call, or I mean if you send an email, they have to respond to to you within 24 hours to at least say they did receive your uh message and uh estimate the time that it'll take for them to get back to you once they look into it or they consult with another department or so for this is in the communications policy.

And uh, you know, some departments and some staff follow that to a T.

Thank you for that, but not everybody does.

And um I think it should be followed.

Myself, I don't need you know, if they're a day late or two days, I don't care.

I know people get slammed with work, but uh to go for a week or never respond at all, that's not acceptable.

Thank you.