Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Monday, January 5th, 2026, City Commission meeting.

Would you please join the commission in a pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Madam Secretary, would you please call a roll?

Commissioner Jorgensen?

Here.

Commissioner Zondell?

Here.

Commissioner Jardis.

Here.

Commissioner Olsen?

Here.

Commissioner Anderson.

Here.

That's a record show.

All commissioners are present.

Item D of the of our meeting agenda is to approve the order of the agenda.

It has been presented and in your packets.

Motion to approve.

Commissioner Jorgensen moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

I have a motion and a second to approve the order of the agenda for Monday, January 5th as presented.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Next order of business is to approval of the minutes of December 15th, 2025.

Again, they have been distributed and are in front of you.

Move to approve.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Zondell, second.

I have a motion and a second to approve uh the minutes of December 15th.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item F building permits.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

I would like to recuse myself from the vote, please.

The record show that Commissioner Jorgensen is recused from the building permit report.

Again, Commissioners, it have been distributed in your packets.

Commissioner Zondell moves to approve.

Commissioner Anderson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve the building permits as presented.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Next order of business is the consent agenda.

On the consent agenda this evening, we have items A through Foot.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve.

Commissioner Zundell seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Items A through F.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

Item number one is public comment.

Madam Secretary, has anyone signed up for public comment this evening?

I did not have anyone.

Okay.

Public comment is closed.

We move to item number two.

Item number two is a public hearing in the first reading of A25-23.

A request for approval of a zoning change from residential to to commercial.

Aaron Nelson, Director of Planning and Zoning.

Good evening.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening, President Artis and Commissioners.

Item two is a request for zone change from R2, limited multiple dwelling residential to C late commercial.

The specific requested action today is to hold a public hearing and to approve the first reading of the rezoning ordinance.

Shown here on your screen.

Staff finds the proposed rezoning to be consistent with city plans and ordinances as outlined in the staff report.

And this request comes to you with a recommendation for approval from the Planning and Zoning Commission.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have for staff.

Otherwise, the owner's uh representative is here as well.

Should you have any questions for the applicant?

Thank you, Mr.

Nelson.

Commissioner, do you have any questions on this item?

More than you approve.

Commissioner Jorgenson moves to approve.

Is there excuse me?

We're getting ahead of ourselves.

This is a public hearing.

Is there any discussion?

Any questions for Mr.

Nelson?

Hearing none, we move out of the regular agenda and we are now in the public hearing.

Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak on this item?

Again, this is a rezoning change for A25-23 Meyer 2nd Edition.

Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor of this?

Is there anyone that would like to speak in favor?

Hearing none, is there anyone that would like to speak in opposition to A25-3 Meyer 2nd edition?

Is there anyone that would like to speak against?

Again, is there anyone that would like to speak against this zoning change from R2 to light commercial?

Hearing no comments, public hearing is closed.

Commissioners.

Commissioner Zundal moves to approve the first reading of A25-23 Myers 2nd Edition and approve a zoning change of R2 to light commercial.

Is there a second?

Commissioner Jorgensen seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Thank you, Mr.

Nelson.

Item number three on the regular agenda is a floodplain management ordinance amendment.

We're going to call on Jerry Wallace, City Engineer for the City of West Fargo.

Purpose of this discussion is the second reading to adopt the flood plan management ordinance amendment.

Good evening, Mr.

Wallace, and welcome.

Thank you, Mr.

Commission President and Commissioners.

I'm here before you tonight again to uh go through the second reading to adopt the floodplain management ordinance amendment.

Uh essentially uh Senate Bill 2027 passed last year, uh just requires that uh in order to continue uh in-house floodplain management.

Uh we need to make uh some minor amendments to the ordinance uh to continue compliance with century code.

Uh with that, uh I'm available for any questions you might have.

Questions for Mr.

Wallace?

Anyone move to approve second reading?

Commissioner Anderson moves to approve second reading of the flood plan management ordinance amendment.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Olson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve second reading to adopt the flood plan management ordinance amendment.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you, Mr.

Time.

Item number four is an improvement district twenty-two sixty-five, ninth street and seventh Avenue Northeast, a reconstruction.

We call on Mr.

Dan Hanson, Senior Director of Community and Development Services.

The purpose of this discussion is to accept the bid and award a contract.

Mr.

Hamm, good evening and welcome.

Thank you, Commissioner President Artisan Commissioners.

Uh pleased to announce on December 12th, 2025, the DOT opened up bids for the reference project.

Uh we had a total of nine bids that ranged anywhere between 13,755,418.30 cents to 18,623,902 and 84 cents, with the lowest responsible bidder being Northern Improvement Company in the amount of 13 million seven hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty cents, uh which was uh twenty-eight point seven eight percent lower than the engineers' estimate uh at the time of the bid, which would have been 19,313,000.

So uh it was a very uh uh sought-after project by the construction community, and we did get uh fantastic bids from this.

Um jumping down, uh I'll kind of skip the background of the project summary.

This has been in front of the commission a number of times, but uh one thing that is uh very important to note is that from the financial analysis uh the grants that we were able to secure uh will basically pay for 100 percent of the construction costs of the project uh outside of the water main and the sanitary sewer, which are non-eligible um costs.

Um but outside of that the STBG funds uh and also the state's flex funding that we got through the DOT uh covered covers all of that.

Um when we got the bids that came in uh at the prices that they were, uh the DOT had notified uh our consultant Houston Engineering that they uh were going to um use up all of the STBG funds that were the federal funds that we got through MetroCog and out of the remaining flex funds, which is state funded dollars, uh they were going to be able to return some of that back to the program.

And uh I'm happy to announce that I had uh some discussions with them and uh the DOT graciously uh stuck with the ability for us to use those funds to pay for soft some of the soft costs on the project, including all of the engineering that had been done post April 4th of last year, all the way through uh through construction.

Any change orders that we have, we're going to be able to apply these flex fund dollars towards that, as well as the construction administration, the testing allowance, and also uh you'll see in an upcoming commission meeting, we're gonna be renting and leasing some land adjacent to the project for a lay down yard and stockpile site.

Uh they've also agreed that we can use those flex funds towards that um uh work as well.

So in the end, uh that lowered our uh local cost share by about 2.5 million dollars.

So uh in the end, uh there if you way down in the packet, uh there's a basically I I went back to the original engineer statement of cost that we had with the engineers report and basically took the financial page and just used uh redid that for a perspective.

Here we are.

So by the time that we uh get done with the estimated total cost of the project of 22 million eight hundred and eighty thousand dollars, apply the flex funds, the federal funds.

Uh that brings the local share down to five million eight hundred and thirty two thousand eight hundred and twenty dollars, of which that uh some of that is the water and sewer as I had mentioned, and the rest of that would be 70 percent of the soft costs, which follows our 2022 uh CIP policy for assessments on major arterial uh roadways under a regional uh assessment, and that leaves the 30 percent that would be the city's cost of those uh remaining costs, uh which would be split up between mostly capital improvement sales tax, and then also there has been some plotting fee and loo funds uh for recent plats that have been done in that area that can be applied towards our portion of this project because there are some multi-use uh trail bike paths and and things like that that would be used where there is no real neighborhood park needed or anything like that in that area for for the park district to use.

So, anyways, um breaking it all down at the end of the day, uh the actual total amount coming out of our capital improvement sales tax after everything is calculated out is estimated to be about 1.4 million dollars on a 22.8 22.9 million dollar project.

So things are coming together very well for it.

Um that brings me to the ask today of the commission is to accept the bid and award the contract to northern improvement in the amount of uh $13 million seven hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty cents.

And with that, I will uh stand for any questions.

Questions from Mr.

Hanson, commissioners move the approval.

Commissioner Zondell moves to approve.

Is there a second?

Second, Commissioner Anderson seconds.

We have a motion and a second to approve the accept the bid and award the contract to northern improvement on just uh improvement district number 2265, which is ninth street and 7th Avenue Northeast Reconstruction.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed, motion carry it.

Thank you.

So the work that I'm gonna give credit to Mr.

Scott and Mr.

Hanson both.

Uh this was brought to my attention uh a while back that we were having very positive results, not only with the bid, but with the conversation that Mr.

Hansen was having with the North Dakota DOT.

Uh he was a little guarded in uh he had a verbal commitment from them, but it didn't have it in writing yet.

And uh at the advice of I would give credit to Mr.

Scott, we said uh let's make sure that we have it in writing, and that came through.

But uh your diligence, your pre perseverance of getting this done is a great savings to the city of West Fargo.

So thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Nice job.

Item number five is a water purchase agreement with Cass Rural Water Users District.

We're gonna call on Matt Andrick, the senior director of public works.

Good evening, Mr.

Andrick, and welcome.

Good meeting.

Sorry, good evening, Commissioner President, Commissioners.

Uh tonight we're looking for the approval for the water purchase agreement with uh Casserur Water District.

Um this agreement establishes the terms uh which West Fargo will sell the treated water to Castro Water users and the specific developments on this agreement just supplements the existing water service cooperation agreement.

Uh the initial term of the agreement is for five years uh with the rate of $1.10 cents per thousand gallons above what the city uh Fargo sells the water to us for, uh, and that's between 2026 and 2029.

Uh so I'll ask for the approval of the purchase agreement and uh stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr.

Anvick will we approve.

Commissioner Olson moves to approve the water purchase agreement with Cass Rural Water Users District as presented.

Is there a second?

Commissioner Zundell seconds.

We have a motion and a second to accept the water purchase agreement with Cass Rural Water Users District.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you, Mr.

And you.

Item number six is to approve the second reading and adopt an ordinance number twelve sixty-six regarding the municipal judge.

We call on Dustin Scott, City Administrator.

Good evening, Mr.

Scott, and welcome.

Good evening, Commission President Dartis and Commissioners.

On December 15th, the City Commission held a public hearing and approved the first reading for this ordinance.

During the public hearing, Judge Barkas did offer comments for the Commission's consideration.

The first reading was approved without changes, so the original draft is before you this evening.

And our recommendation is to uh approve the second reading and make the final adoption of ordinance uh 1266.

With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Mr.

Scott?

Anyone move to approve second reading?

Commissioner Anderson moves to approve the second reading and adopt the ordinance of 1266 regarding the municipal judge.

Is there a second?

Commissioner Jorgensen seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Here none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed.

Motion carried.

Thank you.

We now move on to item number seven.

Again, we call on Dustin Scott, City Administrator, with a report on the Moody's Moody's ratings.

Mr.

Scott.

Thank you again, President Dartis.

Uh happy to uh end the year 2025 with some good news from Moody's ratings.

The uh the uh Moody's ratings has reaffirmed our uh A big A little A3 rating, double A3 rating, um, which we've been able to maintain since 2022.

That's not really a perfect comparison, but it's fair enough to think of this kind of like a credit report.

Someone's credit report, you know, a good credit rating is 7800, right?

This is a really good strong rating for for the city of West Fargo.

Uh does reflect our financial health management practices and ability to meet our debt obligations.

Maintaining a strong rating helps keep bowering costs lower, which is absolutely critical as we continue investing in our infrastructure, public safety, and and continue to expand and grow.

Before I answer any questions, I do want to thank Willie, our finance director, and uh Sheila, our senior accountant, for all of their work and diligence and coordinating everything with Moody's and keeping our finance team uh and finances top notch.

So with that, happy to answer any questions.

Questions for Mr.

Scott?

Commissioner Anderson.

Um excuse me.

Looking at this uh at the report here, it talks about some factors that could lead to an upgrade of the ratings or even downgrade.

Um, are we tracking any of these metrics or KPIs within our reporting?

And if not, is there plans to that way?

We can get an idea of which direction we should be heading or have a better idea of where where we sit from a credit perspective.

Yes, absolutely thanks, uh Commissioner Anderson.

A lot of the tracking is really done through our auditing process.

So a lot of that information is in our audits, um specific KPIs.

I mean, there are some things that are I don't know for sure if we're tracking per se.

Um if there's something specific, I can have Willie come up here, maybe address that a little more uh detailed, but I'd say a lot of the information is generally tracked and is a part of our auditing process.

So we are keeping tabs on those those things, things like our our our debt service uh responsibilities where we're at with those, um so on so forth, and there are a lot of factors that go into how Moody's develops their issuer ratings.

So I'd say yes and no, not everything, but for the most part, a lot of that information is is tracked through our auditing process.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else?

All right, thank you.

This is an informational only item.

We move on to number item number eight, uh backup generator for city hall.

Mr.

Scott.

Yes, thank you again, Commissioner President Dartis.

So on Friday morning, there was a power power outage in this area, uh affected City Hall, Rust Ed Center, uh, some of the local neighborhoods.

Wasn't a big outage, but it was it was um significant enough where City Hall here was offline and without power for a couple hours.

Thankfully it was on a Friday morning on a holiday week, so uh it wasn't overly disruptive.

It uh power went out around 6.20 a.m.

and I think was back on within a couple hours.

So we may do.

It was interesting to see people, at least we have flashlights on our phones.

Most people have a phone, so uh it it um we got by for that for that morning.

However, uh it did uh respark, no pun intended, uh, the conversation on backup generator.

About a year ago, we did apply for funding through the Department of Emergency Services.

Uh we were not successful in getting grant funding to install a backup generator, so we we really just we didn't pursue it any further.

However, uh Friday's lesson was um thought-provoking in that we do need to have a consideration of uh backup power.

Um there are varying capacities at which you can back up a building, things like um simply just getting the lights back on and maintaining our IT systems to fully energizing the entire facility.

So what I'm asking for tonight is uh authorization to move forward in preparing and advertising an RFP where we can solicit uh quotes for various backup generator options, bring that back uh to the commission for consideration.

Uh and in the meantime, we will revisit the grant opportunities that are out there.

Maybe something's changed in the last few months.

Uh maybe we just need to re-look at the application that we submitted and is there anything in there that we can change to uh have a successful application?

So um again tonight asking to move forward with issuing an RFP uh for a backup generator.

With that, I'll stand for any questions.

Questions from Mr.

Scott.

I think it's a great idea, and we should move ahead with it.

Thank you.

Is that a motion?

Sure.

I have a motion to uh have the city administrator move forward with an RFP with you with regarding to backup generation of this facility, this facility alone.

Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Sundell, seconds.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Hearing none.

All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Opposed?

Motion carried.

Mr.

Scott, is this going to be uh kind of an a la carte type thing?

That not only the cost of the generator uh for IT and light, but the possibility of um, you know, the if we have a major catastrophe in the region, this might be a hub, if you will, for emergency services, or the same goes for uh knowing what the installation costs are, so we'll have a full we'll have a choice of uh how we proceed.

Yes, Mr.

President, uh, an a la carta is a perfect way to put that.

Uh we are at least we envision that we would solicit um information from the from the uh private community where uh we will not only understand what the pricing would be for various capacities of backup power, but understand what other lead times.

Uh does it take um six months to get here versus uh submitter aid can get something here in two months, you know.

So we want to put all of that information out there, get as many options as we can for the city to consider what is in their best interest to move forward.

Uh as it relates to uh emergency services, for example.

information from the from the uh private community where uh we would not only understand what the pricing would be for various capacities of backup power but understand what are the lead times uh does it take um six months to get here versus uh submitter aid can get something here in two months you know so we want to put all of that information out there get as many options as we can for the city to consider what is in their best interest to move forward uh as it relates to uh emergency services for example uh we do have our active EOC is um between fire headquarters and the police department there are capabilities there but do we want this to be another opportunity to invite whether it's any uh any other community member or agency partner that might benefit from having an online facility if the power does go out so we're gonna explore all those things and yes bring forward an all a card very good option thank you I know I as I serve on the board of the Red River dispatch and the backup generator there was late in arriving thank you thank you next order of business is the city administrators report again Mr.

Scott yes thank you again commission president darvis and commissioners just one update for you this evening regarding our search for a new HR director um I I believe I mentioned before that we did have 34 applications strong um uh interest in in the position we did narrow that down and offered an interview to six candidates of those six four have accepted an interview so we will be conducting the interviews with four candidates next week from there we aim to identify two or three finalists and conduct another round of interviews in late January so um we're taking our time with this we want to find the right fit not only from a qualification standpoint technically but also a cultural fit so uh we might end up with two or three phases of of uh a process to to make that selection so again uh interviews next week with four candidates and with that uh any stand for any questions commissioners any questions regarding that okay thank you I'll leave you with just a happy new year and we look forward to tackling 2026 together thank you thank you Mr.

Scott all correspondence has been distributed and in your mailboxes does any commissioner have any non agenda item they'd like to bring forward at this time no any department have anything non agenda item that you'd like to bring forward at this time with that commissioner anderson move to adjourn commissioner allson second West Rider City Commission is a