City Commission - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. We'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I invite you to join us. Roll call. Here. Here.

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Here. Here. Here. Here.

Good evening, everybody. Tonight, I'd like to take a moment to recognize two remarkable public servants. Scott and Cindy Lindahl are both retiring after careers dedicated to serving the people of Fargo. Together, they represent more than 50 years of service to our community. Cindy spent 21 years helping children and families discover the love of reading and learning through the public library. Scott spent 30 years helping grow and protect Fargo's urban forest for further generations. Tonight, we're honored to celebrate both of them and thank them for making Fargo a better place. Cindy joined the Fargo Public Library as part of the bookmobile staff in 2005 and later worked at Northport Library location when it opened in 2006. Since 2011, Cindy has worked in the Children's Services Department as a Children's Programming Associate, where she has been a familiar, welcoming face at events and in the library. Throughout her career, Cindy has touched the lives of countless youngsters and families across our community with her warmth and energy. She has been instrumental in developing and facilitating events, partnerships, to support the library's mission. Her creativity and passion are evident with every initiative and partnership she has fostered over the years. And today, she had a special event with the children in which we got to see bubbles come up by the city hall. And I think the kids had a ball. But thank you for every book recommendation, every storytime laugh, and for helping kids of all ages discover that the library is a place where they belong. We would also like to recognize Scott, who joined the City of Fargo as Arborist Supervisor in 1996 and became the Fargo City Forester in 1998, a position he has held with dedication and distinction ever since. Throughout his career, Scott earned numerous professional certifications and achieved many accomplishments. He has helped shape Fargo's urban forest, built strong partnership with organizations throughout the region and nation, and inspired countless volunteers, students, and professionals along the way. His leadership at events like Arbor Day and Reforest the Red has engaged thousands of community members in planting and caring for trees. He also helped establish the mutual aid agreements across North Dakota, ensuring communities could support one another during times of need, including the recovery efforts following the Northward tornado. Scott often says that some of the greatest rewards of his career have been becoming a city forester, serving on the ISA certification board, and building relationships with dedicated professionals who share his passion for urban forestry. The respect and admiration he's earned through his colleagues are testimony to his leadership and his commitment to the field. Scott's legacy will live in the trees growing throughout the Fargo, the programs he helped build, and the people he has mentored and inspired. Scott, may your retirement be much like your favorite tree, the hackberry, strong, resilient, and continuing to thrive for many years to come. On behalf of the city of Fargo, thank you, Scott and Cindy, for everything you've done for our community, and we wish you well in your next chapter.

This is a great organization to be with. I've been here for 30 years, so yes. And this community has been, never thought that Fargo, North Dakota would be my kind of final stopping place after a forest management degree out in Colorado. Surrounded by trees, but this is where I ended up and it's been a lot of fun and I met a lot of people and I'm gonna miss a lot of things, including those people. So thank you.

A librarian doesn't wanna talk?

We're not kids though, okay.

50 years is a long time, thank you. Appreciate that very much. Is there a motion to approve the order of agenda moving item three from the consent agenda to the regular agenda for further discussion?

I so move. Is there a second?

Second. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting May 26, 2026? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

All those in favor say aye. Aye. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items 1 through 23, excluding 3? Is there a motion?

So moved.

Is there a second?

Second.

We'll call vote, please.

Kolpak? Aye. Chernberg? Aye. Pepkorn? Aye. Strand? Yes. Mahoney?

Aye. Anacmus is going to do a construction update. We sure can tell this, Tom, because everybody has a hard time getting to City Hall right now.

Yep, it is that season. Well, good evening. You know, I've been doing this for a few years now, and so kicking off our first update of the season, and we'll plan to do this every other cycle, typically once a month. First off, there have been no injuries or safety incidents on any City of Fargo projects that we've been made aware of. Best place to find more information beyond this right here is FargoStreets.com. We have a lot of interactive maps there, a lot of project pages specific to current projects, also future projects. And then the interactive maps there show all of our capital improvement projects across the city. And there's also a map there that shows road closures and detour routes. And so a lot of good information that can be found on FargoStreets.com. Start with an update of Gateway Fiber's build-out. We're in the second year of their project. You can see that there's a number of areas that have been completed. Those are shown in the map. On the South side of town South 32nd Ave South between 32nd 52nd areas in green are complete. There's a few areas in orange that are ongoing. Yellow have been submitted, reviewed by us and are permitted routes. Areas in white are have been submitted and have not yet been approved, but are being reviewed by our staff so. There's a lot of work taking place by Gateway and we continue to manage that work within the public right away. First rehab reconstruction project to talk about is 45th Street South. We're doing a concrete pavement repair. This is going to be a two-phase, two-year project. We're currently working in the north part between 9th Avenue South and 15th Avenue South. Currently the northbound lanes are reduced to one lane and closed today was 9th Avenue South. We're doing some repair of some of those side streets near some of those major intersections. Next 32nd Ave South roadway is closed between 15th St and 11th St. Business access is provided though. Contractors working on underground between 15th St and University Drive and then east of University. They're working on paving. Here's a picture of that paving standing near the river looking back West right right next to the new storm lift station there and you can see that we're installing a cul-de-sac at the end of this road which used to be a dead end road. but in installing a cul-de-sac as part of this project. NP Avenue contractors working on underground utilities between 2nd and 4th Street, which that portion is closed. They are finding a lot of very old infrastructure and a lot of utilities along this corridor, so it's making for some very slow going. Here you can see an example of their installing sanitary sewer on the project site. Number of core neighborhood reconstruction projects first one in Longfellow neighborhood. They're working in multiple phases up here working both on underground utilities and roadway paving Another project in Longfellow also working in currently one phase on Willow Road right now Should be finishing up the pavement soon in that section and then moving west and to additional underground utilities. I Another project, core neighborhood reconstruction. This one is in Hawthorne neighborhood. We tend to phase these projects about in block length segments just to minimize the impact to the public. And so there are multiple phases closed at one time, but we do so in coordination. We restrict where that can be so that we minimize that impact. But again, multiple phases being worked on currently, both underground utilities and roadway paving. And finally, another core neighborhood, Reconstruction Roosevelt neighborhood. Similar thing here, working in one of the phases right now, working both on underground utility activities and roadway pavement. A lot of other projects happening around town. You've certainly experienced likely the First Avenue North utility location verification project. What we're doing that for is we have a planned reconstruction project on First Avenue North. So this project is gonna do a couple things for us. It verifies the location of private utilities along the corridor. That way we can design around them if possible. And if we can't design around them, It gives us an opportunity for those companies to understand where they might need to relocate along the corridor. So both saves the city money and time once we get into construction. So it can be impactful right now, but it's very important to both save costs and time on that future project. So that's been a good project for us. And then we have a number of citywide projects, crack fill, mill and overlay, sidewalk replacement repair, and then storm sewer repairs, both on the pipes, but also on the lift stations. A few new development projects going on. First one, Selkirk Place, fourth edition, contractors working in both phase one and phase two, underground utilities, Lomer work, and then there's also an extension of the levee as part of that project along drain 53. then two projects up north the contractors working on dakota commerce center and 46 avenue north industrial park here's a image from last week of the southwest metro pond sometimes called lake fargo contractor is about 85 percent complete with the excavation for that pond and they're also working on grading of the roadway along 64th avenue about half of that is done there they're doing the remaining portion between 45th street About a wet half a mile west of 45th Street VA shared use path contractors working on some removals grading and graveling here's an image of that Graveled sub base that they'll ultimately pave the shared use path on top of this is near the VA near their flood wall Belmont levy and flood wall currently working on pouring the flood walls near the water treatment plant and Here you can see the water treatment plant there on the side of the photo. They've poured part of the foundation here. They'll ultimately pave or sorry, pour the wall going above this. But you can see it's a very large footing that exists below those floodwalls. A number of other projects we know will be kicking off somewhat soon. J&O 45th Street apartment, it's a new development just off of 45th Street. A few projects, recon rehab type projects, new traffic signal along 23rd Avenue South at 55th Street intersection. 19th Avenue and University will be impacted somewhat soon. We just put message boards up there to notify the public of that upcoming impact and then sanitary sewer lining project as well. Again, fargostreets.com is a great place to find out additional information, but happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Mr. Strand.

Thank you. Thank you, Thomas.

Two thoughts.

When you're talking about, like, redoing the infrastructure, like on NPE, and you rip, do it all up and tear, I'm wondering what kind of preparations do you do while you're doing that that anticipate the future? Because technology is changing. What kind of stuff are you doing there to know that when new fiber optics or technology comes in, how far are we preparing for that? And how are we doing that?

Yeah, there's a number of things we've done on previous projects. Sometimes we've installed duct banks to allow for that conduit to go in or replace a conduit to allow the cable to go into the future and do so less impactfully. A lot of it is not our infrastructure in those corridors, and we're working with those private companies to either relocate, update, provide new locations for their existing infrastructure. Some take the opportunity to make those improvements, and some don't. And unfortunately, we can't force it. I WOULD JUST SAY EXCEL HAS BEEN A REALLY GOOD PARTNER THERE. THEY TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY TO A LOT OF TIMES UPDATE THEIR NATURAL GAS SYSTEM IN OUR PROJECT AREAS. IN SOME PROJECT AREAS, ESPECIALLY OUR CORE NEIGHBORHOODS, WE'VE BEEN WORKING WITH THEM FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND THEY'RE ACTUALLY GETTING INTO THOSE AREAS A YEAR AHEAD IN WHICH AGAIN MINIMIZES THE IMPACT TO OUR CONTRACTOR. SO THERE IS A LOT OF PLANNING THAT GOES INTO THAT AND TRYING TO MANAGE THAT THE BEST WE CAN.

My next question is climbing way up into the balcony. All of these construction projects you've just shared with us that anticipate what's coming this next year, it's substantial. Are there any projects there that are not affected or impacted by the 1% sales tax income? And I'm just wondering if that were not to pass, and you're our engineer, but if that didn't pass, what would that list look like in the future of our projects?

IT'S A REALLY GOOD QUESTION. OTHER THAN OUR NEW DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, THE PROJECTS I LISTED HERE, ESPECIALLY OUR RECON REHAB TYPE PROJECTS ARE HEAVILY RELIANT ON SALES TAX. SO THE BENEFIT OF SALES TAX IS IT'S REALLY OUTSIDE OF SPECIAL ASSESSMENTS, IT'S OUR LOCAL FUNDING SOURCE. SO IF A PROJECT HAS FEDERAL it ends up being our local match typically that we have to bring to the table. Without that sales tax, we either need to do less work, which is going to mean that our infrastructure is going to decline over time, or we need to modify how we pay for our infrastructure. And so whether that's increased utility fees, increased special assessments, whatever it might be. But unfortunately, the infrastructure that our residents and businesses are relying on is generally going to have to be paid by them, right? And so sales tax does benefit our community by allowing our visitors to help pay for the infrastructure they rely on. So not having sales tax would be very impactful to our streets and utilities. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thanks, Tom. Great report. I'll be finished 30 seconds pretty soon. and twenty-five recommendation to prove the community develop our crap and home investment partnership programs two thousand twenty six hundred action plan and budget and amendments to two thousand twenty-five action plan and citizens participation then the corporate real to explain uh... good evening mayor and commissioners i am here uh... following them alas a commission meeting and following the public hearing uh... today we're here to confirm the public comments that were

that we received on the allocation plan. And then I thought I would just do a brief review of what is in the action plan and how we got to the action plan in relation to the consolidated plan, which is our strategic plan. And so just as a reminder, the HUD fiscal year is off the city's calendar year. fiscal year and so our program year actually started in May and so goes May to April 31st and we wait on the allocation of Congress and the allocation of the budget before we can begin our process so we're in a pretty tight notification process and And once we receive that notification and allocate, make our recommendations, we do a public notice, we have a public meeting, and that's an open house in addition to the public hearing at city commission. And we are one of four other cities in the state of North Dakota, Minot, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and I guess four total cities in terms of direct allocations from the federal government. As a reminder, we're doing, there's several different HUD programs, but we do two different HUD programs, the Community Development Block Grant Funds and the Home Investment Partnership Program. And I come in front of you several times a year one as Every five years with a consolidated plan and so as early as next year We'll be starting our next five-year plan and the outreach process and then once you affirm those five those goals for the five-year plan every year I'm in front of you to affirm those those goals as well as to allocate those goals related to the strategic plan and And then I'll be back in front of you in July to report on the goals in our findings related to those goals. So we're just finishing up our year end report. So I'll be back in front of you in July in that public hearing process as well. So starting a couple years ago, we had some staff organizational changes, as well as there were some federal administrative changes. And there's been a lot of changes in the HUD program, as well as our findings throughout the last 20 years. I've been director now since I think I'm on my fifth or sixth year. And through our staff, with Tia, former community development division leader and now with Christie we were learning that ways we've been doing the HUD administration for the last 20 years wasn't really working as we move forward into succession planning organizational changes and technical assistance for instance in 2024 and in 2025 we had to end three projects related to construction based on the specific request he received last time through Beyond Shelter. Whenever you're building a large apartment project like that, like the high rise or like the BSI project, you're amassing millions of dollars in order to build a project. A project like that costs 40, $50 million. One unit of those apartment buildings are what's being asked for for home funds from home allocation. So when we look at what is our tie-in to these funds in relation to a large construction project? We're waiting on all of this other capital to be raised. We're waiting on monitoring and expectations set forth by the size of that project and when we look at that succession It's not really resilient. So we've had to cancel projects that that we tell HUD we're going to do, but then we can't get that money out the door fast enough. And then with the change of staff, for instance, we're still closing out Elliott Place even though it's been open for two years. And we're still looking at reporting on Milton Earl even though it's been open. And then we monitor those projects for 20 years. And so my staff, I have two staff that just monitor apartments and the rental assistance and the rent related to those apartments and working with property managers. And so we look at the succession of that and its longevity and don't feel like that's a really good place for HUD funds. There's also a lot of procedural changes. Previous projects have looked at HUD money as first in money and actually it has to be the last money. So you can't bank on that money. for future allocations, say with the state or with the HIF funds or the housing trust funds. And so as capital stacking related to these funds, they become really hard to administrate. And so when we started, this was all in our analysis and starting in 2024. In 2024, we had the hard look of do we even continue these programs or do we move forward? And it's a lot of money that can benefit our public. And so we looked at how we can reallocate that that money into different types of programs. So we looked at the history of how we've used those funds. We've interviewed hundreds, I shouldn't say hundreds, but over 30 nonprofits, looked at the state, how they do their funds. We looked at our other jurisdictions in Grand Forks and Bismarck and Minot and really analyzed how we manage the funds and how can we best serve the funds with the most efficiency and the least risk. And so when we also looked at what are our greatest housing needs, how do these housing issues get funded, and what is like that base core value? What does the city bring to this discussion of affordable housing that's unique to other organizations and that's unique to state, federal? What's unique to the city and what is our core value and need? And when we looked at those questions, we also looked at our previous consolidated plans where we've had hired consultants in the past and done extensive outreach, especially during the pandemic. We look at all the studies that you're familiar with related to not just the growth plan, but the housing study. And then we look at how are the frontline service providers working. So that's United Way, First Link. SUNCA, Presentation Partners, the Homeless Coalition, the Housing Authority, Beyond Shelter, YWCA, Youth Works, all of these organizations. And as staff, myself and Katlyn in particular, we go to these monthly meetings, we go to the quarterly meetings to learn what the organizations are doing. And these are the lists that we assembled of our findings. We also look at many different, if you look at the Consolidated Plan and the Action Plan, tons of charts related to data and needs. And so you'll see a population change of 22 percent. And you'll see over 8,000 households in our community make less than 30 percent, so zero to 30 percent of annual income. And so we're worried about the people who make no money and who have no income that can qualify for services. And so how does – who's serving those folks? We also look at the under the housing spectrum and evictions and through some outreach that we did and partnerships with Beyond Shelter, we look at we need to be providing 250 households units a year to just keep up with basic demand. That's not including, when this study was done, that's not including inflation and other components related to housing costs. We're also looking at eviction data. The latest eviction data shows over 30 potential hearings a month, and so in Cass County alone. And so this is all stuff that we're monitoring and we look at. And then when we look at, this is out of the regional housing study. So, for instance, you'll see the line home investment partnership program. You know, only 12 units have been provided related to home funds. You know, the rest of that money, if you look at, you see the pilots that are requested for LIHTC funding and other sources of funding. And so, again, when we look at what's unique to city of Fargo home allocation, what can we do with those funds? In our core neighborhoods plan, you can see the blue in the Madison neighborhood. Well, it's scoring well below average on what the market could demand for. And so we at the city started looking at how else can we amass resources to help support the Madison neighborhood so it doesn't go into further blight? How can we keep that houses and stabilize that housing as we move forward? and so as we look at the goals so the way the goals work in the home and CDBG allocation we have to identify major categories and these are all coded I mean there's over hundreds of categories that get coded and ranked and all of there's a really formulaic way that HUD works with these funds and so the three goals that we categorized the needs as an affordable housing, how to keep that housing preservation and stability, how do we end and prevent homelessness, how do we serve individuals related to that, and how do we look at public infrastructure and related to low to moderate income neighborhoods. And then fair housing is a required mandate. We do a special report specific to that that we publish with HUD. So real quick summary on our consolidated plan for affordable housing. So two years ago, I'll just remind, or one year ago, the city commission approved our consolidated plan, our strategic plan. And so these aren't really up for discussion unless we wanna make an amendment, which I don't recommend if we're gonna keep our 2026 funding. And so for goal number one, we've looked at for the next five years, setting up a tenant-based rental assistance program, and bringing back our single-family renovation program that we used to have. Right now we're focusing on our tenant-based rental assistant. We started looking to the state and other granting programs so we're not competitive to them and trying to mimic what the state is doing. And so looking at SENCA, which is our local action agency, our federal agency, is who we're trying to partner with. We have it's taken a year to set up policies and procedures to make sure we have the bookkeeping and the grant funding. And really, they're the only organization because there's no money in tenant based rental assistance. There's no administrative dollars that can go with this. This is all money that goes straight out to the landlord in relation to rent. and potentially of needs. There's still a lot of caveats on this program as we further define this program that will be back in front of you as part of this establishment. And then ending and preventing homeless for the last 20 years we've allocated basically a staff person and that staff person has shifted between providing support at the library, providing support at the police department and currently providing support at public health as they do street outreach with chronic homelessness and people needing to find housing, basically. And then our public infrastructure, right now we're partnering with engineering, and we have been spending, right now we're in the start of the environmental review of the Madison neighborhood. This is probably about a year, year and a half program that we've been in, and before we can go live with a construction project that you'll see in front of you as part of a construction bid, normal bidding process, we first have to set up our infrastructure monitoring and requirements and financial management. So that's what we've been working on as we set up our policies and procedures for that. And then Fair Housing, we partner with High Plains Fair Housing for education programs training and triaging concerns, also with the state legal aid of North Dakota. And we do recognize there's growing need more and more. For the last year and a half, we've been working with High Plains to get a Fargo-based staff person in Fargo as opposed to in Grand Forks. Right now, High Plains was based in Grand Forks, but they are working across the state And they do a lot of like secret shopper programs as well as complaint-based programs as we work on finding where those shortfalls are. So in summary, the goals for 2026 is to continue the goals that we set for the five-year plan. And specifically as we look at supporting tenant-based rental assistance, working with staff to provide direct assistance out on the street, and then doing the alley paving program, allocating another 550,000 towards that program. And that summarizes in the totals you see here. And per the publication, we're seeing this meeting here, and then as soon as that concludes, hopefully successfully, we would file that with HUD in the next few weeks. We did apply for an extension, So we have a little bit of time for deliberation if that's needed. And then just as a reminder for anybody working in the public and in the community, we work with just because we're not, there's not a whole lot we can do with a million dollars in terms of solving for homelessness, but we rely on our partners to commissioner strands point of doing round tables and engagement as we learn about, uh, what the constraints are, uh, for, uh, supporting housing. So that's a quick summary of our HUD, how we got to where we're at. Glad to answer any questions. And in your packet, our direct feedback that we received related to this, and I'd be glad to answer any questions related to the comments received.

Well, Nicole, you truly gave the rest of the story, so thank you for that review of what we've done in the past as well. Any questions for Mr. Turnberg?

Nicole, how do we police or gauge some of these programs that have worked with the city. I know I've met with residents under the YWCA who are unhappy with what they proposed with their transitional housing and what's actually being done and seeing a lot of bad activity there. Are we monitoring that?

To some degree. So with Housing we're working with I would say the police department our code enforcement task force and the neighborhood itself as well as the managers and the owners of the operators of YWCA and WITH THE HUD FUNDS, THERE'S NO HUD FUNDS GOING INTO THE HOUSING PROJECT. PAST HUD FUNDS HAVE GONE INTO THE SHELTER IN THE HEATER. BASICALLY WE PAID FOR THE HEATER THAT WENT INTO THE SHELTER. IN TERMS OF THE CONVERTED CONVENT, THAT HAS BEEN FEDERAL DOLLARS GOING STRAIGHT FROM THE HOUSING AUTHORITY TO THAT PROJECT.

Yeah, Nicole, can you speak to what we're seeing across the country in utilization of these funds and how these kinds of programs are mirroring what other municipalities are using the funding for? Yeah, thank you.

These funds are very, very hard to use at a local level, especially in the Midwest and in rural states. I feel like they're really designed for the Chicago's and Minneapolis's and Kansas City's where they have WHOLE HOUSING DEPARTMENT AND THAT'S ALL THEY DO IS MONITOR HOUSING UNITS AND BUILD HOUSING UNITS AND MAYBE SOMEDAY WE CAN GET THERE BUT RIGHT NOW YOU'RE REALLY SEEING THESE MONIES USED FOR PROBABLY OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL PROJECT AND EASIEST BECAUSE YOU ONLY HAVE ABOUT SIX MONTHS TO GET THE MONEY OUT AND SO THE BEST AND EASIEST PROJECT AND MOST EXCITED PROJECT THAT THE MADISON NEIGHBORHOOD HAD WAS THE TRAIL THAT WE BUILT AROUND THE SCHOOL AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD THAT CUTS THROUGH THERE WAS A KIND OF A COW PATH THAT WENT THROUGH THE PARK THAT CONNECTED TO BLOCKS AND THAT'S WHERE THE CITY CAN DO ITS BEST WHERE WE KNOW HOW TO BUILD INFRASTRUCTURE AND THEN WE CAN MONITOR AND SUPPORT THE NEIGHBORHOOD AS BEST WE CAN. SO YOU'RE SEEING IT GOING IN A LOT OF INFRASTRUCTURE. I KNOW LAST I TALKED TO THE FUNDS IN REGION FIVE THAT GOES TO A LOT OF WATER PROJECTS. SO THE CDBG CAN GO TO INFRASTRUCTURE AND LOW MOD INCOME AND JUST LIKE THE INFRASTRUCTURE SALES TAX IT HELPS RELIEVE THE DIRECT COSTS.

DO I HAVE A MOTION? I MOVE FOR APPROVAL. IS THERE A SECOND?

SECOND.

MR. STRAND.

THANK YOU. You know, Nicole, we should probably be spending about four months on this consecutively, every meeting, every week, honing, drilling down deep into each of these topics. You're giving us a balcony view of some really serious topics and issues, you know, and And I know you're talking about home funds and CBDG funds right now, but in between all those lines are some immense needs. And we have people running for office, and that's one of the most primary topics right now is housing, housing, housing, affordable, accessible housing. So that's right. So I'm going to say a couple thoughts, and I'll end it. I agree with having a roundtable. We had talked, and the mayor, I think, had listed me as being the representative on a housing task force. Well, we need to do that. and bring the partners together, the Community Land Trust, Beyond Shelter, the Fargo Housing Authority, Habitat, Rebuilding Together, High Plains Housing, all these entities, sit around the table and talk and learn, because we had some great feedback from last meeting with Dan Madler and so on, Beyond Shelter. It's beyond this scope of this funding. It's what are we going to do in the future? And I'll share some other thoughts from what other cities do that we need to put some due diligence into rather than just lip service, all right? You know, we want affordable housing. Well, there's 600 and some cities, and this is an old number. There are 600 and some cities that have inclusionary housing, inclusionary zoning, which means if you're going to build an apartment building, you're required to do a certain percentage of affordable units in that unit or equivalent in another unit. And if you're especially getting tax breaks, you should be required to have some affordable components somewhere if you're going to be at the public trough. That's one thing that we've never gotten past first base on this. And it's a movement across the country that we can learn from and emulate and mirror and not reinvent the wheel. The land trust was an example of that. We might need a land bank someday. But the land trust, we have 37 houses. in our land trust, that our homes owned by people. So these are topics. A rental registry. How many years are we gonna sit in, a couple years back the legislature came close to preempting cities like Fargo from ever having a rental registry. But these are topics that are front burner, that we have to talk about with housing. Eviction mitigation. 30 some people being evicted per year and then they have seven years of never being able to get housing without being a scarlet letter on their head? These are things we get as a community, we get to address and we need to address, and down payment assistance type programs. So thank you for going up in the balcony, but also, Nicole, reminding us of the immense work we have ahead of us to do, because what do we need, 16,000 homes? We had a proposal of 100 and some homes at our last meeting, and they're talking about a potential billion dollar housing development, and we're kind of on, on our laurels. But if it's a data center, we're front and center. We're right there. So thank you. Let's, after this week's over, see who's at the table and bring everybody together and talk housing, housing, housing. We have lots of partners in the community that are on the bench with you at our city. I'll stop there. Thank you.

Remind John that the data center is in Harwood not in Fargo.

We wanted it here We wanted we wanted to make that Fargo land roll call vote, please.

Oh back. Hi popcorn Strand yes turnburg.

I Mahoney I Ratification make Mary's signature on the first amendment of a memorandum of understanding with presentation partners in housing Mr.. Pep corn you had a question on this

Yeah, so it just caught my eye, and I'd just like to know, obviously, when we voted on this, we voted to make sure that there was financial wherewithal to build it, and so I just want to update us to all of it, how it's going. Thank you.

This is just a memorandum that the presentation partners in housing are moving to the new site, and they need to have that for ratification. Brenda, are you able to give an update for them?

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. So just an update on the new site, is that what you're asking for? I apologize, I didn't know for sure what you were looking for tonight.

I would like an update on how it's all going. When we voted on this, we voted it would not proceed unless it had financial wherewithal, and so just an update on that. And the thing that caught my eye is, so the city is paying for it, and Presentation Sisters, a fine nonprofit, but they're paying nothing. And so I know a lot of really good nonprofits. And so I guess I'm confused as to how come they get to use it for free, and who else gets to use it for free. So just if you could just kind of give us an overview of what's going on, because I would just like to know. Thank you.

Absolutely. And so in front of you today, what you have is a ratification. So original agreement was between presentation partners and the city of Fargo and It even talks within that agreement that it's not a partnership or a joint venture It's that there's some space available and that they were going to be using that space and so as part of that movement of addresses needed to change in that Agreement and so that's what you see before you today now in regards to the other Nonprofits that come in you are correct. There is not a lease payment on any of the nonprofits that are coming into there in this agreement with presentation partners because they have a more permanent situation where they're there more often, they do pay for all their outfitting and any type of infrastructure, cable infrastructure, or anything they need to be using within their offices.

Do we have a motion? So moved. Is there a second?

Second.

Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Strand?

Yes.

OPAC? Aye. PEPCORN?

No.

Trenburg? Aye. Mahoney?

Aye. Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner Simon updates. Commissioner PEPCORN?

Just a real quick one. We're all on the MetroCOG board, and we've had trouble getting a quorum, so I just want to encourage everybody to attend.

And it's not just

So I just want, anyway, everyone knows that, but we can't get the work done if we don't have a quorum. And the main thing is, it's regional planning for transportation. So it's a very important issue. And so I just want to encourage everybody to attend if they can. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is my only slide I've ever done in the history of history. So with all apologies, that's it for today. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

fantastic optics they think it was a proper return were no update swanry party public and the questioners at the southern valley real fire district litigation uh... they did not get an injunction injection would have stopped us uh... fire services within his own that's just south of wal-mart so we're happy about uh... uh... so that's a good news The Police Department received an award because of our policy and procedures. We keep everything up to date and we got one of the highest awards in the nation because we do do a good job of that. And that's basically, we have a service that checks all the policies throughout the nation to make sure we're not behind on where we should be. So it's fantastic that they have gotten that. I just want to congratulate the Chief as well because Downtown is working. We've had more people downtown. The deck has moved out to the new resource or referral and recovery center. I think we'll wait and watch, but I think you'll see some changes in the downtown community. We're getting good responses and have many businesses respond to that. Mr. Kopeck.

Yeah, I have one slide today as well. It was graduation weekend, as a lot of you either participated in or had family members who participated. And I had the honor of being the keynote speaker at Dakota High School's graduation ceremony. 45 seniors graduated, each with an individual story of perseverance and persistence. And it was a really moving ceremony and a really moving evening. So I just want to congratulate all all graduates in the Metro and wish them all the very best.

Mr. Strand.

Thank you, Mayor. I was also going to mention that on the 20, two weeks ago Thursday, we had the grand opening ribbon cutting of the Recovery and Resource Center. And anybody who wasn't there, you need to be aware, the house was packed. It was full of people. The representation from the Chamber of Commerce and the business community was astoundingly, surprisingly gratifying. They have been really hoping for us to come through this with a solution on the end that would be for everybody's benefit. And that showed up the other day with the attendance. And the mayor, you know, you were kind of emotional at points. You know, we don't often see tears running down his, but, you know, this was a long journey. and a heartfelt one, and you're a healer at heart. So it was just really something to see that. My favorite part of the building was all the art, just covered with amazing art from residents and people who were in those programs, that their art reflects and speaks so loudly. So that was a great, great launch of a vision that's going to maybe be an example other cities will emulate down the road, and hopefully we can continue with success. The last thing I would like to say is tonight is the night before election night. Three of you are running for mayor. And one mayor is stepping down after 20-some years of public service, and however many years as mayor you know. There aren't words to thank you enough for stepping into the arena and throwing your hats in and rolling your sleeves up and communicating and fighting for our city and helping that all move forward. To have three of our leaders say, I'm willing to be the leader of the city. And two others. So I just want to acknowledge that. I want to thank you. I want to say good work. How fortunate we are that we have people willing to step up and do that leadership. And who knows what will happen tomorrow, but going into that, you all succeeded. So thanks.

Well, thanks, John. And, you know, I was going to say we don't have any public speakers, but you almost filled in for that, so I appreciate that. So the meeting's adjourned. Thank you.