City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Monday, August 31st City Commission meeting. We'll start the evening with the Pledge of Allegiance, so I invite you to stand to join us if you're able.

The Pledge of Allegiance is to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, and with that, we'll do the roll call.

Gullickson? Here. Peterson?

Here.

Strand?

Here.

Turnburg? Here.

Beauches? Here. Thank you, everyone. Tonight, we'll have a video featuring the highlights from the Fargo Police Department's annual community picnic that happened a few weeks ago, so you can pay attention to the screens on the walls above.

See you next time. Thanks to some of our sponsors up here in New York.

There you go, great job.

I promise to treat others.

Make good choices.

I promise to help someone. Up, down, up, down, 13.

Well, thank you to our police department, our comms GA team, for putting on another successful event. Always great to see our public safety partners from around the region as well as community partners participate in that event. I know a lot of folks continue to talk about how much fun it was, and, of course, seeing the looks on those kids' faces certainly speaks for itself. So thank you for your hard work. With that, we have an agenda in front of us, commissioners. Is there a motion to approve the order of the agenda? So moved. Thank you.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, nay. We have an approved agenda. We have our minutes from our last meeting on August 17th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve or amend the minutes before us?

I so move.

Thank you.

Second.

Thank you. Any discussion? Discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. Motion carries. We have in front of us the consent agenda, items one through 17. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved. Second.

Second, thank you. Any discussion about the motion?

Commissioner Peterson. Mr. Mayor, thank you. Just for future reference, not worth pulling down, but I'd like to see items similar to 13E, which is the contract we have with our bus station folks that are relocating with the help of our structural engineers. I'd like to see those become hourly contracts. Right now it's a flat fee based on some correspondence we just got from the mayor. So just again, future reference. This can be discussed at a different time. Not worried about it today, but in the future I sure would like to have hourly to a max. I think that would be

better serving the potential expenditures of our taxpayer dollars so thank you mayor thank you commissioner any other discussion discussion hearing none we'll have a roll call vote strand yes peterson yes gullickson yes turnberg yes o'shea aye thank you That takes us into item number 18, our public hearing. We have a few this evening. Our first being a hearing on dangerous building located at 1433 4th Avenue South. We'll have Mr. Radnick from the inspections department to speak to it and then allow anyone present who wishes to address the commission related to that. Mr. Radnick.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Tonight we're here to talk about 1433 4th Avenue South. This is a 1,400-square-foot building storing a half-wood frame single-family dwelling with a detached garage, and it was constructed in 1902, and the taxes are current and paid. The damages to this structure include a lot of foundation issues as well as other issues throughout the house, and in our estimation, it meets 10 out of 10 of the criteria for a dangerous building. Here's a timeline. I know it's very hard to see, but if you look at the first one there, we started with this property back in 2022 as a rental property. It has been vacant since then, as far as we know. And we have been working with the owner throughout this timeline to try and get the Foundation as well as some of the other issues remedied or the structure removed But it came to our attention that he was trying to sell the property and that there's some other issues and that he's not moving on Doing any of the repairs so that we decided it was time that this one needed to come to the Commission as a dangerous building Here are some pictures of the structure just as it stands It doesn't look too bad on the outside at this point Although you can see in that picture on the right that there are some foundation issues. It's difficult to see but it's there and Just going through, you can see there's siding missing. The garage has had some issues. There's just some general maintenance and repair things that need to be done on the exterior. Although they have allowed water infiltration into the home, so it does cause other issues within the house. This is some of the electrical issues we were seeing in the basement. As of right now, there is no power and no water. But as we go through the pictures, you'll see that there's been some shoring up, improper shoring of different framing members. There's just some general issues with the house or the structure throughout. And looking in the basement, we start seeing that there's a lot of Issues with the foundation. As a matter of fact, one of the walls has collapsed in. There's no stairs to actually get down there. There's an improper sump on the right-hand side there. And again, improper shoring to try and keep the house standing. There's been a lot of work, not work done to it, but a lot of things ripped out of it and a lot of incorrect things done to the basement as well as some of the other parts of the structure. And the recommended motion is on your screen. I'll stand for any questions.

Any questions for Mr. Radnick?

Questions?

Is there anyone from the public who wishes to present to the commission relating to this dangerous building? Come right over here. We'll ask you to state your name, and then you can share what you'd like to share with us.

My name is Emmanuel Tetla, and I'm the owner of the house.

And I'm Kerry Johnson, Autopilot Properties, a potential investor for the property.

Thank you. Do you have anything you'd like to share, or would you like to stand for questions first?

Do you want to share anything?

I tried to fix the house, and I don't have funds for it. That's why the property is not going to fall or get danger to the public at this time. I know what is the city concerns and I understand what is going on with my property. It's vacant now. Nobody live there. And I'm just trying to sell it to investor and I ask the city to give me some time. And just they put a danger sign in there. And I cannot put any cell sign or something like that because everybody is just running away from there because it says danger sign in there.

So Emmanuel called autopilot last week, so we have not had a lot of time to evaluate, but we are interested in possibly purchasing the property. The repairs that are needed in it are exactly what you show on the pictures. It's beyond probably repair, is what we feel. So it probably tore down and then we'd reconstruct however that property is in the Jefferson Historic District, so there's a lot of ordinances there that is not just a we can't put up any house so We're asking on the behalf of Emanuel to do an extension. I would guess it would be a month to give us time to do our evaluation and see what kind of house we could build on there to meet those ordinance and to see if we could do it we would have it ready to go for sale in the spring. We'd push hard to get the foundation in the ground before freeze up and then finish it over the winter. So as far as on behalf of him, we would ask if we could have an extension on moving forward with the city doing the demolition and give us time to further evaluate it.

Thank you. Questions, commissioners? Commissioner Peterson?

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Mr. Radnick, the feasibility of a proposal?

Um, so what we're asking for is demolition of the structure by October 30th. What they're talking about reconstructing and things like that, they can go through that as they're demoing the structure as well. So we would like to keep to the current timeline to make sure that something happens with this property as soon as possible. The demolition of it, the reconstruction of it is going to be at their own volition at their own timeline. So we have no problem if they sell the property or whatever they do with the property, as long as that property is demolished by October 30th.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Other questions? Commissioner Strand.

Sean, I'm just curious if the city were to order the demolition and incur the cost for that, Does that result in a lien against the property, or how does that all unfold?

Commissioner Strand, no. What we do is when we demo a property, initially the city fits the bill for it, so we pay the bill for it, but then that gets reassessed back to the property taxes. I will let everybody know that typically when the city does take action like that and demolish a building, it is more costly than if a private owner does it. There's more stipulations that we have and more things that we have to do than a private owner would have to do.

So Mr. Radnick, is it possible that there could be two things happening at the same time? If we move forward with this process, you start getting the bids. I know that's time on your staff's part, but if there's a continued conversation between the homeowner and a potential investor, and they show up during that time period to say that they have something that's come together that includes the demolition and an agreement to when that will be done, are we able then to pause the official process to allow It sounds like the more affordable option and an option that wouldn't put more resources on the city.

So yes, so what our timeline would do right now is give them 60 days to basically demo the structure and they can be coming up with whatever timeline they want to be able to reconstruct. If they needed an extension, we would ask them before the October 30th deadline to give us a good reason why they would need an extension, then we would bring it back to the City Commission for consideration on that. So it would be up to you guys to decide whether or not you would like to grant them an extension or have us proceed forward with demolition at that time.

Commissioner Turberg? I would be, as a neighbor of this property, I feel like this is too long. We've had four years to get things done. I certainly wouldn't want a child going in there, or an adult for that matter. The, the support for the Joyce looked like Legos. I think this is more than generous. We need to demolish this and get this danger out of the Jefferson community.

All right, so if I am, if I understand it correctly, If we pass this motion to deem it a dangerous building and start the order of removal by October 30th, we'll move forward with our process, but at the same time, the landowner could move forward with their process, and if we're in agreement with that, then that meets that need, correct?

That is correct. The only thing that we would do within this time frame to October 30th as a department is make sure that it's secured. And then they have to just talk to us if they're going to be on property and stuff. Otherwise, the police department will end up getting trespassing calls and things. So we just let the PD know what's going on, if somebody's going to be on the property evaluating or doing any work.

Does that sound amicable to you all? I mean, I'll move forward with this motion, and then you'll move forward with what your conversations are?

Our biggest concern is that we have the opportunity before the October, and we would. We'd probably have concrete in the ground before October 30th. So if we can make this work, if we can say don't demolition, we'll demolition it before that date, because we can do it far cheaper than what you guys, so it makes it more feasible for our construction, I would, yeah.

Thank you. And Mr. Radnick, if they move forward with that process, I mean, that's all between the landowner and the developer, right? As long as the building is gone, the building's gone by October 30th?

Yeah, that's what we prefer is that the owners take responsibility for it and actually demo the structure before October 30th. We're just saying that's the day. If you don't have it done by then, we're going to do it now. It's now our responsibility to take care of this.

Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions? May I move approval of the recommended motion?

I second.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion on the motion? Commissioner Peterson.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. And I'd also encourage our inspections team to be proactive in terms of permitting should this thing go the way we're all hoping, that we have a building taken down in the near future ahead of this. And if we can get that footing and foundation and get the basement or whatever it's going to become, a slab on grade, remediated as quickly as possible, again, not to play favorites, but to kind of play favorites, right? That would be great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, we'll do a roll call vote.

Strand?

Yes.

Turnburg?

Yes.

Gullickson? Yes. Peterson?

Yes.

O'Shea?

Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Radnick. We'll move on to item number 19, a hearing on a dangerous building located at 1334 First Avenue South.

Okay, this dangerous building at 1334 First Avenue South. This one is also... A 1600 square foot two story wood frame structure and detached single stall garage. The owner has not remedied any of the issues with the property. It was constructed in 1900 and the taxes are current on it. There is a mortgage on this property. Here's a list of the deficiencies with it and it appears to meet five out of the 10 criteria and that will come into play here in a moment in my discussion. Here's a timeline of events. We started on this one in 2025, if you look at the top. We've worked with the owner to try and get things cleaned up, but we'd have had multiple junk abatements done on the property. We'd have had multiple... Reports of people being there not that aren't supposed to be there and it's become a blight And we were worried with this property that if it went on much longer that the property would actually become more dangerous than it is at this point the one thing that I will say is that during this process Gate City Bank has come forward as the mortgage holder and they are They want to save this property and as you could see there was only five out of the ten criteria met So this property is very saveable, but if we were to allow it to go on much longer It probably would become a state where it was not saveable So again, here's more of the timeline as you can see we've done a lot with this one over the past almost two years Here's the property as it stands As you can see there's been a lot of junk issues and stuff like that most of this has been cleaned up There's electrical issues on the interior and at one time they were using generators on the inside of the house To actually power the house because they didn't have electricity as it stands right now. They do not have electricity or water Here's a picture of the generators. They were using as well as I do believe that's a I'm not sure what that pink can is right off the top of my head. But these are some of the other items we found in the house and some of the other stuff that we've seen in this property. There's multiple electrical violations, as you can see. The structure appears to be pretty good. But with all the stuff that's in there and stuff, we can't get a good take on a lot of the structure because you just can't see it. You know, there's obvious safety violations with smoke detectors and things like that not being installed. There's also corrosion on the water heater there, just clean and sanitary issues everywhere, electrical issues everywhere. And this is our recommended motion. Now, if you look at this motion, we're not recommending a teardown by October 30th as we did with the other one. We're recommending a teardown by October 30th. March 31st, 2027, with the anticipation that because this property is in foreclosure and Gate City Bank has become very involved in it, we want to give them time to play out their process, clean up the property and properly evaluate it. If we find after the property has been cleaned out that it is not necessarily constituted a dangerous building, we would come back to this commission and have this order vacated. But we do want to have a timeframe set on these so that we don't have issues going on for years and years. So we just want to have, we're trying to give Gate City Bank, they did submit a letter. So I took that letter into account and tried to give them an extra 30 days just in case things pop up because it's a legal process and nothing ever pops up in the legal process. So we want to work with Gate City Bank on this one, but we do want a date set on it so that we have a time to actually come into compliance. Now, if something were to happen and they needed to have an extension on this date, we would definitely have them write us a letter and bring it back to you guys for consideration on this one as well. As we said, this one, from what we've seen, could be savable, and we'd like to keep older homes like this in stock because they are affordable housing. They are more affordable than some of the newer things and some of the other things out there, so we would like to work with Gate City Bank. I do believe they are in the room tonight, and I think they would like to speak to the commission. Thank you.

Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Radnick?

Commissioner Turnberg. Sean, is there anything that we can do with the inspections office in the absolute blight of the home and yard itself? The neighbors, it's a complete eyesore. There must be rodents and other problems back there and the multiple vehicles. Can that all be cleared in complying with city ordinance and get rid of that eyesore for the neighborhood?

Yes, actually, we have gone through the court system and gotten a junk abatement, which is, it doesn't just happen once, it's ongoing. So if we consider, if we start seeing more junk accumulating there, we have the right to notice it and then go back there without having to go back to court. And we've done that twice now. So the property has been cleaned up pretty good. The current owner is not in the home anymore, so it's not accumulating more junk. We just ask Gate City to help maintain the property and keep it looking decent for the neighborhood and stuff until such time that they take control of it and they can either remedy it or sell it to somebody who is going to fix the property.

Commissioner Peterson? Mr. Mayor, thank you. Mr. Radnick, so I just heard you say the property is abandoned, correct? No one living there?

Nobody is living there, yes.

As the current owner, I saw someone from Gate City stand. Have they secured the property or have we secured the property?

I'll have to go back to my timeline. I do believe we secured the property on this one because Gate City has started the foreclosure proceedings, but they are not in control of the property yet, so they wouldn't have the opportunity to do that.

So I do believe... Looks like on the 24th we secured it.

Secured with Fargo PDS. We did secure this property.

Outstanding. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Radnick? Hearing none, is there anyone here who wishes to present to the City Commission regarding this dangerous building? We have some folks at the podium.

Yes, I'm Sue Anderson with Gate City Bank.

And I'm Jay Krabbenhoff with Gate City Bank.

So we were made aware of the property that The owner was being evicted or taken out of the home the home was boarded at that time We asked if we could go in and remove any hazardous material Which is our practice if there's anything that's vacant because if there's a fire as you saw I think there was a gas can there that isn't good to have if somebody starts a fire in that house So we have now received approval from the owner our borrower and so we will be ordering to have any hazardous or human feces all that Taken out of the home because there was not water in there for several months when he was living there And then have it winterized and so if it sits through the winter our foreclosure probably will not be completed until in February so then we can go in there and then remove all the belongings and then Clean it up and get listed for sale and has he mentioned. This is a in a very affordable Neighborhood and so we hate to have the house torn down so it is we believe in still good condition Commissioner Tremberg who is tasked with removing the hazardous materials we hire a company that does it's not we don't do it It's not put on the owner because clearly that would put on Jayra private company.

Thank you Other question other questions for each city is the mortgage holder I

And hopefully, I mean, I'm not sure if everyone's familiar how a foreclosure sale works. It'll be at the sheriff's sale. There could be outside bidders that come in, so there could be a chance that somebody comes in, outbids our sale, and then they would become the owner, and then they would be the ones responsible before the March 31st date.

But rest assured, if the bank becomes in possession, we will take good care of it and make sure it's safe. But as Sue and Bryant from inspections aptly said, it is affordable housing, and the bank is committed to that in our community.

Thank you. All right. Commissioners, is there a motion or further discussion?

I'll make the motion.

Okay, for the motion recommended?

Yep.

Thank you. Second. All right, any further discussion, or any discussion on the motion? Discussion? Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call vote.

Bellixen? Yes. Peterson?

Yes.

Strand?

Yes.

Sternberg?

Yes.

O'Shea?

Aye. Thank you, everyone. All right, with that, we'll move on to item number 20, part of another public hearing. We're going to continue this on to September 28, 2026, but it's an application for an ownership change of a Class A alcoholic beverage license for Red Lobster Hospitality, LLC, doing business as Red Lobster number 309, located at 4215 13th Avenue South. Ms. Baird, do you have anything to present before we make a motion, other than to request to carry it over?

No, I do not.

Okay.

Okay.

So I believe the carryover is at an administrative function or is it to meet the needs of the property owner?

This was the carryover for Red Lobster. We did not have the information back. Yes. So I was unable to bring it to Liquor Control Board.

Thank you. Yes. So this is so it can go in front of Liquor Control Board first for them to make a recommendation to the commission. Thank you for jogging my memory. Is there a motion to continue the hearing to 5.05 p.m. Monday, September 28th?

I so move. Thank you. Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion? With that, we'll have a roll call vote.

Turnberg?

Yes.

Gullickson? Yes. Peterson?

Yes.

Strand?

Yes.

O'Shea?

Aye. Thank you, everyone. Item number 21, public hearing for the application for a class GH alcoholic beverage license for Anand LLC doing business as Anand Indian Cuisine located at 1109 38th Street South. Ms. Bayer from the assessor's office, or auditor's office, excuse me.

All right, thank you, and good evening, mayor and commissioners. I just wanted to point out, I know the application did say that this was a class F. They had originally applied for that, but they no longer wanted Spirits they wanted beer and wine only so that is where we have the gh License and that is food sales must succeed liquor sales and again beer and wine only This is a modern Indian restaurant. They're going to have two service styles the first one for lunch They're going to have a buffet and then the second is a full service dining at night There are no issues with the background check, so I'm looking for our motion to approve this license I

So moved. Before we do a motion, any questions for Ms. Baer? Questions? Is there anyone present who wishes to address the City Commission regarding this application? Anyone present who wishes to speak? Okay, with that, Commissioner Gullixson?

Now so moved.

Thank you.

Second. Thank you. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion? Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call vote.

Ellison? Yes. Turnburg? Yes. Peterson?

Yes.

Strand?

Yes.

O'Shea?

Aye. Item number 22, public hearing for the application for a class GH alcoholic beverage license for the Fly Rail LLC doing business as Fly Rail to be located at 1531 University Drive South, Unit D. Ms. Baer?

Thank you. So this is a GH license as well, which is the beer and wine only. food sales must exceed their liquor sales they're going to have sandwiches like paninis and light snacks they'll have gaming no physical bar and only so the only tables to be served at as well this is in the south side shopping center so by bernie's and luna there are no issues with the background check so i'm looking for a motion to approve this license any questions for miss bear

Is there anyone present who wishes to address the city commission regarding this application? Anyone present to speak to the commission about this application? Seeing none, commissioners?

So moved.

Thank you.

Second.

Motion and a second. Is there any discussion about the motion? Discussion? Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call vote.

Sternberg?

Yes.

Ellison? Yes. Peterson?

Yes.

Strand?

Yes.

O'Shea?

Aye. Thank you. Moving on to item number 23, we have a recommendation for the appointment of the transit director, Mr. Redlinger.

Thank you, Mayor and Commissioners. Good evening. I'm very pleased tonight to present to you the recommendation from our selection committee from a recent process that we had to fill the vacant transit director position. Thought I'd just briefly highlight the process that we utilized to get to this point tonight. We did have two finalist candidates that were interviewed back on August 21, so just about 10 days ago. And prior to that, we interviewed a number of candidates in a virtual first round interview process. And so following that second round interview on July 31, our selection committee unanimously recommended Jordan Smith, one of our current assistant transit directors, be appointed to the position of transit director for the city of Fargo. Just also wanted to highlight the Transit Selection Committee members. They are listed on your agenda materials on the very first page, but want to note Commissioner Strand, really appreciate his participation in the process and leading us and being a good liaison to the transit community as well as Moorhead and MetroCog. We did have MetroCog representation on our committee as well as the City of Moorhead. I've also included Mr. Smith's resume just for background for the commission so you can see that. You'll see that he's been with the city of Fargo for nearly the last nine and a half years as the assistant transit director for fleet and facilities. We're just very appreciative of his efforts, appreciative of him stepping forward to be considered for the permanent position and with that. asked for the city commission's recommendation to be approved that Mr. Smith be appointed as our next transit director. So happy to answer any questions about our process, but thank you again to Commissioner Strand and all of our selection committee members for being a part of this.

Any questions or comments from the commission? Commissioner Strand?

I advance the recommended motion to appoint Mr. Smith to be the director of transit.

Second. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion? I'll just chime in if you don't mind.

Transit's a really big, important topic in our community, and it's really gratifying to see that we had two finalists from our own community that became the contenders for directing transit. It's really something also to get into the minds of Jordan and find out what's it going to look like in 10, 20 years. You know, especially in Fargo, and what are we going to be doing differently in offering? And we're really fortunate to have the skill set that we have in our department and the people that advance. And lastly, I don't know if I've ever seen an Eagle Scout contender for a position like this, but that just gives us an insight into the type of person that's our new Director of Transit. And looking forward to working with you, Jordan, and to your team. Thanks for being part of our community and offering what you do and for stepping up to take this role. It's going to be a big one.

Thank you. Yes, there was a motion and a second. All right. You lost my attention.

Is it appropriate that we ask for a couple words from Jordan?

Commissioner Redlinger, or Administrator Redlinger, is that appropriate?

Absolutely. I'll defer to Mr. Smith if he'd like to come say a couple of words, but please let me offer my congratulations to him as well. We're very, very fortunate to have Jordan on our team, so I'll turn it over to Jordan for a couple of words.

Mike promised me I wouldn't have to talk, but that's all right.

No, I just thank you for the confidence you've placed in me to lead this department, lead this team. I really look forward to working with our employees, our partners, and the commission here to take on some very near challenges in transit. So thank you.

Thank you. And I think I added on top of that is thank you for you and your team's speediness in the relocation in the last few weeks to the new ground transit center, the temporary, very temporary ground transit center until we find a permanent home, but appreciate your diligence with that. So any further discussion, commissioners? Hearing none, we'll go to a vote.

Strand?

Yes.

Kernberg? Yes. Gullickson? Yes. Peterson? Yes. Moshe?

Aye.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, item number 24, request to receive and file ordinances relating to licenses, classifications, license fees, and issuance and transfer of licenses, restrictions, hearing required for proposed class airport alcoholic beverage license. Mr. Wisher from the City Attorney's Office.

Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. As you said, I'm William Wisher, one of the Assistant City Attorneys, and I'm here on behalf of the Otters Department to talk about a new liquor license. The plan here today will give you a little background on how we got here. I'll also talk a little bit about the ordinance and resolution, summarize it. I will conclude with three topics that I'd like some feedback on from the Commission. So first, how did we get here? As you know, there's been some recent expansions at the Hector International Airport. Specifically, the areas that you could only consume alcohol in were quite small. Now they're being expanded. Now that the airport has gotten a lot bigger, Hector International Airport and its concessionaire Skydyne came to the city and asked if they could review the liquor license. We've worked extensively with Skydyne and their legal counsel at the airport through the Liquor Control Board. Eventually that got passed on to the City Commission where on July 20th the City Commission authorized us to make the proposed ordinance. So you'll see in your packet of information there should be an ordinance and a resolution. Now just a little quick background on the difference between an ordinance and a resolution. An ordinance normally takes about three city commission meetings to get approved, so obviously a lot slower than a resolution, which is just one meeting, which allows us to work a little bit faster and it can be more flexible. First, the summary of Section 1 in the ordinance. It creates a new liquor license that is special to the concessionaire. It's important to remember that this is not the airports, it is the concessionaire that would own this license. Specifically, Section 1 establishes where alcohol may be sold, where it may be consumed, hours of operation, transfer restrictions, food sales, et cetera. Sections 2 and 3 talk about the initial fee. It would mimic a Class A license, which would be $115,000 for that initial fee. and $1,700 for the yearly fee. Section 3, we don't see very often. It's something that would not be actually in the ordinance, but it's something that would be enforceable. It would waive the initial fee and give the city the Class A license back. So a new license is issued, we take the Class A license back, and that could then be sold to a new business. The second document is the resolution. This establishes operational requirements, sales locations, consumptions locations, beverage limits. There are some overlap with the ordinance itself but this gets a little bit more detailed on What those specifics are? most importantly it requires an approved security and alcohol management plan and Also important allows the City Commission to make changes more quickly compared to if it was an ordinance There's three issues that I think should be addressed, specifically hours of operation, pre-security areas, and security responsibility. As I've mentioned, there's been a lot of back and forth or collaboration with the airport and Skydyne, and these are three issues that we're a little apart on. The first one is hours of operation. The city has proposed a 10 p.m. cutoff time for alcohol. Skydyne doesn't expect there to be a lot of alcohol sales after 10 p.m. However, they would like the flexibility to sell and allow consumers to consume alcohol after 10 p.m. The next one is the pre-security areas. Right now, there aren't any bars or restaurants in the pre-security area. But skydyne is looking for a little bit more flexibility to Be able to have that Initially, it's the city's position that we'd like to have this be part of a resolution that gives the city commissioners the authority to deal with this as it comes up The third matter is probably the most important and it's been the one that would require probably the most time to think about is how is the responsibility with these areas going to be addressed? In the past we had a very small area, the restaurant, in the airport where people would be served and consumed alcohol. Now we're expanding that to almost the entire airport gate area absent some exceptions where you cannot consume. But under this proposal from the city, there's some specifics that would require what measures be put into place, what staffing requirements need to occur, signage, training, It's Skydyne's position that the responsibility should be generally less limited. So that's something for the commission to think about is how much responsibility are we putting on to Skydyne and how much responsibility is just going to be left most likely to the TSA or airport staff that is already there. You'll see in the city draft, we also have a requirement that the resolution be approved by three entities, the police, the auditor's department, and the commission. So there would have to be some collaboration between those three entities. as well as Skydyne before this license would be granted. And the nice thing, once again, about a resolution is this can be amended as the airport expands. If we see that there's not as many issues with minors may be consuming alcohol or patrons getting rowdy, maybe some of those requirements can be lessened. But in any case, the resolution calls for a security plan to be addressed right away before that license would be granted. I have been in contact with counsel for the airport, Stacy Bossert. I don't think she's here today. If the airport is here, obviously we'd welcome any feedback from them. But now I think is a good opportunity for the commission if they have any questions that we get those out in the open and we can make those changes attached on the screen as the proposed motion if the document as proposed looks okay.

Thank you, Mr. Wisher. Any questions, commissioners? Commissioner Kernberg.

So, my understanding, we're doing a resolution so we can fix this as we go, correct?

Yeah, it would serve a couple different purposes. As the airport expands, there could be new locations that authorize selling, new locations that authorize consumption of alcohol, new areas that you maybe say we're not going to have any alcohol be consumed in this area. In addition, the security plan could be tinkered with as well.

I would just like to comment, Mr. Mayor, that it seems we're overthinking this a bit. This is Currently what happens in many, many, many airports across the country, even in North Dakota, it's simply an amenity for patrons who are flying. Currently, and in the past, you cannot board a plane if you are intoxicated. You can't do that right now. There's very little room in the restaurant bar area. So if you have luggage, if you have people with you, there's very little room currently. And even when the renovation is completely finished, the seating will not be that large. So to me, this is simply a way for people to not be confined to a very small area. If they want to have a beverage, be able to take it to their gate sit and wait comfortably for the flight. This is not going to create some airport party. People aren't going to go to the airport, buy a plane ticket, go through security to have a drink. So I don't think we need to overthink this and just know that this is done by numerous airports across the country.

Thank you. Other questions or comments? Mr. Wisher, if you wouldn't mind going back a slide, another slide. Yes, this one. Curious about, it looks like there's disagreement right now or a conversation about who's responsible for what happens throughout the airport. I know as we continue to have a conversation just about our city budget and the challenges with staffing, public safety and whatnot, the city having to put additional resources up at the airport would present additional challenges for us. So I would be of the opinion and maybe see what the commissioners think about just continuing to make sure that if we're allowing this privilege to serve alcohol that then can be consumed throughout the entire facility, that that would still fall back. That responsibility for monitoring would primarily fall upon the vendor. Obviously, there will be TSA and law enforcement in the building and others to help with as they're roaming, but not to completely monitor on their own. That's my opinion. I don't know if other commissioners have thought about that, or it looks like that's an area of disagreement or conversation.

Yes, I agree with your comments. I know the police have weighed in. They do have some concerns that there may be some additional needed resources at the airport because of So that might be a better question for the chief, but that is something that I think the city should be concerned about.

Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions or comments? Before we... Commissioner Strand.

Thank you. I guess my thoughts are... I'd like to see how this works, but I think we also need to be available to modify if we learn that behavior's not what we expect. I remember when the downtown was looking for allowing people to carry a drink while they're at a street fair or Cocoa Crawl or things like that. You have special cups and you have a special ID or a wristband that identifies you as a legitimate of age customer. And I expect this will work well, but if it doesn't, we need to be prepared to modify and tweak it, especially if law enforcement involvement is way more than anticipated. So my thoughts are in a year we revisit it. If there's no problems, we don't require a revisiting of this, but be prepared if we need to modify this. We're available to and we're looking to learn from experience to improve it.

And for tonight's purposes, Mr. Wisher, this is the first draft. Correct. And there will be continued conversation for the commission going forward, correct?

Yes. If the commission has feedback, I'm obviously open to make any edits that the commission desires. So if that means cutting or adding, we can make changes.

Thank you. Commissioners, any other questions? I see Mr. McLean is looking for a little time.

The only thing I would like, is there any feedback if we extend the 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.? Obviously, the airport, I don't think, has many flights that leave after 11 p.m. I think it's if the airline schedule changes and or if there's a flight delay. Sometimes you might be there until 1 a.m. So I don't think they'd be open every night until 2 a.m., but I think they are asking for the ability to at least be able to sell liquor up until where the city would obviously close all the bars at 2 a.m.

I would, I'll let the commissioners go first. Commissioner Turnberg, then Peterson.

I just think that seems reasonable considering that's what we do for other businesses.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. Yeah, the last flight out is 9.05 p.m. Last flight in is 11.50. I was doing some research here for that very reason. Very rarely, if ever, do we have flights with the exception of blizzards and things like that, but it wouldn't give me a quantity, but 1, 3 a.m. if things are locked down for blizzards, but for the most part, folks are gone by 9.05 p.m. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. And I'd be of the opinion of allowing flexibility. Again, knowing that flights get delayed, you know, especially our travelers to Las Vegas or Arizona, those late flights, delayed getting in, so then delayed getting out. So, thank you.

All right.

Did the Commission want to weigh in also on the pre-security areas? That's number... So as I mentioned, right now there's not a restaurant or a bar, but it's Skydine's position that they would want some flexibility to be allowed to unilaterally, I guess, expand the pre-security area to allow consumption.

Commissioner Turnberg, then Mr. McLean.

As a member of the airport authority, I would like to just continue the discussion. There is no spot for that, nor is there anything in the works currently for pre-security. But should that change, that's certainly something that could be discussed at the time of the change.

Mr. McLean? I was just going to mirror Commissioner Trenburg's comments, which is what we have here, is our recommendations. It's just to address this if and when the time comes.

Sounds reasonable. Any other questions or conversation, commissioners? If not, we'd be open to a motion. The recommended motion is to receive and file the ordinances and continue the work moving forward.

And then, Mr. McLean, does this motion need to be amended in any way, or is it sufficient?

No, we're good to go. This is just receiving feedback. We will make the changes, and we'll place it on for the first reading at the September 14th meeting.

Thank you. Commissioner Peterson? Mr. Mayor, so moved.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Discussion? Hearing none, we'll go to a roll call vote.

Peterson?

Yes.

Gullickson? Yes. Strand?

Yes.

Chernberg?

Yes.

Boucher?

Aye. Thank you, Commissioners. We're wrapping up here. We'll do our liaison reports and then have an opportunity for public comment. We've had three people that pre-registered to speak. So we'll start to my left and head around all the way to the right. So Commissioner Peterson, we'll let you start.

Mr. Mayor, thank you. I had a busy week. Busy couple weeks, actually. I toured the Great Plains Food Bank. I think a number of us did, in fact. One of the things that was shared with me was the potential for a $33,000 sort of a challenge match from our friends at the county. If we did and our friends at West Fargo did, I think some of us are privy to that. Unfortunately, West Fargo said no, so the county is also out now. So that's something that's anecdotal, but somewhat of importance. Multiple visits to the water treatment plant. We have our first utility committee meeting on Wednesday. Mr. Grubb will, as historically been the president and chair of that. I will not. I don't want to upset sort of the apple cart that's been for so many years. years, I want to say decades, I don't see Mr. Grubb in here though, but maybe not decades, but sometime anyway. Meeting with the finance team later this week, I'll be coming up with another letter for the team to review on modifications or adjustments to our overall budget, and again, you can appreciate them or throw them away as you see fit, and that's fine. Nothing personal, no pride of authorship here. I have a solid waste meeting with our team out at solid waste next week, and then the mayor and I are meeting with CVB regarding the proposal I put forth in our last budget meeting regarding the allocation of their dollars. There's some education that needs to be done on my part. I need to learn a little bit more as to what they do and how resources are allocated. I think in the end I'm probably still right, but I am willing to listen, happily listen, meet with them, learn, and We'll share that with you as I learn more. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Turberg.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I won't go through my calendar of events for the last few weeks, so I will just say that our budget work continues, and we welcome any feedback from the community. We've had quite a bit of it, but the work continues, and we're still working to make our budget as reasonable and committed to being good stewards of your tax dollars.

Thank you. Commissioner Sram.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to remind the public that when Mayor Beauchesne was running housing and affordable housing and apartments and tenants and landlords were front burner as far as priorities to address. So we're beginning to breathe life into a task force to initially address the issues and listen and learn about renters. Almost 60% of our people live in apartments. So we need to be paying attention to what's going on in their world and as well as the landlord's. So that said, we're going to be, I expect the mayor and I will be conducting and hosting a listening session here in our chamber to hear from the public about tenant issues and renter issues and landlord issues and concerns. We're also, and it'll probably be between 4 and 6 p.m. later this month or early October. We're nailing down a date, but looking for an opportunity for the public to share with us their concerns or needs with regards to renters and tenants and that whole lane of issues. You can also write us and contact us. The last thing I'll say is we're still looking for volunteers that have particular interest in serving maybe on that committee or being a resource to us. So this will be coming quickly and not far along down the road is the legislature. So we need to be prepared if any topics come up locally to be postured to send them to the legislature appropriately.

Thank you. Commissioner Gullixson.

Thank you. First and foremost, congratulations, Jordan. I'm very happy for you. I know you'll do well in that position. With that, I've attended various MAPBUS and METROCOG meetings. A couple other highlights. Shortly after our last commission meeting, I met with Chief Stefanowicz and received a presentation on the flock cameras because we've received a whole lot of email inquiries on how these are working, why they're working. I would encourage people to reach out. There are guidelines in place. There are disciplinary actions in place should that need be. There are triggers in the system that if a certain plate is brought up or inquired on a certain number of times, it actually goes to the supervisor. It sets off a trigger so that they can look into it in that way. It cannot lock onto and track one person all around town. It doesn't know if you're going to Target or Hornbacher's or home. It simply indicates you've been through that intersection. It's a good tool. It was a great presentation. And if you have organizations, I'd encourage you to reach out and see if you can get an officer to come present on that. I also toured the Great Plains Food Bank right behind Commissioner Peterson because I asked if they had met with you and they said, oh, he just left. So I'm sorry to hear that the matches aren't coming through. Our food bank serves not only here locally, it serves the entire state. And that's another one I'd encourage people to look into, spend some time and get a good understanding of. Other than that, it's been pretty much routine meetings. Commissioner Turnberg is exactly right. We are all digging in, still asking questions on the budget and taking a look at things that we can or can't do there. I guess that's about it for now.

Thank you. Bill, continuing the conversation about the budget, for everyone's knowledge, our next finance committee meeting is September 8th from 1 to 3 in this room and it'll be streamed online and you can watch it afterwards as well. And that is leading up to our September 14th public hearing for the preliminary budget. that'll take place at that commission meeting five o'clock on September 14th. Public is certainly encouraged to register on the city commission site beginning the evening of September 10th to share your thoughts with the commission at that hearing. We know there's a lot of groups interested in visiting with us. The one thing that we do ask is that if you are working together in any organized faction in behalf of different comments or different lanes within the budget, if you would coordinate and work and try to make sure you're not repeating each other over just for the sake of time. But certainly want to make sure we hear from folks, whether you reach out to us individually or speak to us on the 14th. Then we'll continue the budget process through September 28th, which is the commission meeting in which we will act on the 2027 budget to meet our statutory requirements. Beyond the budget, I attended the visitation for Sergeant Tyrell Foskey, who was one of our officers who died of brain cancer. That was Friday evening with the funeral on Saturday. On behalf of the commission, Tyrell's family is certainly in our thoughts as they continue to mourn and remember him. I want to offer congratulations to our Fargo Dome team for helping pull off a successful first FBS football game for NDSU and to a resounding first win for the Bison. So that was certainly an exciting weekend for many of us. I also want to say thank you to our facilities team. who's partnered with Matt Buss and municipal court staff to relocate both entities in the past few weeks. I know this has taken a great amount of work on the weekends and evenings for all those teams to accomplish this, and it's greatly appreciated your commitment so we can make sure everyone has a safe workplace. We continue to hear from the public, certainly, as we all experience traffic around town. One thing, we'll be putting out a little bit of messaging later this week, but one thing I think just for everyone's knowledge is we can certainly control the road projects we have in our city, but those are all determined based on plans and funding models and where funding is coming from and when we can do that. well as when contractors are available unfortunately when it comes to the interstate that is the north dakota department of transportation and we don't get a whole lot of input in that but that is something we'll be looking this spring during the legislative session to ask for some more conversations about that so we can better coordinate we understand how challenging it is for everyone to get around town none of us have that secret path anymore because all those secret paths are also under con construction so just ask you to plan ahead drive safely look out for those kiddos and people walking and the pets just make sure everyone can safely get home each and every day we have the special election for a decision on whether or not we will change our form of government on october 6th over the weekend i want to thank the finance and administrative team for committing to being able to lock in a third location so we have the fargo dome and atonement lutheran church in south fargo but the Civic Center will also be the third location on that day. So I know a call will be going out to our city staff to help volunteer for that day. You'll be receiving messaging from us later this week, so we certainly hope you're able to step out if your supervisor and your work tasks allow for that. The HUD Regional Administrator is in town. There was conversations with our community nonprofits that provide homeless services this morning and throughout the day. I know tomorrow he will be touring the Resource and Recovery Center and meeting with me in part of the morning to learn more about our strategy and partnership to address housing and homelessness in our community, but also what resources are available from the federal government to our community. And then finally, as many of you know, the special session for the legislature is meeting later this week. I'll be going out Thursday and Friday on behalf of the city. Many of our departments have started to put together some of their priorities. So we'll be visiting with some of our legislators from across the state to start addressing some of those conversations beyond what the special session is meeting for. So that's quite a bit a lot, but I know it's your turn to speak. So we have three people who preregistered for public comment. Is Mara Crump in the...

In our space?

There you are. We'll have you come up to this side if that's all right. It's all right. If you want to, this should be fine for convenience. And as a reminder, you'll have two and a half minutes. There'll be a beep. I believe it's 30 seconds out, just as a reminder that your time's coming up. Or is yours?

Thank you. Mayor Johnson State Commissioners. First, I'd like to. Send our huge thank you to emergency responders and law enforcement. An amazing response on 911 call in the last. About 10 days ago in the compassion that they gave. My daughter when she was assaulted. by a gentleman leaving the resource center or whatever that robbed a rummage sale. But I bring attention to this because there's two sober living houses that are currently operating as an out-of-state owner in an LLC on College Street. They're violating laws, threatening clients. Management is selling and doing illegal drugs. They're encouraging clients day one out of jail or prison to use. They're supplying it. They're extorting their clients for personal prescription medications, threatening physical violence, and a return to jail if they report this to law enforcement or city inspectors during inspections, which they just had one, and they tell them they'll be thrown out onto the streets or put somewhere. People have come into our place of business and begged us as business owners and operators for help to show and shown us proof, Josh. As a community chaplain, I pray with these people, but I have no idea what to do with their issues other than bring them to the City of Fargo Commissioner and Mayor Josh. The community has been handling the safety issues, and I warn others to avoid these two buildings right next to NDSU. The owners brought this to sobriety, homeowners, but they're choosing and continuing to do this. I guess personal opinions may not matter, but if they do, I don't want any more people coming into my business looking for help and telling us these things are happening. This is not what we want in our Fargo area and communities and businesses. Commissioners and city officials, this is all of our responsibility to give back and to protect, so how do we protect these people? Some are in attendance tonight. I told them maybe they should wait till they get attorneys. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I believe deceiving the city, the deception, the cold violations, falsifying documents with city inspectors and fire inspectors, they're defrauding the city and the clients. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Crump. Olivia Fisher.

Good afternoon, Olivia, Fargo resident. I haven't spoken yet before our new commission members, so welcome. You opened up the floor for feedback on the budget and that's what I'm here to do tonight. I recently read a headline that shows that the city is unfortunately falling right back into business as usual. For those who don't know, some city officials have suggested making budget cuts to social service programs to instead fund nine more officers in Fargo. why is it that we can always put in the effort to seek out grant funding for cops and still allocate even more of the budget for them but we consistently struggle to fund programs that help community members get into housing at the last meeting alone you received multi-thousand dollar grants and donations for swat and police teams if the police are getting donations that save the city money why on earth is this discussion even happening Why is it always a hurdle to keep warming shelter open every year? Why can we not scrape up enough money to get people access to a bathroom or shower on the weekends? The cops you're suggesting we need more of have consistently been out bothering our neighbors that have nowhere else to go. They've recently been causing severe distress amongst community members by preventing people from simply laying on a blanket outside because they consider it camping. The shelters are full and not always accommodating and the wait list to get into housing is very slow. So your cops are getting paid to criminalize vulnerable community members for not being able to afford housing. We warned the city this would happen when you pass a camping ban without expediting the housing process and without providing consistently available low barrier shelter options. You hold the ability to revise or eliminate the camping ban, and I highly encourage you to do so. We have women struggling to get sleep because they feel unsafe sleeping outside at night, but are also harassed for sleeping outside during the day. And as you may or may not know, black and indigenous people of color disproportionately make up a majority of our local unhoused population. They also disproportionately experience violence at the hands of police nationwide. Thus, the trauma from being displaced over and over by police runs deeper than most people in this room could ever even fathom. If we deem people's mere existence outside as criminal, the cycle of homelessness only lengthens. The city needs to grapple with the fact that the injustices you are allowing to happen cause people to fall through the cracks into mental health crises, and unfortunately for some, it can lead to a relapse, which then all leads to even more cop intervention and community suffering. It is an avoidable yet never-ending struggle. All this to say, you wouldn't even need to consider the police force's request for nine more officers if one, they were to leave people alone, two, we eliminate the penalties for being unhoused, and three, we prioritize helping people. Thank you and free Palestine.

Thank you, Ms. Fisher. Rachel Harvey. Thank you.

Hello, Commissioners, Mayor. My name is Rachel. I'm a Moorhead resident, but I spend a significant amount of my time and money in downtown Fargo. I apologize for my voice. I lost it this weekend. But the issue I'm speaking on is too important to me to wait another two weeks to address, so please just bear with me. I have become increasingly concerned with the way the city police are treating our local and housed community. I have repeatedly witnessed folks be approached by the police for just being on a blanket outside and told to move or risk being fined hundreds of dollars. I can think of any number of times in the years that I've lived here that I've been to a Fargo Park and seen families or college students reading on a blanket, enjoying the sunshine, and no one has ever had an issue with that. But when it's someone who's unhoused, suddenly the response is relocating and finding, which does not make sense to me. This is an extremely unnecessary and harmful response to people who are already struggling to get by and are traumatized routinely by interactions with the police. It's especially frustrating to see this now, knowing that you may be discussing reducing funding for social services and other key needs to fund additional police officers. If our officers already have the time to spend several hours of their shifts watching and waiting for an unhoused person to make a wrong move, which I have seen this exact interaction happen multiple times, I do not think that we need more officers. A lack of strong social support infrastructure is exactly how people end up becoming homeless, and without those resources, our unhoused neighbors will have an even harder time getting back on their feet. how is someone struggling with homelessness addiction or mental health concerns supposed to address those issues for themselves if we have overflowing shelters and dwindling resources for social services not to mention inflation and rising rent costs an increase in police presence is not what this community needs and reducing the services people do need to fund to DO NEED TO FUND THAT IS ONLY GOING TO MAKE THINGS WORSE. I URGE YOU TO KEEP IN MIND THE PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY WHO NEED THE MOST SUPPORT WHEN MAKING THESE BUDGET DECISIONS. THE POLICE WILL BE FINE, THE PEOPLE WILL NOT. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. COMMISSIONERS, IS THERE A MOTION TO ADJOURN?

SECOND.

THANK YOU. ANY DISCUSSION? DISCUSSION? ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE.

AYE.

OPPOSED NAY. WE ARE ADJOURNED.