City Commission - Regular Meeting

Call the meeting to order. Uh, roll call, please. Here, here. Almost here. Turnberg here. Mahoney. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. I invite you to join us. Pledge

allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We just have a short video of the St. Patrick's Day parade. Is that right, Arch? Okay. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] [music] Heat. Heat. [music]

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Interesting day. A little cold out there, but people enjoyed themselves. Oh, was played twice. Oh, okay. Is there a motion to approve the order of the agenda? Moving item 22 from the consent agenda to the regular agenda. I so move. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting March 2nd, 2026? So move. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda items 1 through 29 excluding item 22 which has been moved to the regular agenda? So move. Is there a second?

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call vote, please. Strand. Yes. Coacack. Hi. Epcorn. Hi. Turnberg. Hi. Mahoney. Hi. Item 30, public hearing, special assessments for sewer repairs. Angie Bear to explain.

Thank you, mayor, and good evening, commissioners. The sewer repair program. So, this has allowed the homeowners the ability to assess their sewer repairs to their special assessments. Um, in 2025, the city was still assisting those who qualified um the assistance for that and then they would put the remaining onto their special assessments. The interest rate for this is 5% over 15 years. And in 2025, there were 230 parcels totaling 3,181,377.95 cents. And for your consider consideration, the list of sewer repairs for 2025 is presented to you. Thank you. You're welcome.

So, one president wishes to speak to this assessment. The one president wish to speak about their sewer assessment. If not, a closed public hearing. Do I have a motion? I'll make the motion. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Pepcorn. Hi. Turnberg. Hi. Colac. Hi. Strand. Yes. Mahoney. Hi. Item 31 section 5310 Federal Transportation Administration Grant Preliminary Program of Projects of 26 and 27. Uh Jordan Smith explain.

Yes. Good evening, Mayor Commissioners. Um, this is for our uh Federal Transit Administration section 5310 funds that we utilize for mobility management. Uh, section 5310 programs intended to improve transportation uh, options for seniors and individuals with disabilities. Mobility management focuses on coordinating transportation resources and helping individuals uh, better access existing transportation services including MAT bus and other community transportation services. Uh this helps ensure transportation resources are used efficiently and that individuals can access critical services such as healthcare, employment and community programs. Um so staff recommends uh the u approval of the use of 5310 funds for mobility management services as outlined in the program of projects.

Is that more or less that we got last year? Um that is uh slightly more. Um so the these are actually utilizing federal fiscal year 2024 funds. Um so in 2024 we received the 234,000. 2025 we received 246,000. So our portionment does go up every year. So my president wish to speak to this federal funding and if you wanted to speak if not I'll close the public hearing. Do I have a motion? So move. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion, Mr. Strand? Nope. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Strand, yes. Turnberg, I. Colpac, I. Epcorn. Hi. Mahoney.

Hi. Item 32. Sorry. Item 32. Claire Barton school edition approval recommended by the planning commission 1626. It's zoning change public and institutional and single dwelling residential to public and institutional. It's the first reading of the resoning ordinance and it's a plat of the Clarab Barton School addition. Donald Crest to explain this interested one.

Good evening, commissioners. Donald Crest with the Department of Planning and Development. This item includes an ordinance prepared by the city attorney's office. As the mayor stated, our first item here tonight is the uh our only item is the Clare Barton School edition, which is a minor subdivision in zone change. This is Clare Barton School on the south side here. uh probably familiar with that between 14th and 15th avenues and sixth and seventh street south. Here's a closeup of it. It's occupied the block is mostly occupied by the school. Uh here are some photographs. The uh on this first photograph, this house on the end, this is lot 26. This is not included in the subdivision or zone change. This is still privately owned. The school district recently acquired this residence here and that will be eventually demolished. Uh and then uh here's just looking at the at the opposite corner of the existing uh uh Clare Barton School and a view down uh Sixth Street here at the uh at the school. And just as a historical reminder, Clare Barton founded the American Red Cross. That's why she's famous. Uh zoning here is mostly PI, public and institutional, but this one lot here, this is the one that is uh they recently acquired is still zoned SR2, single dwelling residential. So, the plat uh proposes to uh combine all 25 lots that the school district owns from uh Huntington's Huntington's edition which is platted back in the 1800s. Combine those all into a single lot and reszone the entire thing to PI public institutional which is the appropriate zoning for government owned facilities such as schools. So, pretty straightforward there. Uh no new development is proposed uh on Clare Martin property at this time. The school district is just uh cleaning this up here uh for the future. The uh applicant's representative Andrew Throw Engineering is with us this evening and may wish to address the commission. The planning commission's recommendation is stated in the staff report and shown on the screen. That concludes staff's presentation. Thank you, commissioners.

Is there anyone present wish to speak to this zoning change? Is there anyone present who wants to speak to this zoning change? If not, I'll close public hearing. Commissioner Turnber Donald, was that singular um home attempted to be purchased or did they just want to remain there? Why is that one? I don't perhaps Mr. Phil knows that answer. Uh do do you know that answer, Andrew? Good question.

Good evening, Andrew Reengineering. Um I don't have an answer to that question. I know they were able to purchase the uh the lot 29 um but they didn't indicate one way or another on the one north of it is the intent to tear down school and rebuild. Yeah, they are they are tearing down that house as of this spring. Um and and they're not going to rebuild anything yet, but they just wanted to get all of the the zoning and the replotting done so at some point if they have a project they can uh take it forward.

Thank you, Mr. Strand. Thank you. [clears throat] My brain is very foggy and this goes back a long ways in time, but when I was on the school board, there were people who approached the school district to see if they could buy that third that third lot. I'm guessing it was and and my thinking was, well, why wouldn't we want housing when there isn't any? Um, but this I'm just curious about that concept of I hate to see us lose a house that somebody a family could live in [snorts] or or not. I don't what what what are what are their future plans for those two end buildings? The one they own already and the other help me see the longer term picture there and what's the long-term picture of of Clare Barton with their redistric or school reconfiguration coming going on.

I would have to defer that question to the the school district. Um they have not indicated to us what the plans may be. Um but clearly it was important to them to um spend money and take on this additional parcel. So I would imagine that they're hopeful in the future they could do improvements to the school and keep this location going instead of potentially needing to grow and and move. Commissioner Stranded is my understanding working with the school district that as Mr. Thel said there's no immediate plan to do anything here. Um, you know, Clar Martin will remain in place for some time is our understanding. So, which school are they redoing then? Pardon me, sir.

They're redoing one of their schools. Horseman, sir. They're going to be horsemen be torn down starting this summer and then be rebuilt. But that is that is not the immediate plan for uh Clear Barton. I don't know the long-term plan there, sir.

That's another topic. We we really should convene with the school district again. I would like to really like to see what they're doing with neighborhood schools going forward before their horses are so far out of the barn that it's way too late to even have a conversation. But I'm just hate I just I I understand the position of the district. I understand that they'd like to have their their foothold on the properties adjacent and contiguous to them understandably. But I also hate to lose a house and you know in a home that somebody could live in and that's just it's just a notation I'm making. It's not a deal breakaker. Can you set up a meeting sometime with the school board? We could have joint meeting discuss plans for both cities on school. Thank you. Yes, sir. Do I have a motion on this zoning change? Make the motion. Is there a second?

Second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Pepcorn. Hi. Turnberg. I. Culpac. Hi. Strand. No. Mahoney.

Thank you. [snorts] Commissioners 33. the uh an annexation of 236.16 acres more or less to the southeast quarter and east and half of the southwest quarter section 35 township 141 north range 149 west of the fifth principal meridium grass county North Dakota Michael Reinger to explain with you Ian McLean thank you mayor and commissioners good evening um and I am uh substituting for Jim Gilmore who was not available tonight but just want to speak briefly to this matter I think this map that's up on the screen is helpful in describing the area. What we're talking about tonight is in the letter A. Um the mediation uh that is pending is to the south of that letter A. If you look up to the north of that, the city commission previously passed a resolution of annexation of the property that is described in your packet this evening. And it is land that does in fact lie within Fargo zoning jurisdiction. Um all property owners were notified. No protests from the property owners were received. Uh the city of Fargo does not take on any additional road maintenance as a part of this annexation. Uh there are no roads on the north or the west sides of the particular property and then the Cass County Highway Department maintains the south and the east. So the recommended motion is stated in your packet this evening uh to proceed. But uh I would just note too that again we're talking about letter A that's in your map materials and then we pulled up on the screen and certainly defer to Ian too if he has any additional comments he'd like to make.

Is there anyone present wish to speak to this annexation? Are there anyone want to purchase this annexation? If not I'll close the public hearing. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Mr. Strand. Thank you, Mayor. I'm I'm curious. What percentage protests did we receive? I I'll defer to you, but I'm not aware, Commissioner, that we received any protest. Zero. Zero.

Zero. Okay. I'll I'll just make a comment clarifying where I stand on this. I've been very cautious about this whole conversation about the data center and the implications and that it had on our relationship with the neighboring city and we're through all that. But I still don't see a need to leaprog up to this section until we need it and there's just one little corner that's going to be touching our property until the mediation's done and in my mind there's a compelling need to annex. I'm I'm not there. Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please. Hulpac. Hi. Turnberg. Hi. Epcorn. Hi. Strand.

No. Mahoney. I. Item 34. It's going to be continued to 3:3026 is application for the sign badges property tax exemption. That motion will be moved to March 30th. Do I have a motion? Motion to continue. Is there a second? Second. Roll call vote. Pepcorn. I Colpac I Strand. Yes. Turnberg. I Maloney. Hi. Item 35 recommendation for appointment of chief communication officer Mike Ringer to explain.

Okay. And thank you again, mayor and commissioners. Thank you. Um I will just be presenting this item uh this evening and I just wanted to provide just a brief summary of where we have been on this process with recruitment of our next chief communications officer. Um so I'll talk first about the recruiting solicitation process and the appointment procedure. Um also want to acknowledge our selection committee and I'll highlight the names of those individuals and then I'll close on uh the recommendation and then joining us virtually this evening is our uh candidate designignate Scott Anderson and Scott will say a few words. He's joined us virtually this evening. So just to recap where we started this discussion last fall um it was actually right around Labor Day. we talked about at the city commission. Uh this is on the regular agenda about uh moving forward with the next steps for the communications department as well as its leadership. Uh following that uh presentation, we took a bit of time to make sure that we were advertising locally, regionally, and nationally for the position. Uh making sure that we're recruiting as broadly as we could. Uh due to the holidays, we did uh conduct our first round of virtual interviews with a number of candidates in January. Uh and then following that we had in-person finalist interviews just about a month ago in midFebruary and that closed on February 13th. And [snorts] so what we did uh following that period was move into the conditional offer phase. What we do in that phase uh with all of our department head positions is thorough background checks, reference checks as well as making sure that the uh candidates uh credentials check out on our due diligence. This is the procedure for the appointment of um appointed officers of the city commission. Uh this language has been invoked for several several positions both those that are described here as well as others such as our director of facilities management, our inspections director uh to name a couple of recent positions as well as other public safety positions like the fire chief. And so this is all uh codified in the city ordinances.

This is our selection committee that was utilized in this process. And I just want to lift this up so that the uh commission can see some of the the great volunteerism of the uh commu community members that were a part of this. Um really want to appreciate Holly Scott from the Fargo Cast public health as well as Amarie Campbell from the Fargo Public Schools for for helping us out. Amarie also is a civil service commissioner for the city of Fargo. And then our other uh participants were the mayor, the deputy mayor, uh Jill [snorts] Manette from human resources, Tom Nachmoose, the city engineer, and then Brian Selene from the comm's GA team, as well as myself. Our facilitators were Beth Wiggman, then assistant HR director, Amy Rissman from the HR team, as well as Kristen Grove. And so uh what uh I'm highlighting for you today and I've included in the packet is just some of the background and resume highlights for Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson is joining us from Colorado. Yeah, he most recently was the communications and public relations manager for El Paso County, uh, Colorado. He does have extensive previous experience both in advertising as well as communications positions in both the public and private sector. And so the recommendation of the selection committee was for the appointment of the position uh by Mr. Anderson. And he has joined us virtually this evening. and I will just now turn it over to him to make a few introductory comments. He's joined us via Zoom and he is proposing to join us uh next week on Monday the 23rd. So I'll turn it over to Scott. Uh Scott, welcome and congratulations. [snorts]

Excited to be here. I was very impressed with the process uh that I went through. Um really grateful to [snorts] everyone who was a part of that process. I know it can be really difficult to get um all of those people that were on that list in one room at a time, but I really appreciated the conversations that we had and the questions that were asked. Um I'm really excited to be joining all of you as uh as Michael said uh next Monday. Uh ready to get to work and happy to answer any questions that you may have. [snorts] Any commissioners have any questions? Scott, thank you, Scott. We look forward to seeing you next week. I guess Monday. That's right. Thank you, sir. Do I have a motion?

I'll make the motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Further discussion, Mr. Copek.

Yeah, I I also appreciated the process. Um I will share that um it was a we started with a good pool of candidates. It was a very thorough vetting process. This is the decision of the city administrator on the final selection. Um I appreciated the outside input from other community members. Um you know in we had a very extensive scenario that was part of this process that they were unprepared for and had to respond to um in with about 25 minutes of preparation. And um he did a remarkable job with that presentation. And so I think knowing that that right now we have a team um of less than half of the number that used to be in the communication department um the capacity issues um this position for strategic communications is very much needed at this time. So I certainly supported the the recommendation which was the top choice.

Mr. Pickman, just a couple quick comments. I just want to talk about the history of our communications department. I think four [snorts] or five years ago it was one person and now it's 15 and our benefits and and our whole package we're the highest paid media company. So I just want to congratulate the taxpayers for their generosity. Uh it's unbelievable. We have the best actually we have the largest newsroom [snorts] uh in the region bigger than KFGO or WDAW. And so it's just amazing our growth. So I just want to congratulate uh and on top of that then we had a Moody's downgrade and so instead of making an attempt to reduce spending we are just uh growing and isn't that great. Thank you Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Cop. Yeah, I will share that this team that was 12 is now five with this position and um there have been other changes with changes at the police department as well and structure. Um so this definitely has changed, the structure has changed. It is very evident if and even with recent news that this capacity and this expertise is very much needed. Um and so I support this selection and kindly correct the numbers. We we had a discussion about 15. How many people are in the department? No, there was 12. Excuse me, Mr. Chair. I didn't acknowledge you. 12 people in the position right now. This will be the fifth position or sixth.

This would be number number six. We actually had two FTEEs reduced. two sent to the police department. Then this position will be filled and there remains one vacant position after this that remains unfilled. So So it's definitely it's a smaller smaller team at six. And Mike, can you address the budget issue? This was in the budget last year. Correct. The budget was reduced last year by two FTEEs. Uh that reduction has been achieved for the 2026 process, but this is a funded vacant position in the budget for 2026.

And you could you also speak to the department needs and how busy they are? Yeah, I I would just note that with those reductions uh in the total FTEES that we have had obviously a lot of a lot of needs to continue to support the strategic communications goals and objectives of the organization. And so uh this does not restore the the team size back to what it used to be. It in fact will will still be a smaller team than it was, but we do need uh need to have that department leadership. And so really looking forward to moving forward and and albeit with a smaller team, we need to make sure we're supporting the needs of the organization and the public that we serve.

And I think Commissioner Turnberg met with you as well, gave some of her expertise of maybe what the size of the department should be and some things we should look at. So I think we have had advice of a variety of commissioners of the right size right department, I think, is what we've had. So I think that that will continue. Commissioner Strand.

Thank you, Mayor. [clears throat] [snorts] I'm I'm going to confuse people with where I'm at on this. Um I really wish we would have held off until our cycle of the budgeting process began before we started filling vacancies, but we're there. I'm not an HR guy. I don't go and track how many openings we have and who's interviewing them. It's just that's the process that it's not my lane and I'm not there and I so it's nobody else's fault that I wasn't on top of it enough to say can't we put some brakes on this for the moment. However, we've offered a position a directorship position to somebody moving across the country to Fargo with their family to take on this new career challenge and I wish this new individual very best going forward. Uh I hope that our dynamics politically don't affect the the you know what happens between now and July or June and so on. So yes, I'm going to vote yes, but it's with hesitance or with reluctance with a caution that I I I preferred I would have preferred we just held off for the moment. [snorts] And it and I and I want to say one more thing. Brian, Selene, who's in the back room, and Archie who's in the back row. Thank you guys for carrying us these last several months, working your tails off tirelessly, not missing a beat. I know Commissioner Peporn told one of the media when they asked him, "How's it going with a with a smaller department?" He says, "Have you seen any changes?" And that was a compliment to our department that they're really doing a good job. So everything said and done, I my vote is for uh embracing our our leadership's decision to fill this position that they expected to be filled. Uh and I and I and I wish everybody the best. But I also sincerely thank the people who've been doing the work the last several months and who are still continuing forward so professionally and capably on our behalf.

You're doing a good job in police, too. So yeah, mayor, if I could, thank you, commissioner, for that nice reminder. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that effort. Um, a lot of people have stepped up over the last several months. So, thank you for acknowledging that, and I I want to acknowledge that as well. I'd be remiss if I if I didn't acknowledge the great efforts of our current uh folks helping out. So, thank you. Roll call vote, please. Copac. Strand, yes. Epcorn, no. Turnberg, yes. Mahoney, hi. Item 36, presentation of the annual FM ambulance Sanford Afrons. Jen Fowl to explain.

Good evening, mayor and commissioners. Um, here this evening to introduce Tim Meyers, who is the senior director for the Sanford Ambulance uh, division, and he was last before you March 3rd of 2025 to give the annual overview of ambulance services in the city of Fargo. and he will go ahead and review the 2025 review for you this evening. Thank you.

Thanks, Jud. [clears throat] Uh, Mr. Mayor, members of the commission, my name is Tim Meyer. I'm the senior director of emergency services at the ambulance service and go over the data for 2025 in Fargo. [snorts] I want to mention that we're accredited agency by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services. We're the only accredited agency in North Dakota and one of three in Minnesota. We also operate in uh Morehead and Klay County. Uh and just for reference, there's about 31,000 ambulance services in the country and 185 are are uh accredited. So, we're kind of proud of that. Uh we have about 140 folks that work over at the ambulance service. 130 of them are patient care providers. We have paramedics, EMTs, u dispatchers, and we actually have two physicians that work for the ambulance service as well. Uh one of the one of our missions is to provide education. Um we are a education hub for the region more or less uh in the EMS uh professions. Last year we trained nearly 5,000 students and from in varying uh types of classes. At the lowest level is a babysitting class that we offer to uh um people who want to get babysitting jobs and teach them first aid and those types of things. Um, we had 59 EMR students go through our program at emergency medical responder. 107 EMT students and 18 paramedic graduates. 12 of those went through our academy. So, we've been running an academy for the paramedic program for a a number of years. And that's where we're paying folks to go to school. You cover their tuition and they receive a salary. And paramedic training is quite long. It costs us about $60,000 a student to get them through and then they have an obligation to work for us for three years. Uh and we do a fair amount of other like community uh

training events, uh public CPR, um stop the bleed training, we do the u um save a life Saturday at the mall, that type of thing. So education is a big part of our mission. Um as far as the ambulance fleet, we have 18 911 ambulances. They are part of the of the emergency response system. We have five what we call neat is a non-emergency ambulance transport division. So they do our inner facility transfers largely. Uh so five trucks there. Two supervisor vehicles, three MCI vehicles, one of which is a bus. You see the picture of that. We can actually put 20 patients in there supine. Um we've used that several big events. Uh we have a northern cast rover where we send a paramedic up to Hunter every day and uh they cover ALS response in the north part of the county and in into Trail County uh during the day during the week when many of those folks who are in volunteer ambulance services are working and have a harder time responding to calls. Uh we have a couple special event vehicles, maybe seen them at the Fargo Dome. Uh and then we have three community paramedics and they have vehicles. Uh we have our own dispatch center. We uh largely want uh operate that because there's um we the 911 calls obviously go through uh Red River regional dispatch but we have uh our dispatchers um that process uh uh other things as well. So we have an like uh wheelchair van service which is not part of the public safety system and we do a lot of transfers which is again outside the public safety system. So we there's a lot of things that going on that uh wouldn't be appropriate for a triple RDC to be dealing with. That's why we have our own dispatch centers. Sometimes people call us directly uh with an emergency instead of calling 911. So our dispatchers are trained to the EMD level. They can do the same type of call processing and coding that happens at triple RDC. And these are the numbers

that we did last year. It's not a lot compared to RDC doing hundreds of thousands of calls, but we it was just under a thousand people called us directly for an ambulance. Um and then we although we dispatch a lot of uh transfers and other types of calls, most of that comes through an electronic process. Sometimes we get phone calls and these just are represented the phone calls that we've taken um for the dispatch center. But the dispatchers spend a lot of time moving trucks around. So uh you'll see in the next slide where we where we have posts throughout the the entire city. Um, and our our guys are not tied to a single post like the like the fire department would they respond from one station and they go back to that station. Our guys don't do that. We may move them to another spot in town where the most likely uh the next call will be depending on the call volume for the day or that point in time. This is a heat map. This shows uh the colors show really where the volume is and and historically uh the the larger volume is downtown Fargo uh Main Avenue and North. Um as you can tell by the the darker colors there. Um and the stars represent where we have posts for the ambulance service. Uh some of them are buildings and some of them are parking lots that we will move a truck to and sit until they get another call. Um, so that's one reason we only do 12-hour shifts because we don't have our guys like sleeping at night. They they they are busy working. We want them working. Uh, our goal is what we would call our unit hour utilization be 40% of the time they're actively on a call. 60% of the time we're repositioning them, making sure they're in the right spot for the next call. Call volumes in the city of Fargo last year, this is 911 calls, 15,625. in this slide in the bars show the disposition. So the darker part of the

bar is a patient transported. The lighter blue is not transported. So we got there and decided for whatever reason they didn't need to go. Maybe they didn't want to go. And then the gray part of the bar is where there's no patient contact. So about 30% of the time we don't transport somebody. Um and that's been very consistent over the years. Uh this is a response volume. uh history. This is for the entire footprint for Sanford ambulance. So at it at its peak um uh in about 2021 we did 35,000 ambulance calls and that's in the entire city. What I what I really want to show with this um these two graphs is in 2021 we had a star sharp drop off in calls. That was when CO kind of bottomed out uh and things changed and um uh and but our our overall arc of growth continues on. If you compare the slide on the right with the slide on the left, you can see the tail on the on the rightward um graph shows where the volume is kind of flattened out and that's because we started with our non-emergency ambulance transport team in uh 2022. So they take all the inner facility calls in the city and some of the lower level 911 calls like from a nursing home. Somebody they call 911, they need to go to the hospital for a non-emergency. So we'll send them for that. That's about 7,000 ambulance calls last year that our non-emergency uh trucks are doing. And what that does and how that impacts the city is it frees up our 911 trucks to be more available. So that's a big chunk of business that we're not doing with the 911 trucks. It's been a very good program. Um it's the newer folks that get into the neat uh division. Uh they get to learn how to do ambulance work. Um you know, bedside manner stuff, how to how to get around the hospitals, all that stuff. Uh so it's been a really good feeder for our program.

Uh this is the response types graph. So um uh we've broken down our calls to emergent and non-emergent. Sometimes when we get uh dispatched emerently, they're downgraded later as the dispatchers at triple RDC code that call and it gets to a level where an emergency response is not necessary. We still continue on. We just don't go lights and sirens. Uh and sometimes the opposite is true where we initially dispatch as a non-emergency. Uh as they gather more information, they determine it to be a higher acuity level. So we'll respond. So kind of the takeaway for this slide is about half the calls we respond to with lights and sirens and about half we do not. And that's still over triaging because we know that uh nationally the only about 6 to 8% of all ambulance calls are actual emergencies. So a large percent of them are not emergencies. And we know that uh in town here uh we transport about 2% with lights and sirens. So, we get there, we stabilize people. Uh, sometimes they need lights and sirens, but mostly not. It's a dangerous way to move throughout the city. So, we try to be very careful about doing that. Here are the response time goals for the city of Fargo. Uh, the red line is the 90%. Uh, and that what that's telling us um is our goal is 90% of our calls in under nine minutes. So, we're well above that and have been throughout the year. I think the uh overall score for the city of Fargo is 93% uh in less than 9 minutes. And that's true for Morehead and West Fargo as well.

West Fargo has claimed the numbers are a little bit late or delayed. That's not what you found with your stats. That's not Yeah, that's not accurate. Thank you.

Uh so the top 10 primary impressions, if you remember, we did about 15,000 and change. um for the number of calls in in Fargo uh and 672 of them were alcohol use. So this is just a top 10 list of ve the very many things that we could code a uh a primary impression to in the city of Fargo. Another takeaway, and I've said this at other uh commission hearings, but if you look through the list, alcohol loose, alcohol use, uh behavioral psychiatric episode, and anxiety and emotional upset, three of the top 10 are kind of behavioral related. So, it's a big uh it's a big burden on the EMS system.

Mayor, might I ask a question of Tim? You know, we're we we have these dynamics unfolding as behavioral mental health issues into our public sector are a managing ch manageable ch unmanageable challenge sometimes. How does that affect our ambulance service? Like we know with law enforcement, we hear some of the impacts on them, but how does that affect the people in the ambulances and your personnel and all that to have this this population of people out there that are so challenging for all of us?

Yeah. I don't think anybody goes to paramedic school or EMT school to be a mental health practitioner, but it's a big part of the job. So, uh, and it's complicated. It's complicated to get people put on a hold, for instance. And it's different. We operate in Minnesota and North Dakota and the rules are different. So it is very challenging uh for the team and they take a long time. So when we go on those calls uh it takes us away from other calls that we could be going on. So it is a burden. Last question. I like we've seen it uh built it ekking into our our fire department services. How much are our ambulance response folks needing to be prepared for like violence, like flack jackets or gear to protect them from violent incidents that are like July 14th a few years ago?

Sure. Uh we did just implement a uh body armor program. Um uh it's optional for our staff. If they want to get body armor, we'll we'll pay for that as part of their uniform allowance. Uh some do, some do not. Um it's not our job to uh to fight with people or um go hands-on and that that's the job of the police and we have a great relationship with the with law enforcement and they look out for us in that way. But it can be dangerous. No, there's no doubt about it. It's a different world out there. Uh but we we do uh in one of the cornerstones of ambulance response is is the scene safe? So, we do not go in if the scene is not safe. We get dispatched somewhere and it it has a a potential to be a a bad situation. We wait for law enforcement to be the first ones in and tell us it's it's good to go. So, we try to be careful like that. It's hard to be perfect. Sometimes we'll take a a p a patient in the ambulance and they have a potential uh to be violent um and we'll ask law enforcement to follow the ambulance in and um be there for us if we need that. Okay, moving on. Um here's our destination graph. So the bars uh the dark blue part of the bar at the top is the patients we transport to Essentia and the lighter blue is Sanford and the green is the VA. Uh this has also been very consistent over the years. It's about a 70 30 split um 65 35 spits something like that but it's it follows the market value or the market share for the hospitals throughout the city. We want to take people where they do their health care cuz uh there's really good health care in this city. Uh and people are loyal to their hospital and that's where their records are. That's where their insurance is, you

know, coupled up with. We want to make sure they get to the right spot. And this graph shows how we've made that determination. Largely, it's the patients choice they tell us. Sometimes there's nobody there to tell us and we have to try and figure it out. We look at their pill bottles or anything that they have. uh in their in their house or apartment to try and determine where they might go. Um sometimes it's a the physician if if you're going from a a clinic, we'll the doctor tells us where they they need to go or families on the scene as well. There are times when we go to the nearest facility and that's when, you know, a few minutes or seconds could mean the difference for somebody and that's uh that's rarish, but the majority of the time we'll go where the patient asks us to go. We want to do that. I just want to point out that uh um the cardiac care in our city is very good. Um and once again, Sanford Ambulance has received the American Heart Association Mission Lifeline Award, a gold award. Um and it includes 10 standards for stroke and heart attack heart attack care. Uh it compels us to work closely with the hospitals and our um first responding uh [snorts] agencies to make sure people are getting to the correct place and that they're prepared to deal with those emergencies as they come in. Uh this is uh this award has been given out for around 20 years. Do you know exactly Kathy? [snorts]

15 years. Okay. And we've been fortunate to uh be um uh have gotten this award every year since its inception. only I think 15 other or 18 other ambulance services in the country have done that. So we're we're proud of that. Kathy works on that. She's she's a cornerstone in keeping us at a very high level. So here's the like the critical patients out of the city of Fargo. We did 31 stemmies, those are heart attacks. Um 188 trauma alerts, 173 strokes, and then 81 other critical patients. and they they're just other um critical emergencies that don't fall in one of these other categories. Um so that adds up to you know um to a a few hundred calls and that these are the types of people we transport to the hospital with lights and sirens. Not everybody.

So would you say the cardiac has changed because it appears to me that 31 in our whole community over a year. I mean are the statins doing better? Are the interventions doing better? Because it seems like a low number. It does seem like a low number. Um Kathy, you have any comments on that? We're trying to figure that out. [clears throat] We're surprised by the number as well. So hopefully that just means Okay, Kathy, you need to come up to a microphone. Sorry. We can hear you, but the public can't.

We're trying to figure that out as well, Mayor. Um the number is lower. Um and it has been running. Um, it's it's a definite change from 2024 and we don't quite know why. So, we're hoping all Fargo are just eating better and exercising. I'd say we're healthier community. I'm excited about that particular thing. But, I mean, part of the thing, as you know, and I know medicine has changed. We have statins out there. We have people that are getting diagnostics done quicker, so they're not waiting till they get the widowmaker, they get it assigned or found sooner. I I think you should be complimented if it's only 31. But you know the alternative often times is death. So it is nice that we're saving people. So

our trauma alert number is higher this year and that is due to a change in the national guideline of what you consider trauma an alert. Thank you.

So we submit data to the a national thing called a cares registry. Um and this slide shows Fargo data on the right and compared to a national data and it has to do with cardiac arrest. Um so in uh nationally about 42% people receive bystander CPR in Fargo 36.6%. Um nationally uh 137 13.7% had bystander applied AD. Uh and Fargo really hit it out of the park here. 46.2% 2%. Uh, this is one that stands out compared to other years. Typically, we're closer to the national average, so we're not really sure why that jumped out this this past year. [snorts] Uh, 9 and a half% survive to hospital discharge where they have a uh, you know, meaningful uh, survivability and quality of life. Um, and in Fargo, city of Fargo, 9.2%. So, very close. And then uh our Ustein score which is uh part of this um an Nstein cardiac arrest is somebody who is uh uh witnessed by st witnessed by bystanders and found to be in a shockable rhythm. So it's not every cardiac arrest. So it's the ones that are that are potentially salvageable with the with the the things we can bring uh to them in the field. So nationally it's 30.3 and we're at 30%. So very close. Uh and then bystander utstein score 33.9% that's where bystander provided CPR and or AD uh and we're just slightly lower than that. So kind of when I look at this the takeaway is uh we do very good very well in the city of Farough with cardiac care. We have to continue to uh promote and provide uh uh public education on CPR and AD use. I think that's the solution here.

Okay. So, overdoses and opiates. So, this um this is a very busy slide. So, I'll go to explain it. The each there's several u groups of columns here. Uh and they're broken up by year. So, [snorts] the first group on the left, those are the total doses of Narcan that we've given in the entire city. So you you'll notice that [snorts] uh on the far right of that grouping um that grayish bar is higher from 2025 compared to 2024. So we gave more doses of Narcan um in the city than we did in the year year past by and the actual number is about 48% more Narcan in the city. Uh the next group of of um co of bars is just the city of Fargo. So once again 25 [snorts] compared to 24 um there's more doses of Narcan given in the city of Fargo with 43.75% more. So quite a bit more. Um the next group of columns kind of in the center is the patient number of patients receiving Narcan because oftentimes you can get multiple doses to the same patients. That's why there's fewer patients than doses. But uh again, there's more patients that receive Narcan by 32%. Uh that's uh that's citywide and in just the city of Fargo, it's up about just under 25%.

[snorts]

Uh moving on to the opiate uh OD related impression um for all of the city was up about 38% and for Fargo just uh over 40%. And then the last two columns that are quite a bit taller have to do with all overdoses um excluding alcohol, but all overdoses are up about 15% from 24 to 25. And in that's citywide and for the city of Fargo specifically, that's about 19%. So the takeaway is more overdoses from 24 to 25. I think you've probably heard of that heard that in other presentations. Uh last year we started a blood program. So we now have uh whole blood that we can deliver in the field. Um spent a lot of time trying to figure this out and do this in a a proper way for an ambulance service. Sent some folks uh uh out of state to learn this. we this is really championed by one of our trauma surgeons who came out of the army and uh really wanted us to take this on. Uh so we started with that in July uh 2025 and we've given blood nine times throughout uh the course of the year and it uh improves patient outcomes. Um we only carry one unit of blood. It's u with the supervisor. So it it depends on the type of call that will co-dispatch the supervisor to. It's not really practical to put blood in every ambulance. we'd have a lot of wasted blood. So much of this prep work to get this program rolling had to deal with uh uh you know uh making arrangements and agreements with our blood supplier and the blood bank and you know we turn the blood back in so it's still usable. They can use it in the hospital um before it's wasted.

So we don't want to waste blood. That's it's a a a unit of whole blood can be made into many different components and impact a lot of people. So, we got to be very judicious with that. But, it's been a cool program and uh um we're proud of that as well. Finally, uh we delivered seven babies in Fargo. So, that always happens um once in a while. And I'd be happy to take any questions. Any questions? It's good report. Thank you for giving us the report. Appreciate it. John, you want anything followup? No, we're fine. No other questions? No. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Bowski, presentation of the police department's 2025 annual report.

Thank you. Stuck this in before you went off to your retirement, huh?

Yes. Fit it in. Um, very proud to present this uh 2025 annual report to you. Uh, you all have a link to the full 80 plus pages. I think might even be more than 80 pages. I want to thank uh Peter Munward, our community engagement strategist, who put all this together in I think record time. This is probably the soonest we've gotten this all done and all our folks at the PD who contributed their information and data from their various divisions. So, uh really great report. We start out really just recognizing our 150th anniversary in 2025. Uh our folks uh designed some really cool memorabilia, a badge like the one I'm wearing, uh some patches that you see up on the screen and stickers for the kids, things like that. just kind of commemorating that 150 years of service to our community. Our uh overall crime stats, couple snippets on that. You'll see an increase in all calls for service, just under 100,000. Um the top call for service is traffic stop. And I think that's really emblematic of the positive effect our traffic safety team has had out in the community. uh these, you know, variety of calls for service uh turn into other things as the cops get there and they evolve, but certainly it's nice to see that our top five calls for service are not any type of aggravated assault or things that are significant crimes. Uh so I think that's also a good sign from a safety perspective. And you'll see our beat map there with our our five beats in in highlighted. Our crime stats uh continue to go down for the second year in a row. Uh 6.8% last year, another 10% this year. And these are significant drops in violent crimes specifically and and other major crimes that are significant to our community and to people's safety. Uh you know, we have 52 fewer rapes. Uh these are real numbers with real percentage

drops. 83 fewer aggravated assaults, 298 fewer burglaries, 25 fewer motor vehicle thefts, which is actually kind of a hard one. Uh two fewer murders, 24 fewer robberies. Where we continue to see increases, and this has been a several year in a row trend is in the areas of shoplifting. And then this last year, theft of motor vehicle parts and accessories are really the two crimes from a volume perspective that we're seeing uh significant increases in. When you say motor parts, is that mufflers?

Uh it's mufflers, although we haven't had a surge of of the catalytic converter thefts this year in the past. Yes. Uh but we've got cars that are being stolen, parts out, torn apart. Uh, you know, we did have one we have, uh, you know, an investigation going on right now regarding one of those locations that's continuing. Uh, so it appears that that type of activity may be part of the increase on that. Some data on our traffic safety team. Uh, they've set some records here in terms of total stops, total citations issued, uh, warnings, speeding violations. Um, one of the biggest violations, most common driving under suspension or revocation, which is something of concern for everyone. We got folks driving around whose licenses are suspended or revoked for a variety of reasons. A lot of times those folks are the ones that get into accidents, that type of thing. Uh, but we we've also seen from the traffic safety team is a very strong correlation to reductions in traffic crashes across the city. huge reductions and reduction in traffic complaints. Uh so there's six of those folks out there every day. There Sergeant in the middle there, Dan Halbert. Uh they're having a tremendous impact and believe it or not, they're still catching people. Like it's like, you know, apples little fish in a in a container type of thing. I was just talking to one of them earlier today and he stopped the same person second time and like two weeks for speeding again. just continuing to speed very fast and we're not stopping small violations, they're getting big big speed violations when they're making those stops. So, tremendous effort there. Our officer wellness continues to be one of the cornerstones of the department. Uh it's a huge recruitment and retention piece, but it's also huge in terms of maintaining the resiliency, elasticity of our personnel so that they can go out, be well themselves, and serve the

community well. Uh this is a really big component that we've been fortunate to grow over the past several years now into a full-fledged unit. Um our wellness coordinator has completely integrated into our department. Uh she is busy from morning until night with personnel stopping in with issues, scheduled appointments, etc. She's also taken on some of the annual mental health check-ins. she's qualified to do that and in turn that reduces some of our costs at a city uh that we would normally pay private providers for those annual mental health checks. So really uh pleased with her efforts and and the whole uh efforts of the unit. And we started our reintegration and reintroduction program. That's something that we uh they learned at one of the conferences they attended to help transition our people back when they're on leave. And sometimes military leaves are significant periods of time or injury leave or family leave. And during that time, it's easy to kind of lose track of the police environment. A big one is going from a military environment to a police environment. The rules of engagement, all the things are different, but there's different levels of threat. And um that's been really important and uh also been wellreceived by our folks. Our real-time crime center uh has been upgraded and relocated. They've built out a new space within the PD headquarters. We've been able to maintain uh a sworn officer, usually someone who's injured, monitoring those cameras in public spaces so that they can identify criminal activity and in some cases uh even upend it before something happens. That observation by that officer uh and communication to the boots on the ground allows an arrest to be made in situations where we otherwise would not be able to make an arrest because it wasn't witnessed by an officer. As you know in North Dakota, most crimes we need to witness in order to affectuate an arrest with exceptions

of felonies uh and some about four different misdemeanors. So that's been extremely beneficial uh most significantly in our downtown corridor. Uh [clears throat] we've also supported safe monitoring of many major community events. We had the largest street fair attendance ever this past year, 2025, the marathon, a variety of parades. Mary, you were just in the St. Patrick's Day parade Saturday and you had significantly more protection than you probably realized. In addition to boots on the ground, you have some eyes watching as well. So, that's been really tremendous in terms of uh public safety benefit. We solved a lot of crimes through the use of our real-time crime center. And most importantly, we're doing it while maintaining constitutional rights of our community. These are public facing cameras and uh we the fourth amendment is always in place. So proud of how our folks are doing that. Uh this is stats on our desk officer reporting system. If you recall, we started this in early 2022 because of the significant call volume versus staffing um and amount of calls that didn't necessarily require an officer's presence in order to file a report or do any additional investigation. So that's been extremely successful over the 4-year period. Uh we've got what 12,000 hours saved annually. uh 683,000 annual savings uh by utilizing that online reporting system and it's really uh beneficial especially for our Gen Yen Z folks who um are very adept at doing that and reporting those and so uh unless someone has a particular uh situation disability inability to report something that would otherwise be referred here then we would send someone out but this has been very successful uh for the department Our Fargo Police Foundation was uh formally indoctrinated in 2025. That's

also been very significant in supporting our department members in the areas of staff wellness, community engagement, and expansion of resources. Uh they've funded a number of things, our two uh replacement Fargo PD canines. The second one will be coming online this spring as well as a number of other wellness things such as the massage chairs, sending our folks to some of the wellness conferences um and our trip out to DC for uh the persons that were selected for their uh of the year awards. So, it's been a really great partnership. Uh really proud of the foundation's efforts and we're very fortunate to have them in our community. In addition, we transitioned in 2025 from our police advisory and oversight board uh to community beat meetings. Uh that was really a natural integration uh from that advisory board setting. It's been a lot more engaging when we're talking to folks face to face in different areas of the city and they're recognizing that we're paying attention to the particular areas where they live. each beat as we saw from our recent community survey has different concerns, different needs. Uh and so again, this face-to-face contact, they also get to chitchat with the cops that are patrolling their area. Um really creates a lot more trust and relationship building with our different community members within these beats. Our next beat meeting is actually next Monday, the 23rd at 6 PM at Northport Library. So, you're all cordially invited to attend that. our employee of the year awards. Uh very proud to um recognize our supervisor of the year, Sergeant Kyle Sehusen. Detective of the year, Detective Ryan Jasper, officer of the year, officer Lacy Bunklman, who a lot of times you'll see here like right now. [laughter] I You're sneaky back there. And our civilian employee of the year, Sarapix.

So, uh very proud of all four of these folks. Our of the year awards are nominated from within the department. Uh we had a plethora of nominations that our awards committee had to go through and make final recommendations. Uh and that's uh that's a great problem to have. These folks are also uh through the benefits of the police foundation will have the opportunity to go out to the law enforcement memorial this May uh and keep that regular connectivity up out there as well. Going forward next year, we've got uh well, this year rather, a transition of leadership that I know you'll be discussing uh very shortly. I want to formally thank our Fargo community for all of their trust, support uh and efforts during my tenure. It's been uh very much appreciated. It's been a very much an honor and a privilege to serve the city of Fargo. And I'm also very honored and privileged to have been the chief of this department. Uh lead the really great men and women of the Fargo Police Department. They do a fantastic job every day. Uh they're very committed. Uh they are guardians in our community and I couldn't be prouder of their efforts. Uh and I hope that they will be continued to be supported in this manner as we transition forward with new leadership. I also like to thank all of you for the opportunity to lead the department. Much appreciated. Uh and I uh I leave very proud of the accomplishments that we've uh we've done together. Thank you.

Chief, thank you for your hard work and efforts and we appreciate good annual report. It's excellent report. We had crime go down. We've had things change in the community. Good luck with the retirement. I know that's it seemed to come quick, but that's something that you'd like to do with your family and we respect that. Any questions about the annual report, Commissioner Strand?

Thank you. Um, Chief, you've been at the forefront of efforts with Fargo to work with the legislative body to to to address some of our needs on that front. How do how is that all sitting right now as you're exiting and retiring and somebody else will step into your shoes and we have a legislative session in a year from now, next year? What what do you just off the cuff, what do you see on front burner that we really need to remind ourselves are issues to address still legislatively?

Well, I'm sure there'll be more technology questions and discussions at the legislature uh just because there's, you know, concerns about how that technology is utilized. So, um I think that would be something to be a breast of uh and be prepared for. Um [clears throat] you know, we've every year there's a a bunch of different bills that come up. Uh, you know, it would be really nice to see additional significant progress in the mental health area. As you mentioned earlier, we did get the 72-hour hold passed or we were part of that effort to do that last legislative session, but we still have really a lack of facilities even even though we can hold someone that they could be held 72 hours. Bed space is still an issue. Significant facilities to handle some of those folks with those chronic issues. Uh our mental health calls for service again were another record 4,300 and some change last year. Mental health calls for service which is a significant um effort burden on our department. A lot of those folks are repeat persons uh that there's a a core group that has such significant issues that they aren't really their issues aren't being addressed. Our folks are dealing with them on a regular basis. it's hard on the officer's mental health um and just it's not really a good for anyone including the community has to deal with then the behavior that they may or may not understand or they question why someone's not arrested versus going to the hospital uh just uh again kind of goes towards that perception and creates some fear at times but also there's a concern for you know the proper treatment of those mental health issues

any other discussion Mr. Strand,

I can't stop myself. Chief, you you deserve to be thanked very sincerely for the service you've provided our community. You moved your family across the country to our community. And it wasn't an easy time. That was right after the whole George Floyd episodes unfolded and what was not going on in Fargo was was not easy to walk into. and you've done an absolutely classy, professional job every single moment of your tenure here. I know there's moments you get criticized by the public. We all do. But I would be remissed to not thank you sincerely for growing into the role you've grown into and for leading leaving with your head high while you're on top of your game after a long lifetime career in law enforcement. You deserve a retirement full of joy. I just thank you sincerely.

I appreciate that very much. And if you recall, [clears throat] shortly after my swearing, wearing a mask, you were the first one to ask me a question asking me to weigh in on whether we should enforce mask mandates in the city. Right. So, I guess you got you got the last question, too. So, nice. [laughter] The first and the last would be unusual for John. Thank you, Chief.

Thank you. Item 38, recommendation for adoption of the following resolutions. An amendment of the home charter to extend the collection of sales tax for public infrastructure and ballot language proposed amendment of the home charter to extend the collection of sales tax for public infrastructure. Brenda Derek is going to explain, but could I have all the director heads that contributed to this effort stand up, please, just so I have the team understand all that were involved. And they're not all here, but the whole financial team as well. Brenda, the whole team. Yes. Thank you. Go ahead. Yeah. Unfortunately, uh Jim Hassau, our wastewire director, is getting prepared to go see his new grandson. So,

I told him that was way more important. Well, you would, Grandma. [laughter]

So, good evening, uh, mayor and commissioners. Tonight, we are requesting approval for a 20-year extension of our existing sales tax and the associated ballot language for the June election. This is about strategic planning for our core infrastructure, our streets, our water, our water supply, and wastewater. We are focusing on needs, not wants. Ensuring that Fargo's infrastructure remains safe, reliable, and prepared for the future, including essential the essential Red River Valley water supply project. So, I'd like to go through just a couple of slides. I'll make it quick. Um, but I did want to recircle back on our infrastructure sales tax purpose. Transparency on this sales tax is key. As you can see, the funds are legally restricted to core needs. They are strictly dedicated to streets, water supply, treatment, sewage, and flood control, ensuring our safe and reliable infrastructure. We are mindful of the cost of living. Fargo's local tax rate is two two and a quarter%. And it is right in line with other large cities. Our local tax is comprised of 1% flood control, a quarter cent safety, and then the 1 cent infrastructure. When you compare our local tax with other cities, we are competitive. And then we So like if you look at West Fargo, they're at a 2 and a half. Grand Forks is a two and a quarter. Bismar at two and mine not at two. I just had to include this slide. I

really This is one of my my favorite slides in, you know, where has our sales tax been used? and it's really simply everywhere. Our sales tax is our only local funding mechanism for street maintenance and replacement projects. Every day we have thousands of visitors use our roads to get to and from their destination. The sales tax is our only tool that ensures visitors help pay for the wear and tear that they produce. Without it, the cost of these repairs do fall on the burden on the shoulders of Fargo residents and businesses. The Red River Valley Water Supply Project is our next multi-generational project. The state of North Dakota is ping providing 75% of the total funding. Of the 25% local share, the city of Fargo is responsible for 62%. That means that with the state funding being provided, the city will only fund 15 a.5% of the project cost. And not only is the state assisting with the funding, the Bank of North Dakota is financing the local share of the project with very favorable loan terms for 40 years at 2%. So with the completion of the diversion project and the Red River Valley water supply project, the city of Fargo will have both flood protection and drought protection. Our infrastructure sales tax is our number one tool for containing our utility rates. It allows us to keep the your monthly water and sewer bills lower by provide a steady stream of capital, which also helps us secure federal grants and loan forgiveness, bringing even more outside fun dollars into Fargo.

In 2025, this 1 cent tax brought in approximately 304 million. If this expires, the funding goes away, but the work does not stop. The repair bills are still going to have to get paid. And this is a choice between shared sales tax or a burden on local residents and businesses. We are managing multi-generational assets and stability is key. It is about residents, businesses, and non-residents all supporting our necessary core infrastructure. The revenue from the 1 cent sales tax is equivalent to about 75% of our entire property tax collection. The residents of Fargo will have a choice. They can keep the current system and share the cost with visitors or let it expire and shift the weight onto Fargo families and businesses. The extension we are prop proposing will responsibly maintain our essential infrastructure, protect our fa fargo families and businesses from higher bills and make sure everyone who uses Fargo services helps pay their share. So we the recommended motion tonight is to approve the resolution to extend the 1 cent infrastructure sales tax for 20 years and the resolution for the infrastructure sales tax ballot language for the June election. And I will take any questions.

Any questions of Brendan? Have a motion. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion, Mr. Cop?

Yeah, just a couple of comments. Um, and thank you to the team. This has been several weeks of of working also for the just for the public's knowledge. We've had two extensive brown bag discussions. I know there's a lot of information here. A lot more was shared with us to really understand the ramifications of this, including working with the Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to bring them along. And today, we received a letter of support from them. So, I'll just end with just a reminder that this is not a new sales tax. It's the extension of an existing sales tax. And I just think that's really important to reinforce here. So, thank you for the work and the information to all of you. Mr. Strand,

thank you, Mayor Brenda. I'm not sure uh who'd ask this, but and who could answer it, but who will champion the effort to get out the vote? Who will who will go out to the community? Because we can't as a government entity. We can't expand government funds. We can educate and inform, I believe, but we can't ask for a vote this way or that way or advocate. Who's going to do that on our on the city and the community's behalf?

Thank you for your question, Commissioner Strand. So we have been collaborating with the chamber and then also with the BIA and reaching out and just providing that education of of the need um and and the um impact to the city and so we are working collaboratively with the groups on what that champion will look like. Any other discussion? Roll call vote please. Colac I. Turnberg I Epcorn no Strand yes Mahoney I

item 39 discussion regard the interim leadership and recruitment timeline for the notification of police deputy mayor Denise Scopak brought this up maybe you can ask your questions and Mike can explain

yeah I just want to if I can summarize the reason for the request also want to thank Chief Sabolski for his years of service here um he was brought in as a chief to make some change and significant changes were made and we saw uh many of the results in tonight's annual report. Um so thank you very much. So with Chief Sabolski's retirement effective March 22nd, we were entering an important transition period for the department. And the Fargo Police Department has 192 sworn officers and 31 civilian staff members and strong stable leadership is critical for both the department and the community they serve. And I thought because of the timing of the retirement, it's important that the entire city commission understands what the interimm leadership structure will look like beginning March 28th. Our officers deserve clarity about who will be leading the department during this transition, and the public also needs and deserves confidence that there will be continuity in leadership and operations, which I have no doubt there will be. I also believe it's important that these conversations happen openly and publicly whenever possible and major leadership transitions in public safety agencies are significant moments for our community. Having this discussion here tonight allows the public to better understand how the transition will be handled. And so those [snorts] were the reasons for this request. And I know um administrator Redinger has some information for us. Thank you.

Well, thank you mayor and commissioners. I do have just a few slides that I put together um over the weekend just to discuss our next steps. And I just also want to acknowledge uh Jill Manette, our HR director, who may assist if there's any other questions about the process moving forward. Uh she and I will be working collaboratively on this process over the next several months. Uh so item 39 um as Commissioner Copac just um intimated is really to try to provide an overview of the appointment procedure, the process that we've used in the past, as well as the proposal for 2026. I also want to talk a bit with the commission about public engagement and uh just dialogue with the publics to make sure that their input is received and then we'll talk about the interim appointment um as well. So uh much like our other department head positions the police chief is an appointed officer uh per city ordinances very similar to again other department heads and uh this will be a human resources departmentled and facilitated search process. The city commission appointment that will be made for the police chief will be based on input received from the selection committee from the leaison commissioner mayor Mahoney as well as city administration. This is the same language that you saw on the earlier item about the appointed officers. In this regard, the police chief is a specified position historically uh from 1965 to present as well as our other department heads. I thought it'd be helpful to just put side by side the information from our last two public safety chief search processes. One, the police chief on the left in 2020 and then the fire chief vacancy that was most recently um occurring in 2025. Both retirement vacancy situations. one, we did do an internal interim appointment uh of a of an acting individual that was in the police chief uh context in 2020. We did not do an interim chief for the fire department in 2025. We used selection

committees in both cases and then we had slightly different timelines to complete the total work about five months in total from front to back to complete the last police chief uh search process in 2020. about three and a half nearly four months of time that was necessary necessary to complete the fire chief uh selection process in 2025. In both cases, presentations um were made to the city commission for approval. I just also want to make a note about perhaps why you might be thinking there's this seems like a lengthy process. It is a lengthy process in the case of a police chief primarily because we have a very extensive background check process that's required. Uh in this case uh as the chief law enforcement officer you need to be both federally cleared uh you need to be getting your CIS credential. Um we do a very extensive background and then as a result a much longer conditional offer phase before we can take that conditional offer and convert that into a full offer of employment. So it just takes a bit more time frankly to make sure that this is done right. And this will be the case here again in 2026. So when I talk about 2026 uh and the interim leadership, I think it is important to note as commissioner Copac noted that we do have many many uh great and capable people within the department. U just today had an opportunity to have a conversation with the assistant chief Travis Stefanoitz. Uh the assistant chief was out of the office last week at training out of the area. So really appreciate the opportunity for Jill and I to connect with the assistant chief today. And what we will be doing is working on final terms of employment and condition for the interim appointment. I'll have that prepared for March 30. We'll retro that back to uh Saturday uh March 28th, but uh thanks very much to the assistant chief for being willing to step forward and be considered for the interim chief opportunity. This is the proposed schedule uh again

that I put together over the weekend and that is that we would get the position description uh finalized between now and really mid to the end of April. I would really like to get that finalized by April 24th so that we are posting that on April 27th and then having a a pretty good duration of of market saturation uh with that position posting. I would I'm proposing to close that in mid June. This would be after the election in the for the city of Fargo. We would have first consideration of applications following that period of time in uh mid to late June with the selection committee. Those will likely be virtual interviews with finalist in-person interviews to be conducted in July. At that point, the new city commission, the mayor will be seated will be a part of the process. And I I really hope to then have the designated uh police chief uh named at that point where we can advance that to city commission consideration and then hopefully uh have a an employment start in August uh and perhaps no later than the Labor Day time frame. So in terms of recruitment strategies, um really appreciate again the assistance of our HR team. Uh this will be a process that can be conducted and supervised by the city of Fargo's human resources department. uh we will be looking at both local, regional as well as national search posting locations. We'll look at professional associations, recruitment websites. We really want to make sure that we are inclusive of the new elected officials that will be joining the board uh in July. And I think that's just a really important thing. So, we're going to be bridging kind of two periods of time. We'll get underway with the commission of today, but we'll make sure to complete the process with the newly elected mayor and city commission to make sure that their voices are included. I really want to emphasize too on public engagement an emphasis on uh just community feedback and input. Uh we're going to make sure that that's included. We'll make sure that the selection committee includes some voices from the

community as well as the department leadership and staff. And then we'll make sure that within the process we also are creating opportunities for these candidates to meet and leers with the department leadership and our staff. It's very very important to make sure that our our leaders as well as all of our sworn and civilian staff feel connected to this uh new individual and that they get an opportunity to really get to know that person well and get on board with supporting that individual. Um we'll also make sure that there's a community reception or open house and then we'll also certainly be open to other suggestions that the commission and and members of our department have as we move forward. And so I'll just close on a couple last comments about interim uh leadership. I talked earlier about the assistant chief and and his willingness to assume the police chief responsibilities on an interim or acting basis. I just really appreciate him stepping forward to do that. This duration really requires us uh to seek the appointment of an interim chief much like we did back in 2020. We just think that's really imperative because you need to have that key day-to-day decision maker who can really move the organization forward, make sure that the department maintains that continuity of operation. I also just want to be very clear that if uh if he so chooses to be a candidate that in this regard the interim police chief would be permitted to be a candidate for the position. Um we had a case in our last search in 2020 where the interim was not a candidate and then uh saw the saw the transition and then later retired in the first 6 months to a year of the new police chief's arrival. But I just want to make sure that the commission is clear that this individual could be a candidate if so uh if he chooses to do so and we would certainly welcome that. [snorts] So the position description and uh finalization will be our next step. I'll certainly coordinate with the mayor as the liaison commissioner to the police department on that. We'll solicit input from the commissioners as well as our staff. um also would um really be

working to firm up that schedule and the selection committee and then getting the appointment of the interim police chief uh completed at the next meeting on March 30th after we uh get the terms finalized and we move forward with that. And so with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. I just wanted to give that very very high level uh summary of the last 5 days or so. And just please know that we will endeavor to do everything that we can to support a very effective, very comprehensive search process. uh that will include the voices of the community as well as our department. And I just want to just acknowledge uh all of our department leaders. Uh they do a great job day in day out, week in week out. And they're going to do a great job in this interim. Uh I just want to support their efforts and and please let them know uh that we absolutely support them and we'll make sure that we uh we move this forward as quickly but as comprehensively and thoughtfully as possible. So I will leave it at that and I'm happy to answer any questions. I will be back before the commission in two weeks with a formal interimm appointment. Um, and we will present that officially at that time. Thank you,

Mr. Piporn. So, Mr. Chair, just a couple things if you could pull up that timeline. What I'd like to do is move everything back a month because I I think we have a I think your choice for an interim is excellent, but I don't think we should have the existing mayor and liaison involved in the new hiring. And so I think we should move it all back until we get the two new commissioners seated and the new mayor and then start the position because I think uh that would be the best uh way going forward. Thank you, Mr. Turnber.

Uh just curious, Michael, will this be similar to the process the fire department went through to choose Chief Lauren? because that was wonderful having the open house, being able to submit uh opinions with the QR code. It just seemed seemed very interactive with the public, too.

Yeah. Thank you, Commissioner Turnberg. I I think there's a lot of elements that we could, you know, kind of bring over into this process that could do just that. This will have a bit more time, you know, embedded within that process. um we have a larger department as well. So we really want to make sure that the department is included in that process and they get an input opportunity. But uh yes, we'll take the those uh those great suggestions from the fire chief process. Uh the distinction here is that we will need to have an interim leader and so to uh the points raised earlier. Really important for us just to have that continuity and uh we look forward to working with the assistant chief on that process. But yes, we'll make sure it's a very inclusive process and one that includes as many voices as possible. So thank you. and would ask Commissioner Turnber that you look at the job description. If you have suggestions, you place those as well because we would like to look at this as kind of if there's something to reinvent it or do something different, we could do that. Uh and just in an effort to move forward, the reason we went do the final selection till the new commission is seated then that allows those people to do the final selection. Commissioner Copac.

Yeah, thank you. I had a couple other specific follow-ups. Um, Administrator Redlinger, you answered them in your presentation. Again, the goal here is to bring the community along. Um, which, um, this is helpful. And I will have some specific questions about roles and responsibilities once the, um, the interimm chief is named at the March 30th meeting. So, I'm that's all my in feedback at this point. Thanks. We do have one speaker. John, do you want to ask a question before?

Yes. [snorts] Thank you. A few thoughts. When you're talking engagement, this isn't no particular order, but when you're talking engagement, I would also uh appreciate if we find ways to engage with our existing personnel in the police department itself, 200 and some people that we we we need to listen to them, hear from them, and talk to them because you know what what's coming eventually is there's going to be a new chief from inside or or outside and and they're very different dynamics. So I I I I think we we really put them front burner for for people we're engaging as well as as the community. My my next question thought and question is I'm concerned about the 27th until Monday night the 30th. We're going to not have an interim if we're not appointing the interim associate assistant chief until the 30th and our current police chief is resigning on retiring on the 27th. We I why why wouldn't we just tonight name the assistant chief the interim?

Yeah, thank you commissioner. That's a great question. So, unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to meet face to face with the assistant chief until today because he was out of town last week. But, um I just a clarification. The assistant chief serves as the chief in the absence of the chief. And so, he will be effectively the chief on the 28th. just the formality of getting the terms and conditions put together and formally naming him as the interim chief will occur on that Monday. But um yes, we also want to honor retroing that back to Saturday the 28th as well. That is the first day that he becomes uh the interim police chief, but uh we would have brought that here tonight, but unfortunately we're not able to do that in the five days that we've had on this since uh since everything happened last week. So, uh, but please know that we fully support, uh, getting that done and yes, he will he will be, uh, the acting chief just by virtue of of the position being vacant on that Saturday.

That's good to clarify. And I'll just have No, he doesn't have all the terms yet with him, John. That's the only reason I understand that. Go ahead.

That makes sense. Lastly, Commissioner Pepcorn raised the issue of timing. I think it's an important issue. you know, three of us, only two of us will be here potentially after June. And and mayor, you've been at the table as a leazison for years and years. Two police chiefs, maybe three, you know, and and we have somebody new coming to the table to be mayor, whoever that will be, you know. Um, so I I just am not in favor of expediting this when we don't know who's going to be who at the table, you know. And and and if I was to suggest to anybody going forward, if we're going to accelerate that timeline right now, I would say Commissioner Turnberg and I who are going to be the two that we know will be here. Just saying. Mr. Sure.

You know, we're going to be here and and uh and and versus having other people help define, decide, describe, lay out the lay the the process going forward and they may not be here after the election. I wish I I'm just saying that's a reality. Mr. Piper,

so Mr. which are just a suggestion. So the the all the dates are fine up until where you start the uh selection committee, you know, the the June 16th if we could just move that back to July 1st. The rest of it is preliminary things. And so to me that that's and it's not a rush. I mean, we have an interim and so that's what I would suggest. you know, the the preliminary things that you talk about, advertising the position, opening it, all those things, that's fine, but just moving it back to July 1st or whenever the whenever this they officially the changes, that's just that's my only suggestion. So, just throwing it out there.

And to be frank, really, John, if it's you in ter if you try to move it back is just move it back to the new mayor and the new commission. and and I there's no problem with that because otherwise we're doing the preliminary and then we're giving you the final panelist and the preliminary is pretty important when you go through your preliminary to who you pick to do that. So I I think we'll take that under advisement and come back with a new timetable for you but objections noted. I do have one speaker Bradley Foster. Are you here?

Yeah. I'm sorry. This must have been a mixup on the thing. I wanted to speak just during the general comments, not this in particular. So, can I just sit back down to the general comments? And what's your what's your topic there, Brad? Uh, I'm going to speak on some of the situations that handled with the police recently, but not necessarily the search for the interum or anything. I can put you on I can put you in the end. That's fine. Thank you very much. Any other discussions? Jody, are you okay to keep going or you got to take a break? You're good to go. that uh financial overview of the resource recovery center. Mr. Piporn.

Yeah, I requested Susan Thompson to give us a a report. I don't know. So, Susan's out today because she's on vacation. So, I'm happy to provide you an update on project cost and where we are with fundraising efforts because I think that was your concern. Is that right? I I guess my main concern is so apparently some of the well I just like to know how much funding we have in hand, what the budget is, where the money's coming from. And the other the other concern I had was uh some of it is anonymous and and and so we're supposed to have transparency in government and to have anonymous money coingled with public money, that's just not a good recipe. And so that's my opinion and I I specifically asked for a finance the Susan Thompson or somebody from finance to give the report. So that that's what I'm looking for.

Yeah. And I I'm aware of the report and I'm aware of the findings that Susan would tell you. So I just want to remind everybody that we overwhelmingly heard from the community through feedback and along with the survey that they wanted the engagement center moved out of downtown. The commission had actions on December 22nd where we're able to start the process by solidifying a pathway for fed up and relocation with private donations through the FM area foundation. We engaged the FM area foundation to help the city in coordinating potential donors. [clears throat and cough] What donors needed to hear that the city as were committed to the project recla relocating out of the downtown. The actions on December 22nd did that. The difficulty in the fundraising is the fact that by the time when we hit everybody at the end of December, a lot of their donations for 25 were already done. So it was difficult for some of the people we talked to to say can I can give you out of the 25. So often times they give out of the 26. So we've been working with them and as discussed it'll be our mission next legislative session to use this site to advocate for state support. We agree need a path forward the state can facilitate this community need. We're trying to bridge between state support and private donors to facilitate a solution that works for us. We have had good discussions with Emily O'Brien who is the new person who'll be taking over human services. We've had great discussions with her about to move forward and how we might do that. We found a building owner who was willing to lease the buildup and fit up in the facility. The cost of the fit up of the facility is approximately 1.4 4 million. Initially, we thought we'd need 2.5 million, but we have worked this down to a lot less cost, and the teams worked really hard at that. Now, we successfully have received over $100,000 in in donations for the work. That's part of that estimate of what we need. And in addition to that, Bloomberg Associates gave us $70,000 worth of

architectural services for free. We currently have raised uh $750,000 that's not unnecessarily in the bank but is in pledges and is money to come forward and the way the FM foundations they commonly do things anonymous in which people can give money to it don't necessarily want to be identified but are happy to give the money. I have talked to over 40 to 50 donors in the community that are out there helping us out and helping us get this project done. Uh it's on task where we're at supposed to be and it's where we'll try to be. We anticipate the move in May 1st, 2026 and we anticipate continue the process of improving the facility and doing our lease payments over the next two years. Um I can't give you any more d information if you want. I mean and that's where we're sitting at Commissioner Pepcorn and

Susan will give you a similar report if you would like to have that. I I mean we're making a financial commitment and and we have a Moody's downgrade. We don't have any money and and to talk about inind donations that means nothing. Well, in kind donations of $100,000 does mean something because it's money we don't have to spend. I'm sorry to say.

I I I'm just telling we we need I need to see this money where it's coming out of our budget. If we're making a commitment and and we're having anonymous money that that that is unacceptable. It may be unacceptable to you, but it's money that we've raised. So, that's where it sits. And we've made a commitment for a two-year lease. We'll maintain that two-year lease. And if we don't raise enough money, we will pay it out of city funds. And we do have the money. So, it's not something we don't have. We're not bankrupt. We're doing quite well as a city, but you as five commissioners want the deck moved out of downtown. It's what the business community wants and we're going to support that. We're We're doing quite well as a city financially.

Yes. And we had a Moody's downgrade. Yes. Because we don't have a big enough reserve fund. Has nothing to do with anything else. That's it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, Mr. Strand.

Thank you. I'm As long as we're on the topic, [laughter] you know, I'm I'm curious about this bigger picture of of the location of the engagement center and the recovery center and its future. And for the moment, we have an interim two-year space. case we're going to on the other side of that discussion there's people out there in the community talking about where will the convention center end up being and these two are across the street from each other and I just don't know the leen I'm I'm wondering are some of our donors potentially waiting for that to get resolved before they make a commitment to the location's location I don't think so John

okay it's not two or three blocks down further down the slate and there have been engagement centers throughout the country that have been close to a convention center and survived. Well, you got to remember we're open 8 to 5:00 and most of your events are going to be on weekends. We're not open on the weekend. Any other discussion? Item 41, applications for property tax exemptions. Do I have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Roll call vote. Colat. Hi. Pepcorn. Hi. Strand. Yes. Turnberg. Hi. Mahoney. Hi.

The on commissioner assignment updates. Commissioner Strand. Um, you had item 22 before that perhaps mayor. That was pulled up. I could do that. Yeah, let's do that first if you don't mind. Item 22, agreement with Richard Health Department for planning family planning services. Commissioner Pepcorn to explain.

I don't really have anything to explain. And I just want to point out to once again to our taxpayers in Fargo, uh, we are providing family planning for Richland County and we're the Fargo Health Department and we are out of money. The the mayor says we're doing great. Moody says we have a downgrade because we have a debt downgrade. So, uh, we have no business. Our focus should be on our primary responsibilities. And if we're the Fargo Health Department, we should focus on Fargo. would pretty much would go without saying. So to have us be in Richland County is nonsense. We also are in Devil's Lake providing services. So uh these need to be discontinued. We need to start instead of increasing taxes $34 million a year. We need to reduce spending. When when does that start?

It's already started. Jen, you want to explain what we did here? [snorts]

Sure. Good evening once again, mayor and commissioners. Um the contract before you tonight for Richland County Public Health has been a contract that's been in place in an agreement with them since 2014. Uh it is a public health collaborative agreement that we would travel to Richland County one time per month if the schedule is necessary and they have clients that need to be seen. It allows access to the rural areas of North Dakota without them having to hire a nurse practitioner to provide those services on their own staff. Um it is a 100% pass through that Richland County reimbures Cas Fargo Bargo Cast Public Health for the time and the travel and the federal guideline for the gas reimbursement for the travel to Richland County to provide said services. Uh there are times that we don't go once a month because they don't have clients to do that. In regards to Devil's Lake, when Lake Region lost their providers at their public health uh department, we provided and offered to provide rather uh teleaalth services to cover the clients at Lake Region. Uh they didn't need our services actually. They were able to get their clients placed within the community and they didn't go without care. Um but those were services that we would have been offering and those would have been for service and fees as well that we would have been charging for the teleaalth uh care that would have been rendered. How many how many counties do we work with?

Uh for family planning, we go down to Richland County with this contract. There are other counties that we work with for other contracts, right? So, the state provides a service agreement with us to provide services for six counties. Uh our emergency preparedness department covers six counties paid for by the state. Uh environmental health is also covering six [snorts] other counties paid for by the state. Uh we get um bianually funds from the state to provide that. Our women's um health program is is cancer screening. We provide that for three counties paid for by the state. We help enhance the health throughout the state and we get paid for it. So it has nothing against our taxpayers nor do our taxpayers pay for it. Correct. Do I have a motion? May I? Mr.

Mr. Turmer. Um just a question. How does this affect our employees though their work life balance? Do they not is there not enough in Fargo Cass County to be over busy than to be lending them out to other counties? I'm just looking at balance and the the happiness of your employees.

Certainly. Uh thank you for that. Uh we had been working actually short staff in the clinic for the past year when we had somebody out for um an extensive time with family leave uh for medical care and then ultimately resigned. We have recently just rehired uh somebody to the facility who worked with us 25 years ago and has come back now as a nurse practitioner and she's working part-time and that would help alleviate some of the time for Audrey who is uh has been with the program since well for probably about 25 plus years as well. Um happy to go down there and provide the service. It it doesn't take away from her opportunity to keep her schedule full while she's here at Fargo. um she had actually volunteered to go down to four days a week to help save our budget um two years ago. So, we're continually working on the right balance and in case load for our our practitioners uh and still servicing everybody that we need to within the Fargo community.

Mr. I'm smiling to myself, but you know, if we didn't have all these family planning services, we could grow our workforce. John, I make the motion that's asked requested. Is there a second? Second. Any other further discussion? Roll call vote, please. Strand, yes. Colac, I. Epcorn, no. Turnberg, I. Mahoney. Hi. [clears throat] Now, do you want to go back to LA? John,

sure. I have a slide, I think, to show um There we go. The this is colon cancer awareness month and it's just Fargo Cast public health has been providing education through the Roland colon a 10 foot walkth through of the inflatable colon. It's outside isn't it? [laughter] And colon cancer is the second deadliest cancer followed by lung cancer is number one. and the rolling colon will be on display at Fargo Public Health Thursday, March 26th from noon until 6:00 p.m. That's my first report from Fargo Public Health. Secondly, I just like to make note to the my fellow commissioners in the community that I had a tour of the Lascoitz building the other day, the 110 new apartments that are over near the riverside where the dam is and where the high-rise used to be. And boy, it's just really something to see where our our servers and our providers of housing in our community. We have Beyond Shelter and Fargate Housing Authority. And this is and and and you know, just some of the imprints of the fingerprints of the city on that project over there used to be, you know, the high-rise. Now it's 110 units. But for example, um is is is Nicole's Nicole's back there somewhere. Nicole months and months ago decided that this building that's coming to the community shouldn't look different than the rest of its neighborhood. And yes, it's affordable housing and yes, there's a tight budget, but but Nicole fought to make sure that it fit in and that the building looked like the neighbors next to it so they're not walking into something that's little less standard value to begin with. Then the mayor fought to make sure he wasn't let this going to go forward unless they had laundry services in every unit. These are quality of life issues. You know,

there's underground parking. There's a patio for people there. They have a view. Some of the nicest views in town are out of the Lascoitz building looking out across the river down. So anyway, when you get a chance, go see this new building, this housing that we're providing and and and also thank the housing authority and and Governor Hovind and others who've really I'm sorry, Senator Hovind, who've really had a major role in this project getting to this point in time. Thank you, Don, Mr. Copek. Yeah, just a one verbal update that I'll be attending the water topics interm committee meeting next Thursday in Bismar. That's it.

No comment for me, Commissioner Turber. I have all the latest updates and activities happening at our Fargo libraries listed on my Facebook site. Commissioner Pipron. So, we have public comments. Two people. We'll start with Bradley Foster again. [clears throat]

Hello, I'm Bradley Foster. Glad to be up here again. Uh, you know, I heard a lot talking about the former police chief's tenure. There's one name that we really should have said, that being Angela Lips, who is the grandma who was wrongfully detained. Fancy word for kidnapping from Tennessee despite never stepping foot in North Dakota, who was wrongfully detained for over a 100 days. And then we mentioned everything we've been so proud of that the police have done. She was released on Christmas Eve without a coat in the Fargo winter. makes me so proud to be a Fargoan. And by the way, we know this because you guys had a closed door meeting before you opened the damn doors to this today at 4:30. We know that we're going to get sued. This city's going to pay hundreds. And you know what? Whatever we pay, it will not be enough to compensate that poor woman. Now, the question to have to the city commissioners, are any of you going to take a pay cut? Are we taking any police pensions out? I think you know the answer. Absolutely not. The taxpayers will. And first off, I just find it ridiculous that no one said anything about that. And I just want to reiterate how embarrassing this is to the city. My god, is this a is this what we want to be known as nationally? That we kidnap grandmas from another state using an AI algorithm? It's going to be costly to taxpayers. And I'd also like to state that this just gave a golden ticket to every single person who's going to trial against the city of Fargo. You would better believe that every single defense lawyer worth their salt is going to be seeing if that AI algorithm was used to get evidence for them. And even if it's not, they've poisoned the potential pool of jurors. It's absolutely ridiculous. This is the biggest law enforcement screw- up in this side of the state since they found poor Sedc in the river with bullet holes in his back. And where's this come to you guys? You guys are the commission. You're supposed to oversee things. Seems to me that if we're at this situation, one of two things happened. Either you

all were aware that this type of technology is being used to detain people without human oversight, at which point I expect to see a handful of resignations, or you didn't know. I ask you, pick your poison. I beg you. If you want to be po pro law enforcement and pro taxpayer, you need meaningful oversight. Until that happens, this commission cannot call themselves pro Farargoan, pro- taxpayers, and least of all pro law enforcement. With that, I seed the rest of my time. Joseph Garcia. Good evening, Joseph Garcia, local business owner. Yes, I'm here to voice my concern and complaints of the uh lack of oversight and the extreme uh compartmentalization of departments uh which I have experienced through my situation. Stemming back to my first visit uh with my assault charge for my uh my assault charges against my previous partner. I have turned over evidence continuously of other crimes I've experienced by this individual yet to meet roadblocks, uh, disencouragement, flatout lies, as well as misinformation. I just recently spoke with, uh, the prosecutor. One second here. Traaser about my fraud situation that I brought to documentations to you guys in the last meeting when my microphone was cut off. Uh he expressed to me that he doesn't believe he can move forward with the case due to he would have to find a credible expert witness. And I referred to him I referred him to Dustin Manaki who is the fraud recovery and legal

processing analyst for Gate City who was gave me a letter and uh an acknowledgement of the fraud perpetrated. When I referred to him as his expert witness, he backpedalled. I've never experienced or witnessed such gymnastics per performed to protect one individual from a multitude of crimes uh perpetrated against me stemming from misdemeanor to felonies. I cannot comprehend why a police department would uh go to such extremes for certain individuals such as my business partner given his record. Uh but I am here to let you know that because of the lack of oversight and the uh extreme corporatalization of these departments, every other department has plausible deniability of anyone's actions. Uh therefore it is extreme problematic. I do request that someone look into this because I have turned over ample evidence of these crimes perpetrated just to be ignored, disaged, or uh flat out told that they don't want to pursue it because it's not in their best interest. Thank you.

We have no other public speakers. We stand adjourn.