City Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey hey down. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey.

We'll call the meeting to order. We'll begin with the pledge of allegiance. I invite you to join us. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Roll call please. Coac here. Pepcorn here. Strand here. Turnberg here. Mahoney here. Is there a motion to approve the order of agenda? What's the move? Second. Uh all in favor say I. I. I. Motion carried. Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the April 27th, 2026 regular meeting? 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 26? So move. Is there a second? Second. Roll call motion. A roll call, please. I'm sorry. Jody Epci. Kac. I. Strand. Yes. Turnberg I Mahoney I regular agenda recommendation for appointment of police chief Michael Readingler to explain.

Thank you very much commissioners evening. Uh very pleased this evening to present the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee uh to appoint Travis Devonowitz as the new police chief for the Fargo Police Department. I thought it'd be just important to give you a brief recap of the selection process and just to tell you where we've been. Uh but really appreciate your consideration of this appointment tonight. So the police chief vacancy was advertised both externally uh as well as internally. It closed on April 28th. Our sele selection committee then met the next day on April 29 and interviewed the sole finalist candidate after that. Um also took the opportunity to meet with our captains as well as the lieutenants of the department. And I just really want to appreciate and lift up, you know, their good work that they provided, uh, not only to the department, but also in support of the HR team, myself, uh, within the search process. We received some great, uh, feedback on questions that we could potentially ask when we got to the in-person interview. So, I just want to make sure I acknowledge the captains and lieutenants for all of the things that they did to support our process and, uh, and support our interim leader. Uh the in-person interview uh with the sole finalist was held on May 6th and that included both a presentation from the candidate on his vision for the Fargo Police Department as well as a conventional question and answer format. Again, sourcing some of that direct information from our leadership within the department as well as our HR team. We received some great input, great ideas, but had a very good exchange uh with the interim chief. That is actually all available to if members of the public want to watch that. that is on our YouTube channel that was conducted just last week. Uh so tonight again I'm very pleased to advance the unanimous recommendation of the selection committee and their recommendation to appoint the interim chief and I just want to add uh my uh complete endorsement and support of this recommendation of the selection committee as well. Uh we believe that we've identified the candidate that's the right candidate for the right time to really take us to the next level in the department and move the department forward. Um I would be remiss if I

didn't thank the selection committee for all of their time, all of their effort. Um I listed their names so you can see that in the packet. We had a great amount of representation from within the department as well as um outside individuals including Rocky Schneider from the Downtown Community Partnership as well as other staff members within team Fargo. And so with your approval this evening and appointment of the chief designign, Mr. Stefanowitz, uh we will then conduct a swearing in ceremony. And I've talked to the assistant chief or the interim chief about that. we would like to conduct that simultaneous to our police academy graduation which is going to be held later this month on May 27th. So nice opportunity to also swear in uh the new chief at that time. So I'll leave it at that. Your recommended motion is in your packet this evening and again just really appreciate the city commission's consideration of this unanimous recommendation of the selection committee and I just want to add my congratulations to Chief Design Stefanowitz on reaching this career milestone. So thank you.

I have a motion. So move. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Commissioner Piper. So I have a question for Mike. Uh do you feel the public had an adequate opportunity to be involved in this process?

Well, that's a a good question, Commissioner. Thanks for that. It was a very condensed process and so we did not have in a conventional kind of search process, we would have had uh different kind of opportunities for public input and public forums. Did not have the opportunity due to the condensed schedule. So I think that we accommodated as best we could, you know, given the the kind of limited time that we had with this schedule. But again, be able to turn that as quickly as we did. I just really have to say thanks to the HR team because this was a very unconventional search in that way and that it was done in a very very short amount of time. So uh but yes, I would say we did the best we could with the time we had. Mr. Pip, just one more question. Why was there a limited time? Why why was there urgency? He is the interim chief. We we have lots of time. What What was the urgency?

Yep. So I'll just go back. Thank you for the question, commissioner. I'll just go back to the previous city commission discussion on that. We absolutely presented a variety of options. We could have done it over a more conventional search process, but this is really responding to the majority wishes of the commission at the time to be able to move forward as quickly as we could. Um, and then also with the identification of a sole finalist, uh, with a sole finalist, we were able to move more rapidly and be able to meet this timeline here on May 11. And so uh yeah, just in consultation with the lays on commissioner as well. Uh we had got that advanced and and were able to get that in last week. So just uh feel good about that and being able to move forward. So any other questions or comments? Commissioner Strand.

Thank you. Um when we were going through this process and there were some really great minds involved and I especially appreciated the five members of the law enforcement community that were part of this selection process. But one of the things I a and learn I asked and learned was how long do how long do police chiefs typically last and I got an answer maybe 3 to 5 years across the country. Uh so I I'll share this uh Chief Stfanoitz when he indicated he's giving us a commitment for 20 more years. I'm on board. You've been here for 25 years I think already. And I'm saying that entirely tongue and cheek. but uh the longevity of his service and the the likelihood that we have a local candidate that's part of our community with the blessing and the support of the of the people they serve is just really a great place to be at this moment in time going forward and I and I hope our new chief lasts more than 3 to 5 years. Chief, I was surprised at your ability to really explain yourself during the public discussion we had with you. I think for any of those who watched it, you saw somebody who put out there what he's planning on doing, what his heart is in it, as well as not having all the solutions, but looking for them and listening to people and working with teams to try to find those answers. So, I think he does open a new light in the police department of uh ears that listen and he's a thoughtful uh chief that will work with us the variety of different challenges we have. So, uh, uh, congratulations on this new position and looking forward to exciting times going forward. So, thank you. Any other comments, Mr. Copek?

I I too want to add my thanks to the selection committee and the staff that navigated this on the shortened timeline. Um, excuse me, Chief Stefanoitz, thank you for for stepping up at this time. Thank you for your 25 years of service to this point. Um, and for continuing through this process to completion. Um, I know there's been a lot on your plate and your team's plate in this short time period and um, I think you've managed it very well. So, I'm I'm glad to support this appointment. Thank you. Any other comments? Roll call vote, please. Strand, yes. Turnberg, yes. Colac, I. Pepcorn, I. Mahoney, I. Thank you.

Item 29, uh, applica, excuse me, recommendation for appointments to the board of appeals. Do you have a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Copac. Pepcorn. I. Strand. Yes. Turnberg. I. Mahoney. I. Application for property tax exemption for improvements made to buildings. Do I have a motion? That's a move. Is there a second? Second. Kind of reluctant on these. These are the ones we like to give away. Helps people out. Motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Pepcorn. I. Strand. Yes. Colpac. Turnberg. I Mahoney.

I as in commissioner assignment updates. Commissioner Pepcorn. No update. Mr. Chair. Commissioner Turnberg. I have updates listed on my Fargo Facebook page. Thank you.

Uh I have a couple departments I want to talk about. I want to talk a little bit in the finance department and debt load. So last week uh um Susan did a thing to the commissioner candidates to try to explain the debt load and I was working with us a little bit trying is there a way to simplify it a little bit. So I'm basically doing this for the general public to kind of understand because in the candidate discussion it gets a little confusing. So number one, we have a debt load of 1.3 million 1.3735 billion. And if you look at it closely, the biggest one is improvement bonds, which are specials bonds. Basically, it's property owned assessed portion of street repairs and established neighborhoods, infrastructure for new development. The special assessments are paid for by benefiting property owners. And basically what the city does is get a more favorable bond rating. So your interest rates are lower when we have rehab and things like that done. People forget where I on the specials. We were going to go to a 50/50 cost share on rehab specials and we assessed it back up and we pay almost 75 to 80% of your rehab specials in which you only have to pay 20 to 25%. That's better than any place in the state of North Dakota. So I think number one we treat our people very well. But that is really a bond that's really held by the owners, the property owners themselves. And then we have a city city uh you uh excuse me facility debt 48 million. And that purpose is fire station, city hall, public health building, police headquarters and other essential facilities. That repayment is de dependent on general fund and the facilities are long community assets that included an annual general fund budget. Now the utility infrastructure debt and that's called state revolving fund loans is 328 million and that's really for our water plant wastewater plant expansion and improvements utility and solid waste upgrades. The repayment

is utility rates and the 1 cent infrastructure sales tax. How it's managed the sales tax allows visitors to participates in the cost of infrastructure they use and steady revenue from utility rates low interest program via the state of North Dakota. Most of those in the utility, the orange one, have a 2% 30-year loan. So, it's very good for the city to have good loan set up on that. Now, the good news I have, different people have asked us to bring our debt down. The Fargo diversion debt 41 million is going to be paid back this year. So, we're going to erase 41 million from our costs. So, it's reimbured fully by the uh FMDA using sales tax revenue fund and it's uh directly build diversion authority and it's paid to us this year in 2026. The other good thing that's happened is in our last year of savings from our budget, we have $9 million that we've added to our revenue and we actually are now at 20. We have to have a a reserve fund and we are 25%. We were at 20 at one time and we're back up to 25%. parking ramps. When we initially looked at the downtown, what we needed to do in the downtown, we needed downtown parking ramps. So, 37.3 million and that includes the Merkantile, ROCO, and NP grants. Repayment is going to be parking revenues and tiff revenue with the general fund as a backs stop. Good news, bad news is that right now the parking ramps aren't full, so they're not fully clearing their cost, but we have a tiff that's bringing in a million dollars a year can backs stop any operating losses that we have. and in planning right now is looking at that very closely and trying to figure out how to make parking work for us. Next thing we have is development related debt. So we had a lot of development economic projects block nine and other economic projects. The developer pays and tiff revenue pays it as a backs stop. These structures are these these projects are structured to pay for themselves via developer

payments and tiff revenue. And then we have the non-traditional obligations. What people forget sometimes is when you have a pension fund, you have to have obligations for that. So, we have acred employee leave and pension options of 265.5 million with some software subscriptions. Those are all part of the department operating budgets and those obligations are built on annual budget. And the good news with the market doing so well, we're decreasing the amount of obligations we have because the money grows in our pension fund. And then lastly, you have bond premiums 35 million with leases of 11.6 million and Fargo equipment. All those are covered by the different operations they have. So I beg you to look at this a little bit different because if you really look at it in totality of what we have for debt load. Next slide please. We have 1.37 billion. We're going to take special assessments because really those are owned by the residents or corporations that own the property. And we're going to take the diversion off. So really our debt load is 752.7 million. So I just want you to rethink that a little bit of how it's all and it's all covered debt. So that's number one. Number two, some things have been talked about the finance department and all of you were part of an audit done August 27th 2025 and at that audit what happened is an audit is conducted by I Bailey. The audit was conducted in accordance with general accepted audit standards and government audit standards. The audit opinion is such the city received an unmodified clean opinion which is the best possible result. So I've heard people about doing forensic accounting. The forensic accounting typically looks for fraud. So any one of the commissioners that talks about for forensic accounting should report it to Michael and he should look into whatever department you think is doing something wrong. But we are audited every year. We've been audited every year since I've been on the commission and we've had clean findings and that is how that

goes. And lastly, uh, Commissioner Copac can't talk about this, but I can. Commission, uh, the communication department only has six members. It doesn't have a huge amount of members, and we went from a $2 million budget to a budget of 486,000. So, we considerably cut that budget back. So, when people talk about a bloated department, it's basically we have core services for our department and they're doing an excellent job. I think all six of those members should be congratulated for all the hard work they do and the great work they do. So, I'm just helping the public understand a little bit about city government and I think we're doing a great job. I think we have a great city. We had the chambers awards last week uh in in uh Delta and I can't tell you how many businesses said it's a great pleasure to work in city of Fargo. We love the economics that are going on in our community and we think it's a great place to live. So, I end my report. I sure coack.

Yeah, I've got we're in the middle of spring cleanup week. Um, can I can can I make a request, Mr. Chair? Can we respond to your thing when when she is done with all the reports? We're done with leazison reporting commission. Uh,

thank you. So, solid waste and public work crews are more than halfway through, as I mentioned, and so far collected 773 tons of of things from the curb. Um, and this week, residents on week B recycling schedule will have their items picked up. And just a reminder to place your items on the boulevard before 7 a.m. on your scheduled recycling pickup day. And you can find out more at back slashrecycling schedule. Thank you, Mr. Strand

the only thing I'd like to acknowledge is that we had our employee appreciate employee appreciation event uh last week and you know the number of people we have that is have as many as or more than 40 years service for the city you know and the number of people that have 5 10 15 20 25 years what was the number it came to 4,000 some years of service in the city it's I just want to acknowledge all those who were there and all those who aren't there getting awards every year because uh that's what we do. That's who we are. That's what delivers everything we are that we deliver is our people. So, it's just a really great event to to have them acknowledged in that fashion and it's not often enough.

Commissioner Pep, if you could go back to that pie chart, I'd appreciate it. And just to review a couple things, but one of the things that we have to do uh with our new de land development code, uh the 42% to the right there, the 580 million for uh improvement bonds. So that with the new land development code, our special assessment system is that's part of it. We're going to be ch reforming it. uh we are one of the few areas where we subsidi the taxpayers are the bank financing infrastructure for new developments uh and so that's a risk that we can no longer take uh with our taxpayers and so that's the reason for the Moody's downgrade uh we're taking a risk what that needs to do is move to the responsibility of the developer and when you buy your house then you pay for the infrastructure in that new development and so uh that it's an important point to make the a couple of other things. uh the diversion. Obviously, we had great news last week, too, about the hundred million, but I'd like to know how much is left to pay for the construction or the diversion and how much of the proposed 1 cent uh tax extension is going to go to pay for the diversion because the thing that bothers me is right now Minnesota has paid zero uh for their participation in the construction of the diversion. And so for the taxpayers, we've already paid more than our share. As you're aware, most projects are 80% federal, 20% local. We're the opposite. We're 80% local and 20% federal. And so for us to be asking the taxpayers uh to to pay more for the diversion when some of our uh quote unquote partners have paid zero is not is not correct. The other thing is the the water supply project. Uh is that included in here? cuz there I think it's about 50 million that we we owe for that. Is that in the do you know if

that's in there? All the debt conversions for the the uh diversion and for the water supply are in their different buckets are not part of the city uh debt load but they are debt that the city has. The city does pay the utilities some to respond to that commissioner Pepco.

No no that's no I appreciate that Mr. But it's just qu I'm just saying this is debt but this isn't all the debt and I just want the taxpayers to be aware of that. I'm very pleased obviously last week the 100 million that's fantastic and the also thing I want to congratulate you is you and the other mayors got a medal from the army that that was f uh that is a huge honor uh and congratulations for that cuz sitting there you're like wow the army is giving Mayor Mahoney a medal that that was a huge moment. So anyway, congratulations. If you don't mind, let's give him a round of applause because that was awesome. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, okay. I'm not going to debate back and forth. Uh, we don't have any public speakers tonight. This is the first meeting we've ever had where we don't have anybody talking to the agenda or speaking public speakers. You got five guys over here. Do you want to say something about the chief or anything or anything you feel happy about or No. Moer, you don't have anything you're happy about? Okay.

Uh then we stand adjourned. Thank you.