City Council - Regular Meeting

All right. All right, good evening, everyone. It is July 13th, 2026, 530 p.m. I am Mayor Shelly Carlson. The Moorhead City Council welcomes public input on issues that are listed on the agenda or of general community interest, time, and council permitting. Speakers will be limited to three minutes each. If you would like to address the council during the meeting, you'll need to fill out a form provided by our city clerk, and I will call you up during the citizens to address the council item on the agenda. You'll need to state your name and if you are a Moorhead resident. If comments were submitted to the clerk prior to the meeting via email or phone, those comments will be entered into record. For more information on participation, please visit the council meetings page on the City of Moorhead website at moorheadnn.gov. We, the Moorhead City Council, collectively, with gratitude, acknowledge the sacred land the city of Moorhead is built upon. We acknowledge the people who have resided here for generations and recognize that the spirit of the Dakota, Ojibwe, Metis, and all indigenous communities permeate this land. With that, could I get a roll call, please?

Ryan Nelson? Here. Nicole Mattson? Here. Heather Niesmeyer? Here. Emily Moore? Here. Deb White? Here. Lisa Borgen? Here. Sebastian McDougal?

Here.

Chuck Hendrickson? Here. Mayor Shelly Carlson.

Here, and for those who are able, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Great, and do we have any agenda amendments?

we do not have any agenda amendments this evening mayor but i do want to introduce a job shadow who is with us tonight please meet sabrine wani sabrine is entering her senior year at morehead high school she is also the president of the student council she's interested in a career in public policy and administration or criminal justice future city manager wani uh connected with the city of morehead through a compass profile which is a partnership with the chamber's work learning initiative it's a newer initiative that the city joined a few months ago and so credit to sabrine for being a trailblazer and it's great having you on the team miss wani

and also a secretary of the business professional group at the high school as well, correct? Yes. The Key Club, the Key Club. Yes, you are very involved. We got to meet for a little bit before the council meeting, so welcome. Moving on, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda?

So moved, Niesemeyer.

Second. Motion to second, any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Mattson? Yes. Neesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson? Yes. Nelson?

Yes.

All right, that motion carries, and we are on to recognitions and presentations. Our first one is a recognition, and I will turn this over to our Fire Chief, Jeff Wallen, who, oh, there you are.

Look at that, always ready to help. Which is why we're here tonight. Mayor and council members, we're presenting a citizen recognition award to two of our city employees who happened to get involved with a situation that happened in the community. I couldn't be prouder or happier to be here for this occasion, so I'll just read through what they did. On Monday, May 11, 2026, City of Moorhead Assistant Building Official D.J. Steffen and Building Inspector Plan Reviewer Blake Krueger were in South Moorhead when they observed a cloud of black smoke rising above a neighborhood in the 4500 block of 19th Street South. As they approached the scene, they found flames were racing up the side and the back of a duplex with no emergency responders on the scene. Blake called 911 and then, fearing for the safety of any occupants, they took action. D.J. raced to the front door of the burning unit, bringing the doorbell and pounding on the locked front door until the homeowner's son evacuated the home with his dog and a few possessions. Meanwhile, Blake ran to the neighboring home to the south and alerted the unaware occupant to the danger, convincing her to evacuate as well. D.J. then sprinted to the north unit of the twin home, where he found another confused homeowner just opening the door. He guided her safely to the boulevard as fire was spreading from the original structure to her home. Both confirmed that there were no additional occupants in any of the buildings. They relayed that message to the police officers who then relayed that to the fire department. DJ and Blake's actions immediately removed people from light-threatening danger, allowing the fire department to quickly focus on extinguishing and minimize the damage from the fast-developing and wind-driven fire on that day. Their selfless acts demonstrated the city's core values of collaboration, honesty, and accountability as we all work to provide for public safety and improve the quality of life for our citizens. So on behalf of the City of Moorhead and the Moorhead Fire Department, it's my honor to present you with this Moorhead Fire Department Citizens Recognition Award for your courageous acts of service. Please accept this with our sincerest appreciation. I think this just also illustrates, while the mayor is coming up for pictures, how almost everything we do in the city of Moorhead is a collaboration of teams working together in service to the citizens. So thank you again.

And then we'll let them.

Before you leave, gentlemen, I just wanted to say on behalf of my friend who was the homeowner in that north unit, talking to her about this, I think people don't realize how quickly these fires spread. And I know that she got out of her house with two unmatching shoes on her feet and her cell phone. but thankfully she and her little boy, her husband and little boy weren't there at the time. They lost everything, but it could have been so much worse, and so as difficult it is to recover, you saved their lives. That little boy still has his mom, and they will recover, and it could have been much worse, so just thanks on behalf of her.

And DJ and Blake, just again, I don't know that I can say it any better than Councilmember White. The gratitude for everybody is just immense. For you to step in, I don't really think that that would ever be described as other duties as assigned. And I think you just went above and beyond and just simply acted as human beings that just saw something that needed to be done to care for somebody. So thank you from the bottom of our heart. I think this is why I'm always so proud and love to brag about the people that we have that work for the city of Morehead. The staff here is incredible and you always go above and beyond. Maybe not to this level and hopefully we don't have any other staff that have to do that or any citizens. So thank you so much. All right. All right, moving on to the next item on the agenda. This is a presentation by Greater Moorhead Business Association. I'll turn this over to Executive Director, Stacia Smeza. I said your last name right.

It's okay. Hi, I'm Stacia Smeza, Executive Director of the Greater MBA. I brought reinforcements with me.

Arm candy.

Basically what we're here to talk about is Tour de Cones. I know a lot of you have already heard about it and thank you so much for supporting it. But it's just an example of what happens when you have a conversation. So Sean and I were talking and we were talking about just what's gonna happen when construction happens on center. And there was already construction there and it got worse. of course it's going to get better but to help those businesses in the meantime we came up with tour de cones and really it's nothing more than a social media campaign because those businesses that are there are really unique and special and really all they just needed was to be highlighted and talked about already we had our first week last week and it was words to live by and jill the owner was thrilled by the amount of people that gave her support and the foot traffic that came through so everybody that um uh reposted and showed up to those to that event, thank you so much. And we're going to keep doing that. So what Tour de Cones is, is we are going to highlight a new business on Center Avenue. And keep in mind, these businesses opted in. So it's not all the businesses on Center. A couple of them said they were fine. They didn't need to. They wanted the other ones to be highlighted. But so every week, a new one will be highlighted. Coming up this week, it's Starbird Lounge. And they are doing Christmas in July in the 90 degree heat. That sounds super fun. But yeah, I'll let Sean talk a little more, too, about how the greater MBA and him collaborated with even more people to make this happen.

Just to reiterate a little bit of what Stacia was saying, I think this is a good example of how businesses, when they communicate with each other, you can grow something pretty cool for your community. And giving them the opportunity and helping shine a light on those that maybe not get the same amount of, I guess, fanfare sometimes, really just helps boost their business as well. So, Again, use your platform to the best of your ability. Come together, work together. That's what community is all about. So thank you for sharing what we're trying to do and promoting everything that we're doing to get through the next couple months.

Wonderful. Can one of you share maybe where people can find the information, if it's on a website, if it's on Facebook?

You can... If you're on any kind of social media feed, it should be coming across your feed as well. Like and follow all the businesses that are involved. If you go to Swing Barrel's site, we're posting on there a lot about which businesses are involved. We'll continuously put out every week along with the city, along with the greater MBA. is putting out whose special week it is. Every week is different. The businesses are in charge of what they want to run for their specials. So follow all those businesses involved and that's probably the best way.

Well, too, and if you want to be on the email list of I have a group of about 45 people that I have been emailing on Monday, just so you get it firsthand. I can include you on that. I don't want to assume and then all of a sudden you get spammed with stuff that you didn't want. So just feel free to reach out to me. And I can just get you directly on that email list. And you can share it yourself. Does anybody have any other questions?

Thank you so much, and in honor of Tour de Cons, two years ago at the State of the Cities, I had the bright orange suit to represent spuds and safety, but also that there was going to be a lot of construction in Morehead for the next two years. At the end of this year, a lot of this major construction should be done, but I was also gifted cones, earrings. Yes. So you'll have to honor those proudly.

Yes. We really, really want to have a big block party at the end of this. So yes, I think let's all come together for that one.

I think that that is something we can make happen.

yeah let's do it so sounds good it has also been really great to watch these businesses and the community just come together the way that they've been helping each other is truly a testament into into what morehead is we're a community that helps each other and i'm not gonna lie following you know people that just saved people's lives was a little intimidating but you know it just also shows like what a great community we have here in morehead

I agree. Thank you so much. Thank you. And Moorhead people are very loyal to their businesses, so everybody just get on and support them as often and frequently as you can. All right. All right. Moving on to the approval of June 22nd, 2026 meeting minutes. Do I have a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

White, yes. Morgan, yes. McDougal, aye. Hendrickson, yes. Nelson, yes. Mattson, Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes.

Right, that motion carries. Moving on to citizens to address the council. We do have one individual who would like to speak to the council this moment. Jane Grunberg, if you want to come up to the podium. There's a very fancy contraption up here that will tell you when it's green, that means your three minutes are still going. Red, it means that you'll need to wrap it up and we'll just have you state your name. And if you are a resident of Moorhead and you can begin anytime you want.

okay thank you my name is jane groeneberg and i do live in morehead and i am here today as a survivor of domestic violence to speak on behalf of myself on behalf of all other survivors who find it unsafe to speak and especially on behalf of those women who like sahar ramirez no longer has a voice to speak. I'm here to speak very hard, uncomfortable truths out loud. It has taken me years to gather the courage to speak, and it was a difficult decision to make, difficult because I know the backlash and harm it will cause to me and my children. But hearing about Sahar and her children has stirred my heart and soul to break the silence about this growing epidemic of hatred and violence in our community. An advocate for others comes naturally from me. I have a paralegal degree from MSUM and worked in the legal system for 20 years. I started my career working for the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center of Fargo-Moorhead as a legal advocate. I then worked for Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota, assisting with family law cases involving domestic violence. I was also involved in the creation of our community's Safe Exchange Center, which I actually have to accept credit for naming as Rainbow Bridge. For the last 10 years of my career, I worked in the Clay County Attorney's Office as a coordinator of the Crime Victim Advocacy Program. In 2005, I was forced to end my career. The terror, torture, and trauma of living with a psychologically violent husband since 1987 had become too much. I had no choice but to stop working and start receiving Social Security disability payments. I am very familiar with how the system works and responds to victims of domestic violence. And when I say it's tragically broken, I have personal and professional experience to back up that claim. Victim blaming and shaming is common. Cases that do not involve physical or sexual violence are not prosecuted at all, meaning women such as myself who are subjected to psychological violence with no physical contact are completely dismissed and ignored by law enforcement and the legal community. In fact, most of us are often labeled as crazy and the problem. I have learned through the course of my self-taught education that psychopathic narcissistic personality disorder drives the hatred behind domestic violence. Narcissism and psychological violence of an offender is rarely, if ever, considered in any charging decision. Decisions to prosecute are rarely about what is best for the victims and the community as a whole. Pleasing the system and not the people is status quo. In my opinion, Sahar's life ended because of extreme violence, not because of suicide. In 1989, I was left very ill and left for dead by my psychologically violent husband. I would have died had I not gotten an emergency surgery. and I got myself to the clinic by myself. To this very day, he has had no accountability, no responsibility, and no consequence for his actions during those days that he left me for dead, nor any of the other times that he was psychologically violent with me. The broken system has failed Sahar and her children. The broken system has failed me and my children. We need a system that treats the cause behind the abuser's behaviors rather than a system that simply punishes actions. We need to stop the violence. We need to stop the violence because the healing is just as difficult. And I just want to end by saying, I want to quote Edmund Burke, which is, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. And it seems to me there's a whole lot of good men and women doing a whole lot of nothing in this community, and evil is seemingly triumphant. Thank you.

Thank you. And I will say that domestic violence is an issue and a challenge. I think that you and I both know, full disclosure, Jane and I used to work together at the Clay County Attorney's Crime Victim Services, and if anybody is experiencing domestic violence or knows somebody to reach out to Solera, which is the new name of the Rape and Abuse Crisis Center, their services are free and confidential.

Can I add one thing? We need more than a phone number for a nonprofit organization. We need change in the system because it is broken, not a phone number. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Moving on to public hearing, yep, public hearing. So I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing regarding the request of Innovis Health LLC for Renaissance Zone property tax exemption and for commercial renovation project located at 730 Center Avenue. Do I have a motion to open? So moved, Nelson. Second, Lisa Meyer. A motion and a second. Any discussion? If none, roll call vote, please.

Yes. Niesmeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson?

Aye.

Nelson? Yes. Madsen?

Yes. All right, that motion carried, and we are now in public hearing, and I will call Mr. Lyseth up to the podium.

Thank you, Mayor. Council members, I am excited to present this project to you today. This has been a long time coming that we've been talking about it. The project in front of us is Essential Health plans to substantially renovate the former Wells Fargo building located at 730 Center Avenue to establish a new full-service health care clinic. This project will include major exterior improvements to the building structure, parking lot, and private utilities, which will provide immediate visual enhancements along the Center Avenue corridor. Essentia Health will initially occupy approximately 11 to 14,000 square feet on the first floor. Their expanded services will include family medicine, urgent care, radiology, laboratory services, retail pharmacy, and physical therapy. The remaining 21,000 square feet located on the second and third floors will be renovated later to accommodate future growth. Situated within Morehead's Renaissance Zone, this redevelopment complements existing businesses, supports the surrounding neighborhood, and aligns with broader downtown revitalization goals by generating additional activity and providing critical healthcare services within the district. Essentia Health's investment in this project is estimated to be $8.6 million. At a $245 per square foot investment, it exceeds the $150 per square foot qualification. Therefore, Essentia is eligible for the 15-year exemption.

All right. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak during this public hearing? Again, any members of the public who wish to speak on this hearing? Seeing none, I will enter. Oh, is there somebody here that would like to speak on this topic? Okay, yeah. It has to be this topic. So seeing none, I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing portion of this item.

So moved, Niesa Meyer.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Morgan. Did you say Borgen or Morgan? Morgan.

Yes. White. Yes. Moore. Yes. Niesermeyer. Yes. Mattson. Yes. Nelson. Yes. Hendrickson.

Aye.

McDougall.

Aye.

All right, that motion carries. The public hearing portion of this agenda is closed. Council, do you have any questions for Mr. Lysap? Councilmember White.

Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to touch on a couple of things that I brought up in the EDA meeting. This project is obviously a great addition to our downtown. Having this resource in the downtown area will be great for the community. But I also just wanted to highlight in terms of how it fits in with some of the current work that we're doing in downtown Moorhead. if you think about even right now the big construction project that we have going on that will make that area of of center have more bike and pedestrian friendly um have a bike path well when you look at the designs for this they're really tying into all of that so they're putting in not just you know great space indoors but on the outside they have great public space, there's seating areas, there's plantings and things like that. And so really, as we think about that future downtown that we're getting closer to, this is gonna be a new added amenity and part of that. And I even appreciate that the architectural details that they're trying to tie in really connect with the new build that we're doing in that area too. And just to show what a great neighbor they're gonna be, one of the things that I'll share that I really appreciated is that last month, We had a 5K at Swing Barrel. And of course, Essentia is just starting to do the work on the building. So the building's vacant. They could just let it sit there while they're working on the inside. Well, the day after the 5K, I was over there doing some things in the parking lot. And they already had people working on maintaining the parking lot, maintaining all the grounds, making sure that everything looks good on the outside just for us to enjoy while they're doing all the big work on the inside. And so I'm just really excited to have them here. I appreciate their investment. wanted people to know, again, of these little things that show what a great neighbor they're gonna be. Thanks.

Any other questions or comments? If not, I would entertain a motion to approve this resolution.

White moves to approve. Second, Niesmeyer.

There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Hendrickson?

Yes.

McDougal?

Aye.

Niesemeier? Yes. Mattson? Yes. Nelson?

Yes.

Right, that motion carries and I too am beyond thrilled that we are now gonna have an urgent care facility in downtown Moorhead. This comes at the conclusion of I think nearly five years of meetings off and on with Essential Health and I wanted to personally give a shout out and give gratitude to Al Hurley. Dr. Heegaard, who started this whole process, the two of them, and then Dr. Stephanie Geffro, who's been part of those meetings as well. You know, one of the things that I was asked continually during this process was what does Moorhead need, and I said, well, first of all, they need a hospital. I knew that that was throwing that out there, and it probably wasn't likely going to happen, but an urgent care that is open seven days a week, 365 days a year, is really one step close to a hospital. So just a lot of gratitude, Essentia, for choosing Moorhead, for donating a million dollars to the Loop, and for an additional funding that they're gonna use in our downtown Riverwalk area as well. So thank you. All right, we have another public hearing. So I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing for special assessments, 2025 unpaid administrative penalties and abatements.

So moved, Neesemeyer.

Second, Nelson.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Mattson?

Yes.

Neesemeyer? Yes. White? Moore? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson? Aye. Nelson?

Yes.

All right, that motion carries. We are in public hearing, and I will turn this over to Christy Leschewski.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The request of the council tonight is to hold a public hearing and staff is recommending approval of special assessments related to unpaid administrative penalties and other maintenance actions. The assessment at tonight's hearing include unpaid charges from 2025 for property maintenance, rental registration, tree removals, and unfounded alarms. There were a total of 102 properties within the initial notice. The assessments have a one-year repayment except for the petitioned tree removals which are a five-year repayment. As it relates to the property maintenance related assessments, the city operates on an administrative citation and penalty system, which was approved by the Clay County District Court in 2004 and has been utilized by the city since 2005. The process includes that any complaints are verified by an inspector. If the complaint is verified, a letter or a property placard is placed with the compliance timeline. On average, between 90% to 95% of property owners address the violation without any follow-up or fines. If a violation is not corrected and it is snow or grass related, the property owner receives $100 civil penalty and the issue is abated by a contractor. If it is not snow or grass related, additional fines apply. It could be $100 a day up to $2,000 per year, and abatement may also occur. Before we get to the hearing tonight, there are multiple invoices and at least two reminder notices of the penalties, abatement costs, or any delinquent charges that are sent. I do want to note that our goal is compliance. So if someone does get a notice regarding a issue and it is unable to fix that issue by the timeline, give our office a call. We can adjust that timeline and work with you, whatever is needed. Again, our issue is to get compliance. Following publication, a number of invoices were either paid or adjusted and removed from the resolution and that is outlined within your report. We have had one objection received for snow and ice removal services at 1402 4th Street South. The property was sold following the snow and ice abatement that is on the resolution tonight. The written appeal along with staff responses is in your packet and I believe you may have additional information as well. I do wanna note regarding properties that are sold when a issue has occurred and the new owner, when we generate fines for invoices or any contractor services, that it is immediately updated on our website. So if you're working on a property, talk to your closing company or your realtor to double check that or go ahead and look on the website. You can look it up by address and it's on the special assessment page. Following the hearing, the resolution request is to approve the special assessments related to unpaid administrative penalties and maintenance actions from 2025.

All right. Thank you. And we do have two individuals who wish to speak to this agenda item. The first one is Charlie Pointer. If you wanted to come up to the podium, Charlie, and state your name if you're a Moorhead resident. And you'll have three minutes on the... Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me today.

As was noted, I did not own this property at the time. In fact, I now own it a year and a half after these services. So I do have an issue with the responsibility of charges. I think it should go to the previous owner, not to the property. Understanding I'm probably not going to win that argument tonight, I do want to talk a little bit about the actual charges. First would be the accuracy of billing. I did receive backup. I asked for backup on this. I was told that there was one hour of broom tractor for $90, four hours of snow shoveling at $80. That's a total of $410. I should note that I was told by the city that originally the city was billed $900 for this property and then the city challenged that and it was lowered to $605. I then was told that the difference is a fee and ice melt. So if you turn to page two, I asked for background on this. On the upper left-hand corner, you'll see that I was given the before, during, and after pictures. It's hard to read, so at the bottom, I blew them up. You can see what the property looked like before, during, and after. Again, this is a year and a half before I owned the property. These pictures were provided by the vendor. They were not provided by me. I didn't know this property, so I had no horse in the game at this point. I would note on the before pictures, January 6th at 3.46 p.m. showed a clear sidewalk. No ice melt was visible. I was told that the bill included six bags of ice melt, but eight bags of ice melt were used. That 50-pound bags, that's a lot of ice melt. I would challenge you to find any ice melt in that picture. The during picture at 4.33 p.m. shows a little bit of the approach, which frankly could have been from a snowplow the night before. still no ice melt visible and the after pictures on january 7th showed the the same uh as the before and during so my questions for the city council are this the before pictures showed a clear sidewalk why did the city engage a vendor again it's not my property i didn't own it i'm i'm coming into this a year and a half later but i have to ask why did the city engage a property for snow removal when it's clearly a clear sidewalk The time between the before and during pictures is 47 minutes. When were the eight bags of ice melt placed? I checked that day in 2025. It was 10 degrees on that day. I also checked with turbo melt. It takes 60 to 90 minutes before activating. The time between the before and during is 47 minutes. And again, the sidewalk's clear. So where was the ice melt? If the property was built for a blower for an hour, Show me in these pictures what that blower did that was paid for. Again, these pictures provided by the vendor. City was originally billed $900 for this. It's crazy. But settled on 605 and I have to pay that. That's issue number one. Issue number two is I was assessed $45 in March of 2026. Again, I did not own the property at this time. I'm going to jump down to the bottom because I want to be cautious of your time. According to the city, I talked to the inspector on February 19th. I bought the property on February 27th. The service was done on February 25th.

Mr. Poitner, just so you know, you are over your time, so if you can just wrap it up in the next 15 seconds, please.

Yep, 15 seconds. Look at the pictures at the bottom. I was billed for this, and that also was not cleared. Why did the vendor not clear it on the 26th? So respectfully, I'd ask you to eliminate both of these, and I would ask for the city to look at this vendor and frankly question any of it if other owners are going through this, too. The first sidewalk was clear, and the second one wasn't done to the standard. Thank you.

Thank you. The next individual who would like to speak under this item on the agenda is Matt Crosby. Matt, if you come to the podium, state your name if you're a Moorhead resident, and you will have three minutes on the clock here.

Hi, I'm Matthew Crosby. I live at 1516 4th Avenue North. Property in question is 1522. I did not own it when this assessment, it's for two trees that got removed. The county owned it when the trees were removed. They had seized the property from my prior neighbor, Jeff, or I forget, Jim Baumgartner. Then they assess this. When I purchased the property, there was no, like I asked specific questions about all the bills that he had racked up because the county had seized the property from him. I am the neighboring property. And then now I get this letter on the June 25th for prior 2025 stuff when they had removed these trees and I just don't understand why there's a special assessment when the county owned the property, you guys come in, take the trees down. And then now I'm being assessed and need to pay this $1,300 and 30, 13, 30 91. I don't believe I should have to pay that. I do pay a forestry fee every month in my electric bill. I understand they were Dutch elm disease or whatever the reasoning was. They also did a very poor job of cleanup on everything. I ended up cleaning a lot of it because said neighbor was gone. I was planning on buying this property. I'm still currently working on cleaning it up. I don't know if any of you know this property, but it was quite a nuisance for many, many years. And now I own it and I'm in the process of cleaning it up. I don't believe I should have to pay this. So I would like you guys to not charge me for it.

All right, thank you.

I don't have as much research as that guy, but.

All right, are there any other individuals in the audience who would like to speak during this public meeting agenda? Any members of the public? If not, I would entertain a motion to close the public portion of this agenda item.

So moved, Niesemeyer.

Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor roll call vote please.

McDougall. Aye. Hendrickson. Aye. Nelson. Yes. Mattson. Yes. Niesmeyer. Yes. Moore. Yes. White. Yes. Borgen. Yes.

All right, the public hearing portion of the agenda item is closed. Do council members have any questions or comments? And possibly, Christy, you may need to come back to the podium. Council Member White.

thank you and i do want christy to come back to the podium just to talk explain a little bit more about this because i think having i've had conversations with you about it and i understand that the frustration that folks are feeling but my understanding and let me know if i'm incorrect about this when we have some of these properties that have been um foreclosed and they're you know they're owned by the county um uh so first of all when there are maintenance issues so we're looking at things that are the real cost so we've had to bring somebody in i'm not going to get into the details of the quality of the work they did i i can only imagine that the difficulties of you know we're not talking about these folks having to keep an eye on how one house was taken care of but so many different houses um so but but the fact is that the city had to hire somebody to come in and do real work and so there is a real cost associated with that right and then that cost so this isn't even just a fee now that we've put on it's actual things that were paid the um my understanding is at the county level when folks are purchasing these that that information is supposed to be provided to them when they're buying it and so again i'm not i'm not trying to pass the buck here but on the city's end we don't control that right so um but somebody who's buying it from the county is getting the information about these actual costs and so um I don't know if there's a breakdown there or not, but in the end, if, you know, to come back, you know, that isn't something that we have control over. And then to come back and if we don't recuperate that money, I understand the new homeowner, I would be frustrated too, but I also don't think it's fair for us to pass that on to other property owners too. So, because that would be our only recourse. Then if the property owner of that household doesn't pay for it, then their neighbors have to pay. The other people in Moorhead have to pay, right? So let me know. Again, it's not an easy issue. I understand people's frustration, but I want to make it clear in terms of that process and where our responsibility is in that too.

Yes, so I'll kind of focus on two different areas. So if we are assuming it is a standard closing where one property owner is selling to a buyer, oftentimes what we'll see from closing companies is a settlement statement. And so those closing companies will look to our website, find those fees, and if they were issued prior to a sale happening, it'll be worked out between the buyer and seller. In the case of county tax forfeit properties, it becomes a bit more complicated because when a property goes tax forfeit, essentially, and I hope that I am relaying this correctly because it is not my mind to implement, but as I understand, when a property goes tax forfeit and it goes to the state of Minnesota and Clay County to handle, They essentially remove the unpaid taxes and specials from where you would normally go to the county website to look for that information. It basically wipes it out. And when they're selling property, they do put a note on the sale information you know please contact whatever jurisdiction the property is in to see if there's any unpaid fines fees or special assessments again people could still go to our website at this point all of our information stays online it's just the county information that's a little bit different But what I would recommend to anyone who has a finer fee that was from when the county or state of Minnesota owned the land through the tax forfeit process would be to check in with Laurie Johnson, the county auditor and treasurer, to just see if any of the funds that were paid to the county could go to pay for that fee. Ultimately, that is not our discretion or anything that we can do or I can do to get the county to pay for certain fees or taxes. But I know that others have visited the county and had those conversations to see if the county would be willing to pay for those fees. So I would definitely recommend doing that.

And just so you're aware, Miss Leschewski, our city attorney who's online is nodding affirmatively that the information that you were sharing was accurate.

Council Member Borgen.

so i think my question might be for matt crosby have you talked to the county about paying the fees i have not i'm sorry you'll need to come up council member sir you'll need to come up to the podium because otherwise people online can't hear you i i have not talked to with the county i just i got the letter in the mail i had no idea this was coming

Right, so I appreciate.

And I had talked to the auditor as well. We did a lot of research on buying this property because the previous owner had racked up a lot of bills. That was kind of what was stopping me from purchasing it because I didn't want to pay that much for a piece of land. And then when it went up for auction and went up for sale, then they contacted me and said, you're the only one that's been interested. Do you want to buy it? I said, tell me the information about it. They told me, I said, yes, I agreed. I went and paid them cash, purchased it. Then this comes down and it was something that happened while the county owned it.

Right, so my question to you is, have you contacted the county to tell them? I just said that. Okay, so you have not done that. So I think, as Ms. Leshefsky said.

So like the other councilwoman said, that you guys hired a service? No, Moorhead Public Service does all of our tree removal and tree stuff, right?

No. So, Mr. Cosby, I think what is- They did. I think what's trying to be communicated and what Ms. LaChoste just talked about- I watched them.

Or just talked. It was MTS that did it.

We don't have any discretion in this. You will need to talk to Clay County and work this out with Clay County. This is not something that we can override. This is something that you have to deal with Clay County on.

Okay. So I have to deal with Clay County about a more head special assessment?

Correct. Correct. And you can maybe visit with Christy Leschewski in the hallway to provide even more specific steps and maybe explain the reason why you have to deal with the county versus dealing with the city. We just get the information and pass it on.

This is just all I've received. I said attend the meeting. Otherwise, it's going to be assessed and I have to pay it. Yep.

all right thank you never done this before so no it's i get it thank you though council member white thank you and and i just wanted to take a minute to thank you for coming too and really for investing in some of these derelict properties for folks both of the folks we really do appreciate that and it's uh and so i just i would say to be a little clearer it's not like in terms of our end of it um we still have to cover that cost. We've still had, the work was already done, and so that has to be covered. But again, in the agreement with the county, there have been cases recently where they have covered that. And so that could be, so it's just that Moorhead has to recoup it. Because in the end, and this is part of my point, was that if not, we have to pass that on to other residents. And so it stays with the property, and either that would be through the original owner, which they didn't do it, or now that they've collected some, that the county could cover it, or it has to be you, but it still has to stay with that property. otherwise we have to pass it on to other people in Moorhead. So, but I do, I think it's, you know, I'm glad that Christy shared that information with you that we have seen that where if they have money left over from it, from what they collected, that they can put it towards that, towards the cost for this assessment. But thank you.

Any other questions or comments from council members? And if not, I would entertain a motion to move to approve the resolution. Council Member Borgen.

I would just like to make a comment to Mr. Pointer. I totally get where you're coming from. I think there's other remedies for you. I mean, like Council Member White said, the city's already paid for it. We have to recoup that money. You have other options, like conciliation court. If somebody else had the property, They should have paid it. I think you could use conciliation court, which is small claims court. So just an option. Can I respond to that?

Yes, you come to the podium, please. Sir, you need to come to the podium, though, please. Thank you.

I hear what you're saying. My objection to that would be to look at the before picture that I sent to you. This sidewalk was cleared. The city of Moorhead contracted with this vendor to clear it. You made the decision to contract with the city for a cleared sidewalk. It never should have been cleared. I am now sitting on a $605 bill because you contracted with this vendor. And now you're coming back and saying it's my issue that I have other remedies. And I'm telling you that it's your issue. This never should have been contracted in the first place. Look at the picture.

and then look at the picture on the second one i know i'm out of time well and i want to say too that there are those are two separate issues because there's a bill that was paid and has to be recouped in some way shape or form so you never should have contracted for it and you shouldn't have paid for it that's my whole point i understand that but that's not what this hearing sir sir that's not what this hearing is about though that is a separate hearing or a separate conversation that our city would need to have with that vendor

I understand that. But in the meantime, you're putting it on my back to pay it. And it's wrong. It's wrong. How many other citizens are having snow removed that didn't exist that just blindly pay these bills? It's wrong. As a city council, you should look at it. You should look at the picture and say, you know what? I think he's right. This one shouldn't be charged. That's what you should do. That's what you should do on behalf of your citizens.

Thank you.

Council Member White. Thank you, Mayor. I wondered if Kristi or Alan have any additional information about that?

I'll just note that we do have a number of different photos that show that there was significant ice buildup on the lot, which is what we had gotten complaints about. the individual was correct in that when we initially received the bill from the contractor, we did believe it to be a very high amount. So we immediately contacted them to get a better understanding of why it was so high and where they had spent their time. And they did end up reducing it by over $300, even though their costs really were higher than that for the work that they had spent on that lot.

Council Member Matson.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I used to live one block, two blocks from there. I was like on the opposite corner. So I know that I haven't lived there in a long time, but I know that corner. I wasn't there. I don't know what happened. Four hours seems... but I also don't know what the, it's very possible that they marked it as snow shoveling when they were chipping ice. That particular spot, if I recall correctly, it's kind of like it does collect water and ice and it freezes and there's a lot of foot traffic there because it's not too far Concordia, it used to be right where my kids would get on the bus, so kids from that side of the block would walk around the corner to get on the bus. So while I do hear your frustration, I also, I can, when I saw snow shoveling, I was like, how are they gonna get four hours of snow shoveling out of that? But if they marked as snow shoveling when what they were doing was actually physically, you know, trying to deal with the ice, that to me would make more sense. That having been said, I do think it's worth, if we're continuing to work with this vendor, I would say either we need to examine what they're doing or examine in the way that they're reporting what they're doing so that we can have more clarity on that. So that's all I have, thank you.

I do not see any other hands raised, so would, again, entertain a motion to approve this resolution.

I'll move to approve the resolution to adopt special assessments 2025 unpaid administrative penalties and abatements.

Is there a second? Second, Madsen. Okay, there's a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

Nelson? Yes. Madsen? Yes. Neesemeyer? Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson?

Aye.

All right, that motion carries. Thank you, and thank you, gentlemen, for coming here and having this discussion with us, and I believe Christy Leschewski will be able to visit with you further if you have additional questions out in the lobby area. We have our third public hearing for the evening. I would entertain a motion to open the public hearing for Ordinance 2026-05, an ordinance granting a fiber optic franchise to Metro Fibernet LLC. So moved.

Second.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? I see none. Roll call vote, please.

McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson? Aye. Nelson? Yes. Mattson? Yes. Niesemeier? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes.

All right. That motion carries and is approved. I will turn this over to Mr.

Yeah, thanks Mayor and City Council. Tonight you're asked to conduct a public hearing and consider approval of an ordinance granting a non-exclusive fiber optic franchise to Metro FiberNet. Metro FiberNet is seeking to build a fiber optic network in the community and intends to use the public right-of-way for this purpose. The city charter requires that companies be issued a franchise to conduct this activity in the public right-of-way. They are not offering multi-channel video programming services, commonly known as cable services, so a franchise fee cannot be required. However, the city's permitting fees for the use of the right-of-way will be paid to compensate for the impact on the right-of-way and the costs the cities incur.

All right. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak to this agenda item? Again, any members of the public who wish to speak to this item? Seeing none, I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing portion of this agenda item.

So moved, Niesemeyer.

Second, Nelson.

Motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote, please.

White. Yes. Morgan. Yes. McDougall.

Aye.

Hendrickson. Aye. Nelson. Yes. Mattson. Yes. Niesemeyer. Yes. Moore. Yes.

All right, that resolution carries. Open for questions or comments from council members for Mr. Rietz. And if there are none, would entertain a motion to approve the first reading of the ordinance of 2026-05.

I'll second Chuck's motion.

Motion and second. Any discussion? Seeing none, we'll call vote, please.

Niesemeyer? Yes. Moore? Yes. White? Yes. Borgen? Yes. McDougall? Aye. Hendrickson? Aye. Nelson? Yes. Mattson?

Yes. All right, that motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Eates. All right, we are down to mayor and council reports. Do any council members have any reports from boards or committee hearings the last couple weeks? Councilmember Niesemeyer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have got several things to cover. Safe City Night is going to be this week, Wednesday, July 15th from 530 to 730 at Romke Park, the best Ward 2 park, if I say so myself. It's looking very nice after the over $11 million improvements and so it's free food ice cream activities all night and so I'm hopeful a whole bunch of folks from Ward 2 and beyond in our community can join us for that wonderful program that is put on by PALS which is our Moorhead Police Activity League. I don't know what the S stands for now that I say that. Maybe it's just PAL, singular. The second is the Solid Waste Advisory Committee is next week, Thursday, July 23rd at 8 a.m. at the Resource Recovery Center. And as a little highlight of some of the things we're going to talk about, I HAVE SOME EXCELLENT NEWS. THE COUNTY, CLAY COUNTY WAS AWARDED MPCA OR MINNESOTA POLLUTION CONTROL AGENCY $2 MILLION GRANT FOR ORGANICS RECYCLING. SO THAT IS A PROGRAM THAT WAS BROUGHT UP BY INTERESTED COMMUNITY Moorhead and was brought forth to many of our boards and commissions throughout our metro area and it was picked up for collaborative efforts by Clay County staff and so a highlight to their work in submitting that grant with residents. and looking forward to purchasing that equipment and having that organics composting site at our Resource Recovery Center, which is just in the outskirts of Moorhead. The first annual, or our current No, not first. Our annual Resource Recovery Center meeting is at 9 a.m. on July 23rd. It's another open meeting to talk about our collaboration efforts between the city and the county. And I encourage folks to come out and celebrate the grant as well as the good work that we do collaborating with the county on all of our solid waste recycling and educational efforts.

All right. Thank you so much. Council Member White.

Thank you, Mayor. On the 24th of June, I attended the age friendly Moorhead meeting and we had a good conversation about things that will make things that makes Moorhead more walkable and accessible for seniors in our community. I shared information with them about some of the port-a-potties that we'll be adding, thankfully, to our pickleball courts. I'm not sure if they've already been added. If not, they will be coming to our pickleball courts and the discussions we're having about other places. And then the committee expanded that even to look at how we might encourage more, making retail spaces more walkable too, even like having a program where we can provide benches to different retail spots too. So they're looking at funding for things like that that could go throughout the community. on the 25th i attended the cap lp board meeting and one of the things i wanted to point out is that we as part of our meeting we reviewed the excuse me recent assessment of the community head start program and one of the troubling findings were within that report they found an uptick in the number of head start children that are underweight and the number of families that are reporting problems with food insecurity. And so we did have a discussion about that. And the executive director for CAP LP associated that with the difficulties from Operation Metro Surge and that a large number of families in our community that were fearful to leave their house. And so getting things like groceries became more difficult. And so sadly, we're seeing that play out even on our youngest residents here in Moorhead still today. On the 29th, I attended the ribbon cutting with many of you at Rompke Park. And again, if you haven't been there, it's a really fantastic facility. And I appreciate particularly all of the attentiveness to accessibility that they put into the design of our new park and swimming area. On the 6th, I attended our Economic Development Authority meeting, and we had a very lengthy discussion about how we can improve our outreach, communication, and really maybe revise some of the tools that we have for supporting our local businesses. So we've all been concerned when we've heard about some of the businesses in the, not just Moorhead, but in our metro that have been closing recently. We know that there are a lot of challenges within our country right now with tariffs and high inflation and all of those things where we see businesses that in the past would have been very successful and are really struggling. And so thankfully we had a good discussion about what are some of the things that we could do beyond what we are currently doing to support those businesses to hopefully get them through these difficult times. And so I know that we'll be devoting time in our August meeting to really exploring some of those options and even looking at some of the current things like some of our border city enterprise funding that we have and our Moorhead Revolving Loan Fund and how perhaps we could use those differently to support our existing businesses. on the 8th i attended the great american community potluck right here in viking ship park that was part of the america 250 celebration great turnout for that event lots of good food and it was great to see people from throughout our community there to celebrate the history and the diverse cultures that we enjoy here in moorhead on the 9th we had our conversations and excuse me conversations with council members event at romkey park in the oasis room so it was a great opportunity to highlight that room i want to thank the 25 to 30 citizens that attended i would say it was one of the best ones that we've ever had great conversation around a wide variety of issues and and again we just value citizen input so much and it helps us all be better council members On the 9th, I also had the opportunity, thanks to Clay County Commissioner Jenny Mojo, of being an assistant at the Clay County Fair 4-H competitions. I was there to help with fine arts, definitely outside of my wheelhouse, so I mostly just put the awards up on the shelves. But it was great to see so many Moorhead kids participating in 4-H. And then lastly, yesterday, I attended the Kurdish summer potluck bash at MB Johnson Park. Great turnout. It was wonderful to be there to celebrate with our Kurdish community. And thank you to the Kurdish American Development Organization for the work they did to put this together. Thank you.

Other council members have report, Council Member Madsen.

Not a board or commission, but I did, along with Council Member Moore, personally do quality control on the water slides at Romke Park, and I think we can report they were awesome and fun.

I'm also curious if you did the climbing wall.

I have been slacking on my weightlifting, and so I will save that for next year after I get some more gym time. Okay, Council Member Nelson.

Thank you, thank you, Mayor. I'm sorry, I got, lost my train of thought there. Yeah, just real quick, end of June we had the Red River Regional Dispatch Board of Authority meeting where we set the budget finalize the budget for that organization for next year and for that city staff so we can start working, incorporate that into our budgeting process here. Just one thing to note there, we did, the board agreed to change the allocation amongst the entity involved. So what's gonna happen there is essentially gonna lower Morehead's allocation responsibility about a half a percent for the remainder of the, essentially the well. It'll lower that a half percent going forward, so that'll have some cost savings in there. So there'll be a new joint powers agreement that will be drafted that's currently being drafted and we'll have to sign that in the near future so. That's about it, that's all I have.

Alright, thank you. Any other Council members with boards or Commission meetings? Seeing none. I have a couple things off my list now because they've already been mentioned. And one that I'm actually very surprised that Council Member Niesemeyer didn't mention was our award that we received at the Coalition for Greater, no, the League of Minnesota Cities. We received the Step Four and Five Green Step Cities Award again. I don't remember how many years that we've gotten four and five. That is usually something reported on by Council Member Niesemeyer, so I had assumed that she was gonna do that YOU DO THAT. BUT IT WAS A GREAT CONFERENCE THAT WAS ATTENDED BY MYSELF, CITY MANAGER MOLLY, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER MIKE GREETZ, COUNCIL MEMBER NISA MEYER, AND OUR GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS DIRECTOR LISA BODEY. The Metro Flood Diversion Authority also had a planning committee. We are discussing right now a flood mitigation insurance program that will need to be in place by January 1st, 2026, or 2027, I should say. Some more to come from that, but that will be something that we'll be putting together with the Diversion Authority, and we'll make sure that farmers are made whole if and when we would have to ever operate the flood diversion project. Yeah, and I would just concur with Council Member White that the community potluck was an immense success. The line for that potluck was huge, so a lot of gratitude and thanks to the Historical Cultural Society, the City of Moorhead Recreation Department, and Culture Rat who put that together, and it was a beautiful, beautiful day. which was the day after it downpoured. So the weather worked out very, very perfectly for a beautiful, beautiful night in Viking Ship Park. So those are the only things that I have, and I will turn it over to City Manager Mollie.

Thank you, Mayor. With Sergeant Scott Kostorich here in the back room, I just want to say thank you. And related to Safe City Nights that's coming up this Wednesday night for all the partnership, the fun activities, everything that you put together for the neighborhood and the community. Folks should come out. There's free pizza. There's drinks. There's ice cream. There's lots of fun and hanging out. You went from bringing in one helicopter to multiple helicopters last time? Two? Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's impressive. That's impressive. So Safe City Night, Wednesday, July 15th at Rompke Park, 5.30 to 7.30. Bike safety days also. There was one held earlier today at SG Reinertsen. The next one is Monday, July 27th at Dorothy Dodds from 9 to 11. Night to Unite is around the corner. That is Tuesday, August 4th. So registration for neighborhood gatherings are open and happening now. A link is on the website, or you can just call the police department or any of the main lines at the city to get set up. multiple, multiple neighborhood gatherings every year. So that's really a fun night out, and that's in a few weeks. I wanna say a big thank you to our community development team in Moorhead, Public Works, Park Maintenance, I wrote these down, Forestry, Streets, Recreation, Engineering, the schools, and all who collaborated with Clay County Public Health and Partnership for Health to complete the multiple projects related to funding received from the settlement from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. THERE WAS A PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROCESS, HUNDREDS OF COMMENTS CAME IN, AND ALL OF THAT, THE WORK AND THE FUNDING IS COMPLETE. THERE WERE NUMEROUS TREE PLANTING EVENTS IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER UNTIL NOW. CROSSWALK IMPROVEMENTS AT EVERY SCHOOL. River corridor benches were installed, a bike repair station, work support for Bluestem Bridge, lighting the trail. That's all complete. And then river corridor pollinator plantings all along the river. And finally, I just want to say thank you to Sabrine.

That is really a nice name too, by the way.

It has been a joy being with you and getting to know you today. So thank you, Mayor.

All right, thank you. And we do not have an executive session today or any new business, so it is 6.39, and we are adjourned. Good night, Moorhead.