City Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Monday, January 19th, 2026 West Fargo City Commission meeting. Would you please join the commission in a pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madam Secretary, would you please call the role? Commissioner Jorgensson. Uh here via the teams. Commissioner Zundell here. Commissioner Dardis here. Commissioner Olsen here. Commissioner Anderson here.

Let the record show all commissioners are present and participating. Item D is to approve the order of the agenda. Move we approve. Commissioner Zendell moves to approve. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Anderson seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the order of the agenda as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed motion.

Hearing none. [clears throat] Favor, please signify by saying I. I. Okay. Next order of business is to approve the minutes of January 5th. They have been distributed and in your packets. Move to approve. Commissioner Anderson moves to approve. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner And excuse me, Commissioner Olsen second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on approval of the minutes?

Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. opposed. Motion carried. Next order of business is the building permits. Again, the building permit report has been distributed in your packets. Move to approve. Commissioner Olsson moves to approve the building permits as presented. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Zundell seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the building permits as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Motion carried. The next order of business is a consent agenda. Consent [clears throat] agenda consists of items A through M. Move to be approved. Commissioner Zundal moves to approve consent agenda items A through M. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Anderson seconds. We have a motion and a second to accept uh and approve the consent agenda items A through M as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion carried. [snorts] We are now in the regular agenda. At this time,

first order of business is public comment. Madam Secretary, do we have anybody signed up for public comment?

I do not have anyone. All right, we move on to item number two, which is public hearings. Uh on public hearings, the commission adjourns out of the regular meeting and listens to any uh conversations that the public wants to bring forward. This evening, we have no items that are require a public hearing. We move on to item number three. Item number three is the second reading of A25-23 Meyer second edition request for approval of a zone change from R-2 to C to commercial. Aaron Nelson, director of planning, city of West Fargo will present. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening, President Dartis and commissioners. So item three is a uh request for reszone from R2 limited multiple dwellings to C light commercial for the property located at 1202 Prairie Parkway. Item was originally um presented to the commission and approved after a public hearing at the January 5th meeting. Uh there have been no changes to the request since that time. Uh so I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Otherwise, requested action tonight is to approve the second reading of the resoning ordinance. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Nelson? Commissioners move be approved. Second. Second.

Motion in a second. Motion to approve by Commissioner Olsen. Second by Commissioner Anderson. Motion in a second regarding the A25-23 Meyer second edition. Uh change of zone from R2 to C. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. I.

Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you. Item number four is land acquisition from Cass County. We're going to call in Jerry Wallace, the city engineer for the city of West Fargo. The [clears throat] purpose of this discussion is to approve a land acquisition from Cass County. Mr. Wallace, good evening and welcome.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Commission President, uh, and commissioners. I'm here before you tonight. Uh uh I'd like to think uh we have a great working relationship with our counterparts over at Cass County. Uh a couple months ago, they reached out to us uh essentially explaining that there's a a couple of parcels uh within the city limits here that um for one reason or another they acquired over the years to you know assist in a construction project or uh um you know something along those lines. Um to date they still retain ownership of of those parcels and essentially it was um you know they reached out and and made the comment that you know given they don't have jurisdictional authority in these areas or anything like that anymore. It would just make a lot more sense if uh they were handed over to the city of West Fargo for ownership instead. Um, I apologize, but in my packet I'm a little out of order with the uh the presentation or the uh the memo that the county sent over on these. The uh the the first uh parcel in the in your packet here is up on uh 12th Avenue North. Um essentially many years ago uh when the county undertook the project of removing the bridge over the Cheyenne up there and put the box culvert in uh they acquired the parcel um as an aid to construction type thing. Um essentially uh you know obviously not needed anymore and doesn't really make sense given that they no longer have jurisdictional authority of the roadway for them to hold on to it. Um the second parcel is down by uh 52nd Avenue and Cheyenne, the roundabout down there, as you can see in the exhibit. Uh you know, essentially that was acquired many years ago to facilitate construction of the original roundabout. Uh since then, uh again, no longer any reason for the county to

retain ownership of that parcel. Um, so essentially I'm here before you tonight uh I guess to try to uh uh a recommend that we uh we proceed with the uh uh land acquisition of these two parcels. Um just pointing out that essentially they'll be quick claimed for a dollar. Um there are uh some special assessment obligations uh with the one on 12th up by public works that uh has a little more uh usable space to it. But, uh, essentially that, uh, is the, um, item I'm here presenting before you tonight. Again, uh, looking for you to approve the, uh, land acquisition from Cass County. And, uh, with that, I'm available for any questions you may have.

Do you know the dollar amount of the special assessments on the 12th Avenue North product? Uh, it's currently sitting at a little over $25,000. Thank you. Questions, Commissioners? Anyone? I move. Commissioner Zendelle moves to approve the land acquisition from Cass County. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Anderson seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the land acquisition from Cass County on 12th Avenue North and 52nd Avenue South. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. Motion carried. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. [clears throat] Item number five is a city administrator's report. We call in Mr. Dustin Scott, city administrator. Good evening and welcome, Mr. Scott. Good evening. Thank you, Commissioner President Dortis and commissioners. Uh, consistent with our light agenda, I have a brief update for you tonight. Our HR director search is going well. We had interviews last week with four candidates and I'm happy to announce that we are uh working right now to extend offers to three finalists for a second round of interviews tenatively scheduled for next week. Uh our team is still working on the details for that process, but it will involve a couple stakeholder groups as well as uh an interview selection panel. as we uh determine those details, we'll engage the commission accordingly and uh hopefully everything in place for next week. And again, three finalists. So,

[clears throat] um be I guess on the lookout for more information this week. All right. U the only other thing I have is just to uh extend a a very big thank you to our street department for keeping our streets clean. I think it was in record time. I I know throughout the uh the uh rough weather uh this weekend they were out there keeping things under control and this morning the streets seem to have been just as good as they would be in the summertime. So uh big kudos to them. With that I would stand for any questions you have.

So just a point regarding your human resource uh search you started with 34 applicants. How many were uh applicants were interviewed? So of the uh 34 applicants, we did extend an interview offer to six. Uh four accepted an interview. So we did interview four of those candidates and again we are moving forward with three finalists. Very good. Thank you. Any other com anything else for Mr. Scott? Commissioners. Thank you. Thank you. All correspondence has been distributed and in your mailboxes. Does any commissioner have any have any non-aggenda item they'd like to bring forward at this time?

Does any department head have anything you'd like to bring forward at this time? Wow. [laughter] Thank you. We're done. Record. Uh, Commissioner Zundell. Uh, move tojourn. Commissioner Olsson. Second. The West Fargo City Commission stands adjourned.