City Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you very much. Thank you. . . . .

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Monday, June 1st, 2026 West Fargo City Commission meeting. We call the meeting to order. Madam Secretary, would you please call the roll?

Commissioner Jorgensen. Present. Commissioner Zundel. Here. Commissioner Dardis. Here. Commissioner Olson.

Here.

Commissioner Anderson. Here.

Would you please join the commission in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance to the flag for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First order of business is to approve the order of the agenda, commissioners.

Motion to approve.

A motion to approve the order of the agenda as presented. Is there a second? Second. I have a second. We have a motion and a second to approve the order of the agenda. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Next order of business is to approve the minutes of May 18th, 2026. They have been distributed.

Move the approve.

We have a motion to approve. Is there a second? Second. Have a second. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of May 18th as presented. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Item F is the building permits. Commissioner Jorgensen.

I would like to recuse myself from voting on this matter, please.

Commissioner Jorgensen is recused from voting on the building permits. We have a motion to approve the building permits as distributed. Is there a second? Second. I have a second. We have a motion and a second to approve the building permit. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. We move on to the consent agenda. We have items A through G. Move to approve. I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented, A through G. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. We now move into the regular agenda. First order of business on the regular agenda is public comment. At this time, we have three individuals that have signed up for public comment. We're going to take them in the order that they were received. The first speaker this evening will be Mr. David Withey. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening. Dave Withee, 2421 McLeod Drive East. Thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening. Today is the day I've been waiting for for three years. I hope you will approve the request for the Oracle software so we can finally have a software system that really works for an organization of our size. And speaking of software, I hope you will also approve the Zen City software. I think that's great, finding a technological way to improve productivity to get more work done, more helpful work done. I want to go backwards a little bit. As far as speaking of finance, I know it's on the consent agenda, so I just want to mention that my only concern on the financial statement is that we're down about 12.5% in the general fund revenues from last year. It seems to be concerning that it's getting larger each month. Maybe it's just because people aren't paying it all off at once and doing it monthly. Just something that would be of concern. Everything else looked pretty good. I'd also like to mention about the Red River Valley Fair request for funds. It really put a lot of examples of things that they've done to help the city. But never once did they say anything about thanking the city for not indexing their property. especially at a time when they're asking for funds on a non-economic development type of a program. But those are just some thoughts to share. Thank you for the time you're spending, especially the three who are winding down the clock on your time with us. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker this evening will be Cynthia Sessions. Good evening and welcome.

Thank you. Do you need my address or?

Yes please. Okay. Name and address if you would please.

Cynthia Sessions, 5515 Lurie Lane West. I'm speaking in reference to the roundabout. My husband and I just moved here a little over a year ago. I love living in Fargo, so impressed with the park district and the planning and zoning boulevard and setback green spaces with the attractive streetlights. We spent over a year looking for a home with a great location, neighborhood, neighborhood park, amenities, et cetera, in our budget. Not entirely everything we were looking for and definitely not in our budget, we bought our home across from Dakota Park. A big negative downside were the specials attached to our property. Coming from Minot, where they do not use this financially crushing system, we were shocked at the additional burden. Right now, our specials on our property are $41,841.68. In addition to the safety issue for the school and children, safety for the many young families whose children go to Legacy, these additional specials would be financially unbearable. Concerning the safety of children, we have to pause and ask ourselves, what is the value of a child's life when walking or biking to and from school and to and from the park? What are our priorities? This proposed roundabout would also immediately reduce the value of our properties, especially those adjacent to the roundabout. When we made our investments in these neighborhoods and the West Fargo community and bought our homes, we bought them with the existing very appealing close neighborhood school and park children and adults could easily walk to and ride bikes, et cetera. Changing these close-knit neighborhoods, the park and school environment, by the addition of a roundabout, severely negatively changes the family-friendly neighborhood school atmosphere to one of a dangerously fast-paced car after car after car no child could safely navigate. Add to that the burden of more taxes to the already colossal amount of never-ending specials and the surely immediate reduction in value of these family homes is just too much. Put yourselves in our shoes. These are homes we've invested heavily in. These are our neighborhood families with the beautiful children that deserve every ounce of safety we can provide them. Can I have a couple more sentences? Thank you. And their parents, every ounce of opportunity for their right to quiet enjoyment of their property and every ounce of support in maintaining, hopefully increasing, not decreasing, the value of their investment. The roundabout just does not belong in this location. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Sessions. The next speaker this evening is Martin Lean. Martin here Marlin, excuse me Marlin Lee my apologies I Was educated to kill their North Dakota, so you have to forgive me.

Let me let me respond back with the microphone That's quite. All right. I've had 57 years of Martin Melvin Melvin. That's why my son's name is Jeff and It's been an interesting and full afternoon. Good evening, honorable commissioners. My name is Marlin R. Lean, 5446 Lurie Lane West. I'm here tonight simply to ask three of you, just three of you, really two, to pause for 30 days for a safety study. 30 days, pause. If I'm not mistaken, Commissioner Anderson is opposed to the roundabout. That just means we need two more. Just two. For a dedicated children's safety discussion before moving forward. And if we don't have the three tonight, why? Homeowner input is flooding in. Look at the people behind us. I've never seen this many people. And these are the ones that could attend. The reason that the homeowner input is flooding in to oppose or pause, stop this roundabout is because they couldn't be here tonight. They didn't have enough time. Regarding the 430, Sorry. You know the safety input meeting held at Legacy School on 4-30? What specific children safety concerns raised by the parents on 4-30 have been addressed since that meeting? Has the Legacy Elementary formally endorsed the proposed roundabout? has the school district formally endorsed the proposed roundabout, the roundabout that has two white semis in it, indicating a much broader regional corridor. Regarding the certified letter that was sent 24 days ago, requesting a working meeting be scheduled within 30 days, focusing solely on increasing elementary children's safety? Why has there not been any contact with any parents regarding the $1 million direct special? Where can the homeowner go today to review the calculation to see their specific home? That input meeting was on 4-30. I'll go a little faster. The input meeting was on 4-30. 45 homeowners showed up because the majority didn't know that they were there. The kickoff meeting for that roundabout was on 9-15-2021. That was 1,688 days before we asked for input. Mr. Dardis, with all due respect, 4.63 years. I'll wrap it up. In closing, because I always want to work in equity. I respect what you guys do. You guys have a hard job. We're just asking for three, three of you to pause and stop for 30 days. Because it's all about the children, it's safety first, pedestrian second, traffic flow third. Thank you.

That is all the people that have signed up for public comment. So we're now out of public comment. We moved on to item number two in the agenda, which is public hearings. The first order of business is a first reading and public hearing for 826-6, Zoning Ordinance Amendment to the Title IV regarding inert landfills. We call on Aaron Nelson, the Director of Planning and Zoning for the City of West Fargo. Good evening, Mr. Nelson, and welcome.

Good evening, President Dardis and commissioners. So item two is a zoning ordinance amendment to title four regarding inert landfills, as was just mentioned. This amendment was initiated by the Public Works Department to allow for future consideration of a new inert landfill within city limits. This request was made because city ordinances currently prohibit landfills from being located within city limits. Additionally, current ordinance does not distinguish between an inert landfill and a general solid waste landfill. Just a quick summary, inert landfills are much less objectionable as they only accept inert materials that do not rot or decay, whereas general solid waste landfills accept household garbage, general trash, and organic materials that do rot and produce objectionable odors. So the proposed amendment, I'll just scroll down to here, you have a copy in your packets, would establish this distinction between these two different types of landfills by adding some language to the definitions section within the zoning ordinance. It would also continue to prohibit general solid waste landfills from being located within city limits while allowing city-owned inert landfills within city limits. And that would be as a conditional use within the PE public facilities zoning district. So in other words, traditional general solid waste landfills would still be prohibited within city limits. Those would need to be located outside of city limits if they were to ever be approved. inert landfills, however, would be allowed within city limits within a specific zoning district, being the P district, also requiring a conditional use permit. So it's important to note that the proposed zoning ordinance amendment does not give a green light to any new inert landfills and does not establish a preferred location for any future landfill. The ordinance simply establishes the opportunity for the city to consider such requests within city limits at some point in the future. So again, even if the proposed ordinance is approved, any proposed future inert landfills would still require approval of a conditional use permit by the city commission in addition to any other required approvals. This requested amendment was recommended for approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission at their May 12th meeting. The requested action tonight is to hold the public hearing and to approve the first reading of the ordinance. And with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the specific language. Otherwise, I'd invite public works staff up if they have any additional comments or anything on the inert landfill request.

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Commissioners, are there any questions of Mr. Nelson? Hearing none, we close the regular agenda meeting and we move into public hearings. Is there anyone in this crowd that would like to speak in favor of an inert landfill? This ordinance change. Is there anyone in the crowd that would like to speak in favor? Is there anyone in the crowd that would like to speak in favor of the Title IV regarding our inert landfills ordinance change? Is there anyone who would like to speak against the Title IV regarding the inert landfills and this zoning change of 826-6? Is there anyone that would like to speak against? Is there anyone that would like to speak against? Hearing none, the public hearing is closed. Commissioners, what is your pleasure?

Move we approve the first reading.

We have a motion to approve the first reading of A26-6 regarding a zoning ordinance amendment to the Title IV regarding inert land use. Is there a second? Second. I have a second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, Corey, did you have something?

Commissioner Jorgenson.

Thank you, Commissioner. Anyone else? We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. We move on to item number three. Item number three is the improvement district at 2288 52nd Avenue and 9th Street West intersection improvements. We call on Jerry Wallace, the city engineer for the city of West Fargo. The purpose of this discussion is a project update and direct staff regarding project scope and funding. Mr. Wallace, good evening and welcome.

Yes, thank you. Mr. Commission president and commissioners here before you tonight as Everyone is well aware with the 52nd Avenue and 9th Street intersection roundabout essentially the the action or Update we're looking for is I'm going to provide a brief update on the project and then we'll be looking for direction on how you choose to proceed on that I think everybody's aware of a lot of the history. I'll try to just hit the high points on it. In February 2021, there was a corridor study that was done that said the level of service is going to degrade at this intersection within five years. The recommendation was a roundabout would greatly improve that. About the same time, the West Fargo Public School District reached out. They had some concerns over safety at the crossing. It was assumed that they didn't have resources to address it themselves. Hence, after multiple analyses that were conducted, the city decided to move forward with a potential roundabout project. At the November 2023 commission meeting, City staff were approached about the project. The commission chose at that time to not proceed with the project as it was presented, primarily because there was a significant concern over special assessments. The direction that was taken by staff from the commission at that time was GO AND LOOK FOR ALTERNATE FUNDING SOURCES AND THEN COME BACK AND TALK TO US AND MAYBE WE'LL RECONSIDER. SINCE THAT TIME, STAFF HAVE DONE THAT. WE OBTAINED ROUGHLY A $2 MILLION GRANT THAT WOULD BE PUT TOWARDS THE CONSTRUCTION. You know, we've started, I guess, in on the preliminary scoping and the DOT's process of what that would look like, including we had the public meeting on April 30th. That's part of the DOT process that the gentleman earlier talked about. At the public meeting, it was discussed, you know, the benefits of the roundabout, you know, things like how it removes conflict points. simplifies the complexity of crossing decisions. It actually assists vulnerable pedestrians with refuge areas and splitter islands. Certainly tried to just explain the data behind roundabouts and why in many applications they have been found to be successful at improving safety in these situations. In addition to that, they obviously greatly reduce vehicle crashes, pedestrian vehicle crashes. The geometry changes actually force physical driver controls to be implemented that stop sign controls, signal controls are not structured to properly enforce. With all that being said, in your packet, there's been a substantial outreach from the local community down there. There's a lot of passionate folks that I would say overwhelmingly are not fans of the roundabout. We've included those in the packet. Essentially what we're looking to do, the existing conditions, Recently we took video of, we circulated that to some folks and just said, you know, you may want to consider watching this. There are, you know, reasons to be concerned over the intersection. I think everybody's seen that video. I'm not sure if there's any reason to play it tonight, but so be it either way. As far as the funding, the way it sits right now, At the time the application was submitted, you know, it was about a $3.3 million project. The HCIP program, that's the Highway Safety Improvement Program, granted essentially a 90% grant that could be put towards construction costs. The current estimated total project cost is about 3.5 million. There's some healthy contingencies in there, soft costs, inflation. With all that being said, there's an estimate that about $1.5 million would be left over. Obviously, if the Commission chooses to move forward on that project, they could look at multiple funding mechanisms to fund that work, capital improvement sales tax being one such option. Obviously, the special assessments that people have referenced in some shape or form could potentially be utilized. It's entirely up to the Commission. But at this point in time, I would probably bring your attention to the project scope moving forward. Staffer are back. We did what the commission had asked. And I guess we're looking for direction as to whether or not we want to move forward with the design of the project. Discuss possible other design features that maybe commissioners might want us to consider Once I guess we get a decision on there that would probably Essentially guide the rest of that discussion on the on the project scope moving forward With that I'm available for any questions you may have Thank You mr. Wallace any questions commissioners Commissioner Olson if we decide to move forward with the project I

Tonight meaning you would just design it is there a possibility at a later date that it could still be Disapproved or is it a done deal if we vote tonight to move forward with just the design of the project I I would say with a very high degree of confidence that all the way up until we're awarding a bid the project could be cancelled relatively easily The one thing I would just

try to extend our partners that run the Highway Safety Improvement Program is if we need to release those funds, they take a lot of time to reallocate it and we should maybe try to give them that professional courtesy. Okay, thank you.

Additional questions for Mr. Wallace? Great question. Mr. Anderson.

I also want to have a question, I guess. I'm not in favor of this roundabout as was mentioned earlier. One thing that I'd like to at least get out in the open is seeing the support against the roundabout here, there's probably a high degree of likelihood that it'll be protested out. So need to consider if this does go forward, how would this be paid for? not using special assessments because it would be protested out.

Good point. Anyone else?

Any questions for Mr. Wallace? I'll make the motion to stop all work, return the grant funds.

We have a motion to stop all work and return the grant funds.

I'll second.

Is there a second? I'll second it. Commissioner Jorgensen's second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion, additional discussion? I'm gonna do something a little bit unorthodox. Could I ask those folks that are here from that area, how many here are here because they're concerned about the special assessments? How many here are concerned only about priority as children's safety? 50-50, thank you. That being said, with the conversation that Mr. Wallace had about other funding sources and how the commission can address this, just wanted to have that reference for the commissioners to see that. Commissioner Zundell.

Taking discussion?

Please.

Thank you to everybody who came out tonight. Staff, it obviously feels like this is a roundabout that you've been working on for many years or a solution to a problem. So thank you for doing what you were essentially directed to do. We do appreciate that work. I know I appreciate that work. I wasn't a part of the initial thing, but it's a very difficult situation that doesn't have a great fit for anybody. I think the one solution that I hope everybody does take under consideration and something that everybody in the crowd can do is just stop at the four-way stop. I hope that was eye-opening to people. We do have a lot of reports of that. I know the PD has been doing directed patrols in the area for concerns that people don't stop at the intersection. So it sounds like the thing that everybody wants the most is children's safety, no more special assessments in your neighborhood and everything else like that. And I think that's something that everybody can agree upon in this room. So I do hope that as we all move on from this that PEOPLE JUST TAKE EXTRA TIME TO STOP AT THE FOUR-WAY STOP BECAUSE YOUR KIDS' SAFETY IS OUR CONCERN. AND I DID SEE A LOT OF COMMENTARY ABOUT US NOT LISTENING TO YOU. I HOPE YOU DO FEEL HEARD. I KNOW WE ALL APPRECIATE WHEN PEOPLE TAKE PART IN THE CIVIC PROCESS. I APPRECIATE THAT EVERYBODY IS VERY RESPECTFUL THAT CALLED IN AND TALKED TO US AND SENT EMAILS AND EVERYTHING LIKE THAT. SO I JUST WANTED TO THANK THE PEOPLE THAT TOOK THE TIME TO DO THAT AND TOOK TIME OUT OF THEIR SCHEDULE TO SHOW UP AT THE MEETING TONIGHT AND BE A PART OF THIS PROCESS. Thank you to everybody on all sides of the fence.

Thank you, Commissioner. I could agree. I've been to both of the meetings at Legacy, both April 30th, the last one, and the one prior. And this is, without a doubt, in the eight years that I've served on the Commission, the most passionate project that I've ever observed the public getting engaged in. So kudos to you, that's what city government should be, is that your engagement and your discussions with us about your concerns, whether it's financial or whether it's safety. So I too thank you all for your engagement. Anyone else? We have a motion to stop the process of a roundabout on 52nd. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? So a positive vote is to stop the process on 52nd, just so that's understood. Any other discussion? Roll call vote, please.

Commissioner Jorgensen.

Aye.

Commissioner Zundel. Aye. Commissioner Dardis. Aye. Commissioner Olsen.

Nay.

Commissioner Anderson.

Aye. Item number three, the motion passes. There is a stoppage of the 52nd roundabout project. Moving on to item number four, American 250 celebration. If you folks wanna stay for the rest of the commission meeting, that's fine. And I will pause for a few minutes if you would like to take leave and go catch a baseball game or something.

Thank you both. Yeah.

We continue with the City Commission meeting on item number four, the America 250 Year Celebration Partnership proposal with the Red River Valley Fair. We're going to call on Casey Sanders Berglund, Director of Economic Development. The purpose of this discussion is to consider a proposal and select from the two options proposed by the Red River Valley Fair. Good evening, Ms. Berglund, and welcome.

Good evening. Thank you, Commission President and Commissioners. Tonight, I have the opportunity to welcome Cody Cashman from the Redford Valley Fair. There's a couple proposals that are included in your packet for you to review. Before he comes up, I'd just like to share a little bit about America 250. It's a nonpartisan initiative, essentially trying to engage every American in commemorating the 250th anniversary of our country. I would like to make note that when this proposal was brought forward, I just reviewed other communities such as Bismarck, Minot, Mandan, Grand Forks, and Fargo all have announced some sort of community celebrations. whether it be music ceremonies, block parties, storytelling, fireworks, powwows, et cetera. I didn't list out each community in matching up what each of their individual celebrations or community celebrations look like. I just wanted to give you a peek into what those celebrations are looking like. And then of course, most notably in Medora, they are gonna be celebrating on July 4th, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library on America 250. And so with that, I would say the opportunity to partner with the Red River Valley Fair kind of came up to us and bringing it forward as an opportunity for West Fargo to have a celebration in which we do not have the staff capacity or funds to potentially celebrate or do community celebration individually with our current team members. So with that, I'll welcome Cody Cashman up to kind of talk about how this proposal is structured and let him answer any questions about that. And then I'll stand for questions once he's finished.

Good evening, Mr. Cashman. Welcome.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. You know, great to be here. We want to thank the city for all that they do for the fairgrounds, because you're right, that wasn't in our proposal. And I want you all to know that we do appreciate everything that we do receive from the city as a great neighbor. And we know that we're not in the city. We do know that. We're aware. And you're aware as well. This is an opportunity that we felt was a great opportunity. I have been spending my... Fourth of July at the Red River Valley Fair since I moved here. And I can tell you without a doubt, it is a huge success having the Fourth of July during the fair. Everybody told me that everybody goes to the lakes. I can assure you not everyone goes to the lakes, and there's a lot of folks who don't have the opportunity to do so. And so we pride ourselves in being the opportunity for folks that don't have a lake home or don't have the means to go on a lavish vacation during the Fourth of July. We pride ourselves in that. We also pride ourselves in being someone's Disney World. And what we thought would be a great opportunity for West Fargo is to be a part of that and allowing every West Fargo citizen to come to the fair for free during the Fourth of July. We're going to have a drone show, which, of course, we would have the City of West Fargo logo up in the drone show. I think the proposal says 300 drones. It's actually 350, so I know that really sets it up there for you. But we would love for the city, as a partner, to join us in the celebration. It is the 250th year of our wonderful country. We're going to be celebrating, and we would ask that the entire city of West Fargo comes and celebrates with us. If there's any questions, I'd love to hear if there's any questions. Questions for Mr. Cashman?

Anyone? Thank you. Thank you. What's your thoughts, commissioners? There's two options here, option one and option two. Option one is a $15,000 investment, and option two is a $27,500 investment. And it's delineated out as to what it includes. Move to go with option two. Commissioner Olsen moves to go with option two. Is there a second? I'll second that. We have a motion and a second to go with option two for the July 4th day partner. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Commissioner Sundell.

I will need to recuse myself from this vote.

Commissioner Sundell is recusing herself from this vote. Any further discussion? Commissioner Anderson.

Is the general admission for all West Fargo citizens, is that tied to only option two or is that tied to both options?

Option two.

Okay, thank you.

Any further discussion? We have a motion and a second. Again, a reminder that Commissioner Zundell is recusing herself. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nay. Aye. The vote passes on a three-to-one margin. We move on to item number five. Number five is Zen City software contract. Rachel Richter-Lorteman, our Director of Communications. The purpose of this discussion is to approve a three-year contract with Zen City Technologies U.S. Incorporated. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening, Commission President and Commissioners. I'm before you this evening looking for approval for a three-year contract with Zen City Technologies. Scroll down here. This conversation began between the engineering department and the communication department as we were looking for some different alternatives on how to do project specific communication. I should have put these in a different order here. Can you scroll to the, thank you. So our engineering department I was looking for some ways where we could gather some more proactive resident feedback. We knew of this tool, Zen City, which is used by our neighboring city of Fargo. It's used in Grand Forks, as well as some cities in Minnesota, including Woodbury, Rochester. But it's used all around the country, small communities, up to some of our largest cities. So Zen City is built very specifically for local governments as a way to engage with residents. So we are looking to implement specifically two of Zen City's products. First is the Engage tool. This allows us to create project-specific informational hubs, seek feedback at all stages of a project, and more easily capture input from all residents within the geographical area of a project. Our goal is to get this feedback earlier in the project process. We want to hear from a larger representative sample of an area to get information to better equip staff and elected officials to make decisions. So we want to hear not only from those who maybe are able to come to a meeting or write a letter, but those who can easily provide quick feedback online to have a hub for that project-specific, and also a communication tool for project updates, information, ongoing question and answer ability, and a way to make sure we're targeting project areas to get feedback from the people who are specifically impacted. One of our biggest goals from this project is to get feedback not just on maybe the negative side of projects, but we also want to hear from the people who are looking for those solutions, who are looking for a project in their area or who want to support a project in their area. So that is the engage tool. It would be a great improvement on what we are able to do now through our current website with project updating and communication. In your packet, you do have some sample cities there that are linked. The other product from Zen City that we're looking at is the representative community survey. Through this process, the vendors and city would conduct a citywide satisfaction survey to gather resident feedback on city services, projects, and quality of life. Survey results will be tailored to accurately represent the demographics of West Fargo. That's what makes it a representative survey. So, for example, About 32% of West Fargo's population is in the age range of 25 to 44. That means that 32% of the survey responses or results would represent that demographic age group. We can also take a look at survey responses based on location within West Fargo and other demographics to really get a good overall picture and hear from some of those folks maybe we don't hear from as often. The survey is produced by Zen City, utilizing their resources and expertise to target demographics. So we're not the ones out there collecting the feedback. They're making sure that they're hitting all areas of our city, all demographics, and casting a really wide net to make sure we get information that best represents the entire population of West Fargo. With this three-year annual contract, the survey would be conducted annually. So we can observe trends, set priorities, and see the impact of decisions over time. So the agreement we're looking for is a $23,000 per year commitment with the contract starting in June 2026. At half of that, so prorated for this first year, at $11,500, this would be included in the existing marketing line item of the communication budget. And costs in future years will be budgeted to the communication department. So tonight we're not asking for a budget amendment. but looking for your input and approval because this is a multi-year commitment. So the agreement, overview of more product features was included in your packet, but I'm available to answer any questions.

Questions? Commissioner Zundell.

Is there a way to tie in the information we have? So for example, like email addresses, a lot of people get their utility bill sent to their email inbox. Are you going to try and cross-reference the email addresses you have for certain locations, or would it be people self-select kind of into the program through targeted ads, or how do you get the list in for the projects?

Yeah, so when we would create a project page, it's connected through a GIS, so we can create a fence or a shape around that geographical area. We certainly could, we can give residents the option to sign up themselves or use information we have through utility billing if they've given us permission to use their email address in that way in those geographical areas. Otherwise we would reach out looking essentially for their permission to add them to these communication lists. Can you continue?

Commissioner Olson. Do we have a similar tool right now?

We do not. We're utilizing a few different features to kind of do some of these things, but we don't have a tool that specifically works in this way.

So the survey results, obviously you would report back to the city commission on whatever Input that the public is sharing with us. Yes Will this also be shared with department heads so they have an understanding as well? What as commissioners were receiving that it can be used as a tool for them as well.

Yes, absolutely, so Zen City has experts that will analyze the data, but we'll also get the raw data so we can look at if there are you know specific THINGS WE WANT TO LOOK FOR, TRENDS WE WANT TO LOOK FOR, WE'LL HAVE THAT INFORMATION, BUT THEIR EXPERTS WILL ALSO HELP US ANALYZE THAT DATA, AND IT WILL BE PRESENTED TO YOU, BUT ALSO AVAILABLE TO STAFF AS WELL.

OKAY. COMMISSIONER ZUNDELL.

SO WHEN THEY DO THE TARGETED INPUT, DO WE PAY FOR THE TARGETED ADS ON TOP OF THIS COST, OR IS THAT ALL?

NO. SO IT'S THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO GET THE RESPONSES. So we pay for our contract for them to go out and get those responses. So any advertising that they need to do, we don't pay for that separately.

Are they on the hook to get a certain percentage of responses back when they're gathering the data?

They have estimated that they will get 10% of our population in responses, and they will continue to collect data until they get that percentage.

And then is there any way that the data is verified? Like, do we know that these are people that are for surely from West Fargo that are answering the questions? They will provide their address.

So they could certainly lie about their address, but there's nothing we can do about that. And then once they take it, is it available for them to take again or if they enter it? So unless they found it, if they went on. different devices.

They cleared their cookies and they entered it twice or something like that.

Yes, but it would be like a survey, once you do it on your device or your IP address, you wouldn't be able to do it again from the same device.

And then my last question, sorry, I want to ramble with questions. Surveys are always tough because they're only kind of as good as what you're going to do with the information that you get out of it. So let's say we're collecting survey data and WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE DOING WITH THE DATA? WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE FINDING FROM AN ANNUAL SURVEY IF PEOPLE LIKE US OR NOT? ARE WE ABLE TO REALLY DO ANYTHING WITH THE INFORMATION? TO WHAT DEGREE ARE YOU GOING TO DO THINGS WITH THE INFORMATION? UNDERSTANDABLE.

I THINK THE REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY DATA, THE COMMUNITY SURVEY DATA, I SEE THAT REALLY AS A FOUNDATIONAL LEVEL OF INFORMATION. EMILY, CAN WE SCROLL BACK DOWN TO THE PRESENTATION? So that's really gonna give us our residents satisfied with housing options, services, safety, utilities. And I think they have a list, it'll be 10 to 15 questions. I think the biggest benefit is seeing it change over time. So how do decisions that are made impact that data? But also just to see where do we really sit when we're hearing from residents across the city, when we're hearing from a resident representative sample of our population, we hear from a lot of the same folks often, which is great, but we have a lot of folks that we never hear from. So that's the goal of this is to really get a baseline foundation of across the city representative of our population. How do people feel about our government and the services that we provide on the project side? I THINK THE GOAL IS TO GET INFORMATION EARLIER IN THE PROCESS. ONE EXAMPLE WE'VE TALKED ABOUT INTERNALLY IS SOMETHING LIKE THE RIVERS BEND WALKING PATH. IF WE WOULD HAVE HAD MORE RESONANT FEEDBACK EARLIER IN THAT PROCESS, MAYBE WE WOULD HAVE MADE A DISCONTINUED IT SOONER IN THE PROCESS.

MAYBE.

So I think I got a little off track, but I hope that answered your question.

Is the 11,000, I think that was the number for the rest of the year, does that currently fit?

What was it?

11.5, does that currently fit into your current budget and you don't anticipate going over in any categories even with the addition of $11,500?

No, so the way that our marketing budget is set for the year is leaving it a little bit open-ended for the projects that come up throughout the year. So I feel that this would be a worthwhile use of that existing budget as a project for the remainder of 2026.

And I would presume that by using this, that does not exempt us from the costs required by North Dakota Century Code for any project that would require us to send mailers to address. So I presume we're still going to incur that same cost. So we're not saving money on any projects. We're just gathering information. Correct.

And generally, if we send out any mailing or printing, that is billed to the project. So that does not come out of a communication and marketing budget.

Commissioner Olson. Do we get to decide what the questions are, or do they decide what the questions are?

They have a baseline of questions for us to choose from that they're the experts in this area, but we certainly have the ability to add questions, change questions as we might need to.

I would think that we would be the best people to know what questions to ask our residents rather than somebody in Timbuktu. So I'd hope that we have that option to tailor it to fit West Fargo and not Grand Island, Nebraska, because it's totally different.

Yes, and the satisfaction survey, it's looking at our services and their satisfaction with those services. So they are questions that can be answered on that satisfaction scale, not an open-ended question or a yes or no type of question.

Any additional questions from Ms. Norderman? One more question.

Go ahead. So this locked in for three years then? If we decide to go with this, we're locked in?

Correct.

Okay.

Any other questions? This is an actionable item, commissioners. Move I approve. We have a motion to approve. Is there a second? I second. Bernie seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the Zen City software contract as presented by Ms. Lardaman for the three-year contract. PERIOD. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION?

DO YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT HAVING THEM BOTH? I REALLY LIKE SOME OF THE EXAMPLE PROJECT INFORMATION, GETTING IN TOUCH WITH MORE RESIDENTS AND THOSE THINGS. I GUESS MY STRUGGLE POINT IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW WE'RE GOING TO USE THE ANNUAL REPORT STUFF, AT LEAST THE EXAMPLES THAT THEY GIVE FEEL LIKE SOMEWHAT VERY BROAD Like how, for example, how likely are you to recommend Long Beach as a place to live? I don't know with that type of data what we're gonna do with that. Or overall, how is the overall quality of life? Or are there enough cultural events? Or the examples that seem to be given, at least in the annual one, feel very fluffy. And like it's gonna be like, oh, people like where they live or they don't, or there's things to do or there's not. I'm just trying to figure out what we're gonna do with that information FOR THE COST OF THAT PIECE OF IT.

I FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT THE ENGAGE TOOL. I THINK THAT IS WHAT LED US TO THIS PRODUCT, IS THAT PROJECT SPECIFIC INFORMATION AND GATHERING THAT PROJECT FEEDBACK. THE REPRESENTATIVE SURVEY, I MEAN, I THINK FROM MY PERSPECTIVE, I CAN HELP TO gather and collect that data, but it would be probably not up to me how we use that data to make decisions. So if you feel that that's, if that wouldn't be helpful for future decision making, I would say that's in your hand.

Is that internally helpful would be, I guess, Sorry, I'm not trying to be difficult with this. No, no, that's okay. I'm just thinking about. I love the Engage product. I think that's great. I'm struggling with the community survey piece of it and understanding what departments are going to do with any of the information unless there's just different. Casey, for example, is this anything that would, like you're the department that I felt like might jump out.

As I'm listening to Rachel and I look through her project, that information would be helpful as I'm talking to, say, for example, businesses that are looking to expand that aren't familiar with North Dakota or Fargo or West Fargo either. And in general, a lot of those conversations I have with business owners, they are asking questions and wanting to know anecdotally, right, because that's all we have is an anecdote of do people enjoy the quality of life that they have here? And so some people just want to have conversations of people who moved here and enjoy it. And those are great, more experience level conversations. But to have some data to be able to point to. Currently, Rachel and I are working on a video project that some of this data could be helpful for. So I guess I could see myself using some of this data. I've not. had it to access that, but that would just be a couple of examples that I can think of kind of on the spot.

And I would say, your question wasn't difficult at all. It was just taking me a second to put my thoughts together. So we're all good. One thing we talked about when I was talking with Zen City, an example that they talked about through this survey data would be something like housing affordability or housing mix. Are residents, what is their level of satisfaction with the current housing mix or housing accessibility? Are we getting enough feedback on a topic like that as you have future decisions related to housing projects, zoning, housing types, is that information that you would want when making those types of decisions. But I would say that's up to you if you feel like that is helpful data to have or not.

Commissioner Olson. You've had conversations with our neighbor and other cities, I assume, and they are all, well, what are their comments and how they utilize this and the like, dislikes, all that kind of stuff, and just a short little synopsis.

Yeah, I've been able to have a little bit of conversation with Fargo. They've had some turnover, so the staff that started this project is not the staff that is there currently, so I think their new director maybe hasn't worked with this. I know they're in the midst of their second annual survey and I think they've used it kind of the same way and are looking forward to having that second year to see the trends. I think that's where they maybe find some good value is seeing how things have changed year to year. What decisions have made an impact on satisfaction in certain areas from one year to the next and that's the value of having a longer term contract as well.

Thank you.

Anyone else? We have a motion and a second. All those in favor of the Zen City software contract, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Aye.

Motion carries on a four to one vote. Thank you. Thank you. Item number six is a library annual report. We call on Jenna Cathy, library director. Good evening and welcome.

Thank you so much for your time this evening. Included in the packet is the full 2025 West Fargo Public Library Annual Report. But this evening, for time, I will just give you a summary and a shorter presentation highlighting a year of significant growth, service expansion, and community impact. The accomplishments detailed in this report reflect the dedication of our staff, the continued support of the City of West Fargo, and the value our residents receive from their tax dollars invested in the library. When the fire chief and police chief give their annual reports, they often talk about service calls, and so this year I wanted to share our report from that perspective as well. Go ahead. Oh, am I scrolling? Oh, I can scroll. How exciting. Can I? Well, stop scrolling. Stop. The library's call for service can take about six different forms. So our collection resources, the programs that we provide, the in-library technology that we provide the public, of course the human support that we provide as well, the public space that we provide, and the service beyond our walls. So the first thing that everybody thinks of when you think of the library is of course our physical collection of materials. Also hugely popular is our electronic collection as well. You might have the Libby app on your phone or another device at home. that you can download materials for free with your library card. Some of our most popular databases that patrons use are Consumer Reports, Ancestry Library Edition, New York Times, All Access, which does include the games as well. Peterson Test and Career Prep, which includes practice ACT and SAT tests, as well as many professional and vocational tests. There's also Udemy, which has a huge variety of professional classes that you can get CEUs for work as well. I will note that in 2024, we completed a space needs assessment. And while this collection number does look pretty big, we learned in that space needs assessment, which also took a look at our collection size and many other metrics, our collection is lagging by 33% against a national cohort and 46.3% against a regional cohort for the size of the population that we serve. Largely our physical collection size is stymied by our space constraints at our two locations. Even with those constraints, though, 2025 was a record-breaking year for circulation. And this can be attributed to the professionalism of my entire team across all departments. From careful item selection to efficient processing to get the new materials to shelves and into patrons' hands, to rapid checking in and reshelving, excellent displays and readers' advisory services, my folks are always making sure that every inch of shelf space and each dollar invested in our collection, both physical and digital, is given careful consideration. I think it's really astounding to look at that number that we have had a 113% increase in electronic use in the last five years, and a 50% increase in total checkouts in the last five years. We are just fighting, Emily. Well, then this mouse is just fighting me. As far as a return on investment, I think this is really important to look at. We closed the year out in 2025 having spent around 2.4 million in our operating budget. I wanted to point this number out here because one of the things we like to look at is how much residents saved by borrowing materials from the library instead of purchasing those items themselves. So we look at like the average cost of a book, the average cost of a DVD, and total that all up. So per resident in West Fargo, it was $96 saved or per active library card. $208 saved. Close to $4 million was saved just by checking out materials at the library. I think that's really huge. And that's just one area of service in our budget. Next up is programs. We're known for our programs at the West Fargo Library. In the lower right-hand side, you'll see Miss Sarah doing one of our crazy popular storytime programs. Sarah is a storytime superstar. She provides some of the most fun, engaging, early literacy development storytime programs out there. She's also shared her knowledge and ideas at conferences with other librarians. There is a reason that we don't heavily promote our story times. We actually really can't because we don't have enough space. In 2025, at peak, we had 72 attendees coming to story time programs. We had 600 attendees at the kickoff last year for our summer reading program. We just had that kickoff again last week for this year's summer reading program. So if you haven't signed up for that, you should get those kids involved and join the reading challenge yourself as well. August and Lauren are also in that youth services team. August worked really hard with teens last year and had incredible success with the D&D program. Lauren has been with us for many years as the youth manager and she has great success with big programs and she is a logistics master at this point. Wow, this mouse man. I'm scrolling one direction and it keeps going both directions.

Yeah, why don't you?

Let's go to, we've skipped adult services if you want to go back up. Oops, down one. Adult services spent some time in 2025 doing evaluation of what the most popular programs for West Fugga residents are. And despite having a lot of turnover on that team, once that information was applied, it was really successful and they saw an 18% increase in adult program participation. One major success and thing that they were really thankful for was being able to move the weekly movie matinees into this room here at City Hall. We had been having to turn people away at the main library because they had exceeded capacity at the main library. Also, this space is much more accessible. And so that increased safety and accessibility and capacity here has been just a real blessing to people that are attending that program. We've had lots of great comments about that. Library technology is another thing that's really important to our residents. Obviously, folks are coming in to use our public computers, but also printing. You can print from the public computers. You can also print wirelessly from your devices as well. And the number for Wi-Fi sessions always kind of blows my mind. Every day I see folks in the library using our Wi-Fi to attend classes, to work from the library. Every once in a while I have the thought that some of the folks that attend school at the library, we should have a graduation ceremony for them if we find out that they're graduating, but we haven't done that yet. And the one-on-one support that we get to offer our residents in professional reference services is incredibly important as well. This is probably the closest thing to a service call if you want to make that comparison. When I talk about a reference question, these are true reference questions, not a where is it, how do I use a library resource. These are things that require research, one-on-one support, for a library patron that requires some professional training to answer the question. We don't track every single question, that's why this is an estimated number, but we do an audit of the number of questions that we're answering several times a year, and then this is an extrapolated out number. The library continues to be a really vital space that people want to be. Just having a space to be in the community to connect with others is an important part of the library's mission and vision as well. Almost 71,000 visits to the library in 2025. And of course, we added the satellite in 2025 as well. So the satellite is here at City Hall. That was probably the library's most notable accomplishment in 2025. It offers streamlined access to collections, study rooms, public computers, printing, and hold pickup services. And we've gotten a really strong positive response to that. Additionally, the library completed a major carpet replacement project at the main library revitalizing a large portion of the public space for the first time in 20 years. Staff undertook extensive materials relocation and schedule adjustments to ensure uninterrupted service throughout that project. That was a huge undertaking to do both of those major projects in the same year. But my staff handled it well and I'm really proud of all of the work that they did. Another part of the space that we provide is meeting rooms. Our meeting rooms are used for all kinds of things, not just library programs. There's tutoring that goes on. There are Bible studies that meet there, job interviews, counseling sessions. You name it happens in the meeting rooms at the public library. As you can see, the total hours reserved just keeps going up and up and up, but we are almost at capacity, so that is gonna hit an endpoint here pretty soon. Lastly is service beyond our walls, our outreach deliveries. So we deliver to senior living facilities and to daycares. Well, in 2025, we delivered to seven daycares and five senior living facilities. 2,178 books were delivered. We had 27 pop-ups at West Virgo Parks, seven pop-ups at West Virgo Schools. 1,740 books were checked out from those pop-ups. And just in conclusion, through strategic financial management, doing things like that internal material moving during the renovation and flexible shifts, expanding our volunteer support, careful use of public funds, and a strong commitment to service, the West Fargo Library continues to deliver exceptional value to residents. The library's impact reflected in Our record circulation, expanded access, and millions in cost savings for residents demonstrates the effectiveness of ongoing investment in library services. Thank you for your continued partnership and support, and I look forward to continuing to work together as we build on this strong foundation. Thank you for your time tonight.

Commissioners, any questions? Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next order of business is item number seven, is to approve the proposed 2027 utility rates resolution as presented by Mr. Matt Anvik, Senior Director of Public Works. Good evening and welcome.

Good evening, Commissioner, President, Commissioners. Like you said, I'm here for approval for the proposed 2027 utility rates. At the May 4th meeting, I did bring forward these new proposed rates and presented them just for informational only. Since then, there haven't been any changes to those rates that we discussed. There is one change that we did make from last year to this year. Exhibit a in the in the resolution, which is to our nerd landfill We didn't raise those rates a little bit higher to get more in line with what Fargo is and we also then Raised our rates for out-of-town since we are getting a little bit lower on space and we'd like to Preserve as much as we can but if we do want to take in some out-of-town projects we kind of want to make it worth our while by taking in and charging a little bit more for those extra commercial ones. And we want to make sure that by doing that, that doesn't take away from what we're doing for the residents that's still at no charge for our residents to use our inert landfill. They can bring that to the transfer station. It's just for those special projects, the commercial projects or demolition type projects is what we're looking for and wanted to put those rates a little bit higher for that. Going forward, I guess, Emily, if you want to go back to that first one you had there. Just for that example of a utility bill, on a 4,000-gallon usage a month, the rates will go up a little over $5.50 per month. And on a 6,000-gallon per month usage, it would be just a little over $6.00. Mike? This is kind of the year three of that five year original plan that we came with a few years back. So these rates have been in front of the commission a few times now and in front of the public. And that's kind of the point of doing this every year like this. So we are very transparent and upfront and it doesn't seem like a knee-jerk reaction from year to year about raising rates. This is kind of that plan going forward and now we're starting to look out even farther on where we need to be. As we get to that 2029, the end of that five-year plan, we are pretty much looking right where we want to be, and then we want to try and get to that maybe every other year type of rate increase once we get past that point. With that, I'll stand for any questions.

Questions for Mr. Randvick?

Will we approve the proposed rates?

Commissioner Olsen moves to approve the 2027 utility rate resolution. Is there a second? Second. Commissioner Zundel seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Nay.

That's a four to one vote. and it passes. Item number eight, project number 2300-26, Public Works Mill and Overlay. We're gonna call on Mr. Jerry Wallace, the City Engineer. The purpose of this discussion is to rescind the motion accepting bids and awarding a contract and reject all bids that were received. Mr. Wallace, good evening. I'm back. Yes, thank you, Mr. Commission President.

It's great to be back. A couple of quick ones here for you. Basically, just due to ongoing litigation, the city attorney has advised us that it would probably be in the city's best interest for the commission to go through the process of rescinding the motion, accepting the bids, and awarding the contract for the project, and move forward with a motion to reject all bids. Again, that's the motion we're looking for. I'm available for any questions you may have. Questions for Mr. Wallace? I'll make the motion.

I have a motion to rescind accepting the bids and awarding a contract for project number 2300. Is there a second? Second. We have a second, Commissioner Anderson. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Item number nine is an improvement district number 2301. It's the intersection improvements and incidentals at 9th Street West at Mulberry Lane. and 50th Avenue West. Again, Mr. Wallace is presenting. Purpose of the discussion is to approve the engineer's report and direct the engineer to prepare plans and specifications. Mr. Wallace.

Yes, thank you again, Commissioner President Dardis and commissioners. Essentially, Got this item before you tonight for Improvement District 2301. That is the public improvements that essentially the Hope Lutheran site is trying to accomplish down in the Wilds neighborhood. My interpretation is essentially they're trying to make modifications TO INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE RIGHT OF WAY, TO TRY TO BE GOOD NEIGHBORS AND PROVIDE THE LEAST IMPACT TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD DOWN THERE AS THEY CAN. WITH THAT BEING SAID, THE ENGINEER'S REPORT IS ATTACHED. IF APPROVED TONIGHT, STAFF WOULD PROCEED WITH DEVELOPING PLANS AND SPECS. THIS PROJECT WOULD BE PAID FOR VIA 100% SPECIAL ASSESSMENT TO THE CHURCH PROPERTY. And we would be designing and constructing the infrastructure in accordance with city policies and specifications. Again, I'm here before you tonight looking for a recommended motion of improving the engineer's report and directing the engineer to prepare plans and specifications. And I'm available for any questions. Thank you, Mr. Wallace. Commissioners, questions?

Would you please restate that the how this is gonna be special assessed to the single property owner, is that correct?

Yes, sir. The petitioning property owner would be solely responsible for the special assessments. Thank you, sir.

Anyone else, questions? Not anymore. Commissioner Jorgenson.

Are they trying to get this done this year? They are. Great question. Before school, I mean, if they're going to start tearing up that road in front of that school?

There is likely going to be impacts that are probably going to overlap with the school year. It's exceptionally challenging us to try to fit construction around the school areas in town into a two-month period. We try to do our best, but I think we're going to overlap. Sure. Okay. Thank you. You bet.

Movely approve. Commissioner Olsen moves to approve. Is there a second?

Second.

Commissioner Zundell seconds. We have a motion and a second to approve the engineer's report and direct the engineer to prepare plans and specifications for improvement district number 2301, which is in the intersection improvements at 9th Street West at Mulberry Lane and 50th Avenue West. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you, Mr. Wallace. We move on to item number 10. Item number 10 is Oracle NetSuite Government ERP Contract Authorization. We're gonna call on Willie Galindo, Finance Director for the City of West Fargo. The purpose of the discussion is to authorize the Finance Director to execute a contract with Oracle NetSuite based on the presented term sheet and contingent upon satisfactory legal review. Good evening, Mr. Galindo, and welcome.

Good evening, Commissioners. I stand before you to request authorization a microphone a little closer to you.

Thank you.

I stand before you to request authorization to allow me to formalize a contract with Oracle next week. with the assistance of our legal counsel, and form one to create the contract that would be part of the future commission meeting that would be part of the consent agenda. We had an RFP initiated that you approved me to go ahead and proceed with, and we had 13 submissions for proposals. Of those 13, we narrowed it down to three finalists, that our panel reviewed, saw the demonstrations for, and we proceeded with one, which is Oracle NetSuite. This is a very monumental occasion for the finance department. We've been waiting for this for a while, and my staff is very excited, as am I, to proceed, and I stand in front of you to answer any questions that you may have.

Questions for Mr. Galindo? Commissioner Anderson.

Sorry, I didn't ask you these earlier. So hopefully you have some answers.

If not, you can get back to me on this one.

But my experience with Oracle is that it is not super easy to customize reports for that. So I was wondering if there's any discussion about that because I know Oracle developers aren't cheap and probably not something that the city could afford. So I just wanted to see if that came up in any discussions at all and if Oracle would be helping with that or you'd be looking to do that in-house if there are any customizations that were needed for different reports.

Yes, these discussions did come during both the demonstrations and as part of our reference checks. We did ask about customizations, particularly in the reporting segment. They were able to get that troubleshoot for the references that we did speak with. This is another reason why we are looking at having what I would call a fairly decent timeline, which we're looking at going live on January 2028. to give us ample time to do design, configuration, and more importantly, testing. So there will be a user acceptance testing session that will take place with my staff.

Thank you. Commissioner Olsen.

Thank you. When I reviewed the agenda over the weekend after it was published on Friday, The only bit of information on this entire item was the memo asking us. And then I had asked to get more information on it, and I was not informed that it was even available until 15 minutes before this meeting. So I don't have a clue what's going on with this. I've never had a chance to review it. So I'm going to make a motion we table it.

I have a motion to table the Oracle NetSuite government ERP contract authorization. Is there a second? Is there a second?

I'll second.

Commissioner Anderson seconds. We have a motion and a second to table the action to authorize the finance director to execute a contract with Oracle NetSuite. Is there any discussion? Commissioner Anderson.

Will tabling this cause any issues with Oracle and the negotiations that have taken place or that will take place?

No, I don't believe that it will. Any other discussion? All in favor of the motion to table this item, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed?

Aye.

Let the record show it's a four to one vote. This item is tabled until further information is provided to the commissioners. Item number 11. We move on to the second reading of Ordinance 1278. It's a tobacco ordinance. We're going to call on Katie Schmidt, our city attorney. Good evening, Ms. Schmidt, and welcome.

Thank you, Commission President and Commissioners. This is the second reading of ordinance number 1278 related to tobacco products. The ordinance hasn't had any changes since the first reading, and its intent is just to add additional statutory definitions and reclassify offenses based upon the age of the defender. I'm available for any questions that you may have.

Questions for Ms. Schmidt? Anyone? Will be approved. I have a motion to approve by Commissioner Zundel, a second by Commissioner Olsen. I have a motion and a second to approve the second reading of the ordinance 1278 regarding tobacco. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. We move on to item number 12. Item number 12 is the City Administrator's Report. We call on Mr. Dustin Scott, City Administrator for the City of West Fargo. Good evening, Mr. Scott, and welcome.

Good evening. Thank you, Commissioner President Dardis and commissioners. A few updates here. I'm going to start with the budget. I've been talking about that a lot lately. Wrapping up our commissioner review sessions this week. So we look forward to compiling all of your feedback. We've had a lot of good dialogue and look to bring this to the June 15th City Commission meeting for the review of, call it a first draft of the preliminary budget. So it'd be relatively high level, but we are gonna be sharing some numbers at that meeting. So look forward to taking that forward. Any questions on the budget process?

Commissioners?

Okay. All right, election is around the corner. So I just wanted to take an opportunity, remind our residents, election is June 9th, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We've got a few locations in West Fargo, the fire headquarters on 9th Street, the Red River Valley Fairgrounds, I think it's at their hurdle building, and the Doubletree Hotel. So those are the few locations in West Fargo. I do believe that anybody can vote throughout Cass County, but Didn't want to make mention of that. Thanks to Rachel for reminding me. And also, early voting starts tomorrow, so. Any questions on the election process?

The early voting, though, is only being able to take place at the Hartle Building, I believe. Not at the other two locations.

I'm sorry? The early voting. I think it's only available at the Hartle Building. Yep, thank you, Commissioner. Yep, absolutely. So, similarly, like to announce that July 1st, we'd like to have an appreciation hour of our dedicated commissioners that are gonna be on their way out. July 1st, late afternoon, 3.30 or 4, we would ask that everybody come and take part in an appreciation hour where we can recognize the service, the eight years of service of President Dardis and Commissioner Brad Olson, his four years of service with Commissioner Robin Anderson. Following that appreciation hour, we will then also have a special commission meeting where we will swear in our new municipal judge, our new mayor, and two new commissioners. Put July 1st on your calendar. I believe Rachel has already sent out an invite, but just in case, please double check your calendars and look forward to seeing you there. Any questions on the July 1st event or the election? No?

Good.

And last, I just want to conclude with a thank you to our engineering department. They have done a great job. Their diligence and professionalism has shined through. They facilitated a great process, brought forward information to commissioners to make the tough decisions. So we certainly appreciate all the work they do, and of course, all of the effort and work that you guys have done over the last several weeks to make a very informed decision. With that, I would stand for any other questions.

Questions for Mr. Scott? Anyone? Looks like we're good. Thank you. Thank you. Does any commissioner have any non-agenda item you'd like to bring forward?

Commissioner Jorgensen. Last week I met with the airport authority for their monthly meeting and they felt kind of left out in greater growth master plan meetings. They would like to be invited and have a chance to say. I don't know who or how when they meet.

I'm going to let Aaron get up and answer that. Excuse me, Mr. Jorgensen. Who?

The airport.

Airport. Thanks, Aaron.

Yep. Yeah, they can certainly reach out to me with any specific questions. I know at least a couple of their board members, I think their chair and vice chair, have been invited to the public input opportunities we've had so far for this event. I know at least one of them was able to attend the most recent open house. So happy to have further conversations though.

Okay, yeah, I know the one attended and that's where it was brought up that it was the first time, but he's never sat in and got their point of view. So I'll let him know.

Yep, we're happy to have a conversation.

Thank you. Thanks. Anyone else? Non-agenda item? All correspondence has been distributed and placed in your mailbox. Does any member have any non-agenda items that you'd like to bring up? Any department head? Any non-agenda items at this time? If not, Commissioner Anderson. Move to adjourn. Commissioner Olson. Second. We stand adjourned. Thank you.

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