FARGO, N.D. – Fargo City Commissioners have voted to give three commissions – Arts and Culture, Human Rights and the Native American Commissions – up to two months to come up with action plans.
The commission voted 3-2 – with Commissioners Dave Piepkorn and Michelle Turnberg voting no – to give the commissions the extra time to come up with the plans. That idea was brought by Commissioner Denise Kolpack.
She said she was caught off guard by the unveiling of the plan at Monday night’s Commission meeting.
“I was surprised to see the way that this was introduced,” she said. “One of the things that, really, I found troubling was, with respect, Mayor, the fact that the commissioners who are part of these three boards were not talked to ahead of time about the release of this proposal.”
Turnberg said she would vote to ‘shut down’ the three commissions.
“The city commission has laid out a clear pattern of inefficiency among some of our various unelected commissions,” she said. “This is about accountability, efficiency and respect for our taxpayer dollars.”
Piepkorn said the city has ‘way too many committees.’
“The majority of them are administered by the Planning Department,” he said.
Those staff members are tasked with organizing the meetings, the locations and other pertinent details.
Commissioner John Strand said he agrees that the boards and commissions need to be reinvented ‘so that they’re effective.’
“Why have wasted time and results that are inadequate,” he said. “We’re all on the same page to reinvent our boards and commissions.”
Strand said he didn’t see the motion coming before the Commission.
“You know, we know, we’ve met how many times talking about these things,” he said. “But I’m not surprised this motion happened after we had a press conference from the HRC go off the rails.”
At that press conference, HRC Chairman Sekou Sirleaf called city leaders ‘cowards.’
Strand called on leaders to move forward on the commissions’ future with class, strategy and high expectations.
“Do it with a desire to do better with what we come out of,” he said.
