Commissioner-Elect Nikkie Gullickson on The Flag’s What’s On Your Mind with Scott Hennen
FARGO, N.D. – Fargo City Commissioner-Elect Nikkie Gullickson says that, even though she was elected to her new post last night, she’ll continue in the role of Fargo School Board member.
She hopes to bring decorum back to the dais.
“We need to treat each other respectfully,” Gullickson said. “We don’t want to have a black eye on Fargo because we can’t handle ourselves as adults at the table, and it’s okay to disagree. In fact, it’s even healthy.”
Law and order
As one of two new members heading to the Commission, Gullickson said she has a couple of key priorities – including public safety.
Surrounding law and order, she said there needs to be a focus on hiring.
“I visited with our new chief a while back when I first started this run,” Gullickson said. “He’s got some strong ideas. At the time, he wasn’t in place, and now h e is, so I think you’re going to see some of that come to fruition.”
While she wouldn’t go into specifics, Gullickson hinted that Fargo Police Chief Travis Stefonowicz has ‘some plans for downtown this summer’ that will have an increased police presence.
While visiting with downtown business owners, Gullickson said she was met ‘with a lot of pride.’
“They love it downtown. They want to be downtown, but they had also said, along with our new chief, that they had seen almost an immediate change even though he was interim at the time,” she said. “So they’re very hopeful. They’re excited about what’s to come, excited about growing downtown and having an increased presence.”
Needle exchange program
Gullickson said the City of Fargo’s needle exchange program is funded by opioid dollars, not taxpayer dollars.
While not committing to supporting ending the program, she said more information is needed.
“I need more data on this,” she said. “If we stop the needle exchange program, are we going to be paying for more severe illnesses because many of these people will qualify for Medicare, Medicaid and that type of thing, and that truly is your tax dollars going towards this situation. So, if we stop one thing, are we creating another?”
She questions whether or not there may be the opportunity to have more ways to collect the needles, whether it’s through boxes or staff, because of the fact that the funds are coming from opioid dollars.
Addressing debt
Gullickson said the City of Fargo should ‘want to spend responsibly.’
“We don’t want to be wasteful,” she said. “We want to be smart with our dollars.”
After funds come in from the diversion project, Gullickson said the city should ‘be in better shape.’
“That doesn’t mean we let off the gas,” she said. “That means we continue to look and we continue to trim.”
