FARGO, N.D. – Fargo’s Deputy Mayor, who’s also running to be the city’s next mayor, says she’s ‘extremely disappointed’ with how the news of Police Chief David Zibolski’s retirement was communicated.
Denise Kolpack posted to social media Wednesday afternoon a message about the announcement, shortly before City Administrator Michael Redlinger, Mayor Tim Mahoney and Zibolski himself were set to brief the media about his announcement.
“City Administration should have communicated this to the full City Commission yesterday afternoon and issued a press release as soon as the Chief shared the news with officers during the first shift briefing yesterday evening,” she said. “Transparency matters. When communication breaks down at City Hall, it creates uncertainty — for our officers, for city employees and for the community we serve. Fargo deserves better than learning about major leadership changes through rumors and leaks. In the absence of clear leadership and communication, doubt and suspicion fill the void — and that helps no one.”
When asked about the statement Wednesday, Redlinger said that, in the event of a retirement notice within the city, the organization honors the retiree’s wishes.
“In this case, our retiree or soon to be retiree asked for just some time to talk to the shift commanders and talk to the shift briefings that were occurring that night,” he said. “So, we had an embargo and an agreement that we would just hold until this morning and get that notice out to the rest of the organization is obviously the elected officials as well. But that information got out faster than that. But we obviously want to honor those wishes.”
Mahoney said he notified all commissioners Tuesday night regarding the announcement – approximately five hours after he himself was notified and asked them to keep it embargoed until an official announcement came Wednesday morning.
