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FARGO (KFGO) – Earlier this week, Mayor Tim Mahoney presented his draft 2024 budget to the City Commission. Two items – raising franchise fees for public utilities to help fill budget gaps and a two-mill property tax increase to help pay for additional police and fire personnel and equipment to improve public safety – dominated the discussion.
But there’s another proposed change in Mahoney’s preliminary budget that has been discussed for at least a decade: making the mayor’s position a full-time one. Besides approving the budget increase, a governance change by vote of the City Commission would be required in order for that to go into effect.
“I’ve heard enough from people who want this, and quite frankly this job is not a part-time one,” Mahoney said.
Mahoney says that the city’s 20% growth over the last decade merits a full-time mayor. The population of Fargo is just over 126,000. Mahoney said he works 50-60 hours a week in his capacity as mayor.
“I’m not doing this for personal gain, it’s just that we have to pull the band-aid off. It won’t change the hourly rate of what the mayor is getting paid, it will just be paid as full-time. In preparation for the next race for mayor, this is needed,” Mahoney said.
Due to term limits, Mahoney cannot run for another term. He previously stated his support for making the mayor’s position full-time during the 2022 campaign.
“The mayor needs to figure out where we’re headed, what our growth is going to do, where are we going to be ten years from now, and that means lots of meetings different people and groups. I’m always forward thinking about what can I do to get stability and sustainability for our community and that takes time and effort,” he said.
Mahoney said the mayoral salary would go from $50,000 to $100,000 a year.
“What I think will happen is that we’ll have more diversity of candidates for mayor. It’ll offer a position for people from all walks of life to look at running for,” Mahoney said.
The next mayoral election in Fargo will be in the spring of 2026.
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