City Commissioner John Strand
FARGO (KFGO) – Fargo City Commissioner John Strand is proposing nearly $639,000 in budget reductions and cutting multiple positions as the commission works to approve the budget for next year.
Mayor Tim Mahoney’s original budget proposal totaled $133 million. Earlier this month, the commission voted to eliminate the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department and 4.2 positions at Fargo Cass Public Health. Now, Strand is calling for more cuts.
Strand plans to ask the commission to make cuts to a number of partnerships, including taking $30,000 from the city’s Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. events, $175,000 from the Downtown Community Partnership, and $90,000 dollars from Arts Partnership.
Strands proposed fiscal cuts are:
- $175,000 from Downtown Community Partnership
- $105,000 from Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation
- $30,000 from Indigenous Association
- $30,000 from the city’s Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. events
- $90,000 from Arts Partnership
- $50,000 from Social Services
- $50,000 from Emerging Prairie
- $41,200 from YouthWorks
- $7,500 from Workforce Academy
- $10,000 from other services
Strand wants to eliminate at least three full-time positions or their hourly equivalents before the 2025 calendar year.
He also wants to slowly end the Police Advisory and Oversight Board, the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee, the Community Development Committee, and the Parking and Auditorium Commissions.
Strand wants to eliminate the Office of Strategic Planning and Research while adding 2 to 4 police officers assigned to patrol the downtown area. He says the changes would allow for a 4.5% cost-of-living pay increase for city employees.
The commission will discuss his proposals on Monday. The budget must be approved early next month.
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