The Fargo City Commission voted unanimously to update its governance policies at its last regular meeting on April 29. The new policies, which took effect immediately, address the roles and responsibilities of the Mayor and City Commissioners as well as other aspects of the Commission, including a new process for facilitating residents’ comments during meetings.
The newly approved process establishes a new way for residents to comment on items listed on the agenda for a City Commission meeting. The following guidelines will be in effect for the Commission’s regular meeting on Monday, May 13:
• City of Fargo residents or Fargo business owners who wish to address the City Commission may do so for topics on the regular agenda during that section of the agenda following the staff presentation.
• Residents wanting to provide comments must sign up by noon on the day of a regularly scheduled meeting. Sign-up can be completed online or by contacting the City Commission Office at 701.241.1310.
• At the beginning of an agenda item, the Mayor will state the number of speakers and the time to be allotted for resident comments.
• No more than 12 individuals will be allowed to sign up to speak on an agenda item. Each speaker will have 2.5 minutes to comment, with a maximum of 30 minutes of resident comment allotted per agenda item.
• At the end of the City Commission meeting, there will be a general resident comment period for items not on that evening's meeting agenda. Rules for this comment period will be the same as the rules for residents’ comments on agenda items.
Legally-noticed public hearing comments during City Commission meetings will occur when legally required. The time limitation applicable to other comment opportunities will not apply, but speakers are encouraged to keep their comments to under three minutes, whenever possible.
The City Commission’s updated governance policies are the result of a series of collaborative meetings that began in 2022. The new governance policies (including the guidelines for resident comment) can be found online.