​Q & A with Fargo City Commissioner Mike Williams

Fargo City Commissioner Mike Williams was first elected to office in 2004 and re-elected twice. Now because of term limits, he must vacate his position. On the eve of his leaving office, HPR caught up with him to discuss his legacy on the City Commission and hopes for the future.

High Plains Reader: First off, let me get your reaction to the City Commission election results.

Mike Williams: Having eleven people wanting to be on the City Commission just shows how important it is to have an engaged community and we have a lot of people that want to have an impact and help out. So it was great to have a lot of people and a pretty good voter turnout too.

HPR: What are you hoping happens on the City Commission going forward? You worked on a lot of issues important to you: green energy, public transportation...what are you hoping continues after you are out of office?

MW: We have to a to-do list and that’s in the Fargo Go2030. We asked residents what kind of city do you want to be by the year 2030 and over 8,700 of them engaged and went online and shared their ideas and then they built on each other’s ideas. So we have a worklist to do and when we follow Go2030 key initiatives, if we continue to do that, we’ll be just be fine because the people said what they want done. Flood protection was number one, infill and strong neighborhoods number two, arts and culture number three, bike and PED facilities number four and quality designs number five, then there’s energy efficiency, renewable energy, affordable housing, all kinds of good things. We have a scorecard for how we’re doing implementing so I hope that the Commission can continue that work.

HPR: You mentioned flood protection. The diversion is a big issue that the City Commission will be tasked with finishing, what are your hopes for what happens with that?

MW: Number one is flood protection, but in a comprehensive water management basin wide way. So in-town flood protection is important, the diversion is very important, upstream, downstream retentions are important -- so it’s basic comprehensive water management. All of those things complement each other and it not only helps in high water years, it helps conserve water in low water years as far as managing our water resources better -- and water supply is going to be important too. The people that got elected I think showed that they are strong supporters of the diversion, and for water supply and comprehensive water management.

HPR: What’s next for you after the City Commission?

MW: I will remain on the Parking Commission. That’s a separate term than the City Commission, so as a civilian I will be continuing on the Parking Commission for the next two years and we have the City Center Comprehensive Plan and part of that plan is transportation coordinator or consultant along with the landscape architect and the urban design planners that are going to be helping us, so we’ll be working closely with them to continue make the City Center as good as it can be. There’s a lot of good projects going on, and we want to make sure that we are making best use of the opportunity with the new flood protection -- with connecting downtown and the river, embracing the river and creating new beautiful public spaces.

HPR: You prided yourself on being pretty independent when you were in office, any thoughts on the influence of party politics on Fargo city elections? How concerned are you about that moving forward?

MW: That seems to kind of come and go, it really has no place in city politics. I hope that it continues that it doesn’t have an influence. It really can be counterproductive. We need to represent the people and I think the current commission with the new additions will continue that, where you’re basically trying to figure out common goals and how you can work together to achieve them.