Fargo Deputy Mayor Dave Piepkorn Openly Admits He’s Not That Bright

I nearly spit my coffee out when watching the April 6, 2020 Fargo City Commission meeting.

There was a time when Dave Piepkorn seemed like a decent enough guy. In part, its how he got elected. He appeared to listen to people and do his best to represent their concerns to other city decision makers.

So what could explain the “Piepkorn 180” where he resorts to virtue signaling and turns his back on constituents and fiscal responsibility?

Was it when Mahoney allegedly pulled him aside to school him on how to behave if he ever wanted to mayor -or- is it a case of “monied” interests sidling up to Piepkorn and instilling a sense of power and importance as they whisper agendas that twist his mortal soul?

Honestly, there are only 1 or 2 of the Fargo commissioners worthy of their station and the rest have devolved into the equivalent of squishy dog-doo to the unsuspecting bare foot.

Dave “the dull” Piepkorn

There’s a saying: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt”.

Leave it to Piepkorn to remove all doubt as he openly admits that he’s not that bright.

In yet another incessant tirade by Fargo Deputy Mayor Dave Piepkorn, he grinds his axe with farmers based entirely on personal bias and apparently absolutely no comprehension of how water flows.

Before anyone gets up in arms over whether Piepkorn ignored/abused Minnesota’s Covid-Coronavirus “stay at home order” that went into effect 4-5 days before his road trip to “check on his lake cabin”, it’s a separate issue.

What is at issue is Dave Piepkorn’s knee jerk confirmation bias reaction to apparently seeing a field pump in operation somewhere north of Glyndon, MN and equating that to all people that oppose Fargo’s 4-6 billion dollar project are pumping water onto Fargo and are the sole reason to Fargo’s water issues. Piepkorn is being blatantly dishonest.

The water that Piepkorn is bitching about doesn’t discharge into the Fargo Red River gauge. The water would enter the Buffalo River somewhere between Hwy 10 and Georgetown, MN.

Did Piepkorn stop and inquire if the drain-tile owner was opposed to the FMDA project?
Did Piepkorn ask the drain-tile owner if they were trying to flood Fargo?
Did Piepkorn make any inquiries with the sand-bagged neighbor on how they felt?
Did Piepkorn verify if the drain-tile pumping was authorized?
Did Piepkorn really even see drain-tile being pumped, where are the pictures?

For Piepkorn to admit he’s not that bright is one thing, but to be “tone deaf”, obsessively myopic and willing to distort the matter is another.

Dave Piepkorn the Narcissist

Piepkorn postulated that the Governors of North Dakota and Minnesota should wield their pen ~ stopping the pumps and that there should be legislation passed to prohibit local water issues.

As per usual, Piepkorn resorts to jackass bloviations without checking the facts that are available to anyone that can pick up a phone, navigate to a website or engage in an email.

The BRRWD (Buffalo Red River Watershed District) has specific rules regarding when pumps or drain tile can operate, which fall under the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) which consists of 20 members.

BSWR is the state’s administrative agency for 90 soil and water conservation districts, 46 watershed districts, 23 metropolitan watershed management organizations, and 80 county water managers. The board sets a policy agenda designed to enhance conservation delivery through local government partners and the board members are appointed by the governor to staggered four-year terms.

North Dakota also maintains local watershed districts that maintain rules regarding the permitting and operation of drain tile systems.

Petulant elitism clouds Piepkorn’s judgement, where a simple phone call, inquiry and report / complaint could have sufficed without all the grandiose headline grabbing to placate Dave’s ego (read more…).

Where this issue becomes sticky is the arbitrary nature of how the local watershed districts interpret flooding and flood forecasts.

It does shed light on why Fargo and the National Weather Service inexplicably reduced the 32 foot major flood stage to 30 feet in Nov-Dec 2005.

Was it an intentional and stealthy effort to obstruct watershed discharge within existing guidelines to offset Fargo’s development displacement caused by unfettered encroachment into the last natural flood plain upstream of Fargo?

The most hypocritical aspect of all this is that while Piepkorn is condemning all farmers and those who opposed Fargo’s development plan disguised as flood control, Fargo engineer Nathan Booerbom was detailing how Fargo was running 80 city pumps at 100 percent capacity directly into the Red River, which doesn’t include city pumps in Moorhead.

Since Fargo and the FMDA are prone to “..what if scenarios..”, ponder Piepkorn’s specious ranting about banning the drainage of rural land during a flood.

Piepkorn falls miserably short of defining what flood level would trigger his drain-tile ban.

Had Piepkorn’s ban been implemented when Fargo hit minimum flood stage this year, sections of land than drained during the weeks prior to the 2020 crest could have been saturated and inundated with water when the last rain and snowstorm hit. Given the quick warm-up and roughly 3 day melt of 6-8 inches of water laden snow, the potential to over-top or wash-out roads would have negated any of Dave’s disingenuous benefits and placed Fargo in an uncontrolled overland flood situation.

Take a Long Hard Look at This Slide

Imagine a world where the 4-6 billion Fargo Dam and Diversion is actually built…, Elm Street, North Broadway and the 12th Ave Bridge (old toll bridge) ARE NOT PROTECTED by the multi-billion dollar boon-doggle and would still go under and be subject to closure.

Even though Fargo Deputy Mayor Dave Piepkorn openly admits he’s “…not that bright..”, it takes a special kind of Fargo stupid to binge spend money Fargo doesn’t have, in an economy that will take years to recover, for a development project that has never been legally voted on, with impacts that extend far beyond the USACE crayon boxed maps.

Wow…, Fargo’s unsustainable madness!

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