Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney’s Transparent Tale

Richland County Commissioner Sid Berg was 100 percent correct in calling for citizens to advocate for a forensic audit concerning Fargo and the Diversion Authority in a January 17, 2019 Wahpeton Daily News article (read more…). It appears that Frank Stanko, author of the article, is one of “very few journalists” willing to put the hard questions forward in print.

Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney was quoted saying:

“I don’t know what they’d be looking for,”
“We have an audit every year. Everything we do is transparent.”

FMDam.org has been following FMDA (Fargo Moorhead Diversion Authority) dam and diversion related costs for several years, but has been stonewalled in determining the true extent and how much key player AE2S has received for their involvement for the past 10 years on the FMDA project.

Example: as of December 31, 2018 FMDA financials indicate (read more…);

USACE was granted $ 53,159,000.00 in approved contracts and had been paid in full, yet the inlet structure is not complete.

CH2M Hill Engineers Inc was granted $ 47,239,115.97 in approved contracts and already received $ 45,927,944.88 in payments.

Houston-Moore Group LLC was granted $ 47,361,296.90 in approved contracts and already received $ 41,237,578.34 in payments.

Independently – Houston Engineering has received an additional $ 576,669.57 and Moore Engineering Inc $ 662,468.17 in payments.

So how is the FMDA being transparent when the only billing invoice found from AE2S (read more…) in the FMDA financials, available to the public, indicate that AE2S received a total of $ 50,000.00 for “Public Outreach” (read more…)? They chose to obfuscate over $450 thousand in payments through a subcommittee formed under the CCJWRD (Cass County Joint Water Resource District) at the recommendation of AE2S ~ who colluded and conspired with DPAC members against property owners and gerrymandered the DPAC assessment vote with the sole intent to usurp two-thirds of the property votes and falsely represent “overwhelming support” for the proposed FMDA project by encumbering property owners with a placeholder assessment to obtain a favorable borrowing rate that property owners had ZERO CHANCE of defeating ~ and it only cost the taxpayers a mere $1,055,509.26 to date (read more…).

Years of unofficial meetings between meetings and strategy sessions to ensure unanimous votes and collusion via the media with hand crafted talking point with the sole purpose of advancing Fargo’s agenda that has, “to date”, never been honestly ratified by voters.

Even more curious is the inconsistencies in how the FMDA uses multiple sets of books to channel money through various contractors to pay subcontractors, in what appears to be a concerted effort, to conceal the identity of the final payee – making it difficult to ensure conflicts of interest, undue influence, nepotism and bid-rigging isn’t occurring. How can any taxpayer feel confident that certain elected official and appointed board members don’t have a financial interest in the decisions and contracts they are approving?

Do a quick google search for “John Hoeven and Steve Burian”.

Would this be an awkward moment to mention that Jack Hoeven, son of John Hoeven, joined the AE2S team in 2014?

Isn’t that interesting…, Hoeven, who sits on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations has a myriad of elbow rubbing opportunities with Steven Burian (co-founder AE2S) who was quoted in an Oct 17, 2018 Grand Forks Herald article (read more…) saying:

“I have reached a place where I want to focus my passion on developing large-scale, transformational water infrastructure projects, not just in North Dakota but across the U.S.,”

It certainly raises more questions (read more…) about to an outspoken attorney in support of the FM Diversion in public media appearances, that participated in the Governor’s task force last year, and in the repeated efforts to discourage certain votes by BRRWRD supervisors.

Even more curious is the mere fact that the single largest recipient of PAC donations from the ND Association of Builders and Realtors Associations (read more…), in a failed bid to secure a Cass County commission seat in 2010 (read more…), worked for the Home Builders Association right down the hall from US Senator John Hoeven’s Fargo office and later went on to work for AE2S.

This excerpt from a Jan 5, 2013 Grand Fork Herald article (read more…) is interesting:

“AE2S is a consultant for several large-scale public projects, and Rocky will play a key role in not only facilitating public communication on these projects, but connecting with policy makers to help develop avenues for project success,” says Eric Dodds, PE, Operations Manager of the firm’s Fargo and Moorhead offices.

Just a few weeks after that article was published – Eric Dodds is identified in Jan 25, 2013 meeting minutes (read more…) as “the person” that proposed the DPAC Charter. A quick review of meeting attendees reveals a telling list of certain players that have profited handsomely by the FMDA project and collusion surrounding the corrupt DPAC assessment vote.

Less than 2 years later – Rocky Schneider, relative to former ND District 42 Senator Mac Schneider (read more…), was the person that recommended the methodology of indirect benefits that was used in the DPAC assessment vote (read more…) to usurp two-thirds of property owners vote representation and transfer it to local governing entities.

However, it’s the little things – those casual statements and inadvertent admissions that offer a glimpse behind the curtain and reveals that Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney’s claim of transparency is dubious at best.

Excerpt from US District Court Document 322 (read more…)

I, Eric Dodds, submit this Declaration based on my own personal knowledge. I am employed by the consulting firm AE2S in its performance of a contract with the Fargo-Moorhead Flood Diversion Board of Authority (“Diversion Authority”). In this capacity, I assist in managing the Diversion Authority’s responsibilities and act as a Diversion Authority liaison to homeowners, governments, and businesses affected by relocation and construction of Fargo-Moorhead Flood Risk Management Project (“Project”) components.

So it begs the fundamental questions;

Aside from the DPAC assessment project, there do not appear to be any payments to AE2S payments after Jan 2012 from the FMDA.

C’mon Mahoney, is that really being transparent?

It’s time to contact North Dakota lawmakers and urge them to Stop Funding the Fargo Dam and Diversion and Demand a Forensic Audit of all FMDA books, contractors and subcontractors down to the final payee.

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