On Tuesday, citizens of Fargo elected Josh Boschee to be mayor — the city's first new mayor in over a decade.
Boschee, who formerly served north Fargo and Downtown in the State Senate, visited Prairie Public's radio studio on Wednesday morning for a conversation with Erik Deatherage about his vision for Fargo, housing affordability, issues facing Downtown, and serving all residents of the city.
Listen to the full conversation above, or read below to find an edited transcript.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full interview by clicking the 'play' button above.
We’re talking to you the morning after a long election night — be honest, what time did you go to bed last night?
I ended up being about 3:00am by the time I got done reading all the news stories and responding to texts. It was a late night, but I woke up this morning and ready for a fresh day.
The mayor of Fargo is now a full-time, salaried position. Did that affect your decision to run?
It’s great that the City Commission put that in the budget and made that a priority, because the reality is that our previous three mayors that I knew, including current mayor Tim Mahoney, all worked much more than full-time. So, to compensate at that level is important, and the reality is that I don't think I would have been able to run with a part-time position or part-time compensation.
You’re the first millennial mayor of Fargo. What do you feel as far as a responsibility to that constituency?
It’s exciting to represent a new generation of leadership for Fargo. You know, Fargo is a growing city, in all honesty a part of our growth is we've become younger. As other states have gotten older, North Dakota has gotten younger — specifically with the oil boom out west, but then also with the economic development here in the Red River Valley.
And so, with the median age of Fargo being 34 — I'm 10 years senior that now — but to represent that demographic of Fargoans and North Dakotans, I’m honored, and certainly will bring a different perspective to how we lead and how we engage the public as a part of the city's operations.
Have you had a chance to talk to any of your opponents since last night?
Not anyone other than Sekou Sirleaf, who reached out and we were able to engage this morning.
Speaking of Sekou — would you be in favor of retaining The Human Rights Commission?
I think there needs to be some sort of mechanism, whether it's inside City Hall or outside, to formally engage with our growing diverse community. You know, 20 percent of Fargo is people of color and people of different faiths and different experiences and cultures, so making sure that again how we engage the public — whether people consider themselves diverse or we consider them diverse — they bring important perspective to our community and we need to engage them and find a way to do that effectively.
What would you say to supporters of your opponents, Michelle Turnberg or Dave Piepkorn, about how you will engage with them?
Well, as I said last night, whether you voted for me or didn't vote at all, I plan to be a mayor who listens and leads and delivers. I’ve been in electoral politics since 2012, and while I certainly have been elected many times in my legislative district, there are a lot of people who didn't vote for me that still found me to be someone that they could lean on or they could reach out to. At the end of the day, we're all Fargoans, and people want what's best for their community for their families for their neighborhoods. So, I’m willing to listen and work and find ways that we can work together to advance the different priorities that exist out there.
What would you say to first-time homebuyers now, in the economic climate that we’re facing?
It certainly was a big part of the campaign conversation. We want to make sure that folks can lock down in Fargo, can continue to call Fargo home, and housing affordability — whether someone's buying a home or renting their home — is continuing to be more and more challenging. And of course, that's something we see across the country, so I really want to bring my real estate experience and the stakeholders I know in that space to bring people together to find a Fargo solution to that.
And part of that really for the city's perspective is — how do we make sure we have planning that is sustainable for our growth? Both going south and out, but also infill and building in density so that we can use existing resources, such as the roads and the sewer pipe, that's already there to reduce the cost to homeowners or new renters.
On his plan to create a Mayor’s Council on Renters
Fifty-four percent of Fargo are people who rent their home, and there's a lot of people who want to continue to rent their home. They don't have an interest in buying their home — that's certainly something I’ve heard loud and clear throughout the campaign. But their concern is wanting to make sure they have safe housing. While their rent continues to go up, or new fees get added to their monthly bill, they're not seeing that security door getting fixed or the mold that they've addressed with their property manager be addressed.
And so, part of one of the first things I'm going to do is create a Mayor's Council on Renters, and we're going to bring property managers, landlords, renters together and we're going to talk about -- what is the bar is what we consider safe housing in Fargo? And establish that bar, because there's a lot of great landlords and property managers already doing that work, but we want to make sure that they hear from tenants to hear those concerns. And we’re raising that bar so that everyone can have some safe housing.
How he’ll tackle issues facing Downtown Fargo
First and foremost, we have to make sure that the Mayor and the City Commission is cheerleading all parts of town, including downtown, and I think that restaurateur’s letter [you mentioned] really laid it out that it doesn't help when we have city leaders talking about how bad certain parts of town are instead of really digging in to help find solutions. So, whether you live in south Fargo, north Fargo, downtown — whether those are places you want to visit or experience or start a grow a business, I want to make sure that all those communities have what they need to be successful
The experiences in our downtown are not unique to Fargo, but there is an opportunity to find a Fargo solution. I think a part of that this is really engaging folks. We know when there are events, downtown is full — I mean even sometimes the days last week when I was going downtown, it was warmer outside, you saw families in Broadway Square, people frequent it. So this idea that people don't go downtown, I think is just untrue.
There's a lot of people who haven't experienced downtown, and I’d love to have them do that, but I there's also a lot of great things down on the 25th Street and 32nd Avenue corridor that I’d like Fargo folks to experience. So that's part of what I want to do as mayor, is take some of the things we've learned about — How do you build community and events and culture in places like downtown? And how do we find other neighborhoods or community centers of our greater community?
Thoughts on the Fargo Convention Center location
I'm supportive of this current commission making that decision, and as you said that's coming up on June 22. But the next commission is going to do the implementation of that decision, so in terms of where it's going to go, we have two great options between Brewhalla and the Civic Center spot, but the current commission is digging into those numbers to make sure that we're not getting an albatross around our neck in terms of something that is going to cost taxpayers more than what they expected when they voted to support creating a Convention Center.
So I appreciate the due diligence and look forward to seeing that data as it comes out, specifically the apples-to-apples comparison between the two sites. Both have a lot to offer our community, and that may sound like a political answer and not picking one, and that's what a lot of people wanted me to do.
I also serve on the Fargo-Moorhead Science Museum board — joined that late last year — and one thing that's happened for us is we had a site identified. We were working with a developer who's very supportive, they were looking at some other options and now we've had many other developers come forward and say — if we don't get the Convention Center, would you consider coming here? So there's conversations about a performing arts center, and other community facilities that, again, help make Fargo great. So regardless of what gets picked for the Convention Center, I think one of those other sites, and then of course the other seven sites that didn't make it to the final two, are going to continue to compete for ideas of how we continue to invest in Fargo.
How will you manage fiscal responsibility as mayor?
Throughout the campaign I’ve said that one of my priority goals with the budget is, first of all, we set a budget number up front and we work backwards from there. So I’ve already planted a flag saying that I would like to see a budget that grows no greater than one percent over last year, and then we work backwards. We work with the department leaders, the city manager, the finance director to say, ‘How do we make this work?’ Now, of course there's realities in that, because you have inflation as it relates to our employees’ health insurance costs, and of course things just cost more to operate.
But one thing I’ve learned as I’ve visited with department leaders over the last several months is I think there's opportunities for more collaboration. There's opportunities to find efficiencies, and whether it's what technology is being used across departments, how do we make decisions — maybe putting a pause on some of our capital projects that for the city, specifically, so that we can really get our bearings straight and really look at what that budgeting process looks like.
On working with the City Commission
What I'm excited about with a number of people who ran for Commission, but the two that are coming on the Commission, is both of them come with local government experience. Chad Peterson from the county, Nikkie Gullickson from the school board. Both of them have dug into local budgets. They understand the role that property taxes pay, not only in how we fund the core services we have in our community, but the pain that people feel and express. We’re going to come in bright-eyed and really work together as a team, along with the current Commissioners, Michelle Turnberg and John Strand, to make sure we have a budget that that meets Fargo's needs while also not putting too much on taxpayers.
How do city issues in Fargo affect the rest of the state?
Honestly, it's not only about them caring about Fargo, but Fargo caring about them. One of the things I’ve talked about throughout the campaign — as much as people wanted to say that my state level experience may not prepare me well for city-level experience — is that I understand what's happening throughout the state. I understand that when Fargo needed more money for transit because we lost some federal funds due to our growth, we found out that Minot, Grand Forks, and Bismarck all have the same needs. So we got the four cities together, we went to the legislature, and were able to receive $2 million over the four communities to provide transit dollars. And I’m also now having a long conversation in this interim about finding sustainable long-term funding for those four communities.
When Fargo shows up to Bismarck, I think we need to always do it with the best interest of our neighbors. Regardless of that is someone right in our backyard as a neighbor or someone across in the northwest corner of the state, but there are opportunities for us to collaborate with those communities to make sure Fargo is successful.
An example I’ll talk about that is as both our chamber and North Dakota State University, independent of one another and collaboratively, do what they call block and west tours. They take business leaders and students out to western North Dakota to find out about jobs and opportunities and culture and economies out there, and then on the flip side, we ask those communities to come to Fargo to learn about this. It's creating some great opportunities for some cross-pollination for how businesses can work together and how we can make sure we support communities throughout the state.
Do you have political ambitions? Is the mayor role a stepping stone for you?
First and foremost, the Mayor position in the City Commissioner non-partisan races, but I knew when I got in the race I also didn't have to hide who I was. People knew the leader I was — whether it was as a Democratic leader or just a legislative leader — that I’d be bringing that experience to City Hall. And as far as you know, my future ambitions, I didn't think I’d be sitting in the Mayor's office. I didn't think I’d be serving the state legislature when I ran in 2012.
Part of the story I shared last night with everyone — my parents were there, they came down from Minot to be a part of last night — is I come from a hard-working family. A nurse and a construction laborer who were young parents, who had three boys and worked their tails off, taught us strong work ethic. But there's not a political bone in any of their bodies. I don't come from a family that sat around at the dinner table talking about policy or politics. It's something I grew into through the community leadership I had here in Fargo, and so I that's what drives who I am, not the political party that’s next to my name.
I certainly align with a lot of those values, but you know as far as the future of the Democratic party in North Dakota, we're seeing not only I think growth and who's stepping up and in pragmatic practical leaders within the Democratic party, but we even saw last night a rejection of the extremism within the Republican party. Not the experience that our neighbors in South Dakota have had the last couple cycles, right? In our last couple cycles here, North Dakotans have said they want moderate leaders. So, when they're especially in a Republican primary deciding between someone who's more conservative and someone who's more moderate, almost universally they're selecting the moderate people.
On bipartisanship, extremism, and how North Dakota is changing
Part of the super minority in the Democratic party we've also said that we've been a part of the ruling majority, because we still fund education between 60 and 70 percent of the cost of per kid in every school district, The roads we've built, the economic development that's happened throughout the state, we've tried as hard as we can to focus on the core issues.
And when those extreme ideas, whether it's on the right and — it's not the left here in North Dakota — but in other states that's on the left, when those ideas come forward and those bills become distractions, we're not able to do the core things we need to do within that 80-day period. So hats off to the legislators that got through the primaries last night. They still have work ahead of them to get to a general, but we also know that voters told us they want people who are focused on the real issues regardless of your political party
One of the “Aha”s I’ve had over the campaign is, I'm 44, so I came up and paying attention to the world around me in the ‘90s and ‘00s, but back then compromise was how things got done, right? The senate always got to 60 votes because someone gave a little to get a little. And now, everyone just digs in, and it's about what team you're in. And we talk about how many divided — you know, we don't even have divided legislatures anymore, I think Minnesota is one of the last of a handful — and instead of being able to find ways to work together, we see extremism kind of growing. Hopefully we'll continue to see a rejection of that from voters, but the important part especially for those middle of the road voters those independent voters is you’ve got to show up you got to cast your ballot because you're the real decision makers.
On being the first openly gay mayor of Fargo
First and foremost, representation matters, especially in all levels of our community whether it's a business leader. Whether it's in the military, whether it's in athletics, but even in in elected office. So, I'm proud to wear that banner and to be a visible representation of — it doesn't matter who you love, how you identify, what your religion is, there are places for you to lead, as long as you focus on the core issues and listen to the voters to make sure you're representing them.
I’ve done that over the last since I’ve served in the legislature beginning in 2012, and a lot of people ask throughout the campaign, ‘Well has the quote-unquote gay issue, or has the gay thing become an issue?’ And it really hasn't, you know? I think a lot of that shows that we’ve seen a progression in our in our local community, but maybe even throughout the state of rejection of some of that identity politics. But also, recognizing that if people are willing to wake up every day, work hard, there is a place for you here in Fargo and in North Dakota. And we want to make sure we support you and lift you up, and you help make our community great.