Clay County Commission

Dan Haglund

In an effort to get ahead of the massive Fargo-Moorhead flood diversion property buyouts, Eric Dodds and Katie Schmidt stopped by the Clay County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday in Moorhead to give the group a rundown of what’s coming up this year.
Dodds’ appearance, on behalf of the Metro Flood Diversion Authority, was in an official capacity in a request for approval to deposit appraised values for the Fargo-Moorhead area diversion project acquisitions. But he also came to explain the chronology of the process, as well as to field questions from the board.
“As you’re aware, the F-M diversion project is moving forward, construction is ongoing,” Dodds said. “The Moorhead/Clay County JPA is looking to buy property rights in Minnesota.”
Dodds said last fall, he and his affiliates came forward asking for authorization to begin an eminent domain process (the power of the government to take private property and convert it to public use). It was really dirven, he said, by the timeline of construction. The Army Corps of Engineers has a design timeline, and plans to award construction contracts later this spring, Dodds said.
Dodds says the buyout process has seen some success, but there are still a number of eminent domain cases that are ongoing. The next step in those cases, he said, is what’s called a necessity trial.
“In Minnesota, there’s a two-step process for securing property rights through eminent domain,” Dodds said. “The first is the necessity trial. The first round of those happen to be in late March.”
Dodds said there are two such trials scheduled for Clay County properties. He said judges commonly rule from the bench in a necessity trial, basically demonstrating that the condemning authority has “public purpose,” a necessity to take private property.
“And it is certainly an awesome power that we don’t want to take lightly,” Dodds said.
If the judges rule from the bench, they will likely demand that the condemning authority (Clay County in this instance) deposit the appraised property values with the court, he added.
And then the second step, which is called a commissioners hearing, happens later when land valuations are negotiated upon dispute. Three commissioners are chosen based on experience in land valuation appraisals and other factors.
The appraised values of the two Clay properties up for trials are at stake. Dodds then requested approval for authorization to deposit those appraised amounts ahead of schedule with the intention of creating a more seamless land transition later this year.
“This is roughly an $8 million bill, so a large dollar amount,” Dodds said. “We’re at the end of the county’s fiscal calendar, so there’s been a lot of conversations about the reimbursement of these funds.”
Dodds reminded the board that the fiscal agent for the Diversion Authority is the city of Fargo. They are prepared to deposit these funds with Clay County in advance of these trials, he said, so reimbursement can happen promptly.
Schmidt, an Ohnstad Twitchell attorney representing the project, added clarification to the commissioners hearing process.
“If there’s a question of values, it will come after the commissioners hearing,” Schmidt said.
Commissioner Kevin Campbell, Dist. 4, said he is pleased that the funds will be available so promptly.
Schmidt said the intent is that the money will be transferred on March 20, and the hearings will be on March 25 and 27, so Clay County will be holding it for about a week.
Campbell moved for the approval of the two Clay appraised property values in the amount of $8,076,239. Commissioner Paul Krabbenhoft, Dist. 1, seconded it, and it was passed.