Fargo to launch online engagement platform after city survey; commissioners question cost and representation

City of Fargo officials said Monday they will launch an online civic engagement platform and a set of follow‑up surveys after a citywide community poll conducted with vendor Zen City.

Greg (city communications staff) and Zen City Vice President Eyal Halmich presented results from a community survey of 803 residents collected between July and September and described plans for “engaged pages,” representative “pulse” surveys and ongoing sentiment analysis. “We believe that local government keeps our world running,” Eyal Halmich said during the presentation, describing Zen City’s role in packaging resident input for city decision‑makers.

The survey found generally positive ratings for overall quality of life but identified lower satisfaction on several service areas including availability of affordable housing, ease of giving input to city government and some measures of public safety. Zen City said 61 percent of respondents rated Fargo’s overall quality of life positively and that the research was weighted to match the city’s census demographics.

Why it matters: City staff said the platform and repeated surveys will provide a baseline and year‑over‑year measurement to inform major projects such as the 2026 proposal to extend a sales tax for infrastructure, budgeting and public safety initiatives. Greg said the city plans to embed the engagement hub on the city website and to run annual community surveys with targeted pulse surveys in between.

What presenters told the commission: Zen City described a set of seven priority focus areas identified during on‑site interviews with department leaders and commissioners: ways for residents to give input to Fargo government; the annual budget process; the capital improvement plan; homelessness and affordable housing; public safety perceptions; the planned sales tax extension on infrastructure; and workforce recruitment, retention and compensation. Allison Falter and Tracy Levin of Zen City joined Halmich on the call as customer success staff; Dr. Rachel Levinstein was listed as the firm’s survey methodologist.

Methodology and benchmarks: Zen City said the 803 responses were collected using multiple online methods, rate‑weighted to match census demographics and compared to a custom cohort of peer cities. The vendor said it created a “custom cohort” for Fargo to reflect the city’s relatively young population and to provide regional and national benchmarks.

Planned follow‑up and access: Presenters said the platform will go live within about two weeks, with quarterly updates to the city cabinet and at least two updates to the full commission annually. The city will offer access to the platform so commissioners and staff can review data by demographic groups and by geographic area within the metro. Greg said the city intends to use the platform both to solicit input on policy questions and to reduce repetitive email traffic to department staff.

Commissioner concerns and city answers: Commissioner Pepcorn expressed concern that “somebody's trying to push an agenda” and asked about cost and whether she had been contacted by the consultants; Greg responded that the city team had reached out to commissioners and that some declined to meet. “The cost for this year was $39,950,” Greg said. Eyal Halmich and Zen City staff said they conducted robust on‑site interviews with department leaders and said the platform is intended to reach beyond frequent meeting attendees to more representative residents.

Governance and other community questions: Commissioners discussed broader topics the survey touched on, including interest in changing Fargo’s form of government and whether wards or a larger council would improve constituent connection. Zen City noted the survey question on preferred government structure showed the most common single response for a seven‑member council form but also a large share of “no opinion.” Presenters said these findings warrant further targeted research rather than immediate policy change.

Next steps: City staff and Zen City will launch the engagement pages, commission a custom public safety pulse survey that can be broken down by area of town and deploy topic‑specific follow‑ups (including a dedicated project on the proposed sales tax extension). The survey will function as a baseline for annual measurement; targeted pulse surveys and engagement pages will be used to drill down on issues raised by residents.

The presentation materials and a 36‑page executive summary of on‑site interviews were distributed to commissioners; staff said those reports include recommended follow‑up questions and project plans for each focus area.