City Administrator Michael Redlinger on how Fargo's administration supports residents, departments and elected officials

In a Fargo 365 podcast episode, City Administrator Michael Redlinger said Fargo's city administration focuses on supporting elected officials, department staff and residents by ensuring the organization has the tools and resources needed to deliver high-quality programs.

"What we're doing is supporting our elected officials, supporting our staff teams ... making sure that they have the tools, the resources that they need to be able to effectively administer what we need to do in the city of Fargo," Redlinger said, describing daily work that ranges from routing constituent service requests to shepherding departmental proposals through the commission process.

Why it matters: city administration is the operational backbone that turns policy priorities into services. Redlinger said that role includes translating board priorities into department-level expectations during the budget cycle so departments can plan and avoid surprises.

Redlinger emphasized three defining elements of the job: problem-solving, effective communication and empathy. He gave concrete examples of constituent work: "It might be a pothole. It might be a citizen that had a question about a city service ... We provide that help," he said.

He described administration as intentionally small and embedded with the commission office to provide continuity and scheduling support for the five elected officials. "In our administrative unit, we're a small unit ... just the two of us," Redlinger said, noting that administrative staff also support boards and commissions.

On leadership, Redlinger framed the role as "leading from the middle": coordinating up to elected officials and down to department experts. He said administration frequently presents departmental inputs to the commission and "shepherd[s] a project or shepherd a memo or a request to the elected body" so subject-matter experts can stay focused on technical work while administration navigates policy processes.

Redlinger also described administration as a "stability agent" across election cycles, preserving institutional memory and consistent customer-service principles even as elected officials change.

Assistant City Administrator Brenda Darrig spoke about redevelopment priorities and how administrative support helps departments translate technical ideas into funded budget requests.

The episode closed with Redlinger noting that supporting departments means listening to their highest priorities and using the budget process to fund equipment and staffing that improve safety and service delivery.

Next steps: Redlinger and Darrig said administration will continue to emphasize responsiveness to residents and strategic support for departmental priorities as Fargo prepares for major infrastructure projects discussed later in the episode.