Fargo city attorney tasked with looking into recovering funds by city

New Fargo fire chief sworn in during Monday commission meeting

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — When money is tight, you have to find ways to account for every single dollar.

That is why Fargo City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn is requesting the city attorney look into the legality of recovering city funds from entities that misused the money.

One of the entities called out in his request is Faith4Hope.

Faith and Charles Dixon are charged with theft for moving thousands of dollars from their charity into personal and family accounts.

They are set to go on trial in November.

Presentation Partners In Housing in Fargo was the other entity included in the commission’s agenda.

Cheri Gerken who served as executive director was accused of embezzling from the non-profit.

Commissioner Denise Kolpack felt uneasy calling out any single entity since it is still alleged and would rather generalize the request.

“If it can be more general, um, um, directed to all recipients of city funds to have some criteria if and when something would happen, I certainly would support the generalization of this request,” said Kolpack.

Piepkorn said, “I don’t know for sure if we’ll be eligible to get anything back but at least to attempt to recover is a good thing.”

The motion passed unanimously.

The city commission also swore in new Fire Chief Gary Lorenz.

Deputy Mayor Kolpack administered the oath of office to Lorenz.

This isn’t his first time working for the City of Fargo.

Before becoming fire chief in Grand Forks, Lorenz spent 28 years with Fargo Fire Department and was assistant chief when he left in 2018.

He says he looks forward to being a part of the team again.

“There’s nothing I can do alone. It takes every member of the organization from the ground up and I look forward to getting to know a lot of the new faces that are in the organization and most importantly continue to provide that high level of service to the community,” said Lorenz after the swearing in.

He takes over for retired fire chief Steve Dirksen.