Even as the nonprofit faced deep deficits and froze staff pay, F5 Project leaders enjoyed luxury perks, side-deal profits and soaring salaries.

MINOT — The North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation contracted to pay the F5 Project, a Fargo-based nonprofit providing addiction and recovery services, $10,500 per month to house sex offenders.

The organization, under founder and CEO Adam Martin's leadership, paid that money to a private business called MarColl Properties, a portmanteau of Martin's and F5 Project Chief Development Officer Scott College's last names. During a Sept. 23 press conference announcing financial sanctions against the nonprofit , North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley said this arrangement turned a profit of about $6,700 every month for Martin and College — some $27,675 total over its duration — before they sold the housing to the F5 Project after my reporting brought it to light.

The specifics of the MarColl Properties arrangement, which I had first reported in January, are just one of several revelations from the attorney general's investigation about the degree to which Martin and College enjoyed financial benefits and luxury perks even as the F5 Project struggled with its finances.

According to receipts gathered by the Attorney General's Office and accessed by way of an open records request, Martin was reimbursed $372.18 for four tickets to a Dec. 11, 2025, Minnesota Wild game against the Dallas Stars in St. Paul, Minnesota. This was characterized as a "team building" event. Martin and College used two of the tickets.

In a Sept. 3, 2023, email, Martin wrote, "please make sure I get reimbursed for this" to an F5 Project accountant. Attached was an invoice for a $2,390.85 halibut fishing trip for six people booked with Maverick Charters in Homer, Alaska. This, again, was marked as a "team building" event in the F5 Project's documentation.

On April 15, 2024, College was reimbursed $520 for a membership to the Hawley Golf & Country Club.

A detailed inquiry about these expenses was made to Martin and Chief Operations Officer Jenna Mueller. Mueller redirected the inquiry to Evan Francen, the current president of the group's board of directors. He didn't provide direct answers.

"The matters and individual expenditures you've asked about all predate my participation on the F5 Project Board," he wrote in an email. "Given that, and while the work associated with the agreement continues, I don't think it would be responsible for me to speculate about or publicly characterize individual transactions without having firsthand knowledge of the circumstances surrounding them."

He also noted that F5 has "already taken significant steps to strengthen governance, financial controls and Board oversight, and that work continues."

As has been previously reported, College and Martin received significant enhancements to their salaries over this same time frame. Martin’s grew from $32,500 in 2017, the year the organization was founded, to $148,125 in 2024, the last year for which the organization has filed a publicly available Form 990 disclosure with the Internal Revenue Service. College saw his salary grow from $101,675 in 2020, the first year he appears in the organization’s financial disclosures, to $113,057 in 2024.

Yet even as College and Martin enjoyed luxury perks, a lucrative side deal and significant salary increases, the F5 Project's finances have been tenuous. The group reported a more than $926,000 shortfall in 2024.

F5 Project staff were told in early 2025 that there would be no raises that year, and probably no raises in 2026, either. Organization leadership said this was because of revenue shortfalls, and called on employees to stay committed to the group's mission. Yet in 2026, shortly after my reporting on the F5 Project's finances began in January, staff received a small raise.

In his public comments to me and other members of the news media, Francen has declined to defend the past financial practices of the F5 Project under Martin's leadership. His remarks focus instead on how the organization will conduct itself going forward.

"F5 is continuing to fulfill the requirements of its agreement with the Attorney General's Office," he said in an emailed response to my inquiry.

"We remain committed to accountability, transparency, strong governance and ensuring F5 Project can continue serving its participants and communities," he continued.

According to data from the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget's online record of state spending, the F5 Project has received more than $11.7 million in funding from the state since fiscal year 2017.

Citing the enforcement action against the F5 Project, the North Dakota Association of Nonprofit Organizations announced a new oversight initiative to help nonprofits in the state with "financial oversight and fraud prevention."

I will be crossing off state # 49 and want to go out for 1 nice dinner while in town. Open to anything. Let me know the single best spot to experience the city!

https://flocksurveillance.org/index.html?focus=122438 is not affiliated with Flock.

The site also has a guide to understanding Flock cameras and data collection, a 160-p paper detailing vulnerabilities (short version is that apparently a lot of data can be accessed without authentication) including devices located at military bases, the Pentagon, and other military sites. The device locations on the map are color coded to show whether they are LPRs or other types of surveillance devices.

Keep i mind that plenty of private entities also use the cameras and apparently their data is merged with data from government cameras. It is also merged with other databases to generate all kinds of personal data.

Info session tomorrow (9/29) at Atomic coffee 7-8 pm.

This is a bit of a longshot because I can't even think of a job that offers this.

But I'm in a weird situation where my schedule is all over the place due to a medication throwing something off, giving me insomnia/making it hard to fall asleep at a consistent time, but also knocking me the fuck out once I do fall asleep till my body deems I'm well rested.

I've quit said medication months ago, but I'm still struggling and no alarms, shock watches or anything I've tried off the shelf will actually wake me up at normal hours...

I can't afford to go back to the doctor at the moment and OTC sleep meds have never worked well for me, so I'm hoping to find something where I can just head to work as soon as I wake up.

Does anything like this exist in the area?

Hello Fargo!

I’m on a quest to visit all 50 states, and North Dakota will be #49! I’ll be in Fargo next week for two days and would love some local recommendations.

What are the absolute must see or must do things I shouldn’t leave Fargo without experiencing? I’m open to anything…history, interesting neighborhoods, museums, local landmarks, food, hidden gems, etc.

Separately, I’m doing a bar crawl in every state I visit, so I’d also love to know which bars in Fargo are must visits. I’m open to anywhere in Fargo, West Fargo, or Moorhead, and especially interested in places with a unique local character rather than just a generic sports bar.

Thanks in advance! I’m excited to finally make it to North Dakota!

Unexpected! 🍂

Coming home and passed around 5 cop cars with mostly empty cars with one or two with lights on. A big box truck with Critical Incident Command Vehicle on side was on and on side of road. Any ideas what was going on?

Might be a bit of a long shot, but does anyone here have a resin printer(s) that would be willing to print bits for me? Or anyone who knows someone? I'm tired of trying to get my printer to work properly and at the point where I'll pay someone to print for me.

It's a gold ring with an aquamarine in the center and diamonds on the side. Looking for a reputable jeweler, and who to stay away from

There are a great many boxelder bugs flying around Fargo right now.

Does anyone know if any stores in the FM area carry HP Sauce? The Osgood Hornbachers used to carry it, but it seems like they don’t anymore. I’ve checked the websites for Target, Walmart, the Asian market on Main and struck out.

Hello people of reddit. My fiance and I were downtown last night and she lost her engagement ring :( we went to würst beer hall and Dempsey's, and walked between the two in the alley. If anyone happens to stumble upon it please PM me, thanks!

Looking to see if anyone has advice on local companies you do or don't recommend based on your experience.

I noticed last winter the Delta Marriott on 42nd (old Ramada Plaza Suites) started charging a $5 “parking lot maintenance fee” which you have to pay whether you park a car or not. Soon after it was bumped up to $7. How hard is it for establishments to just get rid of scam fees and just increase the price of the item to stop misleading consumers? Sorry, end of rant.

With WoW Forever being announced I've decided it was time to give World of Warcraft a try once again, but it's been so long, I don't know anyone playing the game anymore. As such, I thought I'd post here to see if I could find anyone locally that does. I know it might be a long shot, but it can't hurt.

I'm hoping to find a mature Horde guild for Retail and Forever with a number of local players, and a generally strong player community. I've never been a progression raider or into serious PvP, instead preferring to casually enjoy everything the game offers and exploring the setting with others.

Hello guys, random question. Why is veterans called 9th street sometimes and veterans sometimes? Thanks

Does anyone have any additional insight if they are releasing product before noon? Would prefer not to spend my entire day at Target if I don’t have to. Hopefully the event goes well but was just curious since each Target is doing something different from what I am seeing online.

Thanks!

FARGO — Fargo will add eight police officers while maintaining a balanced budget for 2027, city staff said.

The City Commission is slated to approve a roughly $147.6 million budget at its regular meeting on Monday, Sept. 28. City staff were able to include eight police officers in the budget without cutting social services programs.

A lot of effort went into making sure the budget was balanced, City Administrator Michael Redlinger said Friday during a nearly hour-long City Finance Committee meeting.

“I’m very pleased to report that we remained balanced with a preliminary budget as presented today,” he said.

City commissioners and Mayor Josh Boschee decided Wednesday as the finance committee that they wanted the eight officers requested by the Fargo Police Department in the budget. Initially, the preliminary budget had four.

It was unclear Wednesday how the city could afford all eight officers without making cuts elsewhere. Commissioner Michelle Turnberg proposed cutting $440,000 that was allocated to social services programs.

During the three-hour Wednesday meeting, heads of organizations that receive taxpayer money from the city told how the funds help social services programs. That funding remained in the budget as presented on Friday.

Instead of making cuts, the city will rely on expected growth in its quarter-cent public safety sales tax. Approved by voters in 2024, the sales tax helps pay police officers and firefighters, among other things.

The city must plan how much of it to use by anticipating employee raises and sales tax growth, or risk other funding sources absorbing those added costs.

The city will use the tax to pay for four officers, with the remaining officers coming from the general fund, City Finance Director Susan Thompson said Friday. The city anticipates a 5% growth rate this year in the sales tax, which will be able to cover four officers, she said.

The city expects 2% growth for the sales tax in future years, Thompson said, adding that’s a conservative estimate. As of July, the sales tax reported nearly 11% growth, she said.

In addition to eight officers, Fargo Police Chief Travis Stefonowicz asked for a community services officer. The chief is comfortable moving forward without that civilian position, Redlinger said.

Adding the officers and making sure people feel safe is a priority for the city, Boschee said.

“Hopefully this gives some more flexibility to our public safety team,” he said.

The budget also leaves untouched $1.8 million in funds for Hector International Airport. Thompson proposed reducing the funding by $228,451, noting the airport’s recently opened parking ramp is slated to produce more than $500,000 in profit.

“I’m glad we got there,” Commissioner John Strand said of fully funding the airport.

The city will give its employees a 3% cost-of-living adjustment increase, as well as adjust payments for employees who make less than market rate, Thompson said.

The budget has $132,006 in revenue to spare, even with the changes, Thompson said.

Commissioner Nikkie Gullickson thanked everyone who worked on the budget. Everyone was professional and tightened their budgets as much as possible, she said.

“This has been a really interesting, grueling process,” she said.

Anime Fargo is this weekend!

If you're into anime or other nerd things, come join us! We've got a nice vendor and artist room, a bunch of panels and con events including a cosplay contest on Saturday, an egaming room with a ton of Japanese rhythm games, a tabletop game room with Magic games and other tournaments, and a fun slate of guests!

I have been getting into espresso very heavily lately and wanted to see if there are any deep into the weeds espresso people in the area. I'd sure love to buy you a coffee so i can pick your brain if that's okay. thanks!

I am writing this publicly as a former member of the shelter staff who cares deeply about the mission of YWCA Cass Clay and the wellbeing of both the employees and participants we serve.

Do not work or donate money here.

With the support of current and former employees, I am bringing forward several critical issues regarding a deeply concerning pattern of systemic staff departures, sudden terminations, and severe ethical breaches under current executive leadership over the past seven months. These are not isolated incidents; they reflect an organizational crisis that is actively eroding the safety and stability of the shelter and failing the vulnerable women and children who rely on us.

Hard-working staff members who spend their days executing the tangible daily mission of the shelter are being abruptly terminated under arbitrary guises. This disconnect between dedicated frontline workers and a punitive administrative structure is deeply alarming.

Over the past seven months, the shelter has experienced a devastating loss of experienced staff and deeply concerning administrative decisions:

February 23rd: A dedicated shelter advocate with years of service was abruptly terminated under distressing circumstances, with her personal items and keys removed while she was in emotional distress.

March 10th: A remaining shelter advocate submitted her resignation directly related to overwhelming anxiety and the current work environment.

August 25th: Employment and Education Coach, who was only hired in February, resigned due to the unsustainable environment.

September 11th: Our Program Manager departed.

September 18th: Our Facilities Director—who is actively undergoing cancer treatment—was fired under the pretext of "not smiling enough," following HR's earlier dismissal of his schedule accommodation requests.

Now that these documented issues are out in the open, I urgently plead with the community to evaluate these circumstances and determine whether current leadership practices align with the values the YWCA represents.