LAWA board approves executive director job description, aims to post with City of Fargo HR

The Lake Agassiz Water Authority board on March 27 approved a draft job description for an executive director and recommended working with the City of Fargo’s human resources department to post the position.

The executive director would be LAWA’s chief executive and report to the LAWA board, the technical advisory committee and the financial advisory committee, the draft says. Duties listed include partner coordination, member relations, financial management and oversight of LAWA operations; a 12–24 month priorities attachment emphasizes alignment of board and organization, project coordination and funding strategy.

Bruce, who led the job-description walkthrough, said the compensation was benchmarked to the City of Fargo pay plan and that the position would include the City of Fargo benefits package. The board discussed office location options in Fargo, formation of a selection committee to review applicants and a target onboarding window that could place a new director on staff by June if posting and contracting proceed as proposed.

Board members raised several procedural and budget questions during discussion. Susan Thompson, FACC co-chair and finance director for the City of Fargo, said committee members had considered reallocating existing administrative budget lines to cover the position and that a $250,000 participant-transfer line was being tracked as a potential revenue source; she cautioned the state cost-share on some administrative items has not been finalized. Board discussion centered on whether smaller user-members should begin paying their proportional shares in 2026 or if Fargo and Grand Forks should continue to absorb administrative costs through this year.

Proponents argued an executive director would reduce reliance on consultants over time and improve member outreach. Al Grasser, TAC chair, told the board the position would be a focal point for coordinating ongoing technical and legal work and for managing consultant task orders.

The board approved moving the draft job description forward and asked staff to coordinate with Fargo HR on posting and contracting. The next procedural steps are formation of a selection committee and formal posting; board members noted they expect to review candidate materials and appoint a finalist before contract approval by the City of Fargo.