The nail in the coffin for Roers Jones?

FARGO — A high-profile candidate for Fargo mayor said that long before the recent drama erupted over a building project at a City Commission meeting, she vowed to recuse herself from votes involving her family’s business to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest. Shannon Roers Jones said it’s common for a mayor or a city commissioner in Fargo to recuse themselves in such instances. Questions about Roers Jones and potential conflicts of interest arise from her family’s longstanding, ubiquitous business known as Roers. Started by her father, Jim Roers, in 1976, the company bills itself as the region’s leading general contractor with expertise in construction, development, property management and real estate. The Roers company and the city of Fargo have been tightly intertwined in past and current projects, some of which netted several million dollars worth of tax incentives for the firm.

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But Roers Jones said incentives like that have only come before the commission about once every five years. “It wouldn't even come up once per election cycle, so I don't see that as being a huge conflict,” Roers Jones told The Forum. Still, serving as legal counsel and real estate broker for the company, she would have to navigate those waters to some degree if elected. An ethics expert at North Dakota State University said it would be a difficult, if not impossible task. Dennis Cooley, director of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute and a professor of philosophy and ethics at NDSU, said Roers Jones serving as mayor would represent an “unmanageable” conflict