At the February 3, 2025 meeting of the New England City Council, Mayor Lyle Kovar announced that New England resident Alex Weinberger had sent a letter of complaint to the North Dakota Attorney General and the City Of New England regarding the City-Owned house for sale at 745 1st Avenue East.

I asked Mayor Lyle Kovar if this house had been sold, because I had no idea that this house had been sold. In fact, coincidentally, I had written an article about this particular house on January 31, because I believed that it had not been sold yet. I even checked the Hettinger County Property Records on January 31 to verify that the City Of New England still held the Deed to this house. Lyle Kovar answered my question, yes this house had been sold, the Deed had not been transferred yet.

At the November 4, 2024 New England City Council meeting, a sealed envelope was opened that contained a Bid Submittal of $6,020.00 for the City-Owned house at 745 1st Avenue East, from Alex Weinberger. This Bid Submittal was the one, and only Bid Submittal for this house.

At that moment when this Bid Submittal from Alex Weinberger was read, and there were no other Bid Submittals, New England City Commissioner Chris Fitterer made the motion to reject this Bid from Alex Weinberger. My recollection of Chris Fitterer’s wording was something like, his basis for rejection was that in his opinion Alex Weinberger had not brought his property work to a timely completion in the past.

In my opinion, this statement from Chris Fitterer was in reference to a 10’x40′ commercial office trailer that Alex Weinberger had installed on his commercial zoned property approximately one year earlier. There had been some involvement with the City Of New England Planning & Zoning Department regarding permitting of this commercial office trailer.

But regarding the rejection of Alex Weinberger’s $6,020 Bid Submittal, in my opinion at that time, the City Of New England did Alex a favor, because this house was going to be a great deal of work. From the November 4, 2024 New England City Council Meeting until the February 3, 2025 City Council Meeting, I never heard this house mentioned again. I did not know that this house had been sold, or who it had been sold to.

Later in February 2025, Alex Weinberger invited me to come look at a completely different fixer-upper house that he had recently purchased in New England. During this visit with Alex Weinberger he discussed his thoughts about the rejection of his Bid Submittal for the City-Owned house at 745 1st Avenue East, and the alleged subsequent sale of this house for $2,000 to an unknown party. Alex later forwarded to me his Email that he had sent to the North Dakota Attorney General and the City Of New England.

In my opinion, as I previously stated, I thought that the City Of New England did Alex a favor by not selling him this City-Owned house, but after reading Alex Weinberger’s Email, I learned that there were some very compelling legal compliance issues, that the City Of New England may not have been aware of.

• According to North Dakota Century Code 40-11-04.1. “Real property transfer requirements.”, when there is a City sale of Real Property by Sealed Bid, “….The property advertised shall be sold to the highest bidder if that person’s bid is deemed sufficient by a majority of the members of the governing body.” In other words if the amount is sufficient to a majority of Council Members, the property shall be sold to the highest bidder, there is no language about other criteria or objection by a Council Member. (In my opinion, this statute may have been deliberately written this way in order to prevent discrimination, favoritism, collusion, etcetera.)
• If a City wishes to include additional criteria to evaluate a Bid Submittal for Real Property, should the City request a Letter Of Intent from each Bidder, rather than make assumptions about what each Bidder intends to do?
• The caveat from the City Of New England advertisement for the sale of this Real Property, “The City Reserves The Right To Reject Any Or All Bids”, may not be legal, because supposedly the North Dakota Century Code regarding Sealed Bid purchase of Real Property supersedes this. (Again, this Century Code statute may have purposely been written this way to prevent discrimination, favoritism, collusion, etcetera.)
• Given that the Hettinger County Property Tax Assessor placed the value of this Real Property at a little over $18,000, shouldn’t there have been the legal formality of a majority of City Council Members determining $2,000 would be sufficient, and a record of the majority of City Council Members agreeing to accept $2,000 from a buyer?
• Was the selling price of $2,000 arrived at in order to circumvent the legal requirement to advertise any City property for sale over $2,500?

Alex Weinberger expressed to me his intention to pursue this further. As I read and re-read North Dakota Century Code Section 40-11-04. “Ordinance required for the transfer of property.” and its subsections, I began to question whether it could even be legal or enforceable to place restrictions and/or requirements on the sale of Real Property? In other words, verbally stated intentions from a buyer, written Letters Of Intent from a buyer, or written requirements from a City Council, are any of these legally binding and enforceable once a buyer obtains the Deed to a property?

Thinking about this further, in my opinion, the City Of New England would have to require the winning Bidder, the Buyer to sign both a Performance Agreement specifying what they must do, and a Restrictive Agreement specifying what they can not do, and also specify a Penalty/Remedy for noncompliance.