FARGO -- North Dakota House majority leader Al Carlson tried to help facilitate a land swap between North Dakota State University and a Fargo developer that the university rejected because it believed the exchange would cost the school millions of dollars, prompting a Fargo legislator to call Carlson’s action “one of the worst good old boy deals he’s ever tried to do.”

Carlson said he was just trying to help a constituent and save taxpayers money, accusing NDSU of “pulling the rug out from under” the developer.

Carlson last week proposed an amendment to Senate Bill 2003, the higher education funding bill, that would have forced NDSU and Monte Kjos of Kjos Investments to negotiate an exchange of two north Fargo parcels. Earlier drafts of the amendment detailed specific conditions of an exchange, including how appraisals would be conducted and how an appraiser would be chosen. Carlson withdrew the amendment Friday, April 21.

“It was just a way to try to get them to keep negotiating. If Mr. Kjos was able to develop that land, that’s a good thing for Fargo and puts that land on the tax rolls, ” Carlson said Monday, April 24. “I don’t care one way or the other. I don’t have any interest in the land. I’m not in that business. I hardly know Kjos.”

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Fargo Rep. Pam Anderson, a Democrat from Carlson’s District 41 in south Fargo, accused the Republican of trying to sneak a “land grab for one of his buddies” out of the public eye by introducing an amendment in the waning days of the legislative session.

“We have practices, procedures and rules but apparently they don’t apply to Al,” Anderson said.

Carlson, Kjos and top administration at NDSU, including president Dean Bresciani, talked for more than a year about exchanging two parcels of land near the intersection of Interstate 29 and 19th Avenue North, according to documents obtained through an open records request by Forum Communications Co. NDSU owns 143 acres fronted by I-29 and 19th Ave., which Kjos wanted to obtain for an adjacent but less visible 154-acre parcel owned by the Montplaisir Family Trust. Kjos Investments acts as an agent for the trust.

The talks appeared to start amicably in February 2016, with Bresciani telling top administrators to “get this deal completed,” according to Kjos. But later correspondence between Kjos and Bresciani show a growing frustration over NDSU’s appraisals of the land, which led Bresciani to e-mail Carlson with his concern.

“Unfortunately, he is taking a much more belligerent tone, and it appears he believes that his personal financial interest is the sole consideration at issue,” Bresciani wrote Carlson on March 3, 2017. “We all want to work our way through this matter professionally and expeditiously, but his disparaging comments about my leadership team will not facilitate this transaction.”

In letters, Kjos accused NDSU vice president for agricultural affairs Ken Grafton, agriculture budget office director Dave Ruhland and vice president of finance and administration Bruce Bollinger of “slow walking” the swap so NDSU could get a higher appraisal on the land.

The Montplaisir trust land, kitty corner to the northwest of the NDSU land, was valued at $4.33 million dollars. An appraisal of the NDSU land in August 2016 valued the land at between $7.45 million and $8.71 million.

On Sept. 14, 2016, Kjos offered to swap the Montplaisir land plus $1 million for NDSU’s land. The school rejected the offer because the $5.33 million total was still below the appraised range of NDSU’s land.

On Nov. 3, 2016, NDSU had the land appraised for a second time. Rose Hoefs of RM Hoefs & Associates appraised the land at $12.46 million based on its development potential.

Kjos and Carlson call that appraisal bogus and questioned Hoef’s credentials.

“It was a totally hypothetical appraisal and not done with any accepted appraisal standards and practices,” Kjos said in an interview Monday, April 24. “It was a shot in the dark. It overvalued the land by a long shot.”

In February, Kjos offered a land exchange plus $2 million cash. On April 7, Carlson drafted an amendment that called for a land exchange plus Kjos giving NDSU $2.5 million cash and an additional $200,000 annually for five years. NDSU rejected the offers.

In an e-mail to a redacted recipient, Bresciani said last week that “we’ve looked at the land deal six ways from the Sun and we’re still feeling stuck. Although willing to sell, the problem is that we have a ‘highest and best use’-based assessment that is CONSIDERABLY above Mr. Kjos’ ag-based assessment (even with his enhancements). We don’t see any way around that.”

Carlson said NDSU didn’t deal with Kjos in good faith and believes Kjos’ offer would save the state money because $2 million in special assessments are coming due on NDSU’s land next year.

“Now I guarantee they’re going to be back next time asking the state to pick up those specials,” Carlson said. “That’s how they operate.”

Kjos said he was led to believe NDSU wanted to make a deal, but the school reneged. NDSU denied it agreed to a swap.

“NDSU never agreed to this transaction,” Bresciani’s chief of staff Chris Wilson said. “President Bresciani agreed to explore the viability of this proposal, but ultimately, the difference in values between the parcels precluded NDSU’s approval.”