MINOT, ND (KXNET) — Following a KX News request, a copy of the investigative report regarding actions by Minot Mayor Tom Ross has been released, detailing the allegations against the mayor. A copy of the report was forwarded to the Minot City Council Tuesday afternoon at 1:22 p.m., and it is th is report that will be a part of the discussions during tonight's Minot City Council Meeting, which begins at 4:00 p.m. The report was prepared by Sambor Law & Consulting, P.C.. The investigator was Christina Sambor. The report focuses on an incident on January 14, 2025, in which Ross apparently sent a text message with a video attached to a city employee. Ross uses his personal cellphone for city business. About three minutes after the message was sent, Ross called to ask the employee to delete the video and not watch it. According to the investigative report, Ross said he had made a "sexy video" for his girlfriend, to not view it and to keep the incident between the two of them. The employee went to delete the message, but in doing so, saw an automatically-generated thumbnail of the attached video showing a graphic image of male anatomy, according to the report, shot from the point of view of the sender. The employee asked another employee to delete the message and video for her, but, according to the report, she hit the play button instead, showing the sexually explicit video. The second employee then deleted the video and text. After several days, the employee visited with Minot City HR Director Lisa Jundt, who then brought the incident to the attention of Assistant City Manager Tom Joyce. A formal complaint was submitted on January 28. When Ross was interviewed for the investigative report, he said he had recorded the video at his home during his lunch break. He indicated the video was recorded with the intent to send it to his romantic partner and that the video was accidentally sent to the employee. According to the report, "Ross said that he and his partner had been discussing an upcoming date, and that the video was intended to be sent to his partner in a flirtatious manner to express excitement about the date and connection and intimacy toward his partner." According to the report, Ross was adamant the video was not intended for employee, and that he would never send a message like that to the employee, who he respected as a valued colleague. Ross expressed regret for the incident, wished it had been handled internally and stated he had never engaged in workplace sexual harassment. According to the report, "he viewed his request to the employee to refrain from opening the video as appropriate immediate corrective action which minimized or resolved the issue." The investigator concluded that Ross’s statements that the video was sent to the employee unintentionally and that the video was intended for Ross’s intimate partner to be "somewhat credible." However, the investigator also concluded that Ross' decision to use a personal cell phone to conduct city business and the fact he would use that phone to record and send videos of that nature was, in and of itself, reckless enough that he knew the risk he was taking by engaging in such behavior. Further, the investigator noted Ross’s request that the employee keep the matter between the two of them and delete the video was not an appropriate request on the part of a supervisor to a supervisee, was not in line with the city's harassment policy, and placed the employee in an unnecessarily difficult position. A special City Council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 1, 2025, at 4 p.m. It will be broadcast live in the same manner as all Council meetings. The agenda can be found here: https://minotnd.portal.civicclerk.com/event/1494/files/agenda/3562 The full report can be viewed and downloaded below: 2025.04.01-Stalheim-Complaint-Final-ReportDownload ...read more read less