The mayor of the fourth-largest city in North Dakota has resigned after he reportedly sent an explicit video to the city attorney by accident.
Just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Tom Ross tendered his resignation as mayor of Minot, a city of some 47,000 residents about 50 miles south of the Canadian border, perhaps best known for its Air Force base. His resignation followed an investigation into a video he apparently sent to city attorney Stefanie Stalheim several months ago.
On the morning of January 14, Ross reportedly called Stalheim to inform her that an officer with the Minot Police Department had died from suicide. Just 11 minutes after that phone call, Ross apparently texted Stalheim a message with a video attached.
Almost immediately after sending the video, Ross called Stalheim again, this time admitting that he had accidentally sent her a “sexy video” meant for his girlfriend, according to a report from the city. Ross then asked Stalheim not to view the video and instead to delete it and to keep the mishap between the two of them.
At the time, Stalheim had Monica Porterfield, a city HR employee, with her. Stalheim asked Porterfield to delete the message, but in her attempts to delete it, Porterfield accidentally played the footage. It reportedly contained video of Ross pleasuring himself.
Two weeks later, Stalheim filed a sexual harassment complaint against Ross. In the complaint, she asked for a formal apology and that Ross considering resigning.
When investigators spoke with Ross, he apparently copped to the mistake. He made the amateur video during his lunch break but fired it off to the wrong recipient when searching his contacts, where Stalheim was stored under “C” for city attorney, the city report indicated. His paramour’s name likewise begins with “C.”
The report noted that Ross conducted public business on his private cell phone.
‘I think Minot is going to be fine. … We’re gonna pull through this just fine.’
On Tuesday, the city released a redacted version of the report, which claimed that Ross “directly caused Stalheim’s inability to work in an environment free from unreasonable sexual harassment and created an offensive work environment.” Ross resigned shortly thereafter.
“I do take responsibility for this mistake. I tried to immediately correct it and was unable,” Ross said in a statement, according to the New York Post. “The decision I made falls in line with all my work on behalf of the City of Minot. I put my heart and soul into this community.”
Ross joined the Minot City Council in 2020 and became mayor in 2022.
For the time being, Council President Mark Jantzer will serve as acting mayor. Residents will now have about two weeks to petition for a special mayoral election. If no such petition materializes, the city council will appoint a permanent replacement to serve out Ross’ term.
“I think Minot is going to be fine, and I think we have a great group of employees. We have very hardworking city council members, and I think we’re gonna pull through this just fine,” Jantzer said in a statement.
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