The honorable council of the city of Evansville is hereby declared call to order, Madam Clerk.

Please call the rule.

Councilwoman Taylor.

Present.

Councilman Hieronymus.

Here.

Councilwoman Hatfield.

Here.

Councilwoman Kaler Lindsay.

Here.

Councilman Brickmeyer.

Councilwoman Allen?

Here.

Councilman Green.

Here.

Councilman Johnson.

Here.

Councilman Trockman.

Here, there being eight members present, one absent.

Representing a quorum, I hereby declare this session of the Common Council officially open.

This evening, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Robert.

Are you up for it?

He is to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the republic for which it stands.

And the visible with the G and Justice Corral.

Please join me now in a moment of silence.

Fellow counselors and those in the audience, welcome to the June 8th, 2026 meeting of the Common Council.

As we move uh forward, I notice that there have been uh a number of slips turned in about uh flock, and we're very glad to uh have you here this evening.

What I would ask uh is that among the ten of you that uh put in slips that you consider electing two or three of you to deliver uh your messages if they are similar in nature, if that is all right with you.

Um, had some good discussion about this.

We definitely want to hear from you, but please consider that um as we move forward.

That said, is there a motion to approve the meeting memorandum of the May 18th 2026 meeting of the common council as written?

So moved.

Second, hearing of first and a second.

All those in favor?

Aye, opposed, so ordered.

Reports and communications, emailed materials, ordinances G, 2026-12 and R 2026-14.

Resolutions C, 2026-16 amended, C 2026-22, 23, and 24, and on your desk this evening, extended agenda.

Is there a motion to acknowledge the reports and communications?

So moved, second.

Hearing a first and a second.

All those in favor, aye, any opposed, so ordered, special orders of the day.

There are no special orders this evening, consent agenda.

First reading of ordinances and resolutions, ordinance G 2026-12, and ordinance authorizing the issuance of the City of Evansville, Indiana Taxable Economic Development Tax Increment Revenue Bonds, Series 2026 Cargus Loths Project, and the lending of the proceeds thereof to AP development LLC and AP Cargus Loths LLC, or an affiliate or permitted signee thereof, and authorizing and approving other actions in respect there too.

Ordinance R.

2026-14 and ordinance on certain real estate in the city of Evansville, State of Indiana, more commonly known as 2828 Mount Vernon Avenue.

Is there a motion to adopt the consent agenda as written?

So moved.

So move.

Second.

Hearing a first and a second.

All those in favor.

Any opposed?

So ordered.

Committee reports.

There are no committee reports this evening.

Regular agenda, second reading of ordinances and resolutions.

For this ordinance, we're gonna ask Councilman Hieronymus, Councilman Johnson, and Councilwoman Hatfield to recuse themselves.

Councilwoman Hatfield, if you just want to put if you can turn down your volume so you can't hear us, and then we'll text you and let you know when you can rejoin us.

Sounds good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ordinance F 2026-07, an ordinance of the common council, the city of Evansville approving the annual community development plan and appropriating community development block grant, emergency solutions grant, and home investment partnership program grant funds.

Is there a motion to adopt ordinance if 2026-07?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

Floor is now open for discussion.

I think Kobe Jackson DMD.

All right, Council.

Before you today is the ordinance for our 2026 HUD funds, which includes the emergency solutions fund, the community development block grant funds, and then the home investment partnerships fund.

So in total, there's 218,403 that we are set to receive for the emergency solutions grant, $2,478,701 that we are anticipate receiving for the community development block grant, and then $578,478.42 cents in home investments partnerships grants, which also includes $15,620.50 in program income, which is fees and other collections that might happen throughout the year that have to be spent and considered in connection with the current year's allocations.

So in total, $3,291,232.92 cents between all three grants.

The spreadsheet that you have before you lists every proposal that was submitted by agencies that are seeking allocations with in corresponding order with ESG at numbers one through 10, CDBG following that, which includes public service and non-public service CDBG proposals, and then the very last portion of that spreadsheet in that pink color would be all of the submissions for the home investments partnerships grant.

And at this time we do not have the council approve any of the home funds for any specific construction related projects because those projects have to become shovel ready.

So at the point that they become shovel ready, those allocations would be brought to you all on a separate finance ordinance for those projects.

I think that went well.

And again, they were cut at no fault of their own.

So the out I believe they are okay with the allocation as recommended, and they are here tonight if they at the time you call for comments from the public if they want to come up and speak to that.

And so with that being said, you guys would be approving the recommendations that the mayor has made as is, and we would submit that to HUD as part of our annual action plan, which is submitted to HUD on an annual basis and accounts for the how the funds will be used in the upcoming program year.

Um and that is also made available on the City of Evansville website once that draft is ready to go, and once we submit it to HUD.

And so I'm happy to answer any questions that any additional questions that the council might have in regard to any of the funding sources.

Just real quick, um, is this exactly the same document that we saw two weeks ago?

Nothing has changed.

It is nothing has changed.

Since first reading, correct.

Just wanted to verify that.

For the record, I will um I did want to make a note, and I'm doing this on behalf of the organization.

Um I did say that I would mention that number 48 on the spreadsheet, which I believe is Greater Hope.

The that proposal, even though it is not being recommended for an allocation, has been officially withdrawn by the organization.

Um the submission was made, unfortunately, without authorization.

So Greater Hope wanted me to make sure to have that on the record that you know that it has been withdrawn, so it's not up for consideration.

So we just wanted to let that be known.

Yep.

Any other questions?

Any questions or comments from the public?

Madam Clerk.

Councilwoman Taylor.

Yes.

Councilwoman Kayler Lindsay.

Aye.

Councilwoman Allen.

Aye.

Councilman Green.

Aye.

Councilman Trumpman.

Aye.

Okay.

There being five ayes and zero nays.

Ordinance F 2026-07 is hereby declared adopted.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Resolution docket.

Resolution C 2026-16 amended.

And we will actually we'll get our secondary invite everybody back in.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We almost got away with leaving you out there.

Okay, resolution C.

2026-16 amended resolution of the common council of the city of Evansville, Indiana.

Declaration of official intent to enter into lease purchase agreements for the 2026 police pursuit vehicles.

Is there a motion to accept the amend amendment for resolution C2026 16?

So moved.

Hearing up first and a second, all those in favor.

Any opposed?

So ordered.

Is there a motion to adopt resolution C 2026 16 amended?

So moved.

Second.

Hearing of first and again two seconds.

Robert, it is your show.

Good sir.

Good evening, Robert Gunter from the controller's office.

Done tonight.

So they're very eager to move forward with the vehicle purchases.

So both sides of both sides have their attorneys have signed off, so we asked for permission to move forward.

Robert, just high level.

Can you just for the public talk about what this is exactly about?

This we're hoping to get fifty up to 15 vehicles, SUVs, police pursuit vehicles, paid back over four years.

Will be the proceeds that will use or the funds that we'll use to pay it back.

And this is not the first time we've done this, correct?

Right.

Just talk a little bit about the uh, you know, we have the local bond bank, but this is through the Indiana Bond Bank, and we uh worked with them and they identified US bank corp is the little bidder on this.

So uh about the payback will be about three hundred and forty thousand dollars a year, uh pretty good interest rate, too.

I was pleased with that.

Anything that EPD would like to add to that, all right.

You don't have to.

If you have any questions, I'm I'm happy to answer them.

But otherwise, uh we're just we're just happy to get this moving along.

Um, we've already spoken with the the vendor, the these vehicles uh have a certain ordering window uh to get them in.

GM only allows uh vendors to order these vehicles at certain times of the year, and so thankfully, uh John Jones uh who was awarded the uh the bid earlier this year was able to accept a memo from us to be able to get the order in.

Now we're just waiting on the financing so they can order the rest of our equipment.

Okay, that's why Robert has been anxious about this.

I see.

Yes, uh, I'm sure Robert's happy to put this to bed so we can we can stop having uh regular calls and correspondence over this.

Well, we appreciate it.

Um thanks for the background, no problem.

Um, yes, ma'am.

Um, I also from what I understand, I know we're purchasing additional vehicles, but I also believe that we still don't have enough vehicles for officers to take their vehicles home, that they're still rotating vehicles through the system.

Um, and I want to make sure that I'm correct on that because the last I heard that was the situation, and it was causing additional wear and tear on the vehicles because we were doing that.

Is that still the case right now, or would this solve that problem?

Uh no, we're we are a long way away from every police officer having a vehicle that they can actually that's personally assigned to them.

Uh so mostly it hits our second shift.

Uh large percentage of our second shift is driving what we call pool cars or line cars.

Those are the cars that you see that are that are parked on the street out here.

Uh, so we're we're several years worth of cars away from that.

Um, we've done calculations, and anywhere from 40 to 50 cars would get us to where we need to be as far as that.

Uh, but then as as we fill our ranks back up, because as you know, we're well below what our standard manpower should be, um, as we hire new hires, we then to be competitive in this space, need to be able to give them take-home cars as well.

That's one of the reasons we found that we're we're losing candidates to other departments because they're able to offer that and we're not.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, it does answer my question.

It was something that I heard um about and I did a little bit of research and understood why that was a critical necessity.

Um, I had not thought about it in regards to staffing of positions, but I did um hear about it because of the extra cost of the maintenance that they're incurring right now to keep those vehicles running um 24 hours basically instead of a shift.

Yes, there is there is a significant maintenance cost on those uh as well as we run into issues where if one of those vehicles goes down or if it's damaged um and has to go off for repair.

Uh we have had situations uh fairly routinely where an officer that would normally patrol a beat on his own in a pool car has to then pair up with another officer to get on the street, and then that leaves fewer cars to respond to runs during that shift.

Thank you for that.

Well, it's definitely something to um definitely something to um keep in mind as we move forward and look at funding and um additional grants and things of that sort in the coming years, and just just to be clear uh the 40 to 50 um additional cars needed.

Is that above and beyond these what might be 15 vehicles now or is that 40 or 50 minus the 15 that we're doing right now?

Because uh obviously we're cycling in, you know, a significant amount of fleet as quickly as we can, so as some come offline replacing them or or you know, additional 40 in addition to the ones that we're bringing on the line when we get these cars out.

These cars may not actually hit the street until December, maybe January, because the lead time to get them built and out there.

Uh once we get those out and get them assigned, uh 40 cars would get us close to where we need to be, but it's always a moving target because as we get to that point, uh we have a large number of vehicles, and I'm sorry, I don't have the sheet in front of me right now.

We have a large number of vehicles that are over 10 years old, have more than a hundred thousand miles on them, so as those break down as they're no longer feasible to maintain them and keep them on the street, we cycled them out.

So that target moves in addition.

Unfortunately, vehicles get totaled, uh they get wrecked, and then we pull them out, and those don't get replaced until the next budget cycle right um couple things uh you said that we're down manpower I think the FOP contract is two is it two eighty nine uh or two ninety five on officers I I can't remember the exact number yeah I I believe it's two eighty eight I have uh a recent report here that I can pull if you need it how how shy are we of that number at this moment?

Uh again that's also a moving target uh as retirements or transfers retirements as uh we have we have groups that are in field training uh sometimes those candidates don't meet our expectations uh and then they either resign or or go elsewhere uh however um we as we gain ground we then lose ground through retirements um and just general attrition okay but that but as far as being off on that number uh of what the contract shoots for you think we're 20 officers down 30 officers down uh one second here and I will actually tell you what our last staff report was so we are current officers on payroll are 269 out of our contractual 289 so and that that includes officers that are in field training officers that for whatever reason are not actually on the street working uh so our operational strength is at about 82 percent of what we're actually uh contracted right now thank you good questions good discussion appreciate it um any other uh questions from counselors any questions or comment from the public on this item please uh Christopher please first two seven two harmony way I just wonder if there's any consideration for the Evansville's climate action plan in regard to electrifying the city's fleet vehicles um we all know that EVs have far less maintenance costs you know I know there's a lot of wear and tear on these particular vehicles and particularly they idle a lot there's a lot of idle time on police cars which is a huge benefit to an EV because the engine is not running but yet all the electronics can run the air conditioner can run the heat can run while they're idling.

I know there's a little bit of a bump in initial purchase price but I think the maintenance fees and savings on gas in particular kind of uh will far surpass the initial increase in the purchase price so I don't know if that was a consideration when these vehicles were looked at I know there's not a lot of options for police EVs but I do know they do exist.

So thank you.

It's a very fair question.

I can actually provide an answer to that question.

We did look at the uh the Blazer EV is uh currently one of the few uh police package push uh pursuit rated uh electric vehicles is a full EV.

The car itself and even the purchase price uh sometimes there are federal uh discounts and whatnot on those um the purchase price is really not the bar to entry the bar to entry are the logistics of keeping those cars charged and uh keeping them going uh generally as a pool car they don't work well as a pool car because uh we have somewhere between a 30 to 40 minute window between uh switching shifts and so that would only be 30 to 40 minutes that that car would be able to charge before it would have to go back out on the street.

Uh with line cars, you just go fill up a tank of gas and the cars ready to go again for an entire shift.

The other issue that we ran into is while the cost of the cars is not significantly more versus a uh a regular gas combustion engine uh the cost of the infrastructure to actually charge those cars becomes significant.

And we haven't been able to do a feasibility study to see what it would take to, for instance, line Sycamore Street with fast chargers.

Then there becomes the contractual issue if we expect officers to charge these vehicles at their homes.

Uh, what are we going to do to reimburse them for that cost with their electricity?

Uh, there's a pretty big push over electricity costs right now, and then if we're asking somebody to charge it at home, we're gonna have to figure that out as well.

So there are quite a few hurdles to get over it, but the that's the long way of saying yes, we have looked at EVs, and they're not completely off the table, but it's an evolving uh space that we have to keep looking at.

It's good to know that that's being considered and you all have looked at options and have that going.

Speaking of idling, not that this is one of the questions.

I I did a ride along, which I very much appreciate our citizens academy.

Um, and it did seem like yeah, the cars if if there's a break or even lunch, those cars are sitting out there on all the time.

Is that because of the computer systems they can't be turned off and it takes too long to get if you guys get called on a run, or is there talk about a savings um as far as the wear and tear and gas and all those things and environment on idling all the time?

Um we actually have policies as far as when the car should idle and when the car should not idle.

Uh the way our systems are set up in the cars, they can be turned off and left off for for several hours during a shift uh without any significant drain.

Uh they have electronic systems in there where for some reason the computer is up and running and it starts to pull that battery down, then the system will cut the computer off so it doesn't kill the starting battery of the vehicle.

Um, when it is incredibly cold or incredibly hot, if an officer has to uh go in and he's in somewhere on a run for several hours and then comes back out, it takes a long time to get that climate back in that car.

So you can imagine if you're constantly shutting the car off, going into a grocery store or something for a long report and then coming back out that the car is uh significant temperature difference.

But that again is a long way of saying that we expect officers to use their discretion and turn the cars off as much as they can turn the cars off, with the exception of our canines, our canines, those cars have to remain idling for the safety of the canine partner.

But lunchtime is not that time, right?

No, lunchtime is not that time.

The cars should be turned off at that point.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

No problem.

I bet you didn't expect all these good questions.

At least you came and had some purpose while you're right.

No, we appreciate it.

Uh I saw maybe two other uh hands that wanted to speak.

Name and address, please.

Three minutes.

Good evening.

Uh Bernan Dillingham address 1825 North Earcoist Drive.

Um, and I guess this could be a more in-deal um question, so more of a question type of statement we can uh discuss after.

Uh more so of question from the public is necessarily the necessity of police officers having their own vehicle.

Um I feel like that money could go to more of helping material conditions for Evansville residents.

Um that way we would not need to respond to as many beats as you did mention.

Um but we can talk to this in person if you have some clear insight of why it is a necessity to have a personal vehicle for each police officer.

If you are on my discussion, I'd be more than happy to explain it.

If the council has questions, then I'm more than happy to address those as well.

Yeah, I'll I'll just kind of reiterate here that the uh session here is not a question and answer session, it is a public comment section.

Uh and while we do engage with uh members of the administration and the departments, um, things like that, uh, as was discussed or offline conversations.

And sounds like it'd be a welcome discussion afterwards.

Thank you, counselor.

But I will also say valid question as well, too.

So, thank you for that.

Uh, did we have one more?

Not so much.

Okay.

Um, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilwoman Taylor.

Yes.

Councilman Hieronymous.

Aye.

Councilwoman Hatfield.

Aye.

Councilwoman Keller Lindsay.

Aye.

Councilwoman Allen.

Aye.

Councilman Green.

Aye.

Councilman Johnson.

Aye.

Councilman Truckman.

All right.

There being eight ayes and zero nays.

Resolution C 2026 16 amended is hereby declared adopted.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Resolution C.

2026-22, a resolution of the common council, the city of Evansville, Indiana in support of the seventh annual Juneteenth celebration and recognition of Juneteenth as a day of reflection, resilience, and community unity.

Is there a motion to adopt resolution?

C 2026-22.

So move.

Second.

Hearing a first and a second, uh, I'm gonna turn the floor over to Councillor Taylor.

Well, you all know that I am very excited about this.

Um first, I want to thank all of my fellow council members for joining me in sponsoring this resolution recognizing Juneteenth.

Uh I truly appreciate the support and the willingness of this body to acknowledge the importance of this moment in our nation's history and our community.

Um, for those who don't know, Juneteenth marks the day enslaved black Americans in Galveston, Texas finally learned they were free, and it was more than two years after the emancipation proclamation.

So for us, this um this represents a celebration of freedom, resilience, and truth, but it also recognizes the ongoing work uh that we still have to do.

So this week, our this week our city will join hundreds of cities across the nation celebrating and recognizing Juneteenth as a space for reflection, education, cultural uh celebration, all of those things.

And while Juneteenth is rooted in black history, we hope everyone knows that just like we say E is for everyone, Juneteenth is for everyone as well.

So, regardless of cultural background, uh we want people to be there because it's about freedom, it's about community, and it's about human dignity, uh, knowing that it belongs to us all.

So this Friday we'll be at Bayer Park.

There will be a lot of our council members there.

So for the public, you will uh be able to access us as well.

But more than anything, I'm excited.

Um that Evansville joins um with cities across the nation with celebrating Juneteenth in more than just words, that we're actually doing something.

Uh so this is a great day for our city.

Thank you, Councillor Taylor.

Not sure we can say it better than that.

I know.

I was gonna say I would just echo that and excited and proud that as a uh council that it was a unanimous sponsorship and um support for this resolution.

I just truly hope that all um all of the residents of Evansville celebrate um and reflect with us as we truly do strive to make Evansville uh a more just inclusive and uh equitable place for all of us to live.

Thank you.

Uh any other counselors?

Yeah, counselor Taylor, please.

Um, no, I believe there um there may be someone um or someone from public um who has comments as well.

That was my next move.

Good call.

Uh anyone from the public.

There we go.

You are right, Rita.

Thank you.

It's like you're here watching.

Kind of sort of.

Name, address, and you have three minutes, sir.

Uh fellow paper, 12 TN South Roosevelt Drive.

I would like to start by thanking the city council and the mayor's office for today's recognition.

This means a great deal, not only symbolically, but economically for our community.

Recently, while promoting this year's event on social media, someone commented the emancipation proclamation was a freedom of slaves January 1st, 1863.

This Juneteenth thing recognizes when Texas finally let their slaves be free on June 19th, 1865.

The national holiday should be related to January 1st, 1863.

While the comment oversimplified the history, it did contain part of the truth.

The emancipation proclamation is indeed part of the Juneteenth story.

The story of Juneteenth did not begin on June 19, 1865.

It began with a growing conflict over slavery, including the secession of Southern states beginning with South Carolina on December 24th, 1860, and ending with Tennessee on June 8, 1861.

Eleven states left the Union over the issue of slavery, leading to the Civil War in April of 1861.

The Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1, 1863, but the war continued until the last major Confederate Army surrendered on May 26, 1865.

Even then, some of the Confederate holdouts remained unaware the war had ended.

As Union forces advanced through Texas, freedom finally reached the last enslaved people come on the in Juneteenth in 1980 on June 19, 1865.

Juneteenth is not simply the story of Texas.

It is the story of a nation reuniting under the belief that slavery was wrong and that liberally belongs to all people.

If there is a final chapter to the story, it came on December 6, 1865, when the 13th Amendment was ratified.

This is why Juneteenth matters.

It's not a black holiday.

It is an American holiday.

Its significance to our nation's history is comparable to the July 4th, 1776.

It celebrates the principle of liberty and the promise that all people propose unenablable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and ultimately freedom.

Fast forward to June 2019 when three friends thought it would be a simple cookout for our neighborhood become something much bigger.

What started as an opportunity to bring together the people on our blocks quickly grew into a community celebration featuring live entertainment, fruit trucks, local vendors, and neighbors connecting with one another in a way that reminded us that community is what true what community is truly about.

By the end of that day, it was clear that this was more than a one-time gathering.

The community had spoken loudly and clearly asking us to continue the tradition and make it an annual event.

Since that first year, we have remained committed to the vision that brought us together on that day.

Each year we have learned, adapted, and expanded, always striving to create an event that reflects the best for Evansville.

We have worked to build something that only honors history, but also serves the people who live, work, and invest in our city today.

As of today, Evansville Cultural Experience is a 501c nonprofit organization preparing to host our seventh annual event.

This year we have nearly 60 confirmed participants with almost equal representative of local food vendors, local artisans, and product makers, and nonprofit organizations providing valuable resources and services to our community.

That means nearly 60 of Evansville's own small businesses, entrepreneurs, and community advocates and service organizations have chosen to come together under a shared purpose.

While June team commemorates an important chapter in our nation's history, our event has become a celebration of community investment, economic opportunity, and civic engagement.

Every vendor represents a local dream, a local family, and a local mission.

Every purchase made at the event supports a business owner who lives in our community, pays taxes in our community, and reinvest in our community.

Every nonprofit represents an opportunity to connect with residents who may benefit from the services and programs in our community.

Events like this create opportunities for local dollars to circulate within our local economy before leaving our community.

They provide small businesses with exposure to new customers, create partnerships between organizations, and help strengthen the relationships that make neighborhoods thrive.

Just as importantly, they create spaces where people from all works of life can come together, celebrate our shared values, and build stronger senses of belonging.

That has been the purpose of this event since day one.

Sir, we've reached our three minutes.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Can you say quickly the details?

Yeah, can you say the details for the event?

You got an invite in there, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Let's get that one out.

The day and the time.

Yeah.

Alright, well, not the the location of the time.

So this year, our Juneteenth celebration will be held at Bear Park on June 19th at 2 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

Well, like to see everybody in the community go.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Appreciate you being here.

Thank you.

Um, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilwoman Taylor.

Absolutely, yes.

Councilman Heronimus.

Hi.

Councilwoman Hatfield.

Aye.

Councilwoman Keller Lindsay?

Aye.

Councilwoman Allen.

Aye.

Councilman Green.

Proud to vote aye.

Councilman Johnson?

Aye.

Councilman Truckman.

Aye.

There being eight ayes, zero nay is resolution.

C 2026-22 is hereby declared adopted.

Resolution C 2026-23, an amended conformatory resolution of the common council of the city of Evansville declaring an economic revitalization area for property tax phase and for the rehabilitation of real property and granting a waiver of noncompliance for an economic revitalization area UNICEL Incorporated.

Is there a motion to adopt resolution C 2026 23?

Second.

Is there anyone here to speak on this?

Item this evening.

I know Patrick was out of town.

Um I'm happy to give council just a brief summary of this confirmatory resolution.

Essentially what it is is it seeks council's designation of the properties at 1701 through 1717 in 1803 and 1819 North Fourth Avenue as an economic revitalization area for the benefit of Uniceal Inc., which is undertaking some rehabilitation and construction at those locations.

An oversight that I understand was attributed to leadership turnover within the community.

So the resolution also grants a waiver of that procedural noncompliance, which is authorized by Indiana Code.

Um if adopted this revolution this resolution would provide UNICEAL with a phased property tax deduction on real property over eight years.

Yeah, so there was actually a resolution passed by city council February 9th, I believe, which was C 202609.

And so this is just amendment of the resolution that already passed.

There was a change, a date in section five, and what was approved, the designation of the ERA was in effect up to including April 1st, 2028, and the auditor's office needs to say December 31st.

So this is just amending something that you've already passed before to get the correct dates in there.

And if I'm not mistaken, like even though we passed this precedent on procedural noncompliance, has been passed by this body before.

But they had they had started construction beforehand, so yeah, we're my point being is while this is uh, you know, for procedural noncompliance allowable by the state, this is not a new precedent that's been set in this community.

No, okay.

That's I just want to make that clear that we're not doing anything that hasn't been done from a procedural standpoint in the past.

So I'll I'll uh make a motion.

Or we already have a motion for a motion.

No, I'll I'll make the motion then.

So I I had a question.

Normally I would ask, you know, is has anything changed as the preliminary resolution, but I think I'm hearing that this is amending what we did.

It's just the date that's changing.

That's what the email from Patrick said.

It's just a date.

It said April 1st, and the auditor's office needs it to say December 31st.

Okay, so yeah, I don't think there's any problem with that.

This was a good project, and they they came forward, and we want to make sure that we can um have them here and doing good things in Evansville.

So, to the um point of uh protocol, do we need to make this an amendment?

No, we're good.

We just need to ask this.

This is a new resolution.

That's what I thought.

Thank you very much.

Uh Madam Clerk, please uh before I do.

Uh, is there anyone from the public that would like to say something wonderful about Uniseal?

All righty then.

Uh Madam Clerk.

Councilwoman Taylor.

Yes.

Councilman Heronimus?

Aye.

Councilwoman Hatfield?

Aye.

Councilwoman Kaylor Lindsay.

Aye.

Councilwoman Allen.

Aye.

Councilman Green.

Aye.

Councilman Johnson?

Aye.

Councilman Chuckman.

Aye, there being eight ayes and zero nays.

Resolution C 2026 23 is hereby declared adopted.

Resolution C 2026-24 amended a resolution of the Common Council, the City of Evansville approving one, a declaratory resolution and economic development plan of the City of Evansville Redevelopment Commission establishing a cargo's economic development area, and two the order of the area, Evansville Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission related there too.

Is there a motion to accept the amendment for resolution C 2026-24?

So moved.

Second.

In favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed.

So ordered.

Sorry, question.

Is this the uh document that we received in the email that we should be looking at now for seeing the only change there was just one change that was the typo in the first paragraph?

Okay, um, so it's just changing one word, but gotcha.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt resolution C 2026-24 amended?

So moved.

Second.

Hearing a first and a second.

Colby, I know you're excited about the development here.

I am Colby Jackson DMD.

So this resolution before the council tonight is um one, approving a declaratory resolution and economic development plan um for the establishment of the cargus law, cargus loss economic development area and allocation area, and then two in the economic development plan, excuse me, and then the order of the Evansville Vanderburgh County Area Plan Commission in relation to the um a creation of the plan economic development area and economic development allocation area.

That is a tongue twister.

So on December 16th, 2025, the Evansville Redevelopment Commission did adopt resolution ERC 20 25 ERC 20.

Um that would establish the republic economic development plan, economic development area, and allocation area.

And as part of this process, the uh ERC has to move that along to the area plan commission.

And so on January 8th of this year, that um resolution from the ERC was moved on to the Plan Commission to determine if it conformed to the plan of the unit.

So that is the step that um area plan commission approved earlier this year, and then the last part of that step, which is this act, is um the approval of the declaratory resolution, the plan, and the action of the plan commission by the city council.

So the cargus loss project, for those that are not familiar, is on the west side of the city.

It um contains two uh properties which are located at 1501 West Maryland, and then 1516 West uh 1516 Fountain Avenue.

Um the estimated total project costs for the incentive for this project is 6.5 million dollars.

Um I won't go into details about the financing for the project because as it was read into the record tonight.

The first reading was tonight for the order the bonds that will be issued for this project, and so second reading for that will happen on June 28th, where we hope to have the developer here to answer some more project specific questions that the council might have.

But the incentive um total for the total project 6.5 million dollars, and the economic um benefit to kind of help summarize the plan is that the project's anticipated to facilitate the growth and the diversification of the property tax base, including additional investment in the area from businesses over the next uh couple of years, and so to be to give you a little bit more of the project specifics.

So cargus lofts um is the complete rehabilitation and redevelopment of the former cargus um furniture factory.

So there's anticipated to be 125 units of multifamily housing, and the total investment for the project is estimated at 30 million dollars.

Um happy to answer any questions that I can, but again, tonight is not the financing of the project, not to be confused, it is just to confirm the declaratory resolution and economic development plan of the establishment of a carcass loss economic development area and allocation area, and that the order um of the Vandenberg area county plan, the Evansville Vandenberg County Area Plan Commission, their approval that the economic development area conforms to the plan of the unit.

So that is what you all are approving tonight.

Good outline.

I think we all look forward to hearing from Cargasses folks.

Yeah, on the 22nd.

On the 22nd.

Counselor.

Will they be providing like um you know schematics or any visuals?

Yeah, any visuals prior to I do not know that, but I can ask them to make sure that they have something available for council to look at.

Yeah, and I obviously the normal questions that come alongside, like, you know, what are the unit sizes, what are the you know, rent rates, you know, gonna be looking like and and the developer is Anderson Partners Development LLC.

Um they also did the central lofts project downtown, and they potentially have another development that will come before the council at some point too, called Fieldhouse Flats.

So they're not new to work here in Evansville, which is right next to Central Loss.

Correct.

It is the old YMCA Gym.

Yep.

Love it.

Any other questions of counselors?

Any comment from the public?

Madam Clerk, please call the rule.

Councilwoman Taylor, yes.

Councilman Hieronymous.

Aye.

Councilwoman Hatfield.

Aye.

Councilwoman Kaylor Lindsay.

Aye.

Councilwoman Allen.

Aye.

Councilman Green.

Aye.

Councilman Johnson.

Aye.

Councilman Chalkman.

Aye, there being eight ayes and zero nayas resolution C 2020 624 amended is hereby declared adopted.

Thank you.

Thank you, Colby.

Let's do some miscellaneous stuff.

Uh, the next meeting of the common council will be on Monday, June 22nd, as Colby noted, um at 5 30 p.m.

this this evening.

We have the opportunity to appoint a few people to boards and commissions, which I would kindly ask our clerk to lead us through.

Sure.

So for the first one, um, the first vacancies on the Commission of Social Status Commission on Social Status of African American Mills.

There are actually three vacancies, but we're just on point.

We have one applicant right now.

So the term length is two years ending December 31st, 2027, and they must be a city resident.

Uh, the applicant is LaVar St.

Germain.

Is there a motion to appoint Lavarre St.

Germain to the Commission of Social Status of African American Mills from June 8th, 2026 through December 31st, 2027?

Some moved.

We'll say, we'll all second.

Everybody's second.

How about that?

Okay.

All those in favor?

I opposed.

So ordered.

Next up, we have one vacancy to fill the balance of a term ending January 31st, 2028, and that's for the Evansville Economic Development Commission.

City Council nominates an applicant for the mayor to appoint.

We have seven applicants.

Austin Ellis, Hope Fussner, Darren Morley, Donovan Phipps, Darius Randall, Hobart Scales, and our Ariana Swinney.

The floor is now open for nominations.

I'll nominate Hope Fessner.

Second.

Are there any nominations?

Nominations are closed.

All those in favor of appointing Hope Fussner say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

So ordered.

Hope Fessner is appointed.

She has been nominated to the mayor for appointment for the economic Evansville Economic Development Commission ending January 31st, 2028.

And our last one for the evening, there's one vacancy, and this is also to fill the balance of a term ending December 31st, 2026.

Must be a city resident, must be at least 18 years of age.

We have three applicants, Andrew Angel, Andrew Angelo Bullock, and Matthew Pruitt.

The floor is now open for nominations.

I nominate Matt Pruitt.

So second.

Okay.

Any other nominations?

Nominations are now closed.

All those in favor of appointing Matt Pruitt say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay.

Mr.

Pruitt has been appointed to the Evansville Redevelopment Commission ending December 31st, 2026.

We also have an opening for the Vanderburgh County Economic Development Commission.

Not to be confused.

With the Evansville Economic Development Commission.

So if you're interested in being on that board, please apply online at www.evansville.in.gov forward slash boards by Sunday, June 14th.

This will allow council time to review the applications, and we will appoint this person at the next council meeting.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk.

Are there any additional comments this evening from members of council?

Ghost Silent.

Um I hope our our flock group has had some time to uh appoint some champions.

Um would you prefer for us to call uh your names or would you like to make your way?

We're all gonna talk.

We the issue is in body enough of too many places that the singular speech isn't gonna have that much overtime.

Additionally, there's been five major things happened since last time's vote.

So you didn't want to uh no one up to the way we would prefer all to speak because we all have different topics that we feel each one is its own time, three minutes it is.

Okay.

First up, we're gonna have Christopher Norwick.

Christopher Norwich, 2728 Harmony Way.

Uh I'm here in my official capacity as the Solar United Neighbors Program Associate and the Solar Co-op coordinator.

A little bit of bad news to start off with the Indiana Energy Saver Program.

Um it's was part of the allocation from the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Indiana received about a hundred and eighty-two million dollars to help energy, you know, to improve energy efficiency for homes.

The good news is that program still has money.

The rules got changed at the end of the last month.

You can no longer fuel switch.

So if you're trying to go from a natural gas heater to a heat pump, that's no longer allowed.

They also removed a lot of provisions for DEI, including eliminating the Justice 40 component to that.

So a little bit of bad news, but the money is still there, and we encourage everybody to apply for that because the income requirements are pretty broad.

There's a low income component, middle income component, but it still exists.

Indiana EnergySaver.com.

As far as the solar co-op that you all entered into a partnership with Solar United Neighbors through the uh C2026-17 resolution.

Great news that program has over a hundred folks that have signed up.

Uh we have issued the RFP about an hour ago that went to all the area installers.

I'll convene the selection committee probably about the first week of July, and then they will make the selection on who the installer is going to be.

So that was very exciting, and that's what pushed our RFP back about a week.

So it's I I always keep uh Lauren Lynch, who is our like official partner updated on these things to email, but I thought since I was here, I'd give you a brief update about what's going on with the solar co-op.

That's what I got for you.

I'll turn it over to the Flock group.

Thanks a lot.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Great update.

First up, we have Peter Embry.

Mr.

Reminder, state your name and address, and you have three minutes, sir.

My name's Peter Emery, and my address is 219 Washington Avenue.

And I'm not a social, I'm just uh a resident of uh Ward 4, and I see these flock cameras all over the place.

I've researched them myself, and I think they're egregious.

And I know that this council got a very in-depth presentation at a previous meeting.

I've watched that meeting and that uh presentation, so I'm not here to uh provide any information about that.

I think you already know.

And my ask is very simple is cancel the contracts and get rid of the cameras.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Hey guys, uh appreciate the enthusiasm.

If we can just you know keep it to the end, how about that?

Next up, Brendan Dillingham.

Good evening, sitting counsel.

Coming coming back.

I'm here today to speak on the ongoing legal intrusion of surveillance cameras within our community.

Can you please state your name and address for the record?

Sure.

Thank you.

Brennan Dillingham, 1825 Northeast Coist Drive.

So, good evening.

I'm here to speak on the ongoing legal intrusion of surveillance cameras within our community.

Not only has the cameras to which I believe sole purpose is to surveil and intrude our rights, they also are volatile to security breaches.

DFLOC has constantly talked about these systems, and any one person can have the power to stock ex partners in the case of Robert J.

Joseph in Casa Mintomensa, California, or even use the correct ways, and software identifies a wrong suspect in error because it's a because of its reliance on AI facial recognition, Clearview AI.

In the case of Angela Lips in Tennessee 2025.

I have just listed a lot of information, so allow me to give further detail.

An instance that makes me fearful what could happen would be of Angela Lips.

July 14, 2025, Angela was watching her four grandchildren when she was arrested for being a suspect in a bank fart case in North Dakota.

The main evidence was a facial recognition technology known as Claire View AI.

This company had scraped three billion images of faces over the internet.

They use this recognition software alongside video footage camera that Flock has, especially the Condor series, which uses AI-powered tilt pin capabilities.

Angela spent three months in jails and was extradited to North Dakota.

Finally set free on December twenty-third.

She became because she was able to show bank records of her in Tennessee when the crime had occurred.

The worst part is she had never even visited North North Dakota to begin with.

In Orange County, California, 2026, a police officer named by the name of Robert J.

Joseph played guilty to the misdemeanor court for unauthorized computer access.

What was this unauthorized computer access?

Well, according to the District Attorney Todd Spitzer, between June and December of 2023, Joseph was accused of using the California law enforcement telecommunications systems database to make 13 inquiries on people's and vehicles not related to his job.

Joseph is also accused of accessing the police police department's flock license plate reader system in order to locate his mistress vehicle and the vehicle around the women's romantic interests in order to follow their locations.

Also quoted by him, after Joseph was placed on leave from the Cosa Mensa Police Department in December 2023, he continued to illegally access the police department's flock license plate reader system in June of 2024, in order to find out the address of his mistress and new boyfriends in Torrance.

Of course, this happened in California and not here, but even having the capability to do so feels like an unchecked balance that cannot be disregarded.

And to me, one bad apple does spoil the whole bunch.

There are multiple instances I could go on about of these errors, and which you guys are already aware of.

But to leave you with this quote, the cost of free surveillance tools is measured not in tax dollars, but in the erosion of several loot release.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bryce and Pace.

Today I wanted to tell you about recent FBI procurement documents published by 404 Media.

In this 24-page document, the FBI sends out an all-call asking for ALPR access in all states and territories.

The FBI wants to partner and buy access to existing ALPR infrastructure, of which only two companies in the U.S.

could fulfill an asking of this size.

That is Motorola Solutions and Flock Safety.

Flock being the leader in this department, this means it is only a matter of time before federal agencies have official access to our LPRs again.

I say official because we know that federal agencies are still accessing ALPR searches into our cameras here.

We already know that Flock had contracts with ICE DHS and multiple military branches in the past, which Flock hid until it was uncovered and public outrage ensued.

It's obvious there's an appetite to continue to gain and maintain access to these AI ALPRs.

I can't speak for everyone, but that certainly does not make me feel any safer.

It makes me feel the opposite.

I urge you to end Evansville's contract with Flock Safety and remove the cameras to take federal, to take federal agencies extra set of eyes away from our streets, to listen to the public outcry, to research past what Flock is telling people, past what uh what law enforcement's opinion is, and to look into the insurmountable evidence that is staring you in the face.

We ask that you get Flock out.

Thank you.

Next up, Olivia Latham.

Olivia Latham, 132 South Bakey Road.

So Flock loves to say that their cameras only take a point-in-time image of the back of a license plate on a public roadway and that they don't have tracking capabilities, but this is an extreme oversimplification, if not just outright false.

Flock is not being marketed to police as just singular cameras that take point-in-time images.

It's being marketed as an extremely powerful system with pattern of life tracking capabilities.

The risk is that a database or the risk isn't that they can see one car once.

The risk is that a database quietly learns everyone's routines.

This is from a uh Flock product demo webinar where a rep is explaining how Flock OS works.

Begin, quote, the more details drawer is gonna fly out, and here we have the vehicle details and the vehicle journey.

You can see 14 days of pattern of life or 30 days of pattern of life.

So you can, once you've zoomed in on your suspect, start to see what they've been doing and where they've been going.

And you have the heat map that you know and love.

Quoting another rep who was doing a QA about Flock's hot list feature.

You might want to know how long, you might want to know long term where that car has been in a week, so you kind of want to know what its pattern of life is.

And another rep doing a QA who says Flock OS allows you to see the historical locations of a specific vehicle, including a map-based view and heat map as part of license plate search.

Some people will say because I'm against automated license plate readers that I don't care about public safety.

No, I do care.

But more surveillance and more policing has never and will never increase public safety.

This has been proven over and over again by an abundance of research, and prison lobbyists and giant corporations like Flock who directly profit from incarceration and crime continue to try to convince us otherwise.

There are three key factors which are particularly important for lowering crime and increasing public safety.

And that is one, steady income, two, access to safe and stable housing, and three, access to care and services.

And I know that Evansville already has many great programs that focus on improving our residents' quality of life.

But I personally would have rather seen the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have been spent on Flock allocated to one of those social programs instead.

Many of you have shown public support for our immigrant communities here in Evansville and encouraged your constituents to stand up against hate and violence directed towards those communities.

Councilwoman Allen, you in particular have been very vocal about your opposition to what ICE has been doing and your desire to defend our immigrant communities.

The three of you that Adam and I met with, and Sergeant McDonald, or the three of you that met with Adam and I and Sergeant McDonald heard the sergeant point blank say that EPD has no plans to stop sharing our flock data with other jurisdictions nationwide, which also includes federal agencies like ICE, and that they will not restrict searches of our database that are pertaining to immigration.

Canceling this contract is a real intangible way that you can put your money where your mouth is and protect our immigrant communities.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Lori Salamer.

Lori Salma, 1431 Green Meadow Road.

I'm speaking as a lifelong member of this community to end Evansville's contract with Flock surveillance cameras and to stop the use of automated surveillance technology in our community.

Flock cameras cost taxpayers 142,500 per year.

Our community does not own the cameras or the equipment.

It is an annual subscription.

For our money, we get a system that tracks and gathers private data of anyone who passes a camera and that uses AI technology to determine if a crime has been committed and who is suspicious.

My primary concern is that Evansville is rapidly moving toward automated and widespread surveillance of all community members, using technology produced by companies who are profiting from the ever-increasing sacrifice of our right to privacy.

This is happening too quickly for the people of Evansville to grasp.

Next month, first responder drones will be introduced as another intrusive tool that will have the capacity to integrate with Flock cameras.

Communities around the country are moving toward eliminating Flock and companies like it.

A bipartisan committee in Congress is currently trying to put limits on a video surveillance system that has expanded too rapidly and without safeguards.

Bloomington, Indiana has decided not to renew their flock contract due to a number of concerns that are affect that will affect our community as well.

This decision was made due to months of controversy over the security of information being gathered by Flock cameras, as well as infringement on people's personal freedom.

I am concerned about the lack of controls on who can see the information, how long it is stored, and how often searches are performed.

Flock is a corporation making its income from mass surveillance and does not act in the interest of the people of Evansville.

Their interest in profiting from this community was solidified when a day after concerned citizens spoke to this city council in opposition to Flock cameras, the company sent an emergency PR team to Evansville to try to do damage control.

Clearly, a lot is at stake for the profit margin of the Flock Corporation.

I've lived in Evansville my whole life, and the people here value privacy and rule of law.

Overall, the people here have great respect for a police force and their capacity to keep us safe.

Flock cameras are intrusive, dangerous, expensive, and unnecessary toward achieving this end.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Daniel Licklighter.

Daniel Licklider, 2621 Rox Bay Road.

Hello, I wanted to take my three minutes to read the words of my fellow local citizens that are here today.

Each of these quotes are comments left by Evansville, Bainobo County citizens that officially signal petition that is now sitting at 718 signatures as of last night.

Here are the voices you are supposed to be representing.

No one's to be subjected to mass surveillance, ran by companies that only have profit in mind.

In fact, there shouldn't be mass surveillance, period.

The police did our jobs is fine, end quote.

Thanks for spreading the world.

These things are invasion of our privacy, not worth that what little problems they actually claim to solve, end quote.

Anyone who does not understand the implications of these types of devices is asking for tyranny.

These cameras are a threat and have already been abused, calling these cameras license plate readers as an attempt to disguise their real capabilities.

These companies have no real oversight or regulations.

Wake up Evansville, end quote.

Not only is this mass government surveillance, but it's also mass culprit surveillance.

This data on where you go, where you shop, where you worship, and who you visit is collected and stowed by a corporation with known security vulnerabilities.

And then access to that data is sold as a subscription to law enforcement and others.

No one should be comfortable with that level of invasion of privacy.

At a minimum, this is a fourth amendment violation.

End quote.

End quote.

I don't think any crimes being committed in my city are so great that catching them is a priority such that the privacy of all citizens should be at payroll.

End quote.

I support deflocking and divesting from Clearview AI in Evansville because mass, camera tracking, and facial recognition threaten privacy, civil liberties, and due process without proven public safety benefits.

This technology enables constant surveillance, misidentification, and abuse, especially without strict oversight or transparency.

All community safety solutions that respect constitutional rights and local values, not systems that normalize tracking residents as suspects.

Evansville should choose accountability, privacy, and trust over invasive surveillance, end quote.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Jonathan Baker.

Jonathan S.

Baker, 1915 McConnell Avenue.

I am here in my capacity as co-host of Indiana's longest-running and most prestigious poetry reading, Poetry Speaks.

And I'm going to express myself in the way that I know how.

Flock.

We now return to our vestigial beliefs.

The cliche of the primitive.

Photographs stealing our souls.

Power through mimesis, spiritual backdoors via mirrors, or pigment on stone, pen and ink, cameras and prints, hard drives, screens and discs.

Our souls uploaded, saved to the cloud, bootlegs of our lives recorded and mapped out, disturbed by the act of observation.

The warlock dominates a man with just a bit of hair, some nail clippings, a sketch on parchment, a series of frames lined up to make a day.

Letting out our comings and goings, burning them to destroy us, keeping them to control us, superstition becomes manifest.

There is a network of snitches, sears gazing on crystals, stool pigeons perched up on posts, peeping Tom Paparazzi, policing our movements, selling us out, trading our data, markers on our souls.

Passed between authorities.

Big brother is watching and he is suspicious of you.

Hunan and Munan are watching and are running to tell stories to the all father.

Suspicious of why, why you go that way on these days at these times.

Saint Nick is watching and he's making lists and checking them twice.

Lists of dissidents, lists of agitators, and malcontents.

An authoritarian audience is watching.

Never let them see you sweat and always leave them wanting more.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, Adam Carey.

Adam Carey, 7699 Meadow Lane.

As of last time, I might have to slow my speech at times because it's hard for me to talk today.

Hello.

Since the last time I was here and shared my bullet point list of concerns with Flock safety and the city's contract with them, that list has unsurprisingly gained five more bullet points.

However, our group has gained 590 followers and reached over 50,000 people online.

I'm thankful to have met with a few of you to help farther educate on the topic and urge you to take action that frankly should have taken place already.

I'm disappointed in the lack of action towards canceling and removing Flock, unlike your many other democratic constituents in other cities that have taken to canceling and removing their cameras.

In my hundreds of hours of research on Flock and AI AIL ALPRs, one thing has become abundantly clear to me.

An 8.4 billion dollar corporation is leveraging the public's general trust in law enforcement and local officials and utilizing them as salesmen.

Several of you, as former realtors, are well aware of how sales work.

This sales pitch is playing out time and time again across the U.S.

through direct interdepartmental communication between city governments, law enforcement, and Flock.

This creates an echo chamber of officials blindly trusting law enforcement who are blindly trusting Flock.

Especially when they encourage law enforcement in cities to push press press packages and releases on positive Flock related stories.

This equates to you directly trusting a for-profit, $8.4 billion company who believes in proactive policing and has been caught watching children's gymnastics gyms for sales demos, which doesn't bode well for the Flock cameras stationed right outside of McGarry Middle School and Washington Middle School, which has the most economically disadvantaged population exceeding 90% of the student populace at both schools, which is also a reflection of the systemic racism policing that Flock can fuel.

You support a company with a full-time PR team dedicated to fighting groups concerned for their communities' safeties and rights by fine representatives around the country to fight us and boldly lie directly to city councils, as they already tried here when they heard we would be at a county commissioner's meeting back in April.

And we've seen them do time and time again around the country.

Additionally, they are actively hosting virtual training sessions to help law enforcement learn how to speak to city councils about Flock.

I repeat, they're salesmen.

Going back to the beginning of my speech, I referenced an ever-growing list of concerns with Flock.

As the list of concerns keeps growing, there are two things being sat on in this room: your hands and the ticking time bomb that is FOC safety.

Please cancel and remove Flock from our community.

Thank you.

Next up, Brett Jarbo.

Right Jarbo, 822 East Powell.

It's hard to top that.

I mean, these young people are informed.

They are doing their research, and quite frankly, they're pointing out a concern that is.

I said, Well, I'm here bipartisan.

Okay, well, let's throw another parts then in there.

We have the left who's disagreeing with it.

Members on the right who are disagreeing with it.

You have the people in the middle like me who disagree with it.

So that alone, I would hope would catch everybody's attention.

This is a concern for everybody on all sides.

To give a little background about myself, come from a military background.

My last 12 years I was involved with ATFP, anti terrorism force protection, also law enforcement.

So, cameras, surveillance systems, etc., are not a new thing for me.

Okay.

While my standards are coming up on 15 to 20 years out of date on what is acceptable security-wise, what I've dug around on Flock so far doesn't even meet two decade old standards of safety and security for keeping this data safe.

We're paying money for a system that doesn't meet the minimum paid contractor standards.

And yet we are rushing forward, engaging it with AI, multiple other companies, you know, I can throw out the names, you know, of Palantir, etc.

and so forth.

But I'm not going to.

We all know these concerning companies.

Flock is tied in with them.

When we think of a horrible dystopian future that would be a mega blockbuster on the screen, we're thinking about what's going on right outside our door right now with Flock surveillance and all and everything else.

Step back, reconsider, and really honestly think: is this where we want our city to go?

Is E is Evansville really going to be E for everybody if we got big brother looking over our shoulder 24 hours?

It doesn't feel like a place that I want to be.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Last up, we have Susan Blinkenship.

My name is Susan Blankenship.

I live at 1108 South Lincoln Park Drive, 47714 Council District 2.

There are four flop cameras about one block from where I live that I walk my dog past every day.

There are numerable reasons to be concerned with the proliferation of flock cameras in Evansville.

I'm here to speak about the outsized private benefits the city of Evansville is providing to the Flock Corporation and to call for the removal of all flock surveillance equipment throughout the city.

In section 11.9 of the contract, it states quote if customer or authorized end user provides any suggestions, ideas, enhancement requests, feedback, recommendations, or other information relating to the subject matter here under, customer or authorized end user hereby assigns to Flock all right, title, and interest, including intellectual property rights, with respect to or resulting from any of the foregoing.

In some, the city and its residents are committed through this contract to paying Flock so that it can enrich that corporation further.

Thank you.

Let me just say I thought there might be some repetition happening there, and then you threw in some poetry.

So we are clear, and I I commend you for um you know being passionate around something that you want to see changed.

And I know that we've had this conversation a few times with a couple of you, but just to again clarify, is I heard it two or three times.

Is this council uh passes laws and approves or denies financial requests?

We do not have any capacity to chain our or cancel uh the current contract.

That is not in our purview.

So just sharing that.

Just heard that a few times and just wanted to point that out.

We're still still happy to have more discussion and hear your view, but again, just wanted to point that out.

Um that's a council, counsel.

Counselors.

If you don't mind me asking, then can you not cut the funds?

Can you uh come to the microphone if you don't mind?

Of course.

Can you not cut the funds?

If you can't cancel the contract itself, can you not cut what's funding the contract?

Going forward, we would have the option of uh not funding any further.

Understood.

So then who can cancel it?

That would be I believe the public safety board.

Okay.

But I need to look.

Okay.

Thank you.

Unless our EPD friend would like to share anything.

You don't have to.

I said that earlier.

And Mr.

President, when we hear from him, I've got a few comments I'd like to make and a couple questions as well, sir.

The Board of Public Safety is the board that generally controls our uh our contracts, although occasionally we do go before the Board of Public Works for contract approval.

That's the only thing I wanted to clarify.

Cool.

Thank you.

No problem.

So start off with a couple questions here.

Uh there's a couple times uh when uh folks were speaking uh that they mentioned the flock people coming in, and I don't seem to recall that.

I know I've had some travel for work and I and I don't know if I was here for that or when did that happen.

If I can speak on that, it came to county commissioner.

County city of our okay.

And they somehow copy and we're assuming through the sheriff and then showed up within what we weren't there that day.

Okay, so all right.

I just I wanted to get clarification here because as it was presented, it was presented as Flock had presented to us, and so I just want to be clear on that.

Um, couple of things about AI integration.

One with condor cameras, and anybody please correct me if I'm wrong here, but my understanding is is Flock in our particular city does not have condor cameras.

Is that is that correct?

That is correct, okay.

I just want to make sure on that.

Uh another comment that was made was made, um, I believe I might have miswrote the name down, but says that the AI in Flock determines uh you know criminality and what's going on.

I I'm having a hard time understanding that one.

Uh if we don't have Condor, we also do not have Flock in or we don't have AI in Flock, is that correct?

That's correct.

We have 53 Falcons and two Flex, and they are simply licensed plate reading cameras.

They do not record video or do any facial recognition.

Uh and the system itself does not give any indication of criminality or not.

Okay.

Guys, if you could.

Yeah.

Uh this the question or the comment period is uh is over.

I'm just trying to get some clarification here.

Can you clarify your question because the Flock software itself does use AI?

Well, I mean, I would say I would argue that almost everything today uses AI.

Your Gmail does, it creeps up in your own personal email.

I I get what you're saying.

I'm not trying to argue, I'm just trying to get some clarification here on some of the points that were being made.

I'm not trying to discredit you.

I actually have a lot of the same concerns that you have.

Had many conversations with Chief and other folks about where we're at, most importantly, you know, do we have a policy in the way that we use it, right?

My concern has always been the concern.

I think of most of you all, especially when it talks about immigrant communities and the opportunity for ICE to tap into our particular network.

We do know that there are some jurisdictions that are limiting the scope of who can access those, uh, and I think at a base minimum we need to honestly explore that.

Um I've also seen the utmost benefits uh and tell you a little personal story about myself.

My dad, 25 years, my uncle 25 years, my brother, you know, 14 years, my brother-in-law, 22 years.

My dad, when I wanted to join the military, told me I had a problem with authority, right?

So two things that really got me hyped up was 9-11 came came around and the Patriot Act came.

I was, you know, in college studying political science, getting really involved.

Flip side of that was war powers and invading Iraq and uh all sorts of things in that degree.

So hence the reason why I'm here.

I do share a lot of you guys' concerns.

I appreciate you guys' uh coming here and sharing uh such good information uh with us on council.

Uh do know that myself and many counselors do hear you, are having conversations.

Um I I understand that there, you know, are people of all political persuasions, whether they're right, left, or in the center, um, that you know have these uh concerns as well.

Um extends way beyond that, in my opinion, in the in the world of AI and everything.

As I said, I mean my personal Gmail is rocking AI, and I don't know where all that information and data is going as well.

Corporate surveillance on us happens every day on this phone.

Talk about patterns of life tracking and a database being built.

Corporate entities know what I want before I even know it because it's kind of uncanny what I think about in my head and I see on social media or in other means of digital advertising.

So do know I do share in your concerns.

Do you know that I will continue to have conversations at bare minimum to see what kind of policies we can do to limit who can access to better protect.

I'm not quite convinced that moving away from it, seeing some of the significant successes that EPD has been able to leverage this for.

That access databases like this to surveil or invade and you know be intrusive into the lives of people because they might not be right in the head, but so far as I know, we've not had that happen here in EPD.

Um directly with our personnel uh utilizing Flock.

Uh and I don't know that anybody has tapped in from some other jurisdiction to creep on or or do something nefarious or out of line of somebody's privacy.

So I I just want to put that out there uh because I do understand the concerns, and again, there are bad apples everywhere.

I just want to believe that they're not here in EPD.

So thank you all.

Counselors, any further comments?

With that, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

So moved, second.

Hearing a first and second, all the all those in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

So ordered.

We are now adjourned.