City remains at loggerheads with ESD
HUTTO – The city is joining ranks with many other Texas municipalities by canceling its contract with Flock Safety to provide automatic license plate reader cameras.
The City Council unanimously voted Sept. 17 to remove 10 cameras from the toolbox of the Police Department, citing growing concerns from residents about government surveillance, data collection and potential misuse.
Also during the meeting, council members received updates on the county’s emergency services district turning down options involving a tax-sharing agreement and discussed the need for checks and balances on future data centers.
Meanwhile, the Flock cameras in contention were deactivated in August by Police Chief Jeff Yarbrough, who was awaiting more information regarding possible vulnerabilities in the system.
“We’ve heard concerns in the community and from law enforcement agencies that caused us to take a step back and look at where we are,” Yarbrough said.
The chief said that before activating the system a year ago, the Police Department put protocols into place to protect the public.
“We identified some concerns initially when we deployed the system and we took actions to solidify our policies, our practices and our procedures when it came to who could access it, how it was accessed, how our officers would and could access the data and what the circumstances were for them to use that,” Yarbrough said.
In the last few weeks, representatives of Flock have told various governmental bodies that new safeguards have been activated, but at the same time more allegations have surfaced of stored data being used to track people for non-investigatory reasons.
Law enforcement agencies have argued the cameras are a “force multiplier” that helps them more efficiently track and solve crimes.
Some of the concerns leading to the council’s vote revolved around how other agencies retrieve information from the system and how developments in artificial intelligence may reduce privacy.
Yarbrough said the department has successfully used Flock cameras to solve crimes in Hutto, but even without the cameras the department still has other resources and methods to continue solving cases.
The decision by council also prohibits the use of license plate reader technology from other companies in addition to Flock Safety.
The city retains contracts with Flock for closed-loop cameras and a video monitoring system that has no communication with the shared license plate reader system. The closed system monitors activities in areas including Hutto parks and is only viewable by police.
Other cities banning Flock cameras include Austin, Bandera, Bastrop, Boerne, Elgin, Manor and Pflugerville.
City, ESD still at odds Mayor Mike Snyder said the city’s fire safety sub-committee met with Emergency Services District No. 3 last week over a tax-sharing agreement but could not find common ground.
ESD No. 3 Sept. 8 sent a letter to City Manager James Earp saying they would not be moving forward with any of the options presented to them by the city on Aug. 7.
Snyder said the ESD seemed to believe the options presented by the city were non-negotiable and left no room for discussion.
Those options include:
• Allow the community to vote on giving the city 80% of sales tax revenue on annexed properties
• Sign an agreement to transition the ESD into a city-owned fire service
• Agree to an 80/20 allocation of sales-tax revenue for 30 years Councilman Jim Morris, who is also on the sub-committee, said he thinks the ESD is trying to take a larger role in city growth.
“It seems like the ESD wants to be in economic development. Before we’ve signed anything, they want to be at the table and they want to be part of the negotiations. They stipulate how the (shared sales-tax revenue) is spent, where the money is spent,” Morris said. “They are handcuffing the city.”
Under the current agreement, the city’s share of the sales-tax revenue for annexed properties has to be spent in the annexed area. City leaders said they invest funding on infrastructure for annexed areas before they ever see any of the shared sales-tax revenue.
Fire Chief Scott Kerwood said ESD No. 3 believes the 2026 Sales and Use Tax Agreement signed by both entities May 7 is adequate to allow both to grow and deliver services.
“The issue before us should not be which entity receives the greater share of sales-tax revenue. The issue is whether the community will have the resources necessary to provide the right people, equipment, facilities and emergency-response capabilities when they are needed,” Kerwood said in his letter to the city.
ESDs were created in the 1990s as tax-funded entities providing fire and emergency medical aid to rural areas underserved by a municipal fire department. Both the city and ESD No. 3 have announced competing plans to build new stations in the vicinity of the Hutto Megasite.
City to consider standards for data centers
The council will discuss setting standards for data centers locating within the city at an upcoming meeting, after they receive more information this week.
“I would like to have us be the kind of community that says ‘OK, we’re going to have this, we cannot stop it, and we’re doing our due diligence to make sure we set standards that are flexible but we are letting developers know we are looking for this,’” said Councilwoman Corinne Zepeda.
Zepeda said she observed how Round Rock and neighboring cities have dealt with the issue, from complete moratoriums to strict design standards. She said her intention was to fast-track city guidelines to be in front of the coming wave of data center developments, and to protect quality of life without hindering the projects.
Supporters of data centers note the facilities often put tax revenue back into the coffers of school districts and local governments to fund infrastructure.
Snyder cautioned that specifications need to be responsive to the community and protect residential neighborhoods without causing an impediment for annexation.
He pointed to the Big Watt Digital / Powerhouse Digital Data Centers project in Taylor that recently rescinded its annexation request after community opposition.
Hutto officials also discussed a need for identifying what the city expects from data center developments in terms of public benefit funds to enhance quality of life projects such as trails and sidewalks.
Nearby Taylor has at least four data centers that could come to the city, but local activists have launched protests over fears of pollution and drains on power and water, issues that developers say are unfounded.
Gov. Greg Abbott declared a moratorium on new data centers until after state agencies have conducted energy and water audits and also directed government entities not to shift the cost of data centers to taxpayers.
