There’s a lot of confusion and conflicting reports about what went down at Coralville city council last night.

Council was voting on a resolution to approve policies intended to regulate a contract with Flock that was signed by Chief Nicholson back in May.

Many community members spoke in opposition to the resolution because these policies, which council had discussed at a previous meeting having never reviewed the Flock contract, are incompatible with how Flock operates and are therefore unenforceable.

The community ask was that the council cancel the contract but the city attorney’s speculation that this would mean forfeiting the cost made the council unwilling to consider this option.

A city attorney’s opinion is just an opinion, not settled law, and no money had changed hands yet nor had the cameras been installed, so it was disappointing that no councilors pursued this.

The final vote was 3-2 with Councilors Goodrich, Peterson and Vogelzang voting to move forward with subjecting Coralville to AI surveillance (Flock) and Councilors Huynh and Knudson voting against the resolution.

Audio in Coralville City Hall is bad so some community members missed the outcome of the vote and it was also made more confusing by Mayor Foster responding after Councilor Huynh’s vote of “nay” by saying “resolution approved, all ayes.”

I hope that helps. Lots of us were there so don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Today was rough after last night’s political theatre but I have hope thinking ahead to November 4 and the opportunity to vote Ryan Swenka for Mayor and Katie Freeman For Coralville Council.