Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

It's Tuesday, September 8th, 2026. This is a Corning Board of Aldermen meeting. Call the meeting to order.

Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Take roll.

I have taken roll. Everyone is present. You have the quorum.

Thank you. We'll move on to the next item on the agenda, public hearings and personal appearances. We have none noticed this evening. We'll move on to the next portion of the meeting, the open public comment portion of the meeting. Is there anybody that wish to address their elected board this evening? Before you come forward, I'll read a statement. During the open public comments section of our meeting agenda, we invite residents of Kearney to step forward and directly address their Board of Aldermen. Each resident is requested to clearly state their name and address for the record and will have three minutes to present their statement. This session is specifically designed for residents to express their views or concerns. It is not intended for dialogue, debate, or question and answer interactions with the Board of Aldermen. All statements made during this time will be formally recorded in the public record. We urge all participants to keep the remarks respectful and focus on matters relevant to Kearney. Your contributions are a vital part of our continuous efforts to enrich and improve Kearney, and we thank you to adhering to these guidelines and helping us maintain the decorum of this process. The timer on the screen will advance from green to red. The timer will be green for your first two minutes, yellow for the last minute, and red when the time is up. If you wish to address the board this evening under open public comments, have you come forward to the podium, state your name and address for the record, and your time will begin.

Hello, my name is Andy Maidman. I live at 1420 Laurel Street. I'm also the chairman of the Clay County Libertarian Party. I'm not here for that. I'm here to discuss flock cameras, and I'm assuming that everyone here knows what a flock camera is, and that Carney has several of them. I'm not going to bore everyone with philosophical discourse about the Orwellian nature of 1984 stock surveillance, nor will I speak much to the constitutionality of being able to track someone's movements without a warrant. For those who say no such negative determination is made by the courts, I say no determination has been made yet. To those who say your cell phone tracks you everywhere, I say there's all the difference between voluntarily giving up data to a private entity so they can sell ads and involuntarily being tracked by my government that they might imprison me. To those who say it's just license plate readers, I say you're naive. They read license plates, scan bumper stickers, paint chips, dense dings, and with their high-def cameras, they take your biometric data and create a profile of you. They scan every transmitter on you, your car, and everyone in your vehicle. All of that is fed into a database that collates and runs each data point through AI, a database that anyone willing to pay for. In just one year, the city of Pflugerville, Texas had its cameras data accessed 1.6 million times by 489 different flock customers. That's 3,272 times on average per customer. If you're doing the math in your head, yes, that's more than 10 times a day for each customer. Black says the data belongs to the customer, but it clearly doesn't. Story County, Iowa had its data access even though it was supposed to be limited. They say it's only kept for 30 days, but they just tried to sell five years of collated data to Sheboygan, ostensibly to issue speeding citations. The atrocities do not stop at Phlox lies. This year, Wisconsin tracked a man going to Michigan to buy pot where it was legal. I can only imagine California and New York doing the same for ammunition magazines. Florida this year, a woman was jailed for 13 days because Phlox's faulty AI flagged her vehicle in a deadly hit-and-run crash. I could go on and on and on. But what about police abuse? There are over 100 incidents of tracked by the Institute for Justice. That's just what they know about. A South Carolina detective just lied and put random case numbers into the system to cover her tracks. Tracking reasons in Virginia are often nonsensical with CJ, INV, or just la la la being the stated justification that their superiors didn't care about. Closer to home, Chief Nygaard of Sedgwick, Kansas tracked his ex-girlfriend. Corruption cares not for rank. The same department detained someone because the faulty AI can't tell between temporary and permanent plates. That was the same month. Lenexa, Kansas police tracked a journalist who was critical of them. I wonder if I should be concerned. In Missouri, both St. Louis County and the city of Brentwood discovered sustained and egregious policy violations. And in Joplin, an officer was found to be searching for his girlfriend and ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend. He was criminally charged just last week. You can say not here, not in our town, all you want, until it is your town. There are no effective checks or balances on the system. Frankly, it doesn't work if they are. They'll say if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear. I've already just proven that. But wait until the next election and who decides what wrong is. Just six years ago, going to work in Clay County was a crime. Going to church in Kansas was. Kansas. Michigan is inevitable. Your time is up.

Is there anybody else that wish to address the board?

So I'm going to say a few things, and you're just going to have to deal with it. That's what Tony Sperano said first, but it perfectly applies to this council. Ashton, Jerry, Dan, does your telephone and email work? I've reached out to you repeatedly, and common courtesy dictates a reply. Responding to constituents is your job. I also submitted a pre-recorded message for the last meeting. Despite multiple emails, Ms. Ernst, you gave no indication my request would be ignored. Yet you silenced it. Does that truly align with your vision statement on honesty and transparency? I should reclaim my time for that. Furthermore, Mayor Pogue, my concerns are not emotionally charged rhetoric. They're also not isolated examples. This is a profound national debate involving millions of Americans, and a massive pattern has emerged, and apparently you're ignoring it. You explicitly asked for a debate grounded in objective facts, yet your own city manager and police chief are tracking zero objective data points to justify this surveillance. So how are you using objective facts? You think it's an oxymoron? You might label your silence as conflict avoidance. I call it lack of character. When leadership hides, it destroys public trust and you have officially lost mine. In my 10 years here, the city has systematically failed to listen. You ignored my neighborhood request regarding Watson Drive, the interchange, and commercial concerns. Voters rejected your proposed community center by a whopping 70% and soundly defeated Proposition A. Yet, you're determined to continue to force Proposition B, the exact same measure under a different name, down our throats. You even ignored the Greenfield neighborhood recently regarding the upcoming carnival. Because of this obstinacy, I will be at every single meeting moving forward speaking to you until you take action. We the people do not want these cameras. We reject vague claims of safety that are backed by zero data. You are wasting our dollars on tracking system that we were never allowed to vote on. And Mr. Lehman, stop telling citizens, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. Start remembering, a free country doesn't track innocent citizens. And Mayor Pogue, you're not seeking reelection. But to the rest of you, if you don't want to see me running for that seat or yours, I suggest you start listening and taking action. I'm not anti-police, but I am entirely disillusioned with your leadership. We raised concerns about flock cameras and received absolute total silence. Your silence proves you aren't interested in representing the taxpayers who put you in those seats. And if you refuse to do the job, get up and vacate them.

anybody else wish to address the board this evening hello connie crocker 301 north grove terrace i'm here tonight to urge you to reassess our town's relationship with flock safety we all want our community to be safe but safety shouldn't mean trading away our constitutional rights privacy and our tax dollars for a subscription to corporate surveillance. Flock cameras do more than read license plates. They continuously track and catalog the daily movements of every innocent driver on our streets, every trip to church, to the doctor, to a friend's house, and store that location data on private servers that are outside of our control. We've been told this will help police solve crimes, but the data tells a different story. Atlanta is now the most surveilled city in America. With over 28,000 cameras citywide, more than 5,000 of them are flock. According to FBI crime data, its ability to solve crimes did not improve, it got worse. If thousands of cameras couldn't move the needle there, we should ask hard questions about what we're actually buying here. Meanwhile, the system builds a permanent movement log on every resident and shares our local data with outside agencies without our consent. It relies on AI matching that has already led to false accusations against innocent people elsewhere. The ACLU has raised serious concerns about flux transparency. The technology has quietly expanded to include facial recognition, microphones, and sound detection. Our own school buses now carry these AI cameras, meaning our children can be tracked by whoever gets access to that data. Where does it end? And we're paying for the privilege. Just last month, the city of Sheboygan, Wisconsin covered up its cameras and moved to cancel its contract after a flock salesperson tried to sell the city five years of its own traffic and movement data. data that flock had told them it didn't retain but it did if a company will quietly sell its own data back how confident should we be in what happens to ours other cities have weighed this trade-off listened to their residents and pulled the cameras down i urge you to do the same you were elected to represent us and it's clear we don't want these in our towns Please protect our privacy and respect the taxpayers who put you in that seat. Vote to end our contract with Flock and keep these automated license plate readers out of our town. Thank you.

Is there anybody else that wish to address the board this evening?

Hello.

Hello.

Stormy Buttrick, 1420 Laurel. And I just moved here like a month ago, two months ago. So I'm new here. I know a lot of people are saying a lot of things about the flat cameras. And I do see a situation where maybe it could help do some good with police investigations. You know, kids and stolen cars, people breaking into your house. But I want to pivot and talk about another country that also has surveillance on every one of their citizens in their country. China uses very similar camera AI generated system that the flock cameras use. And they actually provide a social credit score for each of their people in their country. So what I'm saying is, Right now, people are saying, hey, it's just for the police to help with investigations. But as a lot of these people have said, it's not just that. There's been police abuse. There's been tracking every movement. So when are we gonna pivot from just using it occasionally to solve a crime, log your movements, and move to a completely credit score like China? I'm just saying this. I'm still investigating flock cameras on my own, but what I did do with some research, and it's a very similar system, very similar cameras, so what's going to stop flock from evolving into social credit scores? That's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else that wished to address the board under open public comments this evening? We'll move on to the consent agenda. Does the board have any questions or items of discussion on the consent agenda this evening? Seeing none, if we could entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved.

I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Consent agenda is approved. We'll move on to ordinances. The first ordinance this evening is a motion approving bill number 43-2026 presented by Chief Brian Allen. An ordinance authorizing the execution of a contract with the Missouri Department of Transportation Highway Safety and Traffic Division for federal grant funds for hazardous moving violation enforcement. Chief?

Thank you, Mayor, members of the board. Police Department has received a HMV enforcement grant through MoDOT. This is a non-matching grant. The contract runs October of 26 through September of 27. Like I said, it's 100% reimbursed. We were awarded $17,000. That'll go towards purchase of one in-car radar, handheld radars for the cars, HMV enforcements, and training.

Thank you for that report. Any questions from Chief Outland on his report on the proposed ordinance? Seeing no questions, if we read the proposed ordinance on the first reading by title only please.

An ordinance authorizing the execution of a contract with the Missouri Department of Transportation Highway Safety and Traffic Division for federal grant funds for hazardous moving violation enforcement.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Second reading by title only, please.

An ordinance authorizing the execution of a contract with the Missouri Department of Transportation Highway Safety and Traffic Division for federal grant funds for hazardous moving violation enforcement.

Move to approve on second reading. I'll second. Pull the board, please.

Alderman King? Aye. Alderman Spencer? Aye. Alderman Lehman?

Aye.

Alderman Holt? Aye.

The ordinance is approved. Next item is a motion approving bill number 44, 2026 presented by Shelly Daniel, our Public Works Director, an ordinance approving the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Strategic Highway Safety Plan Program Agreement. Shelly?

Thank you, Mayor and Board. This ordinance is to accept a $10,000 grant to help purchase a rapid flashing beacon for the trail crossing at 19th Street at Stone Lake Drive. It allows us to accelerate the installation of the beacons that will help improve the safety of our most vulnerable road users. According to FHWA, which is Federal Highway Administration, the installation of these type beacons reduces pedestrian related crashes by 47%. So I do recommend accepting this ordinance.

Exciting update, Shelly. I appreciate you and all of our staff that takes the time to keep our federal tax dollars local here at work. And so exciting update. If there's no questions from the board, if we could read the proposed ordinance on the first reading, please.

An ordinance approving the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Strategic Highway Safety Plan Program Agreement.

Make a motion. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Second reading by title only, please.

An ordinance approving the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission Strategic Highway Safety Plan Program Agreement. I make a motion to approve.

Second. Pull aboard, please.

Alderman Spencer? Aye. Alderman Lehman? Aye. Alderman Holt? Aye. Alderman King?

vote is unanimous and the ordinance is approved we'll move on to resolutions this evening the first item is a resolution uh presented by sunday mckinney our deputy city clerk a resolution approving a revised contract with bulldog demolition and construction services for the demolition of a structure located at 108 108 east washington street sunday thank you this resolution amends the previously approved

resolution for the demolition project to reflect additional costs associated with completing the demolition, including the required asbestos abatement. The demolition contractor will subcontract directly with the abatement contractor, allowing the work to be completed as part of the overall project without requiring a separate bid process. The updated resolution agreement reflect the revised scope and associated fees.

So we're talking about an increase of roughly $2,500 to remediate the asbestos? Yes. Awesome. Any other questions from the board on the report?

All right.

We can entertain a motion approving Resolution 68-2026, a resolution approving a revised contract with Bulldog Demolition and Construction Services for the demolition of a structure located at 108 East Washington Street. So moved.

I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving Resolution 69-2026 presented by Sundy McKinney, our Deputy City Clerk. A resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application, accepting grant funds if awarded, and approving a professional services agreement for Phase 1 of the Washington Street Walkway Mural Project. Sundy?

This resolution allows for grant application and acceptance if awarded. It also approves the agreement with the selected artist for phase one of the Washington Street Walkway Mural Project. The agreement outlines the artist's scope of work, compensation, responsibilities, and insurance requirements. One thing I want to specifically bring to the board's attention is the insurance coverage. The city requested coverage consistent with the amount of Missouri's sovereign community limits. And the artist was not willing to agree to that amount, it would only agree to provide a 1M dollars in liability coverage. This is reflected in the agreement before you tonight and I wanted to make sure that the board was aware of the difference in when considering the resolution.

Thank you for that report any questions or items of discussion on the report or the resolution. All right. So that we can entertain a motion approving Resolution 69-2026, a resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application, accepting grant funds if awarded, and approving a professional services agreement for phase one of the Washington Street Walkway Mural Project. So moved. I'll second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving resolution 70-2026 presented by Sheila Ernzen, our city administrator, a resolution of the city of Kearney, Missouri approving a city investment policy. Sheila?

Thank you, Mayor. The city has historically followed the Missouri State Treasurer's Model investment policy, but we haven't officially adopted our own policy. This policy would establish three priorities, safety followed by liquidity and yield. First, we always need to protect public funds. Second, we would make sure that it's available when we need it so that we wouldn't have to sell early and possibly take a loss. And third, we try to earn a reasonable return. This policy puts a little bit more structure around authorized investments and financial institutions. maturities, collateralization, competitive pricing, just more internal controls and reporting than the state model investment policy. But the overall goal is to protect public funds while still making sure the city is appropriately managing the cash flow.

Great. So is this so that we have better access to it or we get a higher yield? What's the main purpose here?

The main purpose is, first of all, It helps when we go out for bonds. So when we were doing the rating call with Standard & Poor's for our certificate of participation, the bonding or the rating agencies like to know that we have adopted our own policy. And then second, how it differs a little bit is there are stronger internal controls than at the state level to make sure that the board is very informed about what's going on. and that there is reporting being done so that you guys are always understand and are being able to keep an eye on what is happening. And who's setting those controls? They're set in the policy. So you would be, if you adopt the policy, then you would be setting the controls.

Yeah, but I mean, is it an investor we come to work with, or is it who's sitting on top of what's going on outside?

Basically, it says that the finance director or somebody else that the city administrator would appoint if there wasn't a finance director like we have right now. So a finance officer would be put and be responsible for that. But right now, there's nothing that has to come to the board to approve who you're going to invest the city's funds with. That would change. That information would come back to the board for an approval process. There would be making sure that we're bidding out when we do have funds available. There are required reporting so that you are always aware of what the principle is. And then there's also collateralization requirements. OK.

I think also Alderman Holt, in the proposed policy in our agenda, it also shows, like most, it'll be reviewed on an annual basis. So it's not like it'll be this one policy set on a shelf forever. The board will continually have the opportunity to adapt, change. So appreciate the question. Any other questions on the resolution or staff report? We entertain a motion approving Resolution 70-2026, a resolution of the city of Kearney, Missouri, approving a city investment policy. So moved. I'll second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving resolution 71-2026 presented by Sheila Earns, our city administrator. A resolution approving a public service agreement between the city of Kearney, Missouri and the Kearney Enrichment Council for the 2026 Oktoberfest. Sheila?

Thank you, Mayor. So this agreement is for Kearney Enrichment Council to put on the Oktoberfest on Saturday, October 3rd from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in an amount not to exceed $49,000. If approved this evening, Kearney and Richmond Council will receive $38,880 immediately to be able to pay for vendor deposits, fees, and other costs, and then they will be eligible to receive up to an additional $10,120 after they have submitted their costs and the documentation to show that they were used for optographists.

Thank you for that report. Are there any questions from staff? I'm sorry, from the board of staff? If we can entertain a motion approving Resolution 71-2026, a resolution approving a public service agreement between the City of Kearney, Missouri and the Kearney Enrichment Council for the 2026 Oktoberfest.

Aye.

Second. We have a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving Resolution 72-2026, a resolution approving a public service agreement between the City of Kearney, Missouri and the Kearney Enrichment Council for the 2026 Downtown Halloween Blast. Sheila?

This agreement approves up to $11,000 for being paid to Kearney Enrichment Council. for the 2026 downtown Halloween Blast that will be held on Friday, October 30th from 4 to 6 p.m. If approved this evening, Kearney Enrichment Council will receive $6,750 immediately for vendor costs and other event costs and be eligible to receive up to an additional $4,250. Thank you.

Any questions on the proposed resolution or stats report? If we can entertain a motion approving, I'm sorry, did you have a question?

Okay.

If we can entertain a motion approving Resolution 72-2026, a resolution approving a public service agreement between the City of Kearney, Missouri and the Kearney-Richmond Council for the 2026 Downtown Halloween Blast.

I'll make a motion. I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving resolution 73-2026 presented by Sarah Wagner, our economic development specialist, a resolution amending the economic development policy for the city of Kearney, Missouri. Sarah?

Thank you. So to make you have a resolution before you, the city has a current economic development policy and really what we're discussing tonight is the part that includes a public art piece. Right now the current policy just has one sentence in there that basically says projects that receive over a million dollars must include public art or decorative improvement, but it doesn't go on and explain what exactly that is. So since I've been here, I've had a couple of different developers ask, well, what do I need to do? How much is it? How do I incorporate it instead of doing something? Is there a fund that my project isn't really going to draw a ton of people? How can I contribute to that? So I kind of went through and looked at what some other cities have done. And what I'm proposing is that we amend that section and add a little bit more that basically says that if you are doing over a million dollars of public improvements based on what your construction budget is, essentially 0.3% of that is what would have to be either public art, and we kind of list out what would constitute as public art if you were to do it on site, versus what the contribution you could make to the city's public art fund. And that's something that the city could use specifically for dedicated public art. A good example would be the mural that we have approved tonight. If we had a fund for that, it could pay for something like that. It basically gives flexibility so the developer can either do it on site, give it to the city's fund, but there's also a place in there that says, hey, if they come up with another idea that we haven't even thought of, the board can go ahead and consider something different as well. I picked the 0.3%. There are a lot of cities. Kansas City uses 1%. Columbia uses 0.5%. wanted to do something that was still meaningful but also something that made sense and isn't going to be overly burdensome to an applicant um the final thing is is the board will ultimately have final approval of what um constitutes as the public arts when the project closes out they'll submit either a receipt you know They wrote a check to the city for the amount, or they'll have to show us receipts of what they've done on the project. And we'll come to you guys for final approval to make sure that has been satisfied.

Great. Thank you for the report. Any questions from staff on her report? We can entertain a motion to approve Resolution 73-2026, a resolution amending the economic development policy for the city of Kearney, Missouri. So moved.

I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Resolution is approved. Next item is a motion approving resolution 74-2026 presented by Sheila Ernzen, a resolution adopting priorities and core commitments for the city of Kearney and initiatives for fiscal year 2028. Sheila?

This is the final step from the board's priority setting session that was held on August 1st. It summarizes your discussion and direction from that work session. The priorities remain the same as last year, basic services, infrastructure, housing, commercial, retail, and quality of life. The core commitments recognize important ongoing responsibilities, while the fiscal year 20 initiatives identify the specific ways the city's priorities will be moved forward next year. Once you have adopted them, these priorities, commitments, and initiatives become staff's direction for fiscal year 28 and will be incorporated in our budget requests and operating plans.

Thank you. Any questions from the board on staff's report? We can entertain a motion approving Resolution 74-2026, a resolution adopting priorities and core commitments for the City of Kearney and initiatives for our next fiscal year, 2028. I have a motion.

I'll second that.

All in favor?

Aye.

All right. The resolution is approved. We'll move on to items for review and presentation. We have nothing this evening. We'll move on to mayor's communications. Chief Allen? I'm sorry I wasn't here for your swearing in, but I think staff played a video or recorded from you from the beach. Congratulations. I'm excited that you accepted our appointment and look forward to continuing to work with you. Thank you. We'll move on to city administrator's report.

The only thing I have is just a reminder that our next meeting will be on Monday, September 21st, right here at 6.30 PM.

Great. We'll move on to alderman discussion. Alderman Spencer?

I have nothing.

Alderman King. I don't have anything tonight. Alderman Lehman. I don't have anything. And Alderman Holt.

A few questions came up today. I don't know. There's some things that we need to look at. The way some things are done. That'll probably be done in the executive session. But there's some things we need to look at.

Is that concluding report? All right. We'll move on to executive session. We do have a closed session notice up this evening pursuant to RSMO 61021 subsection 1 for legal actions and litigation involving a public governmental body in any confidential or privileged communications between a public governmental body or to representatives and its attorneys in rsmo 610-021 subsection 2 leasing purchase or sale of real estate by a public governmental body where the public knowledge of the transaction might adversely affect the legal consideration therefore and rsmo 610-021 subsection 12 to discuss matters pertaining to negotiated contracts in RSMO 610.021 subsection 13 for individually identifiable personnel records, performance ratings, or records pertaining to employees or applicants of employment. This meeting will be adjourned from our closed session. So this does conclude our open public session of the meeting. If the board could consider a roll call vote to enter into executive session.

So moved. Second.

Alderman Lehman.

Aye.

Alderman Holt. Aye. Alderman King. Aye. Alderwoman Spencer. Aye.

The vote is unanimous, and we will enter into executive session. Everybody have a nice evening.