Remarks by Nikki Perez
67 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 3
Council Member Perez, you have a question? Thank you.
Yeah, I know BWP looks at so many of the alternatives available to us, and I appreciate that because I so often hear that we are leaders regionally and nationwide in looking at alternatives. So I'm really grateful for everything you're doing. And the only other question I had is I know that it was a suggestion, I think it was from Sustainable Commission, to organize the goals kind of in order of most impactful or most doable. Are we looking at that for kind of the next time we talk about this in a couple years?
Thank you. I appreciate this so much. Four and a half years ago, when I was a lowly busy bee in the community, I was working with Sunrise on a Green New Deal for Burbank, and a lot of it was getting these goals to be more ambitious and getting all electrification, which I know is like our white whale right now. But I'm so glad to see that so many of the things that I worked on, so many of the things that you worked on, Madam Mayor, are being implemented, are being put forward, and I'm really grateful to all of you for making that vision happen, because I know it's a lot of work. especially…
I will be quick because I was a little sick this week. So on Thursday, August 27th, I went to the VICA annual local office holders luncheon. It was great. They ask every office holder a question. I got a question about what we're doing for the entertainment industry. So it was great to talk about that and see leaders from across the valley.
And then on Friday, September 11th, of course, along with my colleagues, I attended the commemoration of the 9-11 at the police and fire headquarters. And today I sat on the APPA Policymakers Council call to talk about energy. Yeah, that's all I did.
Okay. Thank you. Oh, my God. Don't look at me. So much pressure. Okay. So for me, this is really because we have been hearing, and we heard it tonight, we've heard it multiple nights, a lot of concerns about ALPRs and private mass surveillance technology from different facets of our community. It is not lost on me that we had members of our community here that have never come before. We had members that are regulars. We had members that have come for other issues, like the Rancho, members that come for other issues, like water and power rates, but they were here for flock tonight. And those…
Yes. And to clarify, the reason I'm bringing this up is, again, I have no questions for the chief on this because it's not a question of our department. It's a question of a private corporation that has its own agenda, which they have shared very publicly, and other private corporations. And it's a question of, do we want those people having our data on the cloud? Because we can place restrictions, but that doesn't stop them. We don't own that. Our traffic camera data, we own. We have. I trust that our processes are being followed. I cannot trust that from this company. I trust our…
Yes, and it's something that I think a lot of cities are looking at right now because this is an AI tool like so many others that is unregulated.
And Madam Mayor, I want to clarify that I'm also coming from two places, one having watched, again, the rhetoric around all of us. For Christ's sake, there is a Republican bill from the federal government right now running through the chambers about banning or funding to cities that use flock. That is in Congress right now. They are talking about that. And on the other side, I read our contract. I asked the chief for it. He sent it to me, had a chance to look it over. I had questions. And there are several places where I see I have concerns, where there are holes in that contract. And I think…
So I just want to highlight that we have had a data breach with NCRIC and the chief was very forthcoming about when that happened. And it was an issue that you mentioned was a before issue with Flock as a company and then they came back and said oops basically. But it wasn't just our city, it was multiple cities. It was a highlighted issue of how we don't control that, don't control the data. And again, the reason I put this forward and the reason, look, not two months ago, Axon has started making deals with the federal government so that ICE agents can use their technology. So we're going to…
I know you have a question. I'll say the breaches have happened. They have happened. It is not, I mean, we cannot say who is tapping into a data or not. They have it on their cloud. If we were talking about an in-house thing, if you told me right now ICE is using our traffic cameras, I'll tell you, no, they're not, because I trust these guys. I know they're not, but they have no control over the cloud. They just don't.
I disagree with that. I have reason to believe that it can.
Madam Mayor, it feels like we're having the discussion, you know? And that's why I agendize this, because I want to have the discussion. So I would like to move forward, and we can take a vote. And I've said this before, because I know this is a high-tension item. We can agree to disagree. That's why we're all here, you know? And I think we should take a vote.
Speak for yourself, man. I was stopped in the street by someone who I don't know, who is not here in the chamber and is not part of you lovely folks. And they were just random mom in the community who was like, hey, I have a question about flock because I've been seeing it in the news every day.
I appreciate you saying that, Madam Mayor, because I would love a report that also tells me what that looks like, not just we don't want to do this as staff, because I've been in that boat before. So I'd like it to be neutral. I'd like it to tell me this is what it would look like to ban that.
This is going to continue, isn't it, for the next few months? You guys are going to say anything that the folks who are on the ballot is about the election. That's real classy. But you know what? I put this forward, and I didn't do it on their timeline. I did it on mine, because I took the time to research it. I took the time to see what I didn't like, and I took the time to inform myself. I don't know what your process was. We probably looked at different things.
I guess it's my agenda item. I would like to agendize my item for discussion.