Following on from last week’s meeting summary; we’re trialing a new kind of post: summaries of Fort Collins City Council meetings. Strong Towns has long argued that local government is the highest level of collaboration among people who actually live in a place together – the closest, most accountable layer of decision-making most of us will ever interact with. Council Work Sessions and Regular Meetings are where the work of that collaboration happens: where street designs, surveillance policy, housing rules, and budgets get shaped. Most residents don’t have time to watch three hours of Council a week, so we’ll try to give you the gist of what was discussed and where you can weigh in.

Meeting agenda, details, and video recordings available on Fort Collin’s Municode website. The next city council meeting is on May 26th and will be a work session, that does not include opportunities for public comment (though the public is welcome to attend in-person).

All seven council members were present: Mayor Emily Francis, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Pignataro (District 2), Chris Conway (District 1), Josh Fudge (District 3), Melanie Potyondy (District 4), Amy Hoeven (District 5), and Anne Nelsen (District 6). Senior Deputy City Clerk Cecilia Good filled in for City Clerk Delynn Coldiron, who was in Minneapolis accepting a program excellence and governance award for Fort Collins’ ranked choice voting work.

The formal business was light – the 14-item consent calendar passed unanimously with no items pulled – but the meeting was dominated by an extended public comment period of 34 speakers, the large majority focused on the city’s contract with Flock Safety, the vendor that operates the city’s automated license plate reader (ALPR) cameras.

Awards and Proclamations

Vision Zero for Youth U.S. Leadership Award. Nancy Pullen-Seufert, Director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School (UNC Highway Safety Research Center), presented Fort Collins with this national award, given to only one community per year. Vision Zero is a framework aimed at eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. She praised the city’s “exceptionally high school student walking and biking rates” and said Fort Collins is “leading the way” nationally. Mike Moses, Executive Director of nonprofit Bike Fort Collins, accepted alongside city staff and PSD (Poudre School District) Superintendent Brian Kingsley. Bike Fort Collins partners with the city to deliver Safe Routes to School programming to 5,000–6,000 students per year and repairs over 3,000 student bikes annually.

Armed Forces Week (May 9-17) was accepted by Eric Kluver, co-chair of the city’s Military Community Employee Resource Group.

Flood Awareness Week (May 24–30) was accepted by three Utilities staff: Flood Warning Manager Chris Lochra, Stormwater Master Planning engineer Mike Pierce, and Stormwater Maintenance Manager Doug Groves. The proclamation noted Fort Collins Utilities’ Class 2 rating from FEMA’s (Federal Emergency Management Agency) Community Rating System, which lowers flood insurance costs for residents.

Poudre River Public Library District Annual Report

Diane Lapierre, Executive Director, presented highlights from the library district’s 2025 annual report. Notable points: the district hosted the first Fort Collins-specific Pride event in 2025 (over 400 attendees; the next FoCo Pride is June 6 at Library Park), and is one of just two Colorado libraries selected to host the TED Democracy “Founding Futures” live-stream on June 13. Coming up: the Old Town Library’s 50th anniversary in October, and groundbreaking on the new Southeast Community Center on June 10, which will house a significantly expanded library opening in 2028 – replacing the current Council Tree Library with two-sided gathering areas, study rooms, and new maker spaces.

Public Comment

For public comment we’ll try to capture the general themes and points being raised to keep these summaries concise. Names of speakers will not be included as they’re more difficult to verify for correctness.

Sonders Development – Unmet Promises

Context: Sonders Fort Collins is a residential development served by the Waters’ Edge Metropolitan Districts. Metro districts are quasi-governmental entities that issue bonds for neighborhood infrastructure and amenities; homeowners pay an additional property tax to repay them. The developer (Bill Swalling of Actual Communities) signed a Service Plan and Public Benefits Agreement promising specific amenities in exchange for being allowed to form the district.

Three residents – including the president and the treasurer of Water’s Edge Metro District 2’s board – said the developer has not delivered the promised amenities (a learning center, pool, exercise/artist studios, pickleball courts, community gardens, non-potable irrigation) and is now moving on to a new development project (“Sonders Village”) before completing his obligations. The city already identified the non-potable irrigation system as non-compliant. One resident quoted the developer’s reported response to the situation:

“Half a sandwich is better than no sandwich.”

The learning center and pool are only being completed because a new builder refused to sign a contract until the developer committed. Residents asked council to direct staff to take formal enforcement action, require the public benefits agreement to conform to the service plan, and withhold phase-two approvals until phase-one obligations are complete.

Flock/ALPR Cameras

Context: Flock Safety sells networks of cameras to police departments that photograph passing vehicles and extract license plates and vehicle descriptions. The cameras have been in Fort Collins since 2022. Council held a work session on Flock the week before this meeting (May 12). Of the 34 people signed up to speak, 20 actually did; 16 of those addressed Flock. Their concerns clustered around several themes.

Data ownership and contract terms. Several speakers walked through recent changes in Flock’s standard terms, citing an ACLU review:

“Flock removed language that said Flock does not own and shall not sell customer data… [new terms] give Flock a perpetual right to use customer data to support and improve its services even after a city ends the relationship.”

Speakers – including a Microsoft security product manager and an engineer with cloud storage experience – emphasized that the city does not actually control the storage infrastructure and cannot independently audit who has access.

Constitutional concerns. Multiple speakers argued that even if individual reads are legal, aggregating them into a queryable network of every driver’s movements is “categorically different.” Speakers cited Carpenter v. United States (warrants required for GPS data) and United States v. Jones (continuous vehicle monitoring can constitute a search), and pushed back on Chief Jeff Swoboda’s reported characterization at the work session of the constitutional questions as settled:

“Chief Swoboda is, quite frankly, the wrong branch of government to be an authority on the Constitution. That is the judiciary branch’s job.”

One speaker noted Flock has been used in roughly 100 cases against more than 4,000 crimes per year – “a little bit more than 1%.”

Misuse elsewhere. Speakers offered specific examples: a Kansas police chief who used Flock 164 times to track an ex-girlfriend; a Georgia officer arrested for stalking; a Texas sheriff who used 83,000 ALPR cameras nationally to try to find a woman he believed had had an abortion; and Evanston, Illinois and Mountain View, California, where federal agencies accessed data without department permission. Speakers repeatedly noted 67–68 cities have now canceled their Flock contracts.

Federal access in current political climate. Speakers worried about FBI interest in nationwide ALPR access and impacts on immigrants, protesters, and transgender individuals.

What speakers asked for. A clear majority called for full removal (“Option 4” among the options the police department presented at the May 12 work session). One speaker offered a possible compromise – ALPRs activated only during Amber Alerts – referencing Council Member Potyondy’s stated concern about discontinuing Flock and children with disabilities who might be abducted.

Consent Calendar (Passed 7-0)

The consent calendar bundles items council considers routine – those expected to pass without controversy – into a single up-or-down vote. Items can include first readings of new ordinances (their initial council vote), second readings (final approval, typically a follow-up to a unanimous first reading), resolutions, and routine administrative actions like meeting minutes and board appointments. Any council member can pull an item for individual discussion; none did this evening.

It’s also worth noting that consent items often represent the latest step in projects that have been moving through city staff, advisory boards, and prior councils for years. A “second reading” appropriating funds for a bridge replacement, for example, is the formal funding action on a project that may have been designed, scoped, and partially funded over multiple budget cycles. The list below summarizes the 14 items but does not capture that backstory.

The items included: appropriations for Connexion broadband buildout ($2.2M); the Vine Drive Bridge replacement (~$4.6M, including bike/pedestrian facilities); Northern Colorado Regional Airport priorities ($378K); parking software replacement; the City Give philanthropic donations program; a $1.5M federal BEAD broadband grant; a $7,500 Creative Industries grant; updates aligning city waste hauler rules with Colorado’s new Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) recycling program; a new multi-housing variance in the single-hauler trash contract; updates to municipal court sentencing aligning with two recent Colorado Supreme Court decisions; the Peakview Annexation No. 2 (~70 acres at East Mulberry and Greenfields) with associated zoning; Taft Hill Corridor safety improvements (Horsetooth to Brixton); and the appointment of Light and Power Director Travis Walker to the Platte River Power Authority board, filling the seat vacated by departing Assistant City Manager Tyler Marr.

Council Member Potyondy specifically thanked staff for the small multi-unit housing variance in the trash contract, calling it “a great example of a real need being brought and staff making the adjustments.”

Other Business

Flock next steps. City Manager Kelly DiMartino opened the meeting noting that, following the work session, staff is already moving forward on two pieces – updates to the Citizen Review Board’s scope to allow review of audit logs, and a surveillance technology governance policy – both returning to council in July. A Thursday packet memo would summarize all other items.

Rather than acting that night, Mayor Francis asked staff to bring back options at the June 2 meeting on the two questions she felt lacked consensus: data retention period and whether to continue giving certain other local jurisdictions automatic access to the city’s Flock data.

Special meeting called. Council unanimously called a special meeting for 6:00 PM Tuesday, June 9 for mid-year performance reviews of its three direct-report employees: the City Manager (Kelly DiMartino), the City Attorney (Carrie Daggett), and the Municipal Judge.

Council Reports

• Council Member Potyondy marked Peace Officers Memorial Day and the Homeward Alliance UnGala fundraiser for unhoused services.
• Council Member Fudge attended the Health District of Northern Larimer County open house, was questioned by the Chamber of Commerce’s Local Legislative Affairs Committee primarily on housing, and had dinner with graduates of the latest CityWorks 101 program (the city’s citizen academy).

The meeting adjourned with Mayor Francis saying, “Good night, Fort Collins.”