The community call to action is

1) attend the Tuesday, February 10 Coralville city council meeting at 6:30 pm at Coralville City Hall

and

2) tell the Coralville city council they must either immediately end their contract with Flock or else acknowledge their own complicity with unregulated immigration enforcement.

Why show up?

Community presence is important because city staff entered into this unregulated mass AI surveillance contract without the knowledge of council or the public and there has been no accountability for this breach of democracy.

When during the 6:30 meeting will council discuss this topic?

They won’t but keep reading.

During the work session that follows the 6:30 meeting, council will discuss the letter sent by the State Attorney telling Coralville to comply with data sharing within 30 days.

Why should I come to the 6:30 meeting if they’re not going to talk about this topic?

The 6:30 meeting is the only opportunity for the public to communicate verbally with council during community comment so whether or not you plan to comment, your presence is valuable to reinforce what other commenters have to say.

Why can’t I save my comment for the work session following the 6:30 meeting where the topic is discussed?

Community presence is allowed at work sessions* but community comment is not.

*while community presence is allowed by law, it is discouraged at work sessions as evidenced by the mayor’s recent choice to move work sessions to the much smaller boardroom containing five chairs for the public instead of remaining in council chambers where the public presence can be more comfortably accommodated (citing that this is how it was done before shutdown).

Community presence is healthy for a working city government. A city government aiming to strategically limit community presence should be scrutinized and held accountable for their choices.

Can I watch the work session on the live stream like I am able to watch the council meeting?

No, the city continues to refuse to make work sessions accessible to the public via live stream and archived video recording like they do council meetings.

The claim is that minutes summarizing the work sessions are sufficient to inform the public but the minutes frequently don’t appear on the city website until several days (or in a recent example, weeks) after the meeting.

Will council discuss this topic at a future 6:30 council meeting?

We don’t think so because the 30 day deadline imposed by the State Attorney’s office takes place before the next scheduled council meeting on February 24.

The city changed data retention limits from 0 to 30 days without a vote or discussion by council and the contract itself was signed without vote, discussion, or knowledge of council so we don’t have confidence that the change requested by the state attorney would ever be placed on a regular council meeting agenda.

I can’t go to the meeting. How can I help?

You can write to council and city staff (follow the highlighted text for links to contact information) and let them know that you don’t consent to our privacy data being shared with unregulated immigration enforcement and that you believe that work sessions should be made accessible via livestream and video archive in the same way that council meetings are made accessible for people like you who are unable to attend the meetings in person.

Who can I contact for more information?

Please email us at deflockcoralville@proton.me

Thank you for caring about our community!