Texarkana council faces questions on Flock surveillance cameras, advances Golf Ranch land swap

The Texarkana, Texas City Council met Monday, June 8, 2026. A resident pressed the city on license plate reader cameras during open forum, and the council moved a $2.5 million land swap with Texas A&M and a new parks plan forward.

The night’s most pointed moment came during open forum, before any council business.

A man who identified himself only as Brandon stepped to the podium. He declined to give his last name, which Mayor Bob Bruggeman noted for the record. Brandon said he is a longtime Texarkana resident, a 100% disabled veteran and the founder of Liberty Ledger Media, which he described as a local government accountability journalism platform.

He told the council he recently located and photographed a Flock Safety camera mounted on Richmond Road.

Brandon described what he claims the camera does. Every passing vehicle has its license plate read and its make, model, color and identifying features recorded, including bumper stickers, dents and aftermarket modifications. The location, direction and time of travel are logged and uploaded to a cloud database that law enforcement can access across jurisdictions without a warrant, he said.

He said Flock Safety operates in more than 5,000 communities and runs more than 20 billion vehicle scans a month. He tied the company’s funding to the venture capital firm Founders Fund and to Peter Thiel, a co-founder of Palantir Technologies, and raised concerns that Flock data can be cross-referenced with intelligence databases used by law enforcement and federal agencies. He noted that no criminal wrongdoing has been alleged against Thiel.

Brandon pointed to standard Flock contract language that he said grants the company broad rights to share collected data with other agencies regardless of a department’s own settings, citing contracts obtained by the ACLU. He said an over-the-air software update will add video capture to existing cameras with no new hardware and no public vote. He cited documented cases of officers misusing license plate reader systems to track former partners and private citizens.

Then he put four questions to the council. Does the city have a contract with Flock Safety, and if so, when was it approved? Was that approval voted on in public or handled administratively? Which features are active in Texarkana? And has the police department adopted a written policy governing how officers are authorized to search the database, what counts as a legitimate search and how misuse is investigated?

Brandon said he would file a public records request for the contract the next morning. The council did not respond to his questions during the meeting. No other residents spoke during open forum.

TXK Today was the first media outlet to report on the cities deployment of FLOCK in April of 2025.

Golf Ranch land swap clears first briefing

The council got its first look at an ordinance that would trade the city-owned Golf Ranch for land owned by the Texas A&M University System. City Attorney Jeff Lewis briefed the council.

Under the proposed deal, the city would give up the Golf Ranch, about 249 acres near Bringle Lake, in exchange for about 138 acres of vacant, non-floodplain university land between Clear Creek and the western edge of the Oakwood subdivision. Lewis said both properties carry an agreed fair market value of $2.5 million, making it an even exchange.

Lewis said the university land is tax exempt now but could be developed for housing and returned to the tax rolls. The deal would also liquidate the leasehold interest tied to the old golf course lease, appraised at $1.2 million, and end the lease with Texarkana Golf Ranch LLC.

Lewis said the agreements would preserve the public nature trail around Bringle Lake, and that the university is considering a resident rate for use of the golf course. He asked the council to authorize the city manager to keep negotiating, with final contracts expected as soon as the next meeting. As a first briefing, the item did not get a vote Monday.

According to previous statements to TKK Today by Texas A&M administration the golf course will remain open to the public after the university takes control. The university also plans on extensive renovations of the course.

New tax abatement zone approved at Summerhill and Moores

The council approved a package of items setting up its first tax abatement zone under Chapter 312 of the state tax code.

Members adopted guidelines and criteria for Chapter 312 abatements, created Reinvestment Zone No. 1 for a project called Prime Corner, and approved a tax abatement agreement with Texarkana Summerhill Moores LLC for a commercial development at Summerhill Road and Moores Lane. A related change named Texarkana Summerhill Investment 1 LLC as the contracting party for a separate Chapter 380 incentive agreement. No residents spoke at the public hearings, and each item passed.

Council backs Sunset Apartments redevelopment

The council passed a resolution of no objection supporting a tax credit application to rehabilitate the Sunset Apartments. The vote clears the way for LIH Texarkana Preservation LLP to seek 4% low-income housing tax credits from the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Resident Mary Bruce, who lives in the Sunset community, asked about the project. A representative for the developer, Deborah Reyes, answered by Zoom after her flight to Texarkana was delayed by weather.

Reyes said the rehabilitated units will have central air. She said about 5% of the 150 units, roughly seven or eight, will be built for ADA accessibility, with features such as wider doorways, more turning space in kitchens and bathrooms, roll-under counters and roll-in showers. Those units will be spread across the complex’s roughly 18 buildings rather than grouped in one spot, she said.

The Sunset Apartments date to the 1970s, when they were built by Sunset Baptist Church and later sold.

Parks and Trails Master Plan adopted, with south-side parks in focus

The council adopted a Parks and Trails Master Plan built by city staff and consultant Norris Design over the past year and a half. Rick Leisner of Norris Design called it a working document meant to guide park improvements over the next 10 to 15 years.

Mary Bruce returned to the podium to press the city on parks on the south side of town. She said Finley Park and Grandview Park are sparsely equipped, hard to reach and short on parking and restrooms.

Parks Director Keith Beason said Grandview Park is actually owned by the Liberty-Eylau School District. Finley Park is a city park, he said, but most of it sits in a floodway, which makes it hard to win grant money for improvements. He said the city is looking at parking, the play and basketball area and possibly a soccer field on the park’s green space.

Councilmember Jean Matlock, who represents Ward 1, said Finley Park draws some of her most frequent complaints and that residents worry it will get leftovers from other parks. Leisner said the plan calls for benches, shade structures, landscaping, signage and lighting at the parks. Beason said the city is exploring federal Community Development Block Grant funds but has to solve the floodway issue first.

Ritter Communications sponsorship for Swanger Complex

Beason also briefed the council on a proposed sponsorship deal with Ritter Communications. In exchange for naming rights to the concessions building and courtyard at Swanger Complex, to be called the Ritter Fiber Fan Zone, Ritter would install gigabit fiber internet at the complex and at George Dobson Field. Beason said the in-kind deal would support concessions and allow games to be streamed. The item was a first briefing.

Other business

In a single vote, the council approved its consent agenda. The items included a contract with Hart Contractors of Texas LLC of Hooks for cleaning sludge ponds at the Millwood Water Treatment Plant, not to exceed $412,300, and a five-year contract with UKG Kronos Systems for human resources software, not to exceed $210,682.

The consent agenda also included an airport market rent study and appraisal of about $29,495, a Justice Assistance Grant splitting $15,800 between the city and Bowie County, and an interlocal agreement with River Bend Water Resources district for water production manager services at two treatment plants.

In its one stand-alone action item, the council agreed to join a Texas Municipal League risk pool program that provides critical illness coverage for retired peace officers and firefighters. The benefit is required under House Bill 4144, passed in the 2025 legislative session, for cities that employ at least 50 firefighters or 50 peace officers. J.W. Bramlett told the council the coverage pays the lesser of a retiree’s final salary or $100,000 for those diagnosed with a covered condition, such as certain cancers, heart attacks or strokes, within three years of retiring.

Several rezoning requests cleared public hearings, most tied to specific use permits for HUD-code manufactured homes on lots in Wards 1 and 2. A rezoning in the 4900 block of McKnight Road was withdrawn. The council also approved a resolution supporting opportunity zone designations for eligible census tracts. A round of industrial rezonings near Beaumont Street and on Hampton Road and West 7th Street, including sites for a transload facility and unmanned fuel pumps, got first briefings and will return for action.

Around the meeting

City Manager David Orr said construction on the Leopard Drive shared use path is expected to start July 1. The TxDOT-funded project includes a 10-foot path along the eastern edge of Leopard Drive from Lake Drive to Grady T. Wallace Park, plus a six-foot sidewalk connecting to the park’s trail system. Orr also said the city has launched a redesigned website built with CivicPlus over the past six months.

Bruggeman recognized the Pleasant Grove Hawks, who won the UIL Class 4A Division I state baseball championship on June 5 with a walk-off win over Corpus Christi Calallen. It was the program’s fourth state title, and the team finished 39-4. Bruggeman said he has invited the team to be recognized at the July meeting.

The mayor also pointed residents to summer events, including the Juneteenth Festival and Parade on June 20 at the Four States Fairgrounds, movies in the park at Spring Lake Park on June 11, the Saturday farmers market downtown and the Texarkana Air Show on June 26 and 27 at Texarkana Regional Airport.

The council closed the meeting by going into executive session to discuss legal and personnel matters. The next regular meeting is set for Monday, July 13 at 6 p.m.