# City of Conway `FOIA-2026-125` — Production Overview The City of Conway City Clerk's Office's response to Joshua Dunlap's 2026-05-19 Arkansas FOIA request — the City-side companion to Conway PD's `PD-2026-354` and `PD-2026-477` productions, asking the Clerk's office for the records the Department referred to "Conway City Hall" or did not hold: 2025 budget proceedings on the Flock LPR camera line item, January 2025 City Council meeting records, council-member Flock-related correspondence held by the Clerk, and City purchasing records for ALPR systems. The response, completed 2026-05-22, is in substance a **partial production that resolves the corpus's longest-running open question**: the formal Council authorization for the Conway PD Flock procurement now exists in the record. The City produced **Ordinance O-25-09**, the January 14, 2025 ordinance by which the Conway City Council waived competitive bidding, authorized the $180,000 Flock purchase, and appropriated $180,000 from asset-forfeiture funds — passed 8-0 the same day. The City Clerk's office returned a separate "no records" letter for items 3 and 4 of the request. This is the first production from the [[City of Conway]] as a respondent (distinct from [[Conway Police Department]]) and the third City-of-Conway-related production in the corpus, after `PD-2026-354` and `PD-2026-477`. ## What's inside Eight PDF files, ~9.4 MB. Four are text-layer documents; four are image-only PDFs that were OCR'd at 300 DPI during extraction. | File | Friendly page | Type | Maps to request item | |---|---|---|---| | `O-25-09 - CPD Flock Camera Approval.pdf` (2 pp, OCR'd) | [[Ordinance O-25-09 — LPR Bid Waiver and Asset Forfeiture Appropriation]] | pdf | items 1 and 2 | | `Capital Request-Flock LPR Cameras.pdf` (1 p, OCR'd) | [[Flock LPR Cameras Capital Request]] | pdf | item 1 | | `City_Of_Conway_Budget_2025.pdf` (42 pp) | [[Conway 2025 City Budget]] | pdf | item 1 | | `01.14.2025 COUNCIL MTG.pdf` (4 pp) | [[January 14 2025 Conway City Council Meeting]] | pdf | item 2 | | `January 14 2025 City Council Agenda.pdf` (40 pp) | [[January 14 2025 Conway City Council Meeting]] | pdf | item 2 | | `PO 00151.pdf` (3 pp, OCR'd) | [[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]] | pdf | item 4 (payment ledger) | | `PO 97136.pdf` (2 pp, OCR'd) | [[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]] | pdf | item 4 (payment ledger) | | `FOIA 2026-125_No Response - City Clerk Office.pdf` (1 p) | (see "City Clerk no-records determination" below) | pdf | items 3 and 4 — "no records" letter | The agenda packet (`January 14 2025 City Council Agenda.pdf`) and the meeting minutes (`01.14.2025 COUNCIL MTG.pdf`) are two views of the same Council meeting and are covered on a single source page. ## FOIA correspondence trace Correspondence is in Gmail, not in `raw/` (per AGENTS.md). Trajectory: | Date / time (UTC) | Event | Gmail thread | |---|---|---| | 2026-05-19 00:31 | Joshua Dunlap files the four-item FOIA to `[email protected]` | `19e3d8de70ff1790` | | 2026-05-19 20:19 | Request confirmed as **`FOIA-2026-125`**, security key `2F2FEBF6`, on the City of Conway JustFOIA portal | `19e41e4cb87eb915` | | 2026-05-20 (dated) | City Clerk "no records" letter for items 3 and 4 (included in the production) | — | | 2026-05-22 21:13 | Production completed; response documents released on the portal | `19e5188faf33cedc` | The same JustFOIA tenant serves both the City of Conway and Conway PD; the City's responses arrive on the same `[email protected]` sender as the Department's. ## City Clerk no-records determination (items 3 and 4) A 2026-05-20 letter from the Office of the City Clerk/Treasurer addresses items 3 and 4 of the request verbatim and states, in full: "The City of Conway City Clerk's Office has no records in response to your request." Items 3 (council-member Flock-related correspondence held by the Clerk) and 4 (City purchasing records for ALPR systems held by the Clerk) return no records from the Clerk's own files. The purchasing-type records that nonetheless appear in this production — the [[Flock LPR Cameras Capital Request]] and the two [[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961|Flock Payment Records]] — came as part of items 1 and 2 (budget and Council records) rather than from a Clerk-held purchasing file. ## What the records show > [!note] Open Follow-up #2 resolves > The formal authorization paper the corpus has been seeking since `PD-2026-354` is now in the record. **Ordinance O-25-09**, passed by the Conway City Council 8-0 on January 14, 2025, waived competitive bidding for the LPR system on a sole-source justification, authorized a $180,000 purchase from Flock Safety, and appropriated $180,000 from the asset-forfeiture fund balance (account 250.000.4900) into the Computer Equipment/Software Asset Forfeiture expense account (250.121.5930). The supporting [[Flock LPR Cameras Capital Request]] documents the original general-fund (001) capital ask for 20 cameras at $9,400 each. The produced [[Conway 2025 City Budget]] contains no Flock / LPR / forfeiture line item — corroborating the prior wiki claim that the cameras were cut from the appropriated budget. Two payment records — checks for $60,000 (July 2025) and $120,000 (January 2026) drawn on account 250-121-5930 — execute the appropriation in stages ([[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]]). ### Timeline reconciled with the existing record The Department's `PD-2026-354` corpus already established that Chief Harris signed the Flock contract on or about 2024-12-18 ([[Contract to Legal Thread (Dec 2024 DocuSign)]]). The City's production now sets that signature in its full context: | Date | Event | |---|---| | ~2024-08 to 11 | A Flock LPR camera line item proposed in CPD's 2025-budget submission (an instance of the form at [[Flock LPR Cameras Capital Request]]). | | ~2024-12-13 | Council declines to appropriate; Chief Harris pivots to asset-forfeiture funds ([[Morning - Procurement Pivot Thread]], [[2024-12 Harris Pivots to Asset Forfeiture]]). | | 2024-12-18 | Contract executed by Chief Harris ([[Contract to Legal Thread (Dec 2024 DocuSign)]]). | | **2025-01-14** | **Conway City Council passes Ordinance O-25-09**, 8-0 — waiving competitive bid, authorizing the $180,000 Flock purchase, and appropriating asset-forfeiture funds ([[Ordinance O-25-09 — LPR Bid Waiver and Asset Forfeiture Appropriation]], [[January 14 2025 Conway City Council Meeting]], [[2025-01 Conway City Council Authorizes Flock Purchase (Ordinance O-25-09)]]). | | 2025-02-11 | O-25-09 recorded in Faulkner County official records (Doc Num L2025018532). | | 2025-07-09 | First Flock payment, $60,000 (INV-56859) — Year 1 ([[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]]). | | 2026-01-16 | Second Flock payment, $120,000 (INV-81961) — Years 2 and 3 ([[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]]). | *Observation, distinct from the record:* the Council's ordinance came 27 days after the contract was signed. As a matter of sequencing the documents establish, the Council's vote ratified a contract the Department had already executed and reappropriated funds for an obligation already incurred. Whether that ordering is consistent with the City's procurement rules is a separate legal question the wiki does not adjudicate. ### Items A, B, and C of `PD-2026-477` referrals `PD-2026-477` referred four items to "Conway City Hall": City Council records (item A), Mayor's Office records (item B), asset-forfeiture authorization through Council action (the City-Council portion of item C), and DOT right-of-way permitting (item J). The City Clerk's `FOIA-2026-125` production answers item A and the City-Council portion of item C with the Council records and the ordinance. **Item B (Mayor's Office Flock-mentioning correspondence) and item J (DOT permitting)** are the subject of `FOIA-2026-127`, filed the same day to the Mayor's Office, which remains pending as of this ingest. ## Key takeaways - **Open Follow-up #2 resolves.** The formal Council authorization for the Conway PD Flock procurement now exists in the record. See the callout above. - **The Council waived competitive bidding by ordinance, on a sole-source justification.** O-25-09 recites that "Flock Safety is the only provider who can supply the LPR system in order to be in compliance with surrounding agencies" — a sole-source rationale grounded in network-interoperability with the regional Flock deployment. See [[Ordinance O-25-09 — LPR Bid Waiver and Asset Forfeiture Appropriation]]. - **The 2025 budget contains no Flock line.** A keyword scan of the produced 2025 City budget for "flock," "LPR," "license plate," "forfeiture," and "surveillance" returns no matches — consistent with the prior-corpus claim that the cameras were cut from the appropriated budget ([[Conway 2025 City Budget]]). - **The capital request shows the procurement began as a general-fund ask.** The [[Flock LPR Cameras Capital Request]] is on a City "Capital Project / Item Request" form, charged to G/L 001.121.5910 (general fund), for 20 cameras at $9,400 each ($188,000). The ordinance shifted the charge to the asset-forfeiture fund (250.000.4900 → 250-121-5930) at a $180,000 amount. - **Payments are executed and documented.** [[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]] documents both checks. They confirm the asset-forfeiture appropriation was actually disbursed. - **The City Clerk's office returns "no records" for items 3 and 4 of the request from its own files** — Council-member Flock correspondence and ALPR purchasing records held by the Clerk. The purchasing-type records that appear in the production came as budget / Council backup, not from a Clerk-held purchasing file. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Conway City Council]] — the eight aldermen voted 8-0 to pass O-25-09 (named individually in the [[January 14 2025 Conway City Council Meeting|minutes]]). - [[Mayor's Office (Conway)]] — Mayor Bart Castleberry approved O-25-09; Chief of Staff Felicia T. Rogers authored the "waive three readings" memo in the agenda packet. - [[Denise Hurd]] — City Clerk/Treasurer; FOIA custodian of record for `FOIA-2026-125`; attested O-25-09 and the meeting minutes. - **Charles Finkenbinder** — City Attorney; present at the January 14, 2025 meeting per the [[January 14 2025 Conway City Council Meeting|minutes]]. - [[Chris Harris]] — Conway Police Chief; presented Items E-1 and E-2 of the January 14, 2025 agenda (the seized-asset disposal and the asset-forfeiture range rental). The minutes record that "Mayor Castleberry presented Item E3" — the LPR ordinance — without naming Chief Harris on that item. - [[Conway Police Department]] — the procuring department; the capital request is on a CPD form (dept 121). - [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] — the vendor; named as sole source in O-25-09; payee on both production-documented checks. - [[City of Conway]] — the parent municipal government; respondent. ## Concepts invoked - [[Asset-Forfeiture Funding for Surveillance Procurement]] — O-25-09 is the formal authorization the concept page has been describing in its absence. - [[Flock Camera-as-a-Service Procurement Model]] - [[Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR)]] - [[Non-Appropriation Clause as Sales Tool]] ## Events documented - [[2025-01 Conway City Council Authorizes Flock Purchase (Ordinance O-25-09)]] - [[2026-05 Conway City Clerk FOIA-2026-125 Response]] ## Cross-references - [[_overview]] (`PD-2026-354`) and [[_overview]] (`PD-2026-477`) — Conway PD's productions; this one closes referrals from `PD-2026-477`. - [[Morning - Procurement Pivot Thread]] — Chief Harris's 2024-12-13 "asset forfeiture funds … On to plan B" email. The Council ordinance documented here is the public-side event that resulted. - [[2024-12 Harris Pivots to Asset Forfeiture]], [[2024-12 Contract Signed by Chief Harris via DocuSign]], [[2024-12 Flock LPR Cameras Cut from 2025 Budget]] — the December 2024 events; O-25-09 is the January 2025 follow-on. - [[ALPR Procurement Below the Appropriation Line]] — the synthesis essay this production is most directly relevant to; the Conway limb is updated to reflect O-25-09. ## Surveillance-PII handling The production contains no plate numbers, no officer personal information, and no residential addresses. The payment-record file pages (PO 00151 and PO 97136) carry Flock's ACH bank-account and routing numbers and the City's check / bank-account numbers; those are not reproduced in the wiki (see [[Flock Payment Records — INV-56859 and INV-81961]]). The City Clerk's "no records" letter quotes the requester's home address as printed on the original FOIA form; that address is not reproduced here. ## Open questions / follow-ups 1. **`FOIA-2026-127` (Conway Mayor's Office, Flock records).** Filed the same day as `FOIA-2026-125`; covers item B (Mayor's Office Flock correspondence) and item J (DOT right-of-way permitting). Confirmation issued 2026-05-19; no response or written extension as of 2026-05-22. Awaiting response. 2. **The Council's reasoning for the bid waiver.** O-25-09's "whereas" recites a sole-source rationale ("Flock Safety is the only provider … in order to be in compliance with surrounding agencies"). The corpus does not contain the Department's underlying market analysis or any inquiry into competing vendors. What the Council relied on to accept the sole-source rationale is not documented here. 3. **The asset-forfeiture-fund ledger entries themselves.** The ordinance authorizes the appropriation and the two payments execute it, but the asset-forfeiture-fund ledger (showing the seizure-side inflows that funded the outflow) is still not in the corpus. Item 3 of `FOIA-2026-127` is the closest standing request. 4. **The Clerk's-office "no records" determination is custodial, not City-wide.** Council-member Flock correspondence on council members' own City accounts, and ALPR purchasing records in the Mayor's Office / Purchasing Department, are out of scope of the Clerk's determination. `FOIA-2026-127` covers the Mayor's-Office side; the council-member accounts remain unaddressed by any filed request.