https://www.cityofkyle.gov/city-hall/mayor-and-council/

Kyle City Councilwoman Claudia Zapata, District 3 At-Large, Kyle, TX (2026)

09/05/2026

The City of Kyle has three Flock contracts: one from 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The 2024 and 2025 contracts cost taxpayers $381,000 every year for 32 Flock cameras and 2 AI Flock drones. We can legally terminate both by simply not funding them in the next budget with NO cancellation penalty.

The third contract costs another $45,000 a year for 15 cameras and can also be terminated for a minimal cancellation fee.

When Governor Abbott directed state agencies to stop funding Flock cameras, I asked whether that affected Kyle.

Kyle City Council and residents have been told repeatedly that the initial renting (that’s right — renting because we don’t OWN any of the equipment) of this more than $1.4 million mass surveillance AI equipment has been partially supported by state grants.

Council learned 2 days ago that the City has NEVER received grant funding for the Flock system. Your taxpayer dollars have been fully funding these mass surveillance cameras.

Your City Council is cutting and delaying infrastructure and services. I had to fight just to even get $57,000 for our library to remain fully operational.
YET, we are spending $426,000 every year for 47 mass surveillance AI cameras and two AI drones.

Council won’t listen to me, but maybe they’ll listen to you.

You have only two opportunities left before the budget is adopted:
• Saturday, September 5 (5:30pm start time at City Hall)
• Tuesday, September 15 (7:00pm start time at City Hall)

Show up and demand $0 for Flock in the FY27 budget.

If you cannot attend, email [email protected]

Your tax dollars should fund our community, not mass AI surveillance.

08/30/2026

Libraries are the backbone of our communities. 📚

On Thursday, I brought forth a budget amendment to fund two part-time Circulation Assistant positions for the Kyle Public Library—positions that will allow our library to continue operating normally and protect the hours, programming, and services our community depends on.

Without this funding, library operating hours and programming would have needed to be reduced. I could not accept cutting access to one of the most important, welcoming, and accessible public spaces we have.

And it feels especially meaningful that this amendment memorializes the lifelong work of literacy icon Dolly Parton, whose commitment to putting books into the hands of children has changed millions of lives.

Thank you to Mayor Flores-Cale, Mayor Pro-Tem Tobias, and Councilmembers Harris and McKinney for voting YES to protecting the services people rely on. ❤️📚

Councilmembers Goza and Medina voted no.

08/29/2026

This afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a pause on state agency funding for Flock. Flock is at the center of major contention as elected officials across the state are seeing how this equipment is used as mass surveillance, undermining people’s Fourth Amendment right.

Last night, I made a motion to amend the City of Kyle’s proposed FY26-27 budget to cancel Flock contracts. They cost us over $500k year (actual cost + impact on budget reserve requirement).

Typically, councilmembers will second a motion so it can be discussed.

No one seconded it. The motion died before we even had a chance to discuss its budget impacts.

With Gov. Abbott now pausing state funding, including the grants that the City uses to help fund our Flock contracts, means 100% of Flock contract costs will fall back on the residents.

08/27/2026

Tonight, Kyle City Council will be reviewing proposed amendments to the draft FY27 budget. As it currently reads, the FY27 budget dramatically and radically reduces spending on infrastructure and much needed improvements that residents have waited decades for. I say no more waiting.

The People’s Budget starts with a simple question: what are residents still waiting for, and what can we responsibly do about it now?

Below are a targeted set of amendments that protects basic public services, moves long-delayed infrastructure forward, cuts spending where I do not believe it serves residents well, and reduces our debt.

We cannot tell residents that a balanced budget requires them to wait another three, four, or five years for drainage, safer roads, or functioning infrastructure when these needs have already existed for years. A five-year plan should be a plan for delivery—not a waiting room.

Where existing money is available, I want to use it. Where we can replace debt with cash responsibly, I want to do that. And where we can eliminate spending like Flock and put those dollars toward infrastructure and services people actually use, I believe we should.

While not perfect, as I would love to fund more, these amendments are based off the proposed budget, projects that we have already spent thousands on, and keeps our most important services running.

🏠 Fund Post Oak with cash in FY27 instead of another $1 million of debt
• Currently, Year 1 of Post Oak improvements are funded with debt. Let’s move the work forward while avoiding $1 million in principal plus future interest and issuance costs.

📚 Keep the library open: restore two part-time circulation assistants
• Library staff has indicated that without enough circulation staff, the Library will have to consider reducing operating hours and services. If our budget forces the library to close earlier or reduce services because we would not fund two part-time employees, that is a policy decision—one that I cannot stand by.

⚠️ Move Moreno Street Drainage into FY27 instead of making residents wait until FY30–31
• Residents dealing with drainage problems should not hear, “Come back in 2030.” Preliminary engineering work is already done. Council still needs to select the final alternative, but that is a reason to fund the next phase—not a reason to leave the project untouched for three more fiscal years.

🚙 Restore CR 158 and Roland Lane deceleration lane funding
• Each of these projects have been moving through engineering and design. There are hundreds of thousands of dollars for each that remains unspent and unencumbered. Residents should not watch us pay to study and design a safety improvement and then see the project disappear from the next budget.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Fund Plum Creek Traffic Calming
• Crucial safety improvements needed have already been identified. Let’s fund them for the safety of our kids as they walk to and from school, especially since City Council just voted to spend an extra $400K+ to delay road improvements to this area.

📹 Cancel Flock and reinvest $532,500 annually
• Residents have made it abundantly clear they do not support the City’s use of Flock mass surveillance. If residents are being told there is not enough money for long-delayed infrastructure or basic services, then we should be willing to examine where hundreds of thousands of dollars are going today. Canceling Flock frees $532,500 every year that can instead help us deliver tangible improvements residents have been waiting for.

🙏 Give eligible City employees a one-time recognition and retention payment
• Our employees keep the library open, maintain infrastructure, process permits, operate parks, manage City services, and carry out the day-to-day work residents rely on. While we cannot afford a raise without sacrificing infrastructure improvements, we can still say thank you in ways that we can.

Fiscal responsibility does not mean preserving balances on paper while residents wait indefinitely for the things those public dollars are supposed to provide. It means knowing what we can afford, making choices, protecting our reserves, reducing unnecessary debt where we can, and delivering.

And the best part? We can do all of these things and still end with over $1.5 million in surplus next year.

It’s time the City keeps promises made.

08/25/2026

Dolly Parton is forever an icon, a true legend in every sense of the word. She taught us that being ourselves is a superpower, to be kind to every creature, to love loudly and unabashedly, and to always stand against hate.

Her passion and advocacy for literacy has impacted millions of children around the US through her completely *free* book gifting program, Imagination Libraries. Her books teach little ones about feelings, acceptance, how to care for our planet, and so many other important concepts.

Her tireless efforts to defend LGBTQ+ people and welcome this community with an open heart has saved countless lives, especially during the AIDS epidemic. She was an ally before the notion of “allies” was more defined.

She didn’t take the easy road, she took the loving one.

And for that, I am forever inspired.

Rest in Power, Dolly 💕

08/18/2026

Update on Citywide Road Bond Intersection Improvements + Sanders and Benner: Delays & Increased Costs of Nearly a Half-Million

A few weeks ago, Mayor Yvonne Flores Cale and Mayor Pro Tem Michael Tobias brought forward an item asking the City to revisit all 2022 Road Bond and TIRZ intersection projects that were already underway, including intersections where extensive engineering work and land acquisition had already been completed.

Because this discussion has stretched across several meetings, I want to explain where things now stand and the costs that residents will bear.

As part of the 2022 Road Bond and TIRZ #2 improvements, the City spent nearly $1 million conducting detailed Preliminary Engineering Reports for these projects. Those reports evaluated traffic conditions, crash history, future demand, intersection alternatives, costs, right-of-way impacts, pedestrians and cyclists, and other factors before engineers made their recommendations.

The reports are publicly available on the City’s Road Bond website. Each report evaluated what type of intersection would be the most safe and durable longterm: in nearly all of them, roundabouts were clearly professionally recommended.

However, when this re-analysis was originally requested, there was very little discussion about its financial impact or what it could mean for the timelines of delivering better and improved roads for you.

We now have much more information.

Tonight, Council will be be voting on whether to spend an additional $478,638.51 to perform re-analysis. Of that amount, $393,616.79 will come from the 2022 Road Bond and $85,021.72 will come from TIRZ #2 funds.

The work will also happen in phases. The first three intersections to be re-evaluated will be:
• Lehman Road at Bunton Creek Road
• Center Street at Old Stagecoach Road
• Windy Hill at Cherrywood

The remaining 9 intersections will then be prioritized based on the Road Bond projects’ tentative bid and construction schedules.

After Phase 1, the results will come back to Council in groups of three or four intersections, and Council will give direction before the consultant moves into Phase 2 and develops a more detailed cost analysis. (More administrative delays.)

We are spending nearly another half-million dollars after already spending nearly $1 million studying these projects, and almost $394,000 of the new expense is coming directly from the 2022 Road Bond voters approved to make roadway improvements.

Council is aware that the 2022 Road Bond program is facing cost pressures, and staff has made it clear to Council that additional debt may ultimately be necessary to finish all of the projects. Every additional Road Bond dollar spent reanalyzing work we have already paid to analyze is a dollar that is no longer available for construction.

Then there is the cost of delay as these analyses and Phases are now being placed into a construction timeline that already had tentative bid and construction schedules. Construction costs can rise, contracts can become more expensive, and engineering or design work that has already been completed may have to be changed depending on what Council ultimately decides.

That means the real financial impact is not simply $478,638.51.

It is the cost of the new studies, the Road Bond dollars no longer available for construction, the potential cost escalation caused by delay, and potentially additional debt and interest if we eventually have to borrow more money to complete the projects voters already approved.

And residents experience that impact too, because they wait longer for improvements they were told were coming.

This is particularly concerning at Sanders and Benner along Kohlers Crossing, where engineers have already extensively evaluated signals and roundabouts and recommended roundabouts based on the overall analysis, including substantial safety benefits.

Just a few weeks ago, there was a serious crash at Sanders and Kohlers Crossing in which a vehicle flipped. Many others have posted about being hit at this intersection. Safety is on the line and here we are about to delay improvements.

Furthermore, funding for the Benner roundabout has already been removed from the proposed FY26 budget, while Sanders remains funded, even though Council has not formally decided to stop Benner improvements.

I support asking engineers difficult questions and have done so repeatedly in this process. Our own engineers have answered every question with expert knowledge and professional recommendations.

Council cannot endlessly restart the engineering process every time a new Council dislikes the conclusion reached by the last one. When this reanalysis was requested, residents were not shown that financial impact. Now we know what it costs and what it will delay.

I encourage you to email council at [email protected] or give public feedback tonight at 7pm at City Hall on your concerns.

08/06/2026

As the only councilmember who opposes mass surveillance and AI-powered policing technology, I wanted to give residents an update on a recent ruling that will change the trajectory of how we understand the Fourth Amendment in the modern day.

Seeing as your taxpayer dollars cover upwards of over $500,000 a year for the City of Kyle’s Flock contracts, you have a right to know.

On June 29, the Supreme Court released a decision (Chatrie v US) that will change the landscape of the Fourth Amendment conversation surrounding Flock AI-powered Automatic License Plate Readers.

Many of us utilize Google Maps and unknowingly share our location history directly with Google. Police often use geofence warrants to obtain Google location history by identifying a location where crime has been committed and then requesting data on everyone who was at that location.

The Supreme Court has ruled that this is a search under Fourth Amendment. The Court affirmed that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in cell phone location data and that using Google Maps does not mean you agreed to share your location with the government.

Police will now have to have a geofence warrant for a specific person—not a blanket warrant on everyone. Meanwhile, the City of Kyle’s internal policy (General Order 7.26) states “reasonable suspicion or probable cause is NOT required” for an officer to search you in Flock’s system.

The Court additionally held that duration does not change this: even short-term monitoring can violate the Fourth Amendment.

Courts have upheld warrantless Flock ALPRs under 2 two premises: (1) they are in public view and (2) that a few data points on your location over a few hours does not trigger constitutional protections.

One half of the reason has now been undone. Tracking an individual’s location multiple times a day and storing each captured movement for 30 days is surveillance.

The City of Kyle has 38 ALPRs all concentrated in our busiest areas. Many HOAs or private businesses utilize them, too. You can find their locations by going to deflock.org

07/23/2026

The fight for equality is *always* worth it! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

This past Tuesday, July 21, City Council voted to move forward with bringing back an option to host a Pride event in partnership with community organizations, nonprofits, and others!

Thank you to everyone who sent an email, showed up to public comment, or did your part in making this happen. 🫶🏽

A big thank you to Councilmember Harris for co-sponsoring this item. It passed 5-2, with Councilmember Courtney Goza and Councilmember Melisa Medina voting against.

07/21/2026

Tomorrow, Tues. July 21, City Council will decide if we want to approve a request for all new preliminary engineering reports and traffic analyses for 9 intersections included in the 2022 Road Bond projects (only those that planned to be a roundabout) and 2 intersections at Benner and Sanders (also proposed roundabouts).

The Councilmembers supporting this re-evaluation argue that we need the most up-to-date traffic data and engineering analyses before moving forward with roundabouts.

Let’s review that argument.

Several 2022 Road Bond preliminary engineering reports recommended both traffic signals and roundabouts using the same traffic data—sometimes within the same report.

Yet the only intersections being scrutinized for supposedly “outdated” information are those where engineers recommended roundabouts. These councilmembers are willing to accept the recommendations for traffic signals even though the data is just as “outdated”.

In a majority of instances, the data supporting the need for roundabouts is actually MORE recent than those that concluded in the use of traffic signals.

Example: Center Street from Veterans Drive to Old Stagecoach
-The report relied on traffic counts from 2014 and 2019. The report found that roundabouts would operate more efficiently at both intersections studied, but a signal was ultimately recommended at Veterans Drive because a roundabout would require more right-of-way acquisition and cause greater displacement. Despite relying on the oldest traffic data, this signal recommendation is not being reopened. I do not want to displace residents; this is only being illustrated to show the inconsistency of the argument being presented.

Example: Kohlers Crossing to Seton Parkway (Overpass included)
-The report gathered traffic data from field visits in 2022. The same report recommended both traffic signals and roundabouts. Yet, the traffic data are being accepted where they produced a signal recommendation but questioned where they produced a roundabout recommendation.

Example: Kohlers Crossing at Sanders Road and Benner Road
-The report gathered traffic data from in-person visit on July 26, 2022. These are not 2022 Road Bond projects. They are funded separately through TIRZ No. 2. Even though they fall outside the Road Bond, they are still being singled out because roundabouts were recommended.

Example: Old Stagecoach and Six Creeks Boulevard
-The report gathered traffic data from in-person visit on Sept 6, 2023.

Example: Kyle Parkway and Dacy Lane, Kyle Parkway and Lehman Road, Lehman Road and Bunton Creek Road, and Lehman Road and Dacy Lane
-The report gathered traffic data from May and June 2022.

Repeating this work is not free.

These 6 preliminary engineering reports ALONE have already cost taxpayers $800,753.15:
* Kohlers Crossing at Sanders and Benner: $65,847.50
* Center Street and Veterans/Old Stagecoach: $36,400
* Bunton Creek Road: $170,393.70
* Beebe Road: $190,781.35
* Windy Hill: $127,436.00
* Kyle Parkway and Lehman extension: $209,894.60

This is not the total cost of all the City’s preliminary engineering reports. Our former Director of Transportation and Public Works stated that these new reports could cost upwards of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands depending on the scope. Work at these intersections are being paused and will cause delays to the projected completion date.

Council should apply one consistent standard. We should not accept older data without question when it produces a traffic signal, but demand new studies when more recent data produces a roundabout. Nor should taxpayers have to pay for professional engineers to repeat their work.

Selectively reopening only the roundabout studies is not responsible due diligence. It is unnecessary, inconsistent, and poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

07/20/2026

Pride in Kyle, TX

Last month, staff recommended reducing Kyle Market Days to four events per year, at a total annual cost of roughly $24,000. Because each Market Day has traditionally had a theme, I asked that one of those four events remain dedicated to Pride and that another become an international celebration recognizing the many cultures and heritages that make up Kyle. Council then discussed cutting the program even further, to only two events annually.

During that discussion, I explained why continuing these events at least quarterly matters and why a Pride-themed Market Day is especially important. The Mayor responded that, regardless of how she may support the LGBTQ+ community elsewhere, she did not have to do so from the dais because she had 60,000 residents to consider. Councilmember Goza said government should remain “neutral” and should not push an “agenda.” But LGBTQ+ residents are among those 60,000 people. Their existence, dignity, and belonging are not an agenda, and refusing to recognize them is not neutrality.

A single event costing $6,140 to host—all in. This is a price worth considering.

That is why Councilmember Lauralee Harris and I are bringing forward an item asking the City Manager to return with options for the City of Kyle to host an LGBTQ+ Pride event in 2027. A privately organized Pride celebration may be meaningful, but it is not a substitute for official recognition by the government that represents this community. Throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have had to organize because their governments excluded them, criminalized them, and denied them equal recognition. From Stonewall to the fight for marriage equality, the demand was never merely for private acceptance: it was for dignity, protection, and recognition from public institutions.

We should not romanticize the fact that marginalized communities have repeatedly been forced to create their own visibility. That is not evidence that government has no role. It is evidence that government failed them. A City-hosted Pride event sends a clear message that LGBTQ+ residents are not outsiders asking for permission to belong. They are constituents whose government sees them, values them, and is willing to say so publicly.

Nor can this credibly be reduced to cost. The same people supporting cutting Kyle Market Days and Pride are the same ones considering spending taxpayer dollars on new engineering reports and analyses for intersections where existing professional studies recommended roundabouts (Kohler’s Crossing & 2022 Road Bond). Those earlier reports are being characterized as outdated, yet the scrutiny has been directed specifically at locations where roundabouts—not traffic signals—were selected as the safer long-term option. They are also considering forensic-audit options built around unverified allegations attributed to “informants” aimed at revisiting the decisions of the former Council.

Items that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

When money can be found to duplicate engineering work and relitigate past decisions, but not to fund a modest public event affirming LGBTQ+ residents, that is not neutral budgeting. It is a choice about whose priorities receive public investment and whose recognition is treated as expendable.

Support this item and want a Pride event in 2027?
🏳️‍🌈Show up to City Hall to give public comment on Tuesday, July 21 (arrive by 6:45 to fill out a form; meeting starts at 7pm)
🏳️‍🌈Send an email to [email protected] if you cannot attend

Kyle City Councilwoman Claudia Zapata, District 3 At-Large

09/05/2026

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