Jonathan Coffman, Pflugerville City Councilmember

09/02/2026

This is such a cool opportunity! I'll be doing at least a couple of classrooms. Sign up to read a book to first graders in PfISD, and let them take home a book to build their own library.

This October, the Pflugerville Education Foundation is launching our new Home Library Initiative, and we need PFriends like YOU!

Volunteer readers will be paired with a PfISD first-grade classroom and visit just once a month to read with students. And the best part? Each visit, every student will receive a book of their own to take home — helping them build a personal home library throughout the school year. ❤️📖

✨ 12 PfISD elementary schools
📚 39 first-grade classrooms
⏰ Just 1 hour per month
🗓️ October 2026 – May 2027
❤️ A lasting impact on some of our youngest readers

Whether you’re a parent, community member, local business leader, or simply someone who loves supporting kids, we’d love to have you join us.

Become a PFriend of the Pfoundation and help us put more books — and more possibilities — into the hands of PfISD students.

👉 Sign up to volunteer: https://thepfoundation.org/pfriends/

08/31/2026

Traffic Alert🚧

Keep an eye out for short lane closures from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sept. 2-4 on Pecan Street, Railroad Avenue and Main Street. Flaggers will be present to direct traffic at the following locations, which will be closed for up to three hours each:

📍101 E. Pecan St.
📍200 feet south of Pecan Street on northbound Railroad Avenue
📍100 feet south of Walnut Street for southbound Railroad Avenue
📍104 N. Railroad Ave. southbound
📍113 E. Main St.

Please slow down, follow signs and use caution when traveling near work areas.

08/30/2026

The ingenuity of Pflugervillians is notorious. After we deflocked the city this week, nearly 100 people gathered last night for a "Goodbye Flock" party with balloons, cookies, and even a Flock camera-shaped piñata.

08/25/2026

Update: I just got off the phone with the City Manager about yesterday's revelation that Pflugerville's ALPR data was shared outside the agencies previously granted access.

He confirmed that staff investigated and found the system was configured correctly, set to block the exact statewide and national sharing we were told wasn't happening. It happened anyway. Our settings said one thing. The system appears to be doing something else. The vendor is now aware of the reported issue.

To be clear, I don't believe anyone affiliated with or working for the City misconfigured a setting or hid something from Council or the public.

This evening, I will call for the Flock cameras to be shut off immediately, physically covered, and the entire system taken offline. Including ALPRs and the video surveillance cameras. Not paused. Off. I'll also call for all contracts with Flock to be immediately canceled.

I'll also ask this Council to suspend Clearview AI and any other high-risk surveillance technology until our policies and operations can catch up to what we now know.

More after tonight.

08/24/2026

Today I learned something that fundamentally changes Pflugerville’s debate over Flock Safety.

Pflugerville resident Sammer Aly obtained the City’s Flock records through a Texas Public Information Act request and did the painstaking work of digging through the data and identifying what it showed. I reviewed the raw audit exports and confirmed his findings.

For months, the public discussion has focused on roughly 80 organizations listed as having access to Pflugerville’s Flock Cameras. My stance has always been that that is way too many, and that we need actual agreements with any 3rd party who has access to City data.

Staff has repeatedly said that Pflugerville is not participating in statewide or nationwide sharing.

The City’s own Flock network-audit records tell a very different story.

After removing duplicate records from overlapping exports, the data identifies 459 outside organizations conducting nearly 1.6 million searches that included Pflugerville’s camera network over the last six months. The organizations include agencies hundreds of miles away and outside Texas.

Whatever Flock calls the setting, this is broad network access to data collected in Pflugerville.

I do not yet know whether the discrepancy resulted from misrepresentation, a misunderstanding of how Flock’s platform operates, inadequate oversight, or some combination of the three. I sincerely hope no one knowingly provided inaccurate information.

But after months of scrutiny, direct questions, and public assurances, not understanding access on this scale represents a profound failure of oversight.

If these agencies could not search Pflugerville data, Flock and the City need to explain why their searches appear in an audit generated for Pflugerville. If they could, the public deserves to know what access was enabled, who authorized it, and why Council and residents were repeatedly told that broader sharing was not turned on.

Effective immediately, I am calling for the City to:
- Suspend the entire Flock system, including its license-plate readers, video cameras, supporting infrastructure, outside access, and integrations.
- Suspend Clearview AI until its configuration and usage have been independently audited.
- Preserve all records, audit logs, settings, access histories, and data needed for the reviews.
- Begin a technical audit of how these systems are configured, where their data goes, who can access it, and whether their operation complies with City policy and law.
- Produce a complete public inventory of every high-risk surveillance device, product, account, integration, and data-sharing arrangement operated by the City.
- Report the findings publicly before any system returns to operation.

I am not claiming tonight that every component of Flock or Clearview AI has been misused; I hope they have not. I am saying that the City has lost the factual foundation needed to justify continuing their operation.

We cannot govern technology we have not accurately inventoried. We cannot protect data flows we have not independently verified. And we should not continue operating high-risk surveillance systems first and ask how they work later.

This also makes it even more important for Council to act tomorrow evening on my high-risk technology governance and oversight proposal. The need for binding rules, complete inventories, independent audits, public transparency, and meaningful Council oversight could not be clearer.

We must establish those safeguards before allowing any of these systems to return to operation, if at all.

Shut the systems down. Verify everything. Report the truth publicly.

Monday evening update: As soon as this data came to light, I immediately contacted the city manager, chief of police, and city attorney, who mobilized to figure out what is going on. They also reached out to Flock for answers. I'm sure it will take some time to figure out what exactly happened and how, but it is currently being investigated.

08/19/2026

Now is a great time to sign up for Pflugerville Scout Troop 685’s flag fundraiser so you can have a flag in your yard for Patriot Day on September 11. 🇺🇸

This is one of my personal favorite local fundraisers, and it’s an easy way to show some patriotism throughout the year.

With the flag subscription, Troop 685 places a 3' x 5' American flag in your front yard before five holidays each year:

• Presidents Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Patriot Day
• Veterans Day

Scouts handle putting the flag out and taking it down afterward. The money raised helps them pay for Scouting activities, including camps and other programs.

Flag service is available in PFISD neighborhoods, and Troop 685 needs at least two weeks to process new subscriptions, so this is a good time to sign up for 9/11 flag placement!

You can learn more and sign up here:
https://www.troop685.com/fundraising

08/18/2026

I had a good conversation this morning with representatives from the Pflugerville Police Association (LEAP) about Flock.

They asked to meet, and I was glad to hear directly from the officers who actually use the system. I also wanted to share more of what I’ve been hearing from residents, including concerns about privacy, data sharing, and mission creep behind the very clear ‘just get rid of them’ message Council has received from the public.

I’ve seen the public-safety side firsthand too. During a PfPD ride-along earlier this year, I watched Flock help officers do their jobs in real time. The technology does help take dangerous criminals off the streets, including people who come into Pflugerville after committing crimes elsewhere.

Public safety will sometimes be in tension with concerns about privacy, surveillance, and civil liberties. That’s okay. As elected officials, we have to take both seriously and decide where the right boundaries belong. Conversations like this help. There was more common ground than I expected.

I’ve also long acknowledged that PfPD listens to public concerns and acts on them. They’ve been conducting recurring audits of officers’ Flock usage and requiring a case number and plain-language description for every search for some time now.

I want to make decisions on your behalf that I can be confident in and stand behind. I take that responsibility seriously.

Shaping Pflugerville’s future means listening to everyone. Over the last 6+ months, I’ve heard extensively from residents, talked with the officers who use the technology, worked through the legal and contract issues with our City Attorney and (new) City Manager, and sought outside perspective from a Pflugerville-based attorney who specializes in AI, data, and cybersecurity.

I want all of those perspectives in front of me when Council votes next Tuesday.

08/12/2026

Last night’s City Council meeting covered several major issues: the FY27 budget, bond projects, water rates, and technology governance.

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FY27 Budget and tax rate
Council continued discussions on the proposed FY27 budget and tax rate.

The proposed budget uses the voter-approval tax rate (VAR), which is the highest rate Council can adopt without calling an election. However, because property values decreased this year, the average Pflugerville homeowner would actually see a slight reduction in their City property tax payment.

For the average taxable homestead, the proposed City tax bill would decrease by about $54 compared to last year.

The budget also reflects difficult choices, including reducing funded positions by 12 compared to this year while maintaining core services and major projects already underway. Moving to the no-new-revenue tax rate would require additional reductions to programs, staffing, or service levels to the tune of about $1M.

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No bond election this November
Council decided not to call a bond election this November. We have important needs in our community, and every project on that list will be needed at some point, but I do not believe this is the right time to ask residents for additional funding while we have significant projects already underway and commitments we need to deliver.

The animal shelter was one of the biggest discussions connected to this decision. We need a new shelter, like yesterday, but the plans, scope, and costs are not developed enough yet for me to feel comfortable asking voters to approve funding. Staff worked miracles and brought several options to Council over the last week and a half, and we prioritized a couple of scenarios for them to continue to pursue.

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Water rates and affordability
Earlier this year, Councilmember Ryan and I met with the City Manager, Finance Department, and our Utilities Director and asked that this year’s water rate study specifically focus on equity and affordability. That message was received and acted on.

The proposed rate structure that came forward this week would reduce or stabilize bills for roughly 75% of residential customers next year. The largest reductions would go to our lowest water users, while higher-use customers, large apartment complexes, and businesses would see increases that better reflect the cost of providing service.

No rate structure is perfect, but this is a big step toward a fairer system. I appreciate City staff for listening to Council feedback, taking the time to fully understand what our residents are going through right now, and bringing forward a thoughtful proposal.

We’ll do the same activity and re-evaluate the rates again next year. The final rate decision will come back to Council in September, but I do not anticipate major changes at this point.

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Flock and technology governance
The Flock renewal and my AI and high-risk technology governance policy were both deferred for two weeks.
This gives Council and staff more time to work through remaining questions and ensure that any high-risk technology the City uses has appropriate safeguards, transparency, and accountability.

Several residents spoke during public comment opposing renewal of the Flock contract. I continue to hear consistent concerns from residents about privacy, data sharing, and how these systems are governed. More to come from me before the next meeting.

08/12/2026

City staff and the mayor decided not to take up the issue of our renewal with Flock Safety this evening, and I agreed to postpone my policy proposal for formal governance of all high-risk technology. We'll take this topic up again in 2-weeks.

Pflugerville city leaders are reconsidering whether to continue using license plate reading cameras from Flock Safety, postponing a vote on a new contract after