On the agenda: Lancaster View — FLOCK camera (Aug 10)

GARRARD COUNTY FISCAL COURT
REGULAR MEETING
HON. CHRISTOPHER T. ELLEMAN PRESIDING
AUGUST 10, 2026 @ 6:00 PM
15 PUBLIC SQUARE, LANCASTER, KY 40444
The meeting was called to order by Judge/Executive Chris Elleman.

Opening prayer by J.T. Prewitt.

Opening Pledge of Allegiance led by Willie Skeens.

MAGISTRATES PRESENT: Glendan Barker, Bobby Preston, Wayne Day, Chris Butner and Chris Davis

IN RE: PUBLIC COMMENTS
Cody Lester was in attendance. He wanted to share with the Court his serious concerns about
FLOCK cameras. He believes the FLOCK cameras are an invasion of our privacy, are unconstitutional,
and they leave normal everyday citizens vulnerable to stalking and/or government tyranny. He brought
up a case “United States v. Maynard”, which he stated mentions that the use of prolonged GPS tracking
on a single vehicle was unconstitutional. The GPS tracker was placed on a vehicle of a known cocaine
dealer for 28 days. The defense argued that this was a gross violation of any reasonable expectation of
his privacy under the Fourth Amendment. He said this case has a direct and very obvious connection to
the FLOCK cameras that are in use since they track a month’s worth of data on every single citizen that
drives by one. He said they use AI to identify our license plates and various identifying features of our
vehicles, such as dents, rust spots, and bumper stickers, and there’s an interconnected web of cameras
to pattern our everyday movements. He said the more cameras that we get, the closer we are getting to
that GPS type tracking that was in the Jones case. He said many of the citizens share the same
concerns and questioned the members of the Court on whether they shared the same concerns.
He also pointed to two cases of documented abuse associated with the data from the FLOCK
cameras. One had a police officer who searched the license plate of his girlfriend 124 times and her exboyfriend’s plate 55 times. The second case had a police officer who looked up his ex’s plate 1,600
times. He said the abuses are not limited to large cities. He asked the Court to please consider why
these officers are being arrested, fired, tried in a court of law, and even sentenced to prison. He said
gathering information about your travel patterns is inherently an invasion of your privacy. He said he is
opposed to the camera system in principle and would like the cameras to be removed from our
community.
Judge/Executive Elleman told Mr. Lester that the Court does not run the Sheriff’s Department.
The Court did not sign the agreement with the FLOCK system. He said he does support the FLOCK
system, as he’s seen instances where they’ve found children and done a Golden Alert. The County does
not get the records from the Sheriff's Department. Magistrate Day and Magistrate Davis also expressed
support.

Sheriff Willie Skeens was in attendance. He told Mr. Lester that his concerns were great. He
said he applauds the agencies who have arrested those who have abused the system and said he would
put his deputies in jail if they were found to abuse the system as well. He cited the court case mentioned
by Mr. Lester should be “United States v. Jones”, rather than “United States v. Maynard”. He said the FBI
and two agents trespassed onto private property and affixed a GPS tracking device to the undercarriage
of a vehicle that was not visible. They tracked the suspect’s movements for 28 days and then used it as
evidence regarding trafficking in cocaine. The evidence was later dismissed, not due to the tracker, but
because the FBI had trespassed onto private property.
Sheriff Skeens brought up a second case of “United States v. Knotts”, in which the court
reasoned that a person traveling in public has no expectation of privacy in one’s movements since there
is no search and seizure. He said taking a picture of a license plate is not considered a search. He said
every day in north Garrard they have 15,000 cars pass through on US-27. Of those 15,000 inbound cars,
his deputies have run less than 800 plates in the last 30 days. 634 were related to drug investigations.
They’ve seized hundreds of thousands of dollars of narcotics in this community, and they have $233,000
in seized assets pending right now. 130 plate searches were traffic-related looking for potential DUI’s, 15
times they were looking for wanted people, 3 times they were looking for stolen vehicles, 2 times they had
weapons violations, and 1 time was a theft.
He said just last week they seized $162,000.00 from two individuals who were muling drugs into
Garrard County. At one point they lost the subject, but they had his tags and his vehicle information. He
was delivering 10 pounds of marijuana and other drugs. They refreshed the plate search multiple times
trying to track the vehicle, which showed as an anomaly on FLOCK for running the same tag multiple
times. Sheriff Skeens was notified of this instance.
Kentucky House Bill 58 was recently passed and relates to a series of laws relating to FLOCK
cameras. Sheriff Skeens said the automated license plate readers (ALPR’s) are to be used for promoting
public safety, deterring crime, addressing auto theft, conducting criminal investigations, and remaining in
compliance with local state and federal law. In Kentucky, data shall not be preserved for longer than 90
days unless used for a lawful purpose in a criminal prosecution. The information shall not be sold,
shared, accessed or transferred for any other purpose. Upon receipt of an alert and prior to performing a
traffic stop, a law enforcement officer shall visually confirm that the scanned plate matches what they
were notified of and the information is accurate prior to taking any law enforcement action.
Sheriff Skeens also wanted to state that his office pays $9,000 per year for their whole FLOCK
program, not $300,000 per year as has been posted on Facebook. Each camera is $3,000.00 and they
are located at US 27/KY 34 inbound, KY 52 in Paint Lick inbound near the Dollar Store, and then US 39
at the inbound Lincoln/Garrard line. He invited Mr. Lester down to his office to show him how the FLOCK
systems work. He said FLOCK cameras do not convict anyone and is not probable cause to make an
arrest, but they dedicate resources to an area much faster than it would should the cameras not be there.

IN RE: OLD BUSINESS
The Auditor of Public Accounts approved the request to employ a properly licensed and qualified
private certified public accounting firm (Roy W. Hunter, CPA, PLLC) to perform the Garrard County Fiscal
Court audit for the year ended June 30, 2026.
On Thursday, Judge/Executive Elleman, Sheriff Skeens and County Attorney Whitworth will meet
with Sazerac regarding plans for the distillery by McDonalds.
Boone’s Creek Rd has had several houses built and Garrard County Water tried to put a water
line in and hit rock. The contractor has asked if they could cut the road. Judge/Executive Elleman

recommended boring underneath the road and not cutting the county road. A motion was made for
boring by Magistrate Davis and seconded by Magistrate Day. All in favor.

IN RE: PLATS
None.

IN RE: APPROVE COURT MINUTES
July 27, 2026, minutes were presented. A motion was made to approve by Magistrate Preston
and seconded by Magistrate Butner. All in favor.

IN RE: APPROVE TRANSFERS
From:
Road Fund
02-9200-999-0
Reserve for Transfer

To:
$125.36

Road Fund
02-7700-602-H
Roy Walker Davis - Materials

A motion was made to approve the transfers by Magistrate Day and seconded by Magistrate
Preston. All in favor.

IN RE: APPROVE BILLS TO BE PAID
01 – GENERAL FUND
911 Billing Services
Amazon Capital Services
Kentucky State Treasurer
Blue Moon Restrooms
Central Record
Central Kentucky Sheet Metal, Inc.
Danny’s Termite & Pest Control
Docubit
Danville Office Equipment
Danville Office Equipment
Danville Office Equipment
Enterprise FM Trust
Environmental Waste Systems
Galls
Garrard Quick Lube
Garrard Automotive, Inc
Garrard Hardware
Garrard County Sheriff
Greenscapes
Harp Enterprises, Inc.
Highbridge Springs Water Co, Inc.

$6,820.20
$366.51
$4,415.00
$230.00
$2,035.57
$435.00
$250.00
$70.00
$308.48
$328.83
$130.83
$6,285.91
$89.00
$207.00
$377.87
$39.77
$162.91
$30,333.33
$1,352.00
$1,683.70
$38.50

Jessamine County Detention Center
Kentucky Association of Counties
Quill
Seybold Electric Contracting LLC
Stanford Tire Center
Vencill Enterprises, LLC
Wex Bank General

$40,629.73
$101.80
$147.99
$3,780.00
$661.34
$4,947.00
$6,486.86
02 – ROAD FUND

John Deere Financial
DMB Contracting, LLC
Enterprise FM Trust
Garrard Automotive
Garrard Hardware
Highbridge Springs Water Co, Inc
Lincoln County Ready Mix
Mago Construction Company LLC
Moore’s Mobile Service
Solid Ground Consulting Engineer
Stanford Automotive
Wex Bank Road

$125.43
$366.62
$7,116.47
$22.32
$913.18
$75.50
$3,550.00
$2,432.50
$100.00
$1,550.00
$142.63
$5,616.61
13 – SOLID WASTE FUND

Enterprise FM Trust
Wex SW

$5.00
$333.41

A motion was made to approve the bills by Magistrate Preston and seconded by Magistrate
Barker. All in favor.

IN RE: APPROVE LAST MONTH’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT
Judge/Executive Elleman stated that the General Fund is still sitting solid. We have added a few
new papers regarding Ephraim McDowell, Economic Development, and the new EMS Grants account. A
motion was made to approve the July 2026 financial statement by Magistrate Butner and seconded by
Magistrate Barker. All in favor.

IN RE: EOC (EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER)
Judge/Executive Elleman and Emergency Management Director Shelton would like to request
that the Garrard County Fiscal Court approve designating the Garrard County EMS Building as the new
backup Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the event of a disaster or emergency. The EMS building
has a generator with regular maintenance. Currently the Garrard County Health Department serves as
the backup EOC. A motion was made to approve the change by Magistrate Davis and seconded by
Magistrate Barker. All in favor.

IN RE: COUNTY SURPLUS CONTRACT
At the July 13, 2026, court meeting, a list of furniture/equipment items was presented that are
currently being stored in the basement of the County Attorney/PVA office. This inventory consists of
numerous chairs and dishes, as well as other office equipment and small items. Judge/Executive
Elleman received approval to be able to surplus these items. He would like to put Sheriff Skeens in
charge of taking photos and helping to sell the items.

IN RE: HB 900 AWARD RESOLUTION
A Resolution was presented authorizing the filing of a Kentucky House Bill (“HB”) 900 Project
Grant Application for up to $1,500,000 in HB 900 funds with the Department for Local Government (DLG).
It authorizes and directs Garrard County Judge/Executive Elleman to execute any documents which are
deemed necessary by DLG to carry out the project and authorizes Judge/Executive Elleman to act as the
authorized correspondent for this project. These funds can be used for economic development for a
water and sewer system, site development on the county parks, and the park pavilions. A motion was
made to pass the Resolution by Magistrate Day and seconded by Magistrate Preston. All in favor.

IN RE: ADMINISTRATIVE CODE AMENDMENT – PROCUREMENT TO $50,000
At the June 29, 2026, court meeting, a motion was made to approve changes to the
Administrative Code, effective July 1, 2026. Legislation has passed HB 392 which increased the
procurement threshold to $50,000. A change is needed in “Chapter 8: Purchases and Contracts” to
increase the threshold from $40,000 up to $50,000 before requiring competitive bids. A motion was made
to approve by Magistrate Barker and seconded by Magistrate Davis. All in favor.

IN RE: SET 2026 TAX RATE FOR COUNTY
The current county real property tax rate is 7.5%. Per DLG, a 4% increase would be 7.3%, which
would bring in $883,099. The compensating rate would be 7.1%, which would bring in $858,905.
Judge/Executive Elleman stated that the county has done well in the last 3.5 years, we’ve been very
disciplined, and he thinks it’s time to show it to the people. His recommendation is to drop the county tax
rate down to 7.1%. The watercraft and motor vehicle tax rate will remain unchanged at 10.2%. A motion
was made to set the tax rate at 7.1% by Magistrate Day and seconded by Magistrate Butner. All in favor.

IN RE: EMS AMBULANCE BIDS
At the July 13, 2026, court meeting, a motion was made to allow the court to start accepting bids
for a new ambulance purchase. Two bids were received. Magistrate Davis opened a bid from Global
Emergency Vehicles, Inc for a 2026 Ford AWD Transit 250 Type 2 Ambulance in the amount of
$137,750. Magistrate Butner opened the second bid from Atlantic Emergency Solutions for the same
vehicle description in the amount of $181,414. All companies received the same bid spec sheet. The
new ambulance vehicle should include both a stretcher and a power-load system. Due to the large price
differences between the two bids, Magistrate Day suggested calling to confirm all items on the spec sheet
are included in the lower bid. A motion was made by Magistrate Barker and seconded by Magistrate
Preston to go with the lowest bid (Global Emergency Vehicles, Inc) as long as the spec sheets are
matched. All in favor.

IN RE: EXECUTIVE SESSION
None.

IN RE: ADJOURN MEETING
A motion was made to adjourn by Magistrate Butner and seconded by Magistrate Barker.

Hon ________________________________
Garrard County Judge/Executive