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Flock cameras are down in Kosciusko County. The contract with Flock is invalidated. The Flock Donation Fund is dissolved.
The Kosciusko County Commissioners took care of the latter two matters at their meeting Tuesday morning after the County Council defunded the Flock cameras at their Sept. 10 meeting and the prosecuting attorney ordered them to be taken down Sept. 11.
County attorney Ed Ormsby presented the termination of the Flock contract and the dissolution of the Flock Donation Fund 4912 Ordinance to the commissioners.
Contract Voided
On the termination of the contract, he said, “The Flock camera contract was signed on Jan. 31, 2024, and amended on March 5, 2025. The Flock contract was signed solely by the Kosciusko County prosecutor in the name of the Kosciusko County Prosecutor’s Office. It was not approved by the Board of Commissioners, it was not reviewed by the county attorney, it was not issued in the name of the county.”
The 2025 amendment was executed in the same manner and was not submitted through the contract review process required by Indiana law.
The five-year Flock contract was for 2024-28. On Sept. 10, 2026, the county council voted not to appropriate funds for 2027 and 2028 services under the Flock contract. A section of the Flock contract allows the termination of the county’s obligations if “there is not an appropriation for a future fiscal year at the end of the applicable fiscal year upon 30 days written notice,” Ormsby stated. “Because both 2027 and 2028 were future fiscal years when the vote occurred, the vote provides a contractual basis to end the agreement at the close of 2026 as both remaining payment obligations provided timely written notice is delivered to Flock.”
In addition to the contractual termination rights, Ormsby said the county should also preserve its invalidity arguments when giving the notice to terminate.
“Declaring the Flock contract both invalid and voidable allows the Board of Commissioners to terminate the contract now and in its entirety for 2027 and 2028, rather than depend on any future council vote at the end of 2027 not to appropriate funds for the Flock contract for 2028,” he stated.
On Sept. 11, 2026, Ormsby reminded the commissioners, Prosecuting Attorney Brad Voelz directed county agencies to stop using the Flock cameras, except as needed to preserve evidence in open criminal cases and active investigations and directed that the equipment be removed.
Payments by the county for 2024-26 were already made near the beginning of each of those three years for services that were provided for each of those years.
“No payments under the Flock contract in the amount of $70,500 each year have been made for 2027 or 2028. The enforceability of the remaining payment scheduled for 2027 and 2028 in the total amount of $141,000 is the issue regarding invalidity of the contract to begin with,” Ormsby said.
In his summary analysis of the original Jan. 31, 2024, Flock contract, he said it begins with the recognition that Indiana Code current statutes 36-2-2.8 and 2.9 require a specific procedure for the execution of county contracts. They do not apply “retroactively to the instrument” as both of those statutes became effective on July 1, 2024, approximately five months after the Flock contract was signed.
“The original Flock contract must therefore be evaluated under the framework of Indiana Code 36-2-2 as it stood at the time of the execution of the contract,” Ormsby stated. “Under that statute, the Board of County Commissioners holds the county executive authority and the power to contract on behalf of the county. No provision of Indiana law confers upon the Kosciusko County prosecutor independent authority to execute a multi-year contract binding county funds. Prosecutor is a state constitutional officer whose prosecutorial authority derives from the Indiana Constitution and state law. The prosecutor is not a county executive officer with contracting power over county resources. The prosecutor’s authority to manage the operations of the prosecutor’s office does not extend to the power to obligate the county to long-term payment schedules without executive authorization at the county level.”
Ormsby said the courts have consistently held contracts entered into by public officials who lack the authority to bind a governmental entity are void because no valid contract was ever formed in the first instance.
As such, the Jan. 31, 2024, the Flock contract is void from the beginning as it was executed by the prosecutor without the authorization of the Board of County Commissioners.
“No valid contract was ever formed, and no enforceable legal obligation rose from its execution,” Ormsby stated. Even if the Flock contract was not void from the beginning, he said the county would be able to void the contract for the same reasons previously stated.
“Based on the foregoing, I recommend that the Board of Commissioners adopt a motion that 1.) recognizes the Jan. 31, 2024, the Flock contract, including the March 5, 2025, amendment as invalid. 2. Voids the Flock contract in its entirety. 3. Directs that no further payments be made under the Flock contract for calendar years 2027 and 2028. 4. Without waiving the county’s invalidity position, authorizing the delivery of written notice to Flock ... stating that termination is effective at the end of the 2026 fiscal year ...,” Ormsby stated.
The commissioners adopted the motion 3-0.
Prosecutor Update
Ormsby read a memo from Voelz to county officials updating them on the Flock cameras now the county’s Flock system is wrapped up.
“Following the council’s vote on Sept. 10, my job was to make sure we honored that decision by protecting active criminal evidence and public property. Here is where everything sits today,” the memo states. “The seven-day evidence preservation window closed Friday, Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. All routine officers searching department access and live feeds under the prosecutor’s county account are completely shut down. The only credentials left open are restricted strictly to sheriff’s command staff so they can handle required audits and record preservation.”
Local agencies, including the Warsaw Police Department, have confirmed access to the county network has ended. Voelz wrote local officers and county crews did a “great job” getting out on the roads to take the cameras down and secure them.
Thirty-one camera units are now safely pulled down and stored in secure custody with either the sheriff or WPD. The only unit remaining that local crews were physically unable to remove is the one in Silver Lake, which Flock will have to recover themselves, but it is offline.
Flock was notified in writing on Sept. 11 to route all future billing, contract, equipment pick-up questions to the commissioners or county attorney.
The donation account in the prosecutor’s office budget is frozen at $4,106.60 and Voelz wrote his office has no objection if the commissioners choose to dissolve that account and refund those dollars.
Flock Donation Fund
Ormsby then presented to the commissioners an ordinance to dissolve the Flock Donation Fund. It revokes ordinance 23-04-25-001 that originally established the fund and was adopted by the commissioners on April 25, 2023.
Any remaining balance or property after the fund is wound up will be disposed of in a manner consistent with applicable Indiana law and Indiana State Board of Accounts guidance, Ormsby said.
After the commissioners approved the ordinance 3-0, Commissioner Sue Ann Mitchell asked Ormsby to share about the other donation funds that the county will be looking at.
“There are donation funds that the county has that have been issued that are single-purpose funds that have been put into place prior to this current administration over the years that have no appropriation for those donations. That was pursuant to a 1961 attorney general guidance opinion to the State Board of Accounts that such donation single-purpose funds could be done without appropriation because donations are to be encouraged and donors did not necessarily want those funds to be encumbered by political mechanicians,” Ormsby said.
He said there have been ordinances that created funds for donations without appropriation over the years by Kosciusko and other counties, based upon that 1961 attorney general opinion to the SBOA. However, the current SBOA guidance is that even with those donation funds, appropriations should be done. The commissioners, with the auditor, are in the process of identifying those donation funds that do not have appropriation requirements in them to consider amending those ordinances so they are in compliance with SBOA guidance and that an appropriation would be required going forward. As early as the Oct. 6 commissioners meeting, those funds could be amended to require an appropriation through the county council.
Public Comments
Public comments on the Flock contract and fund came about 40 minutes later after other county business was handled. Only four of the couple dozen people who showed up to the commissioners meeting spoke, though less than they had planned to say as the commissioners took the action the public said they wanted them to take.
Commissioner Bob Conley read a statement before public comments were taken. He said they welcome comments that were not repetitive to the comments made at the Sept. 10 council meeting, and asked that all comments remain civil, respectful and directed to the commissioners. He said it was a time for public comments, not a question-and-answer or interrogatory session, and that the commissioners would not be engaging in back-and-forth questioning, motions, debate or policy statements.
Each speaker was limited to two minutes in the order that they signed up to speak. The total time allotted for public comment on the topic was limited to 20 minutes. Conley also said there would be no cheering, booing, clapping or comments from the crowd or any encouragement of such from the speaker.
Tiffany Moore, like the rest of the speakers, thanked the commissioners for what they did but wondered how the fund was even began in the first place.
Cassie Rolon, Libertarian Party chair, asked, “While all the Flock cameras have been coming down, the county residents would like to know why there are other cameras going up in place. And if that is not the reason, then why are there cameras still up in places that they shouldn’t be? ... What companies are we using for all the cameras if it’s not Flock? What are the companies? And what do they do and where was it signed for these cameras to go up?”
She said people have said the Flock camera on Armstrong Road went down, but another camera went up. Tuesday morning on Winona Avenue another camera on a pole went up with a solar panel. “My question is: What are these cameras and what company is it?” she reiterated.
Chris Plack encouraged the commissioners to slow their process down in approving things like ordinances. He also provided a list of other laws and opinions after 1961 that made account 4912 illegal, such as Indiana code from 1980; an April 2010 State Board of Accounts bulletin, which was repeated in July 2017; and a Nov. 3, 2021, SBOA statement that specifically addresses donations received by the county and appropriations required, which was reiterated Jan. 5, 2023.
Attorney Travis J. McConnell presented a seven-page ordinance he wanted the commissioners to consider titled “Kosciusko County Mass Surveillance Sanctuary Ordinance” to protect county residents’ Fourth Amendment Rights.
