Marina Armendariz
BUDA — During its Sept. 1 meeting, Buda City Council conducted a workshop to discuss fishing pier opportunities in the Garlic Creek greenbelt. Additionally, council deliberated the approval of a policy regarding the use of city owned public security cameras.
Buda city engineer Angela Kennedy presented a workshop analysis of Heep Run Pond, Garlic Creek Dr. Pond and Oyster Creek Pond for consideration to install fishing access. Currently, the only designated community fishing pond is Bradfield Park Fishing Pond; however, per the 2014 Parks Ordinance, community members are permitted to fish in any community pond, including retention ponds, with a valid fishing license.
According to Kennedy, both Heep Run Pond and Garlic Creek Dr. Pond are designed as detention and water quality facilities, with the primary purpose of stormwater management. Alternatively, Oyster Creek Pond is a natural pond with limited space and public access.
“It is less than ideal that we have fish in them,” Kennedy explained. “The design criteria recommends that if we end up with invasive species that are hampering the functioning of these ponds, they should be fenced off. ”
Kennedy further clarified that each pond resides within the flood hazard area, meaning any additional infrastructure would need to accommodate potential flood water several feet above the ponds’ normal water surface elevation.
Recommendations from Kennedy included the clearing and stabilization of the ponds’ banks to improve access for recreational purposes, the potential funding of a feasibility study for the expansion of Oyster Creek Pond and the consideration of the availability of parking following improved access.
“Bottom line, I think one of the cautions that I want to make is to ensure that we prioritize the infrastructure services that these ponds provide,” Kennedy concluded. “They are critical to us managing water quality, to managing those detention volumes and we want to clearly communicate that they are not intended for stocking fish.”
While no action was taken, the consensus of the dias was that the council does not wish to see any structural changes made that will affect the purpose of the ponds, but they intend to look at ways to increase access that are low cost and easy to accomplish.
Following the workshop, during the regular agenda, council deliberated the adoption of a resolution approving a policy regarding the use of public security cameras for governmental purposes.
Presented by assistant city manager Lindsay Baker and information technology manager Cameron Determeyer, the purpose of the policy is to establish guidelines governing the use of public security camera systems owned or operated by the city of Buda to enhance public safety, while protecting individual privacy rights.
According to the policy statement, the city will not use security cameras for general surveillance of lawful public activities or to monitor individuals based solely on race, ethnicity, religion, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or participation in constitutionally protected activities. Furthermore, the city shall not make recorded data available for any individual’s personal, private usage or commercial purposes, unless specifically required by law.
“The policy applies to city owned, city operated or city controlled cameras primarily installed to observe public areas, municipal facilities or other locations for security or public safety purposes,” Baker explained. “It does not govern law enforcement camera systems, or generally it does not, such as license plate readers or body and dash cams.”
Baker outlined further exclusions to the policy, including body worn cameras used by peace officers, cameras installed in police vehicles, cameras used solely for automated traffic-law enforcement, automated license plate readers like Flock, cameras used exclusively for employee videoconferencing, public meetings, television production or similar administrative purposes, unmanned aircraft systems, such as drones, and privately owned cameras viewed by city personnel during an investigation. Additionally, Baker presented a list of current public security camera locations around municipal buildings, public parks and city trails within Buda.
Initial discussion of the policy from council members regarded the management and access of stored data, with council member LaVonia Horne-Williams questioning whether they would prohibit the selling, monetizing, licensing or commercial exploitation of the footage and metadata associated with it.
“All of the data is stored locally within our video recording services here,” said Determeyer. “We have a retention policy set by the state which is 30 days. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. We are not archiving it to sell it later. The areas that are being monitored aren't for commercial gain or anything like that.”
Further discussion included clarification on the auditing of user access logs, annual reviews of the policy and how the cameras interact with the recently adopted artificial intelligence policy. Determeyer clarified that the city- owned cameras do not have AI built into them.
Public testimony following the outline and discussion of the policy brought up further questions regarding how the policy will be enforced for the companies providing the city’s camera equipment.
“While we as a city may have a policy about our behavior, we have some other people that we can’t necessarily control and we just want to make sure that when we enter into our agreements with them that we have exclusivity to our information and they have no rights to that information,” said Horne-Williams.
Following discussion, council member Horne-Williams made a motion to table the item pending additional information presented to council regarding vendor access security features. The motion passed unanimously.
Additional agenda items that were approved with no opposition included an ordinance amending and restating the 2026 Service Plan Update and 2026 Assessment Roll for the Persimmon Public Improvement District, an ordinance providing for legislative changes that add a zoning verification permit to identify nonconforming uses related to alcoholic beverage permits, proposed amendments to the city’s regulation and administration of peddler and solicitor permits and an ordinance amending the established boundaries of Single Member District A for the purpose of incorporating newly annexed areas into said district.
The next Buda City Council meeting is Sept. 15.
