Boonsboro Town Council Found to Violate Open Meetings Act Over 2025 Flock Camera Purchase

The Boonsboro Town Council has been found to have violated Maryland’s Open Meetings Act by failing to adequately inform the public about a discussion and potential vote regarding the acquisition of Flock license plate-reading cameras. According to an official opinion from the Open Meetings Compliance Board, while an exchange of emails among council members prior to the meeting did not constitute an illegal “meeting,” the agenda for the July 14, 2025, meeting was insufficient.

The complaint, filed by Radio Free Hub City, alleged that the Town Council engaged in a “meeting” through a series of emails exchanged on Friday, July 11, 2025, concerning a proposal from the company Flock to install license plate-reading cameras in Boonsboro. These emails, sent over a five-hour period, involved the Town’s police chief, town manager, office manager, and several council members. The police chief shared information from Flock and its associated costs, which included details about a potential second company that could integrate existing systems and provide additional cameras. Some council members responded to these emails, with one stating it “sounds like a good deal” and another inquiring about camera placement at the wastewater treatment plant. However, the Open Meetings Compliance Board determined that while a quorum of the council received some of these emails, only two members actively engaged in a discussion. The Board noted that for an email exchange to constitute a meeting, there must be evidence of near-simultaneous interaction among a quorum, and this evidence was not present in this case. Therefore, the Board concluded that this email exchange did not rise to the level of a meeting subject to the Act’s notice and public observation requirements, but did encourage the council to minimize “reply all” emails and messages addressed to a quorum of a body for future emails to avoid violations.

Despite finding no violation related to the email exchange, the Compliance Board did find that the agenda for the July 14, 2025, Town Council meeting was deficient. The agenda listed “Facilities Reports,” including a “Police Department Report,” but provided no specific indication that the acquisition of license plate-reading cameras would be discussed or voted upon. The Act mandates that agendas include “known items of business or topics to be discussed” to allow the public to understand the meeting’s purpose and decide whether to attend. The Board reasoned that the police chief’s email, which explicitly referenced the July 14 meeting and shared detailed information about the Flock proposal, made it reasonably clear that this topic was expected to be addressed. The fact that council members responded to these emails further supported the conclusion that they were aware the matter would likely be raised. Therefore, a general “Police Department Report” was considered too vague to satisfy the Act’s requirement of apprising the public of known discussion topics. The Board concluded that the Town Council violated Section 3-302.1(a) of the Open Meetings Act by failing to specify the discussion of the license plate-reading camera proposal on its meeting agenda.

The Council’s defense that there was no intention to vote on the matter at that meeting was deemed insufficient. The Open Meetings Act requires public bodies to include known discussion topics on their agendas, regardless of whether a vote is anticipated. The Board referenced a prior opinion where a similarly vague agenda item was found to be in violation when the public body knew about a specific business proposal that staff intended to present. In this instance, the direct communication from the police chief to council members about the Flock proposal, coupled with council members’ responses, provided a sufficient basis to conclude that the topic was known and should have been disclosed on the agenda. The Board suggested that such communications could unintentionally evolve into meetings under the Act and urged council members to minimize the use of “reply all” emails and messages addressed to a quorum of the body.

The town will be hosting a special meeting discussing License Plate Readers on October 5, 2026 at 6:00pm in the Town Meeting Chambers.

The full OMCB opinion is available in our document repository.

Article by Ken Buckler, based upon information from the Open Meetings Compliance Board

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