Adam Sakai, a Mountlake Terrace resident, used his five minutes during public comment to urge the city to cancel a signed contract to install Flock surveillance cameras and to redirect funds toward public-health measures.

Sakai said the camera program "is nothing but a fascist band aid" and "security theater" that "will inevitably be used to harm members of our community." He also asserted that Flock “works with ICE,” saying federal agencies could obtain footage and use it against residents. Sakai called on the council to accept that signing the contract may have been a mistake and to decline further installation.

The resident framed the surveillance system as a misplaced priority. He urged the council to invest in pandemic-related protections—N95 masks, HEPA filters and school air-cleaning measures—arguing those steps would better protect public health than cameras. "Why is Mountlake Terrace helping Peter Thiel build a surveillance system instead of addressing this?" Sakai asked, and suggested buying N95s and air purifiers would “actually make our community dramatically safer.”

Sakai also praised council members who opposed the camera program, saying, "I'd like to end on a positive note by thanking council members Aaron Murray and Steve Woiderd for their votes against the surveillance system." Those endorsements were offered as his personal observation during public comment.

The council received no other in-person or remote public commenters during that segment; written comments were distributed to council members, the meeting record shows. The council did not take a vote on camera installation during the public-comment period recorded in the transcript.

Why this matters: Surveillance contracts and their oversight are ongoing civic-policy questions for Mountlake Terrace. Residents’ concerns about civil liberties, public-health tradeoffs and vendor relationships surfaced in public comment, raising issues the council may address in later agenda items or contract-review discussions.

Provenance:
Topic intro evidence: "Hi. So my wife and I have been residents of Mount Pleasant Terrace for nearly a decade. I just wanna express my disappointment and quite frankly horror over the flat camera system being approved." (transcript block starting at 84.51)
Topic finish evidence: "I'd like to end on a positive note by thanking council members, Aaron Murray and Steve Woiderd for their votes against the surveillance system... Thank you." (transcript block starting at 323.17502)

Speakers:
- Adam Sakai — Resident