League City residents could see their first-ever city charter referendum and get a clearer picture of next year's property tax rate when the City Council meets Tuesday night.
Council members are set to vote on an ordinance that would place the future of the city's 55 Flock Safety license plate reader cameras on the Nov. 3 ballot. Separately, a 5 p.m. budget workshop will present the newly certified no-new-revenue tax rate of $0.356505 per $100 of property value, replacing the $0.369 placeholder used in the July 27 workshop.
The Flock vote
Mayor Nick Long sponsored the agenda item, citing feedback from residents concerned about how camera data is accessed and documented abuses in nearby cities including Houston and Pasadena.
"If the citizens decide to keep the cameras, we would create a citizens accountability committee which will then audit both Flock and the police department to make sure those restrictions and those provisions are being followed," Long told KHOU on Aug. 10.
If council approves the ordinance, it would be the first referendum League City has called since updating its charter in 2025 to allow them, and what Long has called one of the first statewide votes on automated license plate reader technology.
The cameras have been in use since December 2022. Police say they aided 305 criminal investigations since July 2025, helped recover $1 million in stolen property and assisted in homicide and theft cases. LCPD Captain Harold Lee has said officers cannot access the Flock database without investigating a high-level case. Scanned plates are deleted after 30 days.
LCPD shares Flock data with the FBI but not with U.S. Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The cameras do not use facial recognition.
If voters choose to remove the cameras, the city would break its Flock Safety contracts and pull all 55 units. If voters keep them, the proposed citizen accountability committee would audit police access and enforce data-destruction protocols.
Budget workshop: certified rate arrives
The Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector certified the no-new-revenue rate at $0.356505 on Aug. 4, about 1.3 cents below the placeholder rate staff used in July. The voter-approval ceiling is $0.465935.
The FY2027 spending plan is built on roughly $13.2 billion in taxable value, with water and wastewater fees projected at $58.4 million and sales tax at about $31.8 million, according to Community Impact. The budget adds seven new positions, including a police crime analyst and extra EMS staff for a peak-time ambulance, and funds employee raises.
Looming over the workshop: the council is scheduled to vote Aug. 25 on issuing up to $165.9 million in Combination Tax and Revenue Certificates of Obligation to fund water and sewer upgrades, League City Parkway and Maple Leaf Drive thoroughfare improvements, and the Pat Hallisey Park expansion. The city's notice of intent estimates total principal and interest at $280.6 million over up to 40 years at an assumed 4.50% rate. Outstanding tax-supported debt stands at $108.2 million.
What's next
The budget workshop begins at 5 p.m. and the regular council meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Council Chambers, 200 W. Walker St. A public hearing and first reading of the FY2027 budget ordinance is set for Aug. 25, with final adoption of the tax rate scheduled for Sept. 8. Residents can contact CFO and assistant city manager Angie Steelman at [email protected] or (281) 338-4186.
