{"id":500,"date":"2026-06-09T10:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=500"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:36:33","slug":"first-came-the-robots-then-came-the-cameras-thats-when-this-colorado-mountain-town-had-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradorelocationreport.com\/?p=500","title":{"rendered":"First came the robots. Then came the cameras. That\u2019s when this Colorado mountain town had enough."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

First, it was the robots. They were trundling along sidewalks in Paonia last summer gathering data on how accommodating those thoroughfares were for people with disabilities. The wandering robots took townspeople by complete surprise.<\/p>\n

Read more Colorado foster kids are getting new rights about pronouns, religious freedom and physical punishment<\/a><\/p>\n

Then came the surveillance cameras mounted on poles and walls last fall. They were capturing those doing business at the town hall, coming and going from the town\u2019s water plant, and dancing in front of the town park\u2019s bandstand. Even those with impressive Western swing moves weren\u2019t happy to unknowingly be caught on camera.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

What was up with all these high-tech, data-scooping devices in Paonia, an agriculture-centric town of 1,500 in the North Fork Valley?<\/p>\n

The answer to that isn\u2019t clear. But it has prompted the most strife to hit Paonia since two decades ago when mosquito fogging ignited a controversy that culminated in the bombing of the town\u2019s mosquito-control building.<\/p>\n

This latest meeting-packing brouhaha began after residents started noticing the artificial intelligence-enabled cameras with their telltale blue lights trained on public places, on citizens and on town employees.<\/p>\n

One Paonia resident in particular took note of the devices and started raising questions \u2014 enough questions that town officials recently caved and had most of the cameras removed.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t end the discord over how the cameras had shown up with no public input.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Within weeks, town administrator Stefen Wynn had decided not to renew his contract. He complained to Paonia police that he felt some townspeople were threatening his life by posting \u201c86-Wynn\u201d on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next, the town\u2019s public works director resigned. So did one of the newest of the six town board members. Now, there is a petition circulating to recall the mayor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has gotten bad enough that some Paonia folks are suggesting that the town simply needs to bring in a robot to run things.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

You say security, I say surveillance<\/h2>\n

Pete McCarthy, a software engineer who moved to Paonia from Silicon Valley five years ago, is in the driver\u2019s seat on questioning Paonia\u2019s controversial adventures in high technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He calls what the town has been doing \u201csurveillance,\u201d but Paonia Mayor Paige Smith said she prefers to use the term \u201csecurity.\u201d Smith said the cameras were purchased to deter vandalism and other crimes. The robots were to carry out a short-term job of gathering specific information.<\/p>\n

McCarthy, who worked in software development and consulting in Silicon
Valley for more than two decades but stresses he is no \u201ctech bro,\u201d said he first recognized that the cute visiting robots weren\u2019t just collecting data on sidewalk flaws. They were also capturing images of curious kids on bicycles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He submitted a \u201crobot moratorium\u201d measure to the town, but it was rejected.<\/p>\n

Smith said when the town hired a company to gather data on the town\u2019s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, she didn\u2019t know that would be accomplished with roving robots.<\/p>\n

McCarthy next focused on the town\u2019s surveillance cameras and determined they were capable of facial recognition and could be violating the civil rights of Paonia citizens.<\/p>\n

In public meetings, McCarthy shared the fact that Verkada, the security company the town purchased the cameras from, had been charged and fined for serious transgressions around the country, including failing to secure customer data. Hackers accessed camera systems of nearly 100 clients and compromised the privacy at hospitals, prisons and schools. The Department of Justice fined the company $2.95 million for \u201csevere\u201d data breaches, deceptive business practices and marketing violations.<\/p>\n

McCarthy summed up Paonia\u2019s AI problems by quipping, \u201cI guess you could say that we are on the cutting edge of violating citizens\u2019 privacy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last week McCarthy announced that he has started a recall petition to remove Smith from office for going along with mistakes he pins on the outgoing administrator.<\/p>\n

In a town the size of Paonia, he needs 81 signatures to force a recall election. He has already used his digital skills to create professional-looking \u201cPete for Mayor\u201d posters.<\/p>\n

Paonia lacks a written policy about how surveillance data may be used<\/h2>\n

A year after they came and went, the robots mostly draw chuckles. But they were in the back of minds when townspeople learned they had no say in approving the choice of the Verkada surveillance company or for paying that company $53,000 for around two dozen cameras.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more West Nile virus season is here. This Colorado climber\u2019s story shows how everyone needs to take precautions.<\/a><\/p>\n

When the cameras\u2019 presence was noted, town officials said their purpose was to deter vandals. They denied that the cameras were using AI facial recognition.<\/p>\n

McCarthy begged to differ. He used Colorado Open Records Act requests to pry 88,000 records from the town. He analyzed those to determine the cameras in and around the Paonia Town Hall had been used to surveil employees and had appeared to be a factor in the firing of one employee. He found the Paonia police chief had accessed the facial-recognition capability of the cameras around 100 times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also learned the town had created permanent video archives of images from inside town hall, and data from the cameras was on the web.<\/p>\n

All of this was done without the town having any written policy about how the surveillance cameras and the data could be used.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Armed with this information, McCarthy started a website called Paonia Truth Nuggets to share the flow of documents and communications about the town\u2019s surveillance\/security activities.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

When new town board members voted to remove the cameras after rowdy and lengthy public input, the board released a statement saying that the cameras were not used to surveil any private property and had not used face recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, they are a tool used routinely across the country in cities and towns to monitor and protect the public use of publicly provided spaces,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

That is true. But those types of cameras have been controversial in other places around the country from Dunwoody, Georgia, to Mountain View, California. Most recently, York, Pennsylvania, San Antonio and Boulder have had dust-ups over Flock Safety cameras sweeping up more information than anticipated and having it land at federal agencies or on the internet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paonia is one of the smaller towns to grapple with this.<\/p>\n

Town will focus on fixing its domestic water system and that includes adding \u201csmart\u201d meters<\/h2>\n

Getting rid of the cameras means Paonia forfeits $53,000 that had been paid to Verkada.<\/p>\n

Wynn, who had approved the contract, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

In a recent letter to the Paonia police he wrote about \u201can escalating pattern of harassment, intimidation, threatening conduct and retaliatory behavior directed at me, and increasingly, toward my wife and children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wynn then withdrew his children from the Paonia school before announcing he would not renew his contract.<\/p>\n

His interim replacement, Greg Sund, won\u2019t be on the job until June 15. Smith said she expects Sund, who comes with high praise from the Colorado City County Managers Association, to calm the turmoil.<\/p>\n

She said the town has a healthy pile of grant money to use for a number of projects that don\u2019t involve surveillance. More than $20 million in grants will be used for the reconstruction of a major town intersection and for badly needed upgrades to the town\u2019s water system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pipe bringing water to Paonia from nearby Lamborn Mesa has long been crumbling and the system failed and left the town with no domestic water for 13 days in 2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

McCarthy promises to make sure those projects move forward if he becomes the next mayor.<\/p>\n

But he said Smith is wrong about the end of Paonia\u2019s penchant for information gathering.<\/p>\n

The water-system upgrade plans call for installing \u201csmart meters\u201d that transmit water usage data using cellular signals. The town says the new tech will lead to better water management and earlier leak detection.<\/p>\n

McCarthy claims the meters are planned to link to owners\u2019 cellphones and the information will be gathered that way will show when residents are home or away. He calls it Paonia\u2019s latest assault on citizens\u2019 privacy.<\/p>\n

Smith said she hadn\u2019t heard about the controversy brewing over water meters. She was surprised, and the news elicited a sigh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Tornado watch issued for these 12 Colorado counties Monday<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess this is just what happens in small towns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Controversy flamed by Silicon Valley refugee who says Paonia is \u201con the cutting edge of violating citizens\u2019 privacy.\u201d He\u2019s running for mayor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst came the robots. Then came the cameras. 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