OYARE 30,1203
REVISED AGENDA ITEM
CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
MEETING DATE: September 8, 2026
ITEM NUMBER: 18
ITEM DESCRIPTION: Artificial Intelligence (Al) Policy
Following publication of the agenda, the proposed Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy was revised based on feedback from the City Attorney. The revisions are reflected in tracked changes for City Council review and consideration.
The revised language is highlighted in red on the attached revised pages of the staff report.
Published: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
City Council
ROVEMBER 24, 1982 City of Highland
Effective Date
Approval Date
ATTO HICHLAND
OF Supersedes N/A
Artificial Intelligence Policy
1. Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence (Al) safely, securely, and ethically within the City of Highland. This policy ensures that Al is used to enhance efficiency, creativity, and analytics while still protecting sensitive information, complying with applicable laws, regulations, and City policies.
2. Background
A popular Al technology being used is generative artificial intelligence (Generative Al or GenAl). GenAl applications include (but not limited to) chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot, text-to-image models such as Dall-E, Stable Diffusion, and Midjourney, and text-to-audio models just as Veo, LTX, and Sora. These tools can help in drafting documents, reviewing documents, summarizing content, data analysis, translation, and much more.
At the same time, it introduces risks in cybersecurity, law, and privacy. This policy focuses on establishing safeguards, governance, and accountability standards to ensure Al is used correctly and securely while also meeting compliance obligations.
3. Scope
While this policy refers to employees and/or staff, This-this policy applies to:
• All City employees
• Elected officials when using City systems and data
• Contractors and consultants using City systems and data This policy governs Al use on:
• City-owned devices
City networks
• City email accounts
• Any system used for City Business
4. Guiding Principles
The city City adopts the following principles for responsible Al use:
• Al must be used in a manner that protects confidential information, critical infrastructure, and public data.
• Generative Al is merely a tool, and City staff is responsible for anything they produce utilizing Al.
• Al generated content must be reviewed and validated for proper use by a human prior to official use:
• Any appropriate use of Al should improve staff efficiency, and provide better services to the City's residents, businesses and visitors.
• Al content may not be used in ways that result in biased outcomes, discrimination, or inequality:
• Employees remain fully responsible for any content used by generative Al assistance.
5. Requirements for Using Al
• Al tools used for work purposes require an account that is explicitly for City use. Personal accounts are not permitted for work use.
• Employees may only input content into Al tools that is acceptable for public disclosure. • Staff must conduct a fact check on all content that is produced by generative Al. Staff must validate all output and ensure that it is factually correct. Staff are responsible for managing the risks of Al hallucinations, i.e., the creation by Al of inaccurate or nonsensical content.
6. Disclosure
Use of Al shall be disclosed for any work product affecting allocation of City resources or policy decisions. Use of Al for research purposes and work product that does not affect the allocation of City resources or policy decisions do not need to be disclosed. When applicable, a disclosure of Al usage shall include the Al tool used and the staff member who reviewed the Al output. Al disclosure statements should be included in the document. A sample disclosure statement is as follows: This information was generated by ChatGPT 5.0 and edited by John Doe.
5. Prohibited and Restricted Information
7. 7.1 Uploading information
City staff should use caution when providing data to an Al tool. Potentially sensitive or confidential data or information shall not be uploaded to an Al tool.
The following information SHALL NOT be entered into Al tools:
• Private and confidential information not for publiesuch as financial information (credit card numbers, bank account numbers) or social security numbers • Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as names • Personnel records
• Legal/Attorney-Client communications
• Information System/Information Technology (configurations, data, infrastructure) The list above is not an exhaustive list.
7.2 Prohibited Uses
• Decision making affecting the public or city personnel • Using Al in any way that violates the law or government policy • Using Al responses without review
• Using Al that influences outcomes based on biased profiling of protected traits. This includes race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability, medical, and future conduct.
Hiring decisions/recruitments: City staff shall not use Al to assess job applications, interview responses, or written examinations during the recruitment/hiring process.
This prohibition does not preclude the use of an Al tool to determine if an application, or any component thereof, was created using Al. • City staff shall not use Al tools to determine compliance with City codes, regulations or similar requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, plane checking, risk management determinations and legal matters.
City staff shall not use Al tools to assess responses to any City purchasing processes, including but not limited to, a Notice Inviting Bids, or a Request for Proposal/Information/Qualifications.
Recording, transcribing or summarizing non-public meetings. City Council meetings, Planning Commission meetings, and other Brown Act meeting can be transcribed through the use of Al tools, as long as the content is verified for accuracy by a staff member. Non-Brown Act meetings (i.e., internal staff meetings or meetings with developers or other members of the public) cannot be recorded, transcribed or summarized through the use of Al tools.
6.8. Approved Uses (With human review)
• Summarizing, drafting, and analyzing public/non-sensitive information • Translating material
• Generating or recommending ideas
• Creating Media that does not harm public or city personnel (Images, Audio, Video) • General learning
7 Prohibited Uses
• Decision making affecting the public or city personnel • Using Al in any way that violates the law or gevernment policy • Using Al responses without review
— Using Al that influences outcomes based on biased profiling of protected traits. This includes race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, and disability, medical, and future conduct.
8.9. Approved and Unapproved Al Tools
89.1 Approved Al Tools
Microsoft Copilot
• OpenAl ChatGPT
• Anthropic Claude
• Google Gemini
• Perplexity
The IT Department may maintain and update a list of approved Al Tools following the approval of the City Manager
89.2 Al Features Within Approved Software
Software that has been previously installed or approved from the City and contains features or add-ons like Al Plug-ins (e.g. Adobe Acrobat Al Assistant, Zoom, ArcGIS) may be used without separate approval, provided that:
• Features are fully implemented and not in a testing or 'beta' phase.
Data restrictions and approved uses contained in this policy are being followed • The IT Department has not disabled add-on
89.3 Unapproved Al Tools and Approval Request
Al tools, services, applications, browser extensions, plug-ins, or integrations that are not currently included on the Approved Al Tools List and are not part of an already-approved City application must be submitted to the IT Department for review and approved by City Manager before being used for City business.
The employee should provide:
• Name of Al Tool or Service
• Provider or Vendor
• Intended business purpose
-Reason or type of information that will be used
•
-Any current or future integration plans with City systems
10. Wearable Devices
• The use of recording eyeglasses is prohibited.
• Staff shall not operate a wearable recording device (such as smartwatches or smartphones) to capture sound or video of any other person in any area within a place of business where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy unless the person operating the device has the explicit consent of that person to capture sound or video of that person.
Recordings from personal technology may be subject to a public records request if the technology is used for public business.
9.11. Incident Reporting
Staff shall report to their supervisor and the IT department the following:
• Suspected misuse of Al tools
• Security Concerns
Prohibited data exposure incidents
RAFT
Acknowledgement Form
I acknowledge that I have received, read, and understand the City of Highland's Artificial Intelligence Policy. I agree to comply with the provisions contained in this policy for secure and responsible use of Al.
I understand that failure to comply with this policy may result in loss of Al use privileges and/or disciplinary action in accordance with City Policies.
Employee Name (Print):
Department:
Employee Signature:
Date: