County adopts data‑retention, AI use and acceptable‑use IT policies; staff warn of AI meeting agents and training needs

The Government Operations Committee adopted three information‑technology policies on Aug. 7: a data‑retention policy (new), a responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence policy (new), and an updated acceptable‑use policy for county IT resources.

Policy approvals and rationale

IT staff presented the data‑retention policy as based on New York State guidance (LGS‑1) and consultant work; the policy references Laserfiche and Varonis tools to identify, classify and move aged records for review, with final disposal decisions coordinated with the county clerk. The acceptable‑use policy was updated and reorganized; several previously consolidated topics (passwords, mobile devices, remote access) were split into separate policies.

AI policy: meeting agents and guardrails

Staff emphasized the new AI policy’s guardrails and that the county cannot reasonably support or vet every third‑party AI meeting assistant. Livesey and others raised examples of meeting agents (Otter, Fireflies, Fathom, Firefly, Assembly) that may join meetings, capture audio and produce summaries or emails. IT recommended restricting supported tools to county‑sanctioned platforms (Teams, Zoom) and enterprise supported AI (Copilot integrated with Microsoft 365 and vetted models). Committee members recommended adding meeting etiquette language — for example, asking at the start of meetings whether participants will use AI agents when sensitive county information is discussed.

Training, next steps and security

IT staff said they will post the policies and create training materials on the ITS Atlas site and that training modules should be developed over the coming months. The IT team described Varonis and other tools used to classify data and detect anomalous access; they also noted cloud backups and replication are used for long‑term retention. Committee members asked for additional language clarifying when third‑party tools must be turned off and recommended an onboarding/training requirement for county employees using AI tools.

Votes

The committee voted unanimously to approve the data‑retention policy, the AI policy and the updated acceptable‑use policy.

Ending

IT staff will post the policies, prepare training, and continue to refine the AI guidance and meeting etiquette language for future updates.