County manager’s office seeks $31,000 pilot to test closed large-language model on county records

Pitkin County’s manager’s office proposed a one-year pilot to use a closed large-language model (LLM) trained on county records to support staff research and administrative work.

County staff said the pilot would draw on documents stored in the county’s Laserfiche repository and would be hosted in a private environment (not integrated with public-facing LLMs). The pilot budget presented to the board was $31,000 for a year of implementation; staff said they are pursuing a Division of Local Affairs (DOLA) cost-share to cover 50% of implementation costs but will budget the full $31,000 if the grant is not secured.

Staff said much of the upfront data preparation is automated from Laserfiche, with modest staff time required to validate transcript attributions and train the index. Managers suggested the pilot could be used to test targeted case studies such as searching deed restrictions, land-use approvals and board meeting transcripts. The first year would remain internal to staff and could produce summary outputs to speed research for staff and commissioners.

Commissioners asked about long-term vendor lock-in, carbon impact of AI models and whether the tool would replace consultants. Staff answered the pilot is focused on internal records and is not intended to replace statutory public processes; a one-year pilot and a report-back were recommended. Several commissioners said they supported a contained pilot and asked staff to provide a follow-up report on staff time savings and any carbon-intensity assessment.

Board direction: commissioners signaled support for a limited pilot and staff will pursue a DOLA cost-share and report back after a year with findings and usage metrics.