Liberty Lake councilors pressed city staff on Nov. 10 for clearer justification and bookkeeping for a planned change in economic development data services that would add Placer AI to the city’s toolkit.

Mayor Pro Tem Cargill and other council members traced the evolution of the city’s relationship with Greater Spokane Inc. (GSI) and asked whether adding Placer AI would duplicate services or increase the city’s total annual cost for economic development. Council member Cargill said last year’s GSI fee (including economic development) was $25,000 and that after removing the economic development portion the city paid $12,000; adding Placer AI could create a combined line of about $32,000, the council observed.

City Administrator Mark McAvoy and finance staff (Kyle) said Placer AI was not meant to replicate GSI’s economic development contract but to take a different strategic tack: use foot‑traffic and other anonymized data to act as a service center for local businesses and to support cross‑marketing and targeted outreach. Kyle said the projected Placer AI increase was programmed at $17,000 for 2026 and that he had placed $20,000 in the binder anticipating a possible increase; staff emphasized the number is a projection and asked the council to let administration collect usage data before making long‑term commitments.

Councilors asked staff to provide clearer notes in the budget binder about which line items pay for Placer AI versus GSI and to supply a short ROI or use case list showing how the city expects to deploy Placer AI data before committing to recurring expenditures.

What’s next: staff promised to clarify line items in the updated binder and said they would report early results from Placer AI use to the council to allow an informed decision for the 2027 budget cycle.