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Council approves $552,000 REPT civic‑engagement platform contract over staff objections on term
Summary
Los Alamos County approved a not‑to‑exceed $552,000 contract (including contingency) with Barry Slater Inc., DBA REPT, to host a video‑first civic engagement platform and AI Q&A chatbot. Council voted 6‑1 after debate about a 15‑year term and AI/data risks; Councilor Regor opposed.
The Los Alamos County Council approved a contract on Aug. 26 to buy a hosted civic‑engagement platform from Barry Slater Inc., doing business as REPT, after a presentation and extended council Q&A about AI safety, data access and contract length.
County staff and REPT representatives demonstrated the platform’s short‑video library, an AI Q&A trained on county materials and a back‑end analytics dashboard intended to surface trending resident questions. REPT told council the model is trained as a closed environment (‘‘temperature’’ set to avoid open‑internet responses) and that the county would own the data held on Amazon Web Services; the vendor said it would retain a licensed copy for analytics but that public‑records requirements are supported.
Councilors pressed staff and the vendor on the 15‑year term, citing rapid AI change. Mark Fries of REPT said the long term is intended to make it easier to roll forward product updates without repeated procurements, and staff said the county can cancel at any time. Councilor Regor said a long contract in a fast‑moving AI market “doesn’t make any sense” and voted no; the rest of the council voted to approve the contract 6‑1.
The approved agreement (AGR26‑817) covers a hosted software solution with video recording, an AI chatbot and analytics; staff described an initial year cost with a $2,000 annual escalator and a contingency of $72,000. The contract includes measures for closed‑environment AI training and FOIA‑friendly recordkeeping; staff said videos and query logs would be retained to comply with public‑records requests.
The council’s approval directs staff to finalize terms and execute the agreement; staff said the county and vendor will coordinate ADA accessibility (closed captions) and onboarding assessments to mitigate outdated source material in the AI model.
