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Dripping Springs council adopts citywide AI policy, limiting automated consequential decisions
Summary
The City Council voted to adopt a draft artificial intelligence policy that limits fully automated consequential decisions, prohibits certain biometric and data‑sharing uses, requires an IT-managed approved list of platforms and mandates training and disclosure consistent with new state law.
The Dripping Springs City Council voted Dec. 2 to adopt a city resolution establishing an artificial intelligence policy for employees, contractors and vendors.
City Attorney Aniselani told the council the draft policy is designed to align with statutes passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and distinguishes two categories of AI: mainstream assistant tools and "heightened‑scrutiny" systems that could autonomously affect consequential decisions. She said staff found no current use of such heightened‑scrutiny AI in city operations.
The policy assigns responsibility across city leadership: the council and city administrator retain final authority; the IT director will maintain approved and prohibited AI platform lists and an inventory of any heightened systems; the city attorney will oversee legal compliance and procurement language; and the communications director would post required public notices when public‑facing AI is used. The draft also requires human review of AI outputs before they are used as final work product.
Key prohibitions in the policy include using unapproved platforms without IT review, deploying fully automated systems that make consequential decisions without meaningful human review, social‑scoring that affects access to services, biometric identification using publicly available images, and entering personally identifiable or confidential city data into cloud‑based systems not under the city's control.
Aniselani described an appendix listing preapproved, mainstream consumer platforms so staff know which tools may be used subject to policy rules. The policy also incorporates state notice and appeal requirements for public‑facing AI tools and adds annual AI training for employees who meet statutory thresholds.
Council members expressed concern about enforcement and third‑party vendors. Aniselani said contract terms would require vendor compliance and that typical managerial oversight and incident reporting processes would apply to staff; she said clear violations would be expected to be identified "in the breach" by supervisors and coworkers and handled through discipline or corrective measures.
A motion to adopt the resolution passed; the clerk recorded the motion as carried with one recorded opposition and one abstention.
The council did not identify any immediate implementations of "heightened‑scrutiny" systems and said staff would return with procedural details and the IT director’s approved‑platform list as the policy is implemented.
