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Glendale council debates AI and recording rules in employee handbook, delays final vote
Summary
Council members questioned a proposed technology and AI use policy and an internal recording ban, sparring over employees’ rights to record disciplinary meetings and ownership of AI-created work; staff were asked to draft alternative language and the handbook updates were laid over to the next meeting.
The Glendale Common Council heard extended discussion on proposed employee-handbook updates that would add a formal technology-use section and the city’s first AI use policy, then voted to lay the item over for redrafting.
City Attorney (the city attorney) told the council the updates would regulate employees’ use of computers, networks and communication devices and introduce a new AI use policy to prohibit putting sensitive personally identifiable information into AI systems. “This sort of lays it all out there, the AI use policy,” the city attorney said, describing the effort to set clear expectations for staff.
Aldermen disagreed about a provision that would ban recording certain workplace conversations. One councilmember warned such language risks clashing with Wisconsin’s one-party consent recording law and said recordings often emerge as evidence in disciplinary hearings. “I think employees should definitely have the right to record a conversation where there might be something detrimental to their employment status,” the Chair said, urging a narrowly tailored approach that would allow recordings in disciplinary or review contexts.
Other aldermen proposed alternatives: narrow prohibitions on clandestine, continuous recording in shared spaces; a requirement that supervisors record disciplinary meetings while inviting employees to record as well; or more explicit disclosure expectations. The public comment and council debate then shifted to AI ownership and accuracy. One speaker raised a practical framing: if a document is more than 50% generated by AI, should it be labeled as such? Another cautioned that work produced on city time is typically treated as a city work product regardless of tool used.
Given the range of legal and operational questions, the council moved to lay the handbook update over to the next meeting and directed the city attorney to return with at least two alternative language options that reflect the recording- and AI-use concerns. The motion to lay the item over was moved by an alderman, seconded, and carried by voice vote.
The council did not adopt the handbook changes at the meeting; staff will return with revised language for further council consideration.
