Will County committee forwards redline AI policy and weighs IT governance

The Will County Capital Improvements Committee reviewed a redline draft of an artificial-intelligence policy and directed staff to prepare a draft policy for committee review, with a target of presenting a draft in May and returning a final proposal in June.

Chair introduced the redline at the start of the agenda and asked Jason, the county IT lead present, whether the document was ready. Jason said the redline captured key principles and suggested the fastest route was to adapt an existing policy that matches the county’s style, incorporate the committee’s points and return a full draft for review. “Put those points in there, and then submit that to the board or to the committee for you to review and then make your changes as necessary,” Jason said.

Members discussed governance for AI decisions. Several suggested designating an IT/AI authority made up of representatives from departments that maintain independent IT systems — for example, the health department, sheriff’s office and county executive office — so that no single employee is solely responsible. Bulock said that approach would let technical staff resolve routine issues while bringing ambiguous or “gray area” cases to the committee. The chair and multiple members supported an annual review of AI activity, with some members asking that staff provide quarterly check-ins during the first year.

Committee member Mr. Butler briefed the panel on practices other counties have adopted and urged safeguards around any county “large language model” (LLM). Butler said the county should define the LLM boundary, require review when it is expanded, and restrict staff from using external public LLMs for sensitive county work because of data-exposure risks. “When you use ChatGPT… everything on your hard drive just became available to the AI throughout the net,” Butler said, summarizing a common data-protection concern.

The committee did not take a formal vote but reached consensus on next steps: staff will draft a full AI policy that operationalizes the redline, include language on who serves as the county’s designated IT/AI authority, and provide a timeline for review and reporting. The committee asked to receive the draft in advance of the next committee meeting so members can submit suggested revisions ahead of discussion.

The committee expects to revisit the draft policy at a subsequent meeting; staff said the policy should remain a “living document” that the committee can update as the technology evolves.