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Far West approves Penny AI platform to consolidate city communications and emergency alerts
Summary
Far West City Council approved a master services agreement with Penny, an AI‑backed communications platform that will host the city website, mobile app and emergency notifications; initial discounts reduce year‑one costs and the ongoing fee is $1 per resident per year after year three.
The Far West City Council approved a master services agreement (MSA) with Penny on March 4 to replace and consolidate several city communications functions — including the website, a mobile app, AI chat/search of code and meeting materials, and emergency/SMS notifications.
Council discussion covered scope and cost, service‑level guarantees, ADA compliance, data ownership and implementation. Staff said Penny will host farwestcity.gov and manage a city app; it also offers AI search of city code and meeting records and multilingual responses. Financially, the company offered steep discounts during an initial three‑year period: staff cited a roughly 75% discount in year one (an estimated first‑year invoice around $2,300 under the discount) and a full per‑capita price thereafter. Using an estimated population of roughly 8,200, a fully priced year would amount to about $8,200 annually (the company bills on census‑based per‑capita calculations). The contract caps automatic annual price increases to CPI (not to exceed 3%) and ties per‑capita adjustments to census data updates.
Council members pressed for written uptime and redundancy guarantees and for ADA‑compliance commitments. Staff located a 99.5% uptime guarantee in Penny’s master agreement and confirmed the vendor committed to make ADA fixes before the statutory deadline for cities of Far West’s size. The MSA includes data‑export provisions; staff confirmed the city can retrieve its content should the relationship end. Council also discussed auto‑renewal terms (annual auto‑renew with 90‑day notice to cancel) and the option to hire a consultant (funded by the application fee) to review PID and other governing documents during related development reviews.
Councilmember Katie moved to approve the Penny MSA; the motion passed by voice vote. Staff will coordinate launch scheduling, confirm SLA language in writing, complete ADA adjustments, and work through data migration and training prior to going live.
