Waukesha City IT Board adopts AI acceptable‑use policy, requires staff training

The Waukesha City IT Board voted unanimously Jan. 7 to approve an AI acceptable‑use policy that requires staff training and limits use of generative tools to managed, enterprise accounts.

Staff presenter Chris told the board the policy had been through several reviews and that training would be rolled out through KnowBe4 immediately, with plans to arrange more formal courses through UW Extension when available. “We do have some very low level introductory type training through KnowBe4 that we’re going to push out to everyone,” Chris said.

The policy specifies that only enterprise accounts may be used with AI tools so the city can retain prompts and results for records‑management and security purposes. Board members pressed staff on whether prompts or search history would be discoverable under open‑records law; Chris said email retention is typically seven years, some records must be kept indefinitely (for the life of a building), and other records may have shorter retention windows, and that tenant settings in Microsoft 365/Copilot control prompt retention.

The policy identifies Microsoft Copilot and embedded vendor tools as permitted if provisioned through the city tenant; Chris said more advanced Copilot licenses would be procured only when justified and estimated an advanced license could cost roughly $300 per user per year. He also said the city’s legal team had reviewed the revisions: “They gave it their blessing,” he said, referring to work by the city attorney’s office.

Board members asked whether the policy would proceed to council for final approval; staff said the item is scheduled to go to city council on Jan. 20. The motion to approve the policy was moved and seconded; the board approved it by roll call with all members voting yes. The motion as recorded: approve the AI acceptable‑use policy (mover: Mr. Fabian; second: Mr. Castoni).