City staff urge excluding IT from cuts, cite rising contracts and AI pilots

City administrators and the chief information officer told the commission that information technology is a major cost driver among internal-governance departments and urged caution before reducing IT funding.

Faye Johnson summarized internal-governance budgets and said IT's annual operating budget is roughly $23,200,000, with $13.8 million categorized as nondiscretionary. "I am asking for the board's consideration, to not include information technology, from this perspective," she said, citing cybersecurity, enterprise data systems and the operational risk of underfunding the department.

Paul Jones, chief information officer, said that IT's largest costs are contractual — enterprise applications, security and infrastructure — and that complementary outsourcing offsets the costs of large implementations. He described pilots in artificial intelligence and said the city has implemented early AI policies and testing to identify safe, productivity-enhancing use cases. "Our mantra is we're not trying to do more with less. We're trying to do more with the same," Jones said of AI's role in improving efficiency without workforce reductions.

City attorneys and auditors said they are also evaluating AI tools in controlled trials; the city attorney noted disclosure and verification requirements for legal use. Internal-audit staff said AI can accelerate reviews and improve precision but that human verification remains essential.

No formal decision was taken to exempt IT from cuts, but administration asked commissioners to consider IT's critical operational role when weighing potential terminable discretionary reductions.