Fresno city manager says City Hall is 'captive' to private software, AI costs unclear

Key Takeaways

Fresno City Manager Georgeanne White said the city is "captive" to proprietary software it depends on.
City Hall blocked ChatGPT and directed staff to use Microsoft Copilot inside Office.
A city memo projects $25,000 for Madison AI and similar costs for Salesforce AI and Wordly AI.
A city spokesperson said actual AI costs, including Claude tokens, aren’t readily available.
Fresno’s five-year Axon deal totals $18.3 million, rising from $1.2 million in year one to $5.8 million in year five.

Councilmember Miguel Arias compared future AI bills to "like meth" during Fresno’s June 8 budget hearing, warning of cheap buy-in then big charges later. A half-empty water bottle sat by the mic. City Manager Georgeanne White answered that Fresno is already tied to private software that runs core functions of local government.

Here’s the crux for residents: City employees are using AI tools now, and the city doesn’t have a complete price tag or a formal rulebook for how those tools get used.

What changed at City Hall

White said the city had so many staffers using OpenAI’s ChatGPT that the company reached out about paying for an enterprise plan or quitting the product. The city then blocked the ChatGPT domain on its servers and told employees to use Microsoft’s Copilot that comes with Office. There’s no formal AI policy yet, but White said there’s an informal one that her office plans to put into an administrative order.

There is no formal AI policy at City Hall.

What the city is buying

A memo Fresnoland obtained lists roughly two dozen approved programs that include AI features or are built on AI. It projects $25,000 next fiscal year for Madison AI, which drafts internal staff reports. Staff anticipate similar costs for Salesforce AI and Wordly AI, the live transcription and Spanish translation service used at council meetings.

Claude AI is used by the Information Services Department, but costs are based on usage tokens. Staff didn’t project that number. A city spokesperson said the actual totals across tools, including Claude tokens, aren’t readily available. No one had a number.

The police tech bill

Fresno police use Axon body cameras and software that include AI features for drafting reports. The tools are part of an $18.3 million, five-year package. Year one runs $1.2 million. By year three the cost triples, and year five is $5.8 million. White pointed to deals like this to explain why she views the city as captive to vendors and updates that can’t be skipped without breaking workflows.

The guardrails and the risks

White also referenced an outside law firm’s blunder in a city matter after a lawyer used an invalid citation that she said likely came from AI. Researchers have warned about hallucinations and bias, which feed the case for clear internal rules. That includes tracking where AI is used, data protections, and training staff on known failure points.

"We’re going to have to have technology," White said. "We are captive."

Central Valley AI is produced by the CVAI Newsdesk team and developed by Kaweah Tech, a regional firm that builds, deploys, and integrates AI solutions for businesses across California's Central Valley.

Source

https://fresnoland.org/2026/07/10/artificial-intelligence-software-tech-captive/