The town of Lyndeborough seems to be one of the first municipalities in the region to embrace artificial intelligence to take minutes.
By eliminating minute-taking volunteers, Town Administrator Geoffrey Allen said the town is saving approximately $12,000.
“We provide better service to the residents,” he said.
Before turning to AI, the town hired four minute takers to cover the select board, planning board, zoning board of adjustment and the budget committee. Now, Allen simply records each meeting and creates a transcript with AI, which then writes up the minutes.
Allen clarified he always checks the AI product for errors, and often has to fix dates, policy explanations, or make sure the correct speaker is credited for their contributions.
At first, Allen said he was using free AI options like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, but recently started actively working with ClerkMinutes. Services with ClerkMinutes cost $2,800 a year, according to Allen.
Allen said before the use of AI, the town often violated state requirements to provide minutes to the public within five business days and draft minutes within 72 hours. Now, Allen gets the minutes to the boards an hour or two the day after the meeting, which allows for a faster turnaround.
“As a local government accountable to the people, we have to strive to be very transparent, I believe,” he said.
Allen understands why there has been pushback against the use of AI, but believes there has been general acceptance in Lyndeborough.
“Every dollar that comes out of this office, every single dollar I spend, my salary, the employees, the time this building is open comes out of the residents’ pocket, and we have to be thrifty and wise with that money,” he said.
He reaffirmed that if residents had any problems with the practice, he would rehire the minute takers.
As of now, the town has no official AI policy. Allen said this would be hard to outline given the constant changes with the new technology.
“I don’t know what an AI policy for our town would look like because we are heavily invested, not financially, but time-wise, into AI,” he said.
Currently, the town offices use AI for minutes, research, and drafting graphs and data.
With the help of AI, the town has been able to eliminate positions and cut hours of town employees. Allen said this allows the town to save money and for his coworkers to work part-time so they can also work additional full-time jobs or enjoy retirement.
Allen is one of the three town employees who work for the Select Board. He said the finance coordinator and land-use coordinator now work 24 hours a week instead of 32.
When asked if he would recommend neighboring towns use AI for minute-taking, Allen said, “I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t.”