Building Public Oversight Into AI Policy

Kenneth T. Welch was sworn in as the 54th mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, in January 2022, becoming the city's first Black mayor. Welch grew up in the Gas Plant area of St. Petersburg, working summers and after school in his grandfather's woodyard. He is a third-generation resident whose family has watched the city change across several generations, and his own path into public office grew directly out of that history.

Welch was one of the last St. Petersburg residents to attend school under segregation policies, attending kindergarten and first grade at Melrose Elementary. His father unsuccessfully sought to become the first Black mayor of St. Petersburg three decades earlier, and Welch wore his father's campaign button on the night he took office. That family thread runs through much of Welch's account of his own tenure. Welch earned his BA from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and an MBA from Florida A&M University. He returned to St. Petersburg as an accountant for Florida Power Corporation and also served as technology manager for his father's small accounting firm. That early grounding in finance and operations shaped an approach to governing that leans on process, documentation, and measurable outcomes.

Welch became the first commissioner elected to represent County Commission District 7 in St. Petersburg, only the second African American commissioner in the history of Pinellas County, and he served on the county commission for 20 years. That long run in county government gave him a detailed understanding of how policy moves through layers of bureaucracy before it reaches residents, a skill he has since applied at the city level.

Welch directed the creation of an internal AI Task Force spanning several city departments in 2025, charging it with studying how AI was being used across the organization and identifying the policies and procedures needed to keep the technology accountable to residents. That task force led the city's first internal Generative AI Policy, setting standards for acceptable use, staff training, and approved tools, and establishing safeguards meant to protect resident data. 

Three days after that policy was adopted, the City Council voted unanimously to refer a proposed citywide AI strategy to its Public Services and Infrastructure Committee, after Council Member Mike Harting asked members to examine how the city should use artificial intelligence, what guardrails should accompany it, and what it could cost. The referral turned what had been an internal administrative process into a public one, with elected officials now weighing in alongside city staff.

The Welch administration is now running a 30-day public comment period on artificial intelligence alongside that council review. As part of that effort, the city will host an Artificial Intelligence Open House on August 25 at the President Barack Obama Main Library, running from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., where residents can talk with city staff, local businesses that use AI in daily operations, and organizations offering AI training. A resident survey running through September 10 will feed directly into whatever policy the council eventually adopts. 

For Welch, the public process around AI reflects a governing approach shaped by his family’s experience of displacement by a major city project that moved forward with little community input.

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