Community Spotlight: AI Assistant for City Services in Sandy Springs, Georgia
Rusty Paul has served as mayor of Sandy Springs, Georgia, since January 2014 and is the second person to hold the office. He won a 4th term in a December 2025 runoff with roughly 69% of the vote and was sworn in before the January 6, 2026, council meeting. This is his final term.
Paul was born in Oneonta, Alabama, and grew up in the Birmingham area. He holds degrees from Samford University and Georgia State University. His public career began in 1977 with election to the Stone Mountain city council. He later served at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Secretary Jack Kemp, rising to assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental relations. He chaired the Georgia Republican Party from 1995 to 1999, served in the Georgia Senate, and sat on the founding Sandy Springs City Council.
In his September 15 State of the City address, he discussed Sandy Springs’ aging water system and the potential loss of property tax revenue. The city was due to begin mediation with Atlanta over the water system on September 17. Paul said the city could pursue eminent domain if the talks failed. He also warned that a state proposal to phase out homestead property taxes could cut city revenue by one-third.
On technology, the city created a Digital Innovation Initiative in 2025 that placed city departments under new data and AI leadership. The initiative also includes digital signage and improvements to the permitting process. Keith McMellen, director of data strategy, analytics, and AI integration, oversees much of this work.
The Sandy Springs AI Assistant is one of the initiative’s projects. The city’s Digital Development Team worked with BizzTech to build it using city-approved information. Available on the city website, it answers residents’ questions, helps them find services, and works around the clock on any device. It supports more than 100 languages. Sandy Springs began testing the assistant in early 2026. The pilot showed that a voice-based design had trouble handling complex questions, so the city switched to text to allow more detailed exchanges.
The city says it does not retain individual conversations or identifying information. Officials review general summaries and sentiment scores to identify questions the assistant struggles to answer. Inside City Hall, about 37 employees completed an initial AI pilot and reported saving one to five hours of work. In May, the city approved a $36,000 contract with GovAI, an enterprise platform built on ChatGPT.
After a June briefing, Paul said he knew of no nearby city as far along as Sandy Springs in its use of AI. He also wanted vendors to recognize the city’s contribution when they improve their products using lessons from its early adoption. The city is also exploring AI for council meeting summaries, permit reviews, and the system residents use to submit public works requests. Staff expects to report on those projects in the coming months.
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QUICK HIT NEWS
Louisiana has launched a new driver services platform to replace a 50-year-old system used to issue licenses and other credentials. The rollout is the first phase of a six-year, $54 million contract with CHAMP Titles, awarded after repeated outages at the Office of Motor Vehicles. More than 3 million people interact with the office’s systems each year. The state estimates the modernization could save taxpayers $30 million. Vehicle registration services are scheduled for an upgrade in 2027.
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New Mexico became the first state to offer free childcare to all residents regardless of income when its universal program launched in November 2025. About 48,000 children now receive free care, up from 33,000 before the launch. As many as 58,000 children may qualify, and some families are still on waiting lists. A March law allows the state to spend $700 million per year for five years on the program, drawing from dedicated endowments. The state estimates it needs 5,000 more childcare workers to serve every family that wants care, even though its childcare workforce has grown by 64% since 2019.
FOR THE COMMUTE
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RESOURCES & EVENTS
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INSIGHT OF THE WEEK
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