Responsible AI for Local Government Leaders

Joshua Penner

Former Mayor, Legislator, and AI Founder

Cities, Counties, and Agencies are being handed AI and told to govern it.

Your council or board wants an AI policy. Your staff is already using these tools, whether you have rules or not. And the risks are real: public records, disclosure, bias, security, vendor lock-in, and public trust. Most cities have no one on staff who has governed AI before.

I have sat in the chair. I was the Mayor of Orting for eight years and a Washington State Legislator. Then I built the technology, as founder and CEO of a govtech company. I have been the government buyer who said no to vendors, and the founder trying to win the contract. I know where the real exposure is because I have lived it from both sides.

This is not a lecture on AI. It is four weeks of working sessions where you leave with two things you can take to council on Monday: a responsible-AI use policy drafted for your own city, and a vetted go or no-go plan to pilot one AI tool. You write them here, with my guidance and a room of peers doing the same work.

What you’ll learn

Walk in unsure how to govern AI. Walk out with your city's policy and a vetted pilot ready for council.

Draft acceptable use, disclosure, human review, and records handling for your jurisdiction.
Walk out with a draft ready for your council, not a template to start later.

Evaluate vendors and structure a pilot from the buyer's seat, the way I judged them.
Spot the vendor claims and contract terms that become headlines, before you sign.

Move it through your governance process, name an owner, and set the review cadence. Not a binder on a shelf.
A governance cadence that survives staff turnover and the next new tool.

Public records, bias, security, vendor lock-in, and public trust. The exposure every city carries with AI.
Use the Chief Risk Officer frame to catch exposure early, from someone who sat in the chair.

Learn directly from Joshua

Joshua Penner

Contact

Former Mayor & WA State Legislator · Govtech founder · Marine vet

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Who this course is for

Mayors, city managers, agency leads, directors, staff, and administrators who set the AI direction and answer for it.
Department directors and clerks, where AI already touches records and service delivery.

What's included

Live sessions

Learn directly from Joshua Penner in a real-time, interactive format.

Lifetime access

Go back to course content and recordings whenever you need to.

Community of peers

Stay accountable and share insights with like-minded professionals.

Certificate of completion

Share your new skills with your employer or on LinkedIn.

Maven Guarantee

Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.

Course syllabus

4 live sessions • 4 lessons

Week 1

Sep 15—Sep 20

Sep

Week 1: The Landscape and the Risk

Tue 9/156:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)

Map Your Exposure: AI-Use Inventory (assignment)

1 item

Week 2

Sep 21—Sep 27

Sep

Week 2: Your Responsible-Use Policy

Tue 9/226:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)

Draft Your Policy: The Five Clauses (assignment)

1 item

Schedule

Live sessions

2 hrs / week

One 90-minute live working session each week, led by Joshua. Come ready to build, not just listen. Sessions are recorded if you miss one.

Tue, Sep 15
6:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)
Tue, Sep 22
6:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)
Tue, Sep 29
6:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)
Tue, Oct 6
6:00 PM—7:30 PM (UTC)

Your policy and pilot plan

1 hr / week

A short working assignment between each session. By the end you walk away with two finished artifacts: a responsible-AI use policy drafted for your city, and a go or no-go pilot plan for one AI tool.

Templates and toolkit

1 hr / week

Reusable tools you keep: a responsible-AI policy template, a vendor teardown checklist from the buyer's seat, and a rollout pre-mortem worksheet. Yours to use long after the cohort ends.