A group of 40 Snohomish County residents spent three weekends learning about artificial intelligence and crafting policy recommendations, with 29 voting on a final report released last month. The 45-page document emphasized transparency, human oversight, and necessity for public service, and is now guiding county leaders as they update internal AI rules - a model other local governments are watching.
The County Council voted last summer to hold the civic assembly at a time when public trust in institutions is low. County Council member Jared Mead said, "At a time where trust in government and institutions is at record lows … I think it's incumbent upon people in government … to go out of our way to bring the public in on big decisions."
Deliberation, not debate
With the help of Civic Genius, a nonprofit that helps local governments engage residents, the county advertised on social media and mailed 15,000 invitations. The selected 40 participants reflected the county's demographics. Over three weekends in May and June at Washington State University's Everett campus, they listened to guest speakers, discussed AI concerns, and modeled hypothetical government uses of the technology.
Facilitators estimated the civic assembly cost about $160,000, which Civic Genius covered as part of its partnership with the county. Jillian Youngblood, executive director at Civic Genius, said the programming was designed to accommodate different learning styles. "We designed this with a lot of different experiences because everybody learns differently, and we knew we had to have something for everybody." She emphasized that the assembly fostered collaboration rather than debate. "In debate, somebody wins and somebody loses. In a deliberation, everyone is on the same team and you're trying to work together toward a common solution that benefits everybody."
Participants saw strengths and gaps
Some participants considered the experiment a success. Theo Moriarty, a teacher from Mountlake Terrace, appreciated the county's effort to ask for feedback. "I felt like the county was like, 'hey, we do want your opinion,'" he said. Hillary Moralez, an IT manager from Clearview, said the assembly drew in people who had never engaged with local government. "So many of the people I talked to, they'd never once done anything with their local government … I thought it was incredible to sit down with these folks because, usually, when I'm sitting down for politics or anything like that, I'm in an echo chamber."
Others said representation fell short. The youngest participant, Nicholas Boen of Mill Creek, was 24. "I feel like we still lack a lot of the younger voice," he said, noting that young people who use AI daily could have offered valuable input. Sunny Behl, an educator from Mountlake Terrace, raised concerns about AI's racial biases, but the group did not vote to include the topic in the final report. She wrote an individual statement on diversity, equity and inclusion that was attached to the document. "If the community of Snohomish County is not interested in preventing bias or inequity, then what can the facilitators do about that? That's just a reflection of the community," she said. Marie Ramirez felt the assembly gave members too few chances to ask questions or clarify misunderstandings. "I felt like I had less of a voice in this process than if I had just shown up to a town hall," she said.
County IT already aligned with many ideas
Snohomish County's IT director, Viggo Forde, said county employees can expect an updated AI policy within two months. He noted that the IT department was intentionally kept out of the assembly to avoid influencing opinions. "We were not directly part of the assembly and that was intentional," he said. More than half of the assembly's recommendations were already in progress or completed, Forde added. The existing AI policy already requires employees to review and revise AI-generated content, addressing the same transparency and privacy concerns residents raised. This approach mirrors a wider movement in AI for Government training that stresses public accountability and oversight.
Why this matters for government professionals
The Snohomish County experiment shows that civic assemblies can produce actionable AI policy recommendations while directly engaging skeptical citizens. For government IT and policy leaders, the model offers a relatively low-cost way to surface public concerns before finalizing internal rules - and to demonstrate openness at a time when institutional trust is scarce. Civic Genius says about a dozen other localities are now in the pipeline to launch similar assemblies, signaling that this deliberative method may spread beyond Washington.
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