Welcome to Mighty Municipalities,

the podcast about small municipalities and
how they can punch above their weight.

I'm your host, Carl McAllister,

and along with my co-host, Mark Parton,

and our guests, we take you through the
highs and lows of working

in a small municipality. Whether it's the
hardship and frustration that

is holding you back or the progress in
winds that are propelling you forward,

we're here to share the lessons learned
and give you strategies to help improve
your

community. Mark, how are you doing this
fine post-hurricane?

Day.

Yes. doing well and as I said offline
before we started,

very glad to see the rain and hope we get
some more,

Yes. Yeah.

although it

looks like it's passed for the most part.

but but very great.

Yeah, I think we're pretty much done.

I also appreciate most of it was at night.

That was very kind of it to do that while
we were all sleeping.

Yeah, so that was

That's right.

very convenient for us. ~ on the more
serious side,

our thoughts with those down on the the
Gulf Coast who bore the brunt of it.

but yeah, we we got our little bit here
and it spedily went north from us.

so today on a very non-related subject,

I was thinking of talking a little bit
about some things we've seen in

AI over the last couple months.

All

Sounds great. Yeah.

right. one of the reasons I wanted to
bring AI up again,

I'm sure we will bring it up

many, many more times with h how
ubiquitous it is,

how much it's impacting day-to-day lives
and of course very importantly

for towns as well, how it's impacting our
jobs,

our roles within the community.

one of the things

I found interesting is that I was actually
teaching a class for

the local library here on using cowork in
small business.

And I had started creating the
presentation on what I already knew.

And one of the things that Mark,

you and I have spoken about as regards to
the city Sumter is that traditionally

the two major players or all the major
players in AI

started out from a very non-privacy
concerned usage standpoint where

Right.

what you put into the system was going to
be used by them.

They could use it for training.

they really held no responsibility for if
it got out past training.

And there were incidents where items that
were

s

typed into somebody's chat could then be
found in other people's chats

if if they knew how to get there and how
they were looking.

and so I was going to put that in as one
of my usual cautions.

and then lo and behold I went and saw that
both at least co pilot and claude

or open AI

were both had in their profiles now they
have privacy capabilities where

by default you can say none of your chats
can be used for training.

so that's a improvement in them.

Absolutely.

Now I believe

that's only true for the paid plans.

if you get a free plan you're you're n not
getting that con consent.

But previously my understanding was you
had to have an enterprise agreement with

them before that would happen.

So

Clearly some of the pressure and some of
the feedback and concerns about that have

been heard and more at least from a legal
standpoint,

if not from a practical standpoint,

the usage of these pieces of software
could be considered

more than I think they could even thirty,

sixty days ago when that wasn't in place.

because we clearly wanted to be very
careful what what kind

of information we're putting in place.

Yes, and I I think it's important here for
people to understand and and

be aware of like you just said,

the distinction between the free plans and
the paid plans and how important

it is to read those terms of service as
long and as small as the print is,

it's important

Mm-hmm.

to read that and know what you're sig
signing up for when you use those free
plans

because there are trade offs. Nothing is
free.

Mm. Right. Right.

There are trade offs.

and you're giving

Yes.

them information about what you do and
search for and purchase and

all kind of things like that when you when
you agree to those terms.

So just be aware of it because that's how
they train and get their information.

And and really that's no different than
most if you see something for free,

whether that was Gmail or anything else,

they of course were also using your data.

Google search is using your

Absolutely. Yeah.

data all the time to improve their improve
their search results,

but also to provide information to
advertisers.

So this information to a large extent was
already getting out there.

w what we've seen is that because of the
chat-like nature of AI,

people have tended to

Allow themselves to get much more personal
b.

with what they're sharing to those chats.

And so that's the main thing that,

it if you haven't used them much so far,

it's very alluring and very easy to feel
like after some usage that

it just because of the conversational
nature,

it feels human enough like that people
start to trust it and think of

it in more confidential terms.

And so it becomes very easy to share
information that you normally wouldn't
share

with a browser with your Google search.

with your potentially with your emails or
things like that.

So you want to be very careful with what
you're sharing,

whether that's your personal information
or whether that's

the town's information with any of these
things.

but having said all that, it is good to
know now that at least from

a legal and terms of use standpoint,

if nothing else, both of the larger

AI models at least, the frontier models as
they call them,

the the ones that are the most advanced,

seem to be doing a better job of
protecting the data that you're entering.

And you just need then need to be careful
with if you're looking

at using something else, do they have
those same kind of terms?

Yeah, and I I think it's it's a good
reaction or response.

because with so many things, not just with
AI,

but so many things, when a new exciting
opportunity comes out,

people go full steam ahead and then they
start realize,

wait a minute, we need to put some
boundaries here

Yeah.

and some restrictions here and some
cautions here and and and we're seeing
that

too of the companies themselves.

not just with privacy issues and data
issues,

but, even they have started slowing down
just a little bit because of some

I guess you'd say incidences that have
happened when we're testing new models.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So

y I I think we're rapidly entering the
stage where things are starting

to be a little more realistic and not just

out there on the the frontier,

not to use that word redundantly,

or what you just did, but in the wild,

Right. Yes.

wild west, I should say.

Right. Yeah, I it it does get very
interesting.

As I just said, one of the things we tend
to trust it because of its chat interface.

The other reason why we ch tend to trust
it is that it's very good about asking

you if it can have information at the very
moment when you're asking

it to do something with that type of
information.

So

For example, if you as a town are asking,

what are the current pay bands for public
works employees

in my state, well it's going to do some of
that lookup and then it's probably gonna

offer so hey, do you want me to do a
comparison of your current ones?

So Mark, from your standpoint,

anything else you think that's important
for a smaller municipality

to consider when they're just again from a
from a privacy aspect when they're using

these models.

yes, one of these is really practical and
not so much in the settings of it,

but you may have heard the term shadow AI
or ghost AI.

And it's very tempting because some of
these models can do incredible things with

the free versions that that you are aware
that of what your employees

are doing with AI because they can be

unknowingly putting some information out
there that they don't realize

is r is wrong or or can lead to problems.

So it's really important for you to do
education with your people.

even if it's a a team of two or three
people,

spend the time talking to each other about
exactly what you're doing

and make sure you understand the privacy
issues that that come around when

you start interacting with these,

really incredible platforms. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's a great point.

If you are in a small team of well,

regardless of the size of the team,

but especially if you're the strong mayor
and you happen to have two employees,

or if you're the clerk who's also happens
to then have to be in charge

of everybody from a payroll standpoint,

and therefore also potentially in charge
of the overall accountability

of the city as a as the clerk,

It is really important for you to sit down
with everybody and at least come

to an agreement on what everybody's going
to do with AI.

you may not be able to take personnel
action or

Yeah.

things like that or enforce it
necessarily,

but just be very clear of ideally get
everybody to come agree to agreement

on how AI is going to be used,

or at the very least, understand.

who's normally going to be doing what and
make sure that's clearly communicated

in especially in a smaller municipalities
case to the strong mayor or

to council and outline the discussion,

outline what everybody said they're gonna
do and how they're gonna use it,

and make sure at least in this that case,

strong mayor or council mayor form a
government that they're aware of

Yeah, how it's being used within the
municipality so they aren't surprised when

something comes up. ~ and

That's right. Yeah.

and that that actually will take us yeah,

I'll I'll mention something around that
line around those lines in when

we talk about some of the things that I'm
I've seen people using it for,

which are fantastic, but are certainly
again important to communicate.

So

Absolutely, yes. So

Great. So what I wanted just throw out is
a few things that I've seen from small

municipalities now. Some of them are are
frankly kind of killing it.

and yeah, and and doing some really fun
things or really good things with AI,

really leveraging it. so I wanna just toss
a few things out that I've seen.

I think everybody at this point is
crafting letters or emails with it.

And then the other one that I've seen a
lot of people now turning to is

basically going to, your co pilot or your
Gemini or whichever and saying,

Hey, according to South Carolina state
law,

how does this work? Right? Or and having
it give you the analysis

and the references back to the state law
books.

it's a great way for your especially a
junior clerk,

if you're the senior clerk and they're
wanting to know why something is,

you can coach them through, okay,

well let's ask together and take a look
and see what the law actually says.

Make sure you're still current and
correct.

it's a great way to

in addition, to talking with your
municipal association or in the case

of the municipal association of South
Carolina,

of course, you can ask their AI chatbot
this exact same stuff and and and get

Yes.

that same sort of of cross reference and
feedback.

but if your municipal association doesn't
have one of those yet,

which I I think most of them do not,

what a great opportunity and a great way
to use it.

And those are the two of the very basic
things I'm seeing use a lot.

Anything on that more basic level that
you're seeing?

no but to go along with that example about
state law,

just Thursday or Friday someone had asked
us about a particular bill that

was before the South Carolina House last
session and

Mm.

it passed the house and so they assumed it
meant,

let's go. it

Right.

passed. but I

just remember through side conversations,

because this wasn't a bill that was of
particular interest to me,

but just

Mm-hmm.

through side conversations of it,

I don't think that passed both houses and,

Mm.

was signed by the governor. So I went into
co-pilot and just did a quick

at query to see if that bill had passed
and it came up and said it passed the
House,

Mm.

but not the Senate.

Right.

And it also gave me the link to go to the
South Carolina legislature's website,

Bill Tracker, so I was able to get a quick
answer and easily verify it.

So

Yes. Yes.

that's important too to remember.

verify what it tells you. It can give you
a good first start,

a good

Mm-hmm.

first draft, but always verify.

And that's the beauty of these models is
that often they will give

you the link that'll take you right to it.

And if you've ever looked at some of these
legislative websites or ~ code

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

of law websites, they're very

difficult to go through if you're not real
familiar with them.

Yeah. yeah, absolutely.

And that includes even the South Carolina
State one.

It's maybe one of the better ones for all
I know,

but it is not the easiest to make sure
you've landed on the final version

Right.

with a clear outline of where it stands.

It it tends to

just list all the motions that were made
to it up at the top of whatever version

of the bill you're looking at.

and it's not always completely clear that
you're on the latest version.

By default, I think normally it goes to
that.

But yeah, you're right. It is not the
easiest thing to use.

So it is great from that standpoint.

Absolutely, yeah.

Great. I think then the next one,

I've seen a couple

places use where they actually have their
ordinances in a folder or they have their

ordinances in a single PDF, which is even
better.

but if at least you have them in a folder,

the way the models have progressed is that
they can

take all of that data at once and then you
can start asking questions about it.

and we'll talk a little bit about what
we're doing with policy and with VC3.

And of course VC3 has a part of their AI
pilot service,

a whole thing that goes into your teams
and we'll read through your ordinances

so that people can do this. they'll
basically do the setup for you.

But again, this is something you can do
yourself pretty easily where you can

upload your ordinances or if using claude
has cowork I can't remember which

one copilot has groc has something now too
where they have basically this local

app version of the chat with the main

benefit being that you can then also say,

while I'm in this session, work with all
the stuff in this folder.

So you can specify a folder that has all
of your ordinances in it.

So if even if you have like 50,

60 documents, you can say, hey,

look at this folder. I'm gonna ask you
some questions.

and it's a great way to analyze,

or ask, or and just have as a standby or a
standing chat,

right? Like, you have a to your point,

Mark, you you have a question three months
from now about

where do we stand currently or what are
our ordinances on cutting down trees,

right? And then they can look through

Right.

all the laws and say, well, it started
this way and then you in twenty twenty
four

modified it in this amendment to instead
be this and that there's

a charge and things like that.

So there's a lot of things you can do with
getting it to

by giving it some data. and ideally again,

I would even with the privacy controls,

I would be careful about which stuff is
public versus private.

I still wouldn't go around sharing
personnel files or anything like that by
default.

but loading it in and asking questions of
large amounts of data,

it's pretty darn good about both
summarizing large amounts of data

and doing that sort of where I would say
more of a

a qualitative analysis of taking a look at
all the documents and giving you,

hey, here's some things that are similar,

here's some things that are different,

here are the things that have changed,

here's the things that are potentially
important about it.

it does a very good job with that.

Yeah, and I think if you go back to your
high school English classes

and we always had to write essays
comparing and contrasting,

that's what these tools do very
efficiently.

They compare and contrast ~

Mm-hmm.

and can find things that are related that
maybe you don't

Yes.

remember or is not obvious when you're
reading through the code.

so it's it makes things very easy to
compare and contrast.

Right.

Yeah.

And the nice thing is since it does have
internet access,

you can going back to our original thing
about asking about state laws,

you can say, Hey, are there any other
towns in South Carolina that have similar

ordinances or potentially different things
around tree cutting?

what are some other things that are in the
state?

And it can look out and depending on what
it can find,

it's not gonna give you a comprehensive
analysis.

So it's important to realize that when you
say th something like,

Hey, I'm

here's our current tree ordinance.

I'm working on doing a revision to bring
it along with more modern standards,

take a look out throughout the state and
provide some examples of what people

are doing. It's like a I I like to say at
this point,

it's like an MBA intern or an MPA intern

Yeah. ~

in the case of of us and local government.

Like it will

Absolutely do that job by looking at the
first five things it finds

and telling you those are the things
here's some representative examples,

right? It will

Yes.

not do the comprehensive unless you say
so.

And even then, when you ask it to do
something that it knows is going to take

a lot of work, and it knows that you're
not on a pay-per-usage plan where like

Mm-hmm.

you're they're making money for the amount
of work they do if you're playing

on a flat rate plan.

a lot of times they are trained to stop,

so that they don't take up too many
resources.

So if you do say something like,

Give me an analysis of all hundred and
fifty four municipalities,

it's gonna be something like, that would
take a really long time and

I'm not really sure I can do all that.

Let me give you the first ten and then
we'll give you the first ten.

And then you can keep asking until you get
up to 150,

but it

it it is not going to just go out and do a
comprehensive thing of hundred fifty.

So it it is important

Right.

to realize in those kind of things.

It's giving you representative samples,

it's not giving you a comprehensive
analysis.

Great point, yeah.

Cool. And then the I think the last thing
I and I really want to give a shout

out to yeah 'cause a couple of towns are
are doing a really great job of this.

if you've noticed a lot of small towns
their social media game has gotten

so much better.

Yeah.

I'll include an example from the town of
Pelzer that just did a great graphic.

there they in the town of West Pelzer are
are do it were a couple weeks ago

did a or weekend before last did a
mile-long yard sale kind of thing.

And man, they they have it with both

both mayors from each of the towns and it
is actually the the faces of both

of those mayors pulling a radio flyer
cart,

with a bunch of stuff in it and with signs
all over it about what's in

it and and it's it's really great.

They didn't

I like kudos to whoever took the time to
get AI to do that good of a of

Yes.

a graphic. and there are a number of towns
I've noticed that where there

is a person who has been tasked with this,

a lot of them are really doing a great job
running with

putting interesting things, making,

lovely looking events calendars for the
year.

all of those things where it normally
would have taken so many hours,

they they just didn't have time,

making things that are much more visually
appealing for their for their community.

and kudos to that.

I had one comment on that mark,

did but have you seen any others like that
that you've you've noted?

I haven't noticed so many from
municipalities,

but I have seen other organizations doing
it.

Yes, right.

And it

it's obvious it's an AI generated

Yeah.

picture, but it's still good. And and
yeah.

Right, yeah, it's right. For what it is,

when you're talking about

an announcement for a yard sale,

it's great.

Yeah.

I mean there's there's very little
downside of that.

this

Right.

is something clearly that most
municipalities were never gonna play

a graphic designer for. We're not talking
about job

loss here. We're we're very much

Exactly. Yeah.

talking about

existing municipal employees being able to
do their job at a higher level because

of AI and I think that's fantastic.

I'm sure Pelzer did this, but the one
thing I do want to note

is especially when you're doing something
that contains any of your council members

or mayors or other towns because you're
doing a joint thing,

clearly share the image and make sure
everybody is agreeing to having their
likeness

issued and rendered on that kind

Absolutely, yes.

of thing. Again, I'm I'm I'm sure Pelzer
did it,

but make sure you do that as well before
you put your mayor

Into a funny thing where he looks like
Santa Claus.

I'm gonna say that just because I'm
looking at the existing one,

and I noticed one of the mayors has a has
a nice full white beard or goatee.

before

you you decide to make him look like Santa
Claus,

make sure he's aware and game and sees the
image before you put it out.

As fun as

Absolutely, yes.

it may be, and as harmless as you might
think it is,

some the the subject of such a thing may
disagree,

and you don't want to get yourself in
trouble or the community in trouble

for for that kind of thing. So ~ again,

Mm-hmm.

just

make sure.

Sure you're you're getting your
permissions as as you normally would for

a of people at events. If you have a
pretty good well

put together communications department,

of course they're they're asking make sure
they're getting clearance

for the people that are, in festival
pictures and stuff like that.

Great caution, yes. Mm-hmm.

Yep, cool. Okay. so those are some great
things I'm seeing.

Again, just want to share some ideas of
how small towns are using it.

I I love the the graphics. it's a great
way to again improve the quality

of how you're and the memorability of what
you're communicating.

And that is one of the hardest things we
all have is communicating something

in a way that's memorable. So if it helps
you,

you should definitely try it. And you
haven't tried it yet and you have time.

go start playing with it and just remember
to get permissions.

I think that goes to the last point along
with that is what's ideal is

to then have clear guidelines for
everybody.

And as we start talking about the
beginning of what can and can't be done
with your

employees. and that goes along the line of
policy.

And Mark the city's been piloting a little
bit with VC3 on their pilot piece.

Do you want to talk a little bit towards
how that pilot has gone and some

of the things it's made us think about.

Yes, to to give a quick overview and a map
of the process during this pilot

one we we did an assessment of where we
are or where were we at the time.

did we have any active tools? Was anyone
using them?

Did we have any policies around the usage
of AI?

And the answer was yes and no to all the
different parts of those questions.

So

It was really good to stop and take an
inventory of what our current state was.

So any pilot that you go through or any
time you implement this technology,

you need to take the time to go through
that.

And then we went through what are some
potential cases of

use cases and VC three had a general
policy,

usage policy that they shared with us and

asked us to go through it and add our
stuff,

take stuff away and so forth. And in our
case we found that it was

a very broad policy, and this is not meant
as a criticism,

but as a very broad policy, that then we
were able to say this works for

us or this applies to us and this doesn't.

so again, just like using the the terms of
service agreements,

make sure you look at it and that it does
address

your individual organization because in
some cases it won't because it's

is written for a larger organization or a
smaller organization.

So take the time to go through that and it
is your document.

Anytime you work with a consultant in any
field,

it's your information. They're just there
to help you.

So take that as advice however you will.

but finalize it and fine-tune it to be
what you need and what applies

in your situation. And then of course,

in the case of this pilot we're doing,

they implemented their platform for us to
test.

And as you mentioned earlier, part of it
is through Microsoft Teams where you're

really looking at your internal documents.

And for us, we're testing it with our
ordinances and with HR policies

and minutes from the council meetings.

so those are all very internal and then
they have another platform that compiles

a lot of different models to do the more
generic AI that you think about more

broadly when you hear people talking about
it,

such as doing research and creating
documents and creating visuals and so
forth.

And we're really I think we would say
we're in the latter stage of the pilot.

And that we've been using it, testing it.

We've had more and more people being added
to the pilot.

And now we're doing the getting ready to
do the debrief on what was good,

what wasn't good. so this isn't something
you're going to do in a week

or two or even a month. you need to get it
right.

as with all new technologies, you need to
make sure you understand what you're

doing, set it up right, and take the time
to analyze it and assess it.

before you set the final package in place
to hit the switch for more

and more people to use it. so that would
be my recommendation on any pilots you do,

whether it's a large scale or small scale,

take the time to do it right.

Yeah, and Mark, I'm glad you said thing
about,

making sure you don't just accept the
policy,

and that the city made revisions.

'Cause I think, when we were talking
through that,

and I think this is important for any size
organization and and Sumter's,

one of the larger organizations
municipality wise in the state.

and even with us looking at the policy
that was provided,

the end

Discussion, and this is what you should
always ask yourself,

no matter how august the consultant is or
how august the organization is,

whether that's your tech company giving it
to you,

whether it's the Municipal Association of
South Carolina giving it to you,

whether it's the state giving it to you,

obviously barring any legal requirements
where you need to figure

out how you're going to do it,

especially if you're looking at a policy
document.

Unless you feel confident that you can get
your team to implement it,

then you're setting yourself up for more
issues than not having the policy at all.

If you have this policy that says we're
gonna do X,

Y, and Z.

But nobody follows X, Y, and Z and
everybody does A,

B, and C. That's just I think setting
yourself up in a worse situation because

at least before you were doing A,

B, and C, but there was there was no
guidelines around it.

And now you're saying everybody,

we just accepting that everybody does what
we just said you're not supposed to do.

that that I think sets you up for more
trouble organizationally because there's
this

disconnect, even from a liability
standpoint,

because

you're supposed to be doing it this way.

So and you everybody apparently somehow
agreed 'cause this is now

in writing and part of the s city's
policy.

y

Yeah.

whether it's a official, thing signed off
by council or not,

~ having those kind

Yeah, and

of documents in place and just accepting
them because that's what

the consultant said, yeah is

can be fraught in the future. So make sure

That's right.

whatever they're giving you, push back
hard.

In our case, we had, Mark and I were
working on it together.

We had the time to revise it ourselves and
come up with something where

we felt like, hey, this is what we could
do.

If you have that consultant there and
they're working for you,

you push back on them and say,

hey, look, we're a team of six.

This is this is way too complex.

We can't have a separate team that does
the governance,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. tell them
things that you definitely can't

do and ask them to get more creative on
how you can make this work.

because they're gonna be able to take it
and use it for the next c client anyway.

So ~ it

That's right. Yeah.

it it's it's a win for them to get it
right.

Yeah, and it also speaks to organizational
trust because if you've got a policy that

doesn't apply to you and your your example
was you say you're gonna do A B

and C but everybody does one, two and
three.

that's one example of how it's mismatched.

But another example would be if you adopt
a generic policy that addresses things

that absolutely do not apply to your
organization,

then people see that and like,

well if this doesn't apply, why does any
of it apply?

So it

Right. Yes.

it puts a a a chink in your armor of
organizational trust and

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

and

And not to get too philosophical here,

but once you violate that trust in one
area,

then people start questioning things in
other areas.

So it's real

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

important to get it right and to be
specific about this is what we do,

this is what we don't do, and why and why
not,

and and then enforce it. it's not just out
there for

adoption sake, just to adopt it.

It's there to guide you and ~

Right. Right.

offer parameters around what is correct
and what is not correct.

And again, if you're an organization of
five and you're a clerk but there's

a strong mayor and you don't necessarily
have all of that privilege to be able to

Define the policy with a with enough
buy-in to make sure that everybody's going

to do it. Just define what everybody is
doing and make sure that's communicated

up the chain. if they are doing something
you don't like,

that doesn't mean you have to be,

s unprofessional about it. You can still
just professionally state

team members one through four have all
agreed to do this,

this, and this. Team member five stated
that they have concerns and that

it would impact their productivity.

So they're doing this thing instead,

right? And then let

Mm-hmm.

council and mayor decide if that's
acceptable,

if they want to have that talk.

again, very different thing if you're in a
council manager and the manager

is the the, you the effectively the CEO.

I'm using your quotes that don't help very
much in

Right.

the podcasting land.

Yeah, then again that may be something
that it bubbles up to the city manager

to determine how that's going to be
handled and if that's all acceptable.

If it is, it is. and and go forward from
there.

But yeah, again, the usual don't let the
perfect be the enemy of the good.

define what you can, come to agreement
with your team on what you can,

and then make sure that it's something
that you can follow.

That's right, yeah. So

Cool. I that's I mean

those are the things that I really want to
talk about as far as AI.

Okay. so with that mark, any final
thoughts on policy and AI within the
system?

Well, as we said, on a personal and
professional basis,

AI is exciting, but don't let your
excitement push you into doing something
without

taking the time to do it right.

hit pause, try to control your excitement
and do your homework before

you jump in head first. Make sure how to
swim before you jump in the pool.

Yep.

Right. And and I usually the hardest part,

and we all acknowledge this, is keeping
the other excited people from jumping in.

and and making sure you're all swimming
together to badger that analogy.

Yes.

So with that, we'll we'll table public art
for this went a little long,

so we'll table public art for the next
time and let's talk about grants.

Absolutely. And the first grant we have
here is is a repeat from our last session.

And but it was extended, the deadline was
extended to October 15th,

which is this week, so Thursday of this
week.

So get your applications submitted.

But this is for from the Environmental
Protection Agency and

is around workforce development and water
infrastructure.

And as we talked last time, this is a good
opportunity to train

and bring people into this field,

a vitally important field for

many many reasons having clean safe water
is just so vital

for our civilization not to put it

To not exaggerate at all, but it's so
important that we have good clean drinking

water, and we can't have that if we don't
have a workforce coming in

to run the systems. And this this is a can
be a fairly large grant.

Each individual can get or there can be a
grant up to 7.8 million dollars,

no match required, with a total of 10.8
million available.

take a look at that if if you are
interested in water infrastructure.

Yeah.

Nice. The next one we have due next week,

specifically October nineteenth,

is from the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation.

It's Acres for America. and it is a amount
from two hundred and fifty thousand

to up to one million, at least a fifty
percent match.

obviously your match can be higher,

and the higher that the match is,

the more likely you'll get something.

what they're looking for is assuming let's
say

around the outskirts of your municipality
or within your municipality

you have a large habitat for either
migratory birds or some sort of some sort

of animal they are looking to help
preserve that type of land.

So this is specific for for buying land
for conservation purposes,

conversion into a park or a wildlife area
and with the i with the intent of an

preserving the majority of that land for
both of course for people to

use but also primarily for places where
local habitat,

maybe ideally even important habitat,

have a have a safe place to maintain their
populations.

Yes, and the third grant we have today is
from AmeriCorps and

it is October twentieth deadline.

And this is around for local governments
to develop volunteer programs

for seniors and it pains me to say this,

but they're defining seniors as fifty-five
plus.

which puts me in that category.

But this program is is to develop
volunteers to help elder support disaster

re response and family services.

And if you've ever lived through a a major
natural disaster,

the importance of having not only
professionals on hand,

but also having volunteers on hand to help
in that recovery because

so much is needed. So that is a great
opportunity for you to

tap into AmeriCorps and unfortunately we
don't know what the exact amount

is but but it is a good opportunity for
you to develop a volunteer program.

Yeah,

I'm assuming because it's AmeriCorps
you're getting a discounted person

to help build and run the initial program
either on a one

to your stint yeah, as far as but versus
where the traditional AmeriCorps for,

almost like WPA for municipalities.

This is specifically

Right.

around senior programs, is my thought.

cool. next up, October 30th. And we've
mentioned this one last time,

but again, this is a really nice one,

especially for our smaller municipalities
around

And basically enhancing law enforcement,

yeah, and they the mission is to prevent
and reduce violent crime,

which is, the point of most of law
enforcement.

And so from

Yeah.

that standpoint, we definitely encourage
you to,

while that's still available, and it's
again open till the end of the month,

look at that DOJ grant. It's ceiling is
around two and a half million with no
match.

if you are a small law enforcement

organization within a municipality.

Man, what a great opportunity to
potentially,

get some equipment, get some new software,

things like that. So definitely look that
up.

And the last grant for today is from the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation

and this has a November fifth deadline,

so a little over three weeks out,

and these awards are from seventy-five
thousand to two hundred thousand

and it does require a

equal match and it can be monetary or in
kind so the in-kind part

is important to know but this is for
coastal municipalities to improve bird
habitats

and protect sensitive areas marsh areas
lowlands etc

Which is again very important on these
coastal areas,

one from a development point of view,

but also from natural disaster and storms
and extra high tides and so forth.

so if you are in a coastal municipality
and this is from the National Fishing

and Wildlife, so this isn't unique to just
South Carolina,

take a look at this grant and put it to
good use.

Awesome, thank you Mark. Well,

with that, thank you everybody for
listening.

look forward to talking more about public
art next time.

And Mark, have a pleasant rest of day.

Yes, thank you for listening and we'll
look forward to talking with you again
soon.

Bye!