Camera IconCity of Perth staff are under so much pressure they want to use AI to help them. Credit: City of PerthStaff woes forcing City of Perth to turn to AIMichael PalmerPerthNow - Central10 April 2026, 2:00amCopy linkShare storyThe City of Perth is contemplating turning to AI to help with its workload amid an exodus of staff.It was revealed last month job offers at the city are being knocked back and staff are walking out as the local government tries to deal with a damning independent risk assessment.Since August, eight staff members in key governance and elected member support roles have walked out, five of them since November.Others have taken extended “unanticipated personal leave”, pushing workforce depletion to what the report describes as “high risk”.The council was told last month the CEO alliance and governance team had been “significantly depleted”, leaving them struggling to complete basic operations.Staff have recently begun recording elected member engagement sessions and budget workshops, and have been using Microsoft Copilot to help them do so.They want to expand its use to record the city’s audit, risk and improvement, CEO performance review, and policy, legislation and governance committee meetings.A report to the council’s March meeting said this would help staff cope with current resource constraints.“Preparing accurate minutes for these meetings is a labour-intensive process and for significant meetings, this can require substantial effort from governance staff,” it said.“Recent difficulties in the attraction and retention of governance staff is presenting a significant risk to business continuity for the city.”The report said it was intended to support and not replace current processes or the responsibility of the minute-taker or CEO.Copilot recordings would be treated as drafts only and its summaries would be reviewed by the minute-taker before being confirmed by the city’s administration.The council was poised to vote to accept its use at its March 31 meeting but ultimately voted to put it off for a month.Deputy Lord Mayor David Goncalves said he wanted to amend the proposal but other council members and staff said they had not had enough time to consider it.Cr Goncalves had wanted council members to be able to ask for a confidential copy of audio recordings or transcript for “governance or verification purposes” and for a city record of recordings, transcripts and notes.But Cr Raj Doshi pushed for the decision to be deferred as she said it was “again a last-minute submission” and city staff had not been able to assess it.CEO Michelle Reynolds said staff had not been able to consider the consequences of Cr Goncalves’ proposal.“The information that has been provided to elected members relates to using Copilot not for the purposes of transcription, only for the purposes of very high-level minutes,” Ms Reynolds said.Cr Goncalves interrupted during Ms Reynolds’ response but Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds said to let Ms Reynolds finish “as she’s still going”.Ms Reynolds continued by saying she was cautious around “unintended consequences”.“I’m particularly cautious around confidentiality and anything that we might inadvertently cause, so I would very much appreciate the opportunity to take this away to enable us to get some proper advice,” she said.Mr Reynolds then told Cr Goncalves there was no debate on motions to defer decisions.“That’s what I was going to point out, that the CEO has now contributed to debate,” Cr Goncalves said.“Yeah, I’ve allowed it. That’s OK,” Mr Reynolds said.The proposal is now scheduled to be considered at this month’s meeting.Copy linkShare story