Emily La is the deputy city clerk of the city of Pacifica. They can be reached at ela@pacifica.gov.

Pacifica, a small coastal community just south of San Francisco, is proving the stereotype of local government as slow and inefficient wrong. In 2024, it became one of the first cities in California to bring real-time multilingual information about city services directly to residents through chat, text, and phone. But it’s not just the technology that makes Rose AI, an artificial intelligence assistant stylized as a whale, stand out. It’s the story behind it: A small city with limited resources and lean staffing turned a bold idea into a new model of public service.

Why Rose the Whale?

Rose wasn’t a name chosen by a marketing consultant. It came from a naming contest among city staff — the same employees who tested, trained, and refined the system before launch. The winning choice carried a double meaning: a nod to the whales that migrate along Pacifica’s coastline and a quiet tribute to Rose G. Rosenthal, the oldest resident ever to live in Pacifica, who lived to be 107.

“It was important that the name felt human, approachable, and part of our community,” said Management Analyst Elizabeth Brooks, who coordinated the naming contest.

The contest created a sense of pride and buy-in — and infused some creative energy and fun into the process. The team felt they owned the innovation, not that it was imposed. In a small organization where every staff member wears many hats, Rose became a touchstone. Employees saw their creativity and teamwork come to life in the way residents experience government, and Rose reflected staff pride in serving the community with care and dedication.

From experiment to expansion

Rose began as a website search tool in early 2024. A year later, she had expanded into a full-service tool with web chat, text messaging, and phone call capabilities. Residents can interact with Rose 24/7 in multiple languages, making information accessible in ways that were previously unimaginable. Rose provides consistent answers pulled from official city documents and whitelisted partner-agency websites, while also logging sources for every interaction.

What began as a soft-launch pilot quickly proved transformative. Since launch, Rose has handled 12,843 inquiries across all communication platforms like chat, search, text messages, and calls, and shown a success rate of 97%. (Each time a query provides relevant source data contributes to the success rate.)

Over 4,000 of these inquiries were taken over the phone. But Rose isn’t just about convenience for residents. Staff can now devote more attention to high-level projects, cutting staff-managed call volumes by over 200 hours thus far, essentially saving and redirecting valuable staff time to more complex and high-priority work.

“Pacifica doesn’t have the luxury of large IT or administrative teams,” said Marisol Gómez, Pacifica’s finance and administrative services director. “That’s why innovation is essential for us. Rose allows us to do more with less — stretch limited resources, reduce staff workload, and still deliver the level of service our community expects and deserves.”

Rose has also become a tool for equity and inclusion. By offering services in over 75 languages, Rose ensures that residents who are not fluent in English, or who prefer voice or text to navigating a complex website, can access information easily and instantaneously.

“Local government should never feel out of reach,” said Council Member Sue Beckmeyer. “Rose helps us meet people where they are — whether that’s online, on the phone, or in their own language. That builds trust, and it makes government more human.”

What’s next

The city isn’t stopping with chat, text, and phone service. The next phase of the project focuses on building public-facing workflows within each department. These workflows will guide residents through step-by-step processes for common tasks — like applying for a permit, reporting a code issue, or reserving a facility — while generating the forms and automatically updating systems in the background.

“Think of it as Rose not only answering your question, but walking you through the task itself,” explained Scott Leslie, Pacifica’s parks, beaches, and recreation director. “It’s the next big leap in how cities can cut red tape and gain efficiencies without sacrificing quality.”

In 2024, the Municipal Information Systems Association of California recognized Pacifica’s efforts with its annual Innovation Award. But perhaps the bigger victory is how residents now experience their local government as open, responsive, and innovative.

“Pacifica may be small and under-resourced, but we’re constantly striving to be nimble, creative, and ahead of the curve,” said Interim City Manager Yulia Carter. “Rose isn’t about replacing people — it’s about making government more accessible, more efficient, and perhaps ironically in this early age of AI, more human.”

The city of Pacifica received the 2025 Helen Putnam Award of Excellence in the Internal Administration category. For more information about the award program, visit calcities.org/helen-putnam-award-for-excellence.