COUNTY NEWS RELEASE
Los Alamos County, thanks to the efforts of the Dept. of Public Utilities, is officially launching its simple but powerful “Ask the County” tool after a successful soft rollout over the past few months. This new website feature, powered by the Rep’d platform, combines a chatbot with short videos to give community members and other visitors quick, personalized responses to their questions.
In 2025, the Dept. of Public Utilities researched the tool, presented it to the Board of Public Utilities and County Council, and procured the agreement with the Rep’d team. Their efforts have provided an efficient way for all departments across the County to benefit. For County staff, the tool supports transparency and strengthens community outreach by surfacing what people are asking about most. For website visitors, it makes it easier to find answers without clicking through multiple website pages.
“This tool is an extra avenue of engagement with our citizens,” said Public Relations Manager Cathy D’Anna. “We want people to be able to reach us in whatever way works best for them. For many, that means asking questions at a time when making a phone call isn’t convenient or when offices are closed.”
Quick questions, quick answers
Rep’d appears as a small “Ask the County” logo in the lower left corner of each County webpage. Click the logo to expand the chatbot window and type a question, such as “How can I pay my utility bill?” The tool quickly provides an answer. In this case, it will list the payment methods accepted by the Dept. of Public Utilities. Below the answer, users will see links to the source pages as well as a few video thumbnails.
The videos generally feature County staff giving brief responses to frequently asked questions and sharing other helpful information. If a video answer is available for the question asked, it will be highlighted alongside the written response—for example, if asked why there is an empty plane fuselage at the airport, the chatbot will pull up a video and a written explanation.
Digging deeper
If a user asks a question that can’t be answered through the information on the public website, the option to send that question to County staff becomes available. Users can then expect an answer either by email or in video form.
Regardless of whether the question is submitted to staff or not, all queries received by the chatbot are regularly downloaded for website administrators to review and identify information gaps on the website, and to understand what people are looking for.
Lastly…
The artificial intelligence used by the Rep’d platform is limited to the content on the County’s website—it does not search the wider internet—and it does not access any pages containing personal, identifying or sensitive information of community members.
“While the platform is new and we have high hopes for it, it’s not perfect,” D’Anna explains. “As we update and expand the information on our website, the AI may need an occasional nudge from the Rep’d developers. We welcome your feedback if you run into roadblocks because that information will help us keep the tool running at its best.”
The Rep’d platform is being used by over 35 local governments in 18 states throughout the United States. Los Alamos County is the first local government to utilize the tool in New Mexico. To share your input after trying the tool out, please complete the online Rep’d feedback form at https://lacnm.com/chatbot.