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(TNS) — National City officials are weighing whether an artificial intelligence-driven budgeting tool could help stave off the financial collapse threatening the city, after City Manager Doug Schulze warned this month the city could face insolvency by 2030 without intervention.

The City Council on Tuesday heard a presentation from Tyler Technologies representative Chris Fabian on the company’s Priority Based Budgeting software, which uses machine learning to translate line-item budget data into a comprehensive directory of the city’s programs in order to identify cost saving and streamlining opportunities.

The council did not vote to approve the $250,000, three-year contract Tuesday. Instead, members voted unanimously to direct Schulze to return at the council’s first September meeting with an expanded report detailing the program’s costs, expected benefits, limitations and contract terms.

The vote followed roughly an hour of council questions and public comment expressing skepticism about the proposal’s cost, its reliance on artificial intelligence and the absence of a direct community outreach process to help set budget priorities.

Councilmember Jose Rodriguez asked Fabian a series of pointed questions about the program’s use of artificial intelligence, adding his concerns about “how little guard rails there are” for the technology.

“There’s a lot of concerns within our community about artificial intelligence and what it means for us,” Rodriguez said.

Fabian responded that the software uses a “RAG architecture,” or retrieval augmented generation, which he said keeps city data in a protected database that is never shared with outside large language models such as OpenAI, Gemini or Anthropic.

He said the city’s data is analyzed against Tyler’s database of case studies from other jurisdictions to generate tailored recommendations, but that the information itself “is not as if you took your budget and went to a large language model again like OpenAI and posted it there.”

Councilmember Luz Molina said she was “not comfortable moving this forward tonight” without more information, including firm contract language.

“The positives, I like that this is an independent outside look at our organization, looking at it from a program-based (perspective),” she said. “But the negatives at this point, what’s holding me back, is the cost. The quarter of a million (price) is just a high cost, so I just don’t want to get locked in for that long.”

Mayor Ron Morrison offered a more favorable view of the proposal, saying it would give the city real-time data to reassess long-standing practices rather than relying on assumptions or political bias. He said he trusted Schulze’s judgment on the tool, given Schulze’s experience using it in a previous city.

“I do trust in the city manager and the experience that he’s had with it and what we’ve seen with other communities,” Morrison said. “But it is a way to look at resizing and rethinking, which we desperately need to do.”

Fabian said organizations that implement the software for resource optimization “routinely save 10% of the amount of money that they analyze,” and estimated potential savings of $8.8 million for National City based on publicly available data. He cited Collier County, Fla., where the tool identified an estimated $87 million to $131 million in savings and revenue opportunities within 90 days.

Councilmember Marcus Bush questioned the return on investment of adopting the software, citing the $250,000 cost and adding he would prefer a contract shorter than three years.

“I’m interested in talking to my colleagues back and forth about a smaller (timeframe), like doing this as a pilot for one year, six months, or something like that,” Bush said.

Resident Cynthia Fuller Quinones told the council during public comment that other California cities in fiscal crisis have recovered without the expense of priority-based budgeting software, pointing to alternatives such as participatory budgeting — a democratic process that lets residents directly decide how to spend a portion of a public budget, rather than leaving those decisions entirely to elected officials or staff.

Edward Nieto, a resident and District 3 City Council candidate, told the council he supported the presentation but felt rushed into weighing in on a $250,000 decision with only a one-page staff report and a brief discussion window. He questioned whether the software would duplicate functions of the city’s still-unfinished Munis ERP system — a software used to manage core financial and administrative operations — and asked whether Tyler Technologies could guarantee prompt implementation.

“It’s a shame that we have to base a $250,000 decision on roughly a 10-minute discussion,” Nieto said. “It took us how many years? Three years to put the [ERP] system [in] and it’s still not complete.”

The presentation came after Schulze told the council last week the city’s deficit could grow from $13 million this fiscal year to $30 million by 2029, with insolvency possible by 2030. That warning coincided with a 3-2 council vote to pull a business license tax measure, projected to generate $7.1 million annually, from the November ballot amid business community opposition.

Schulze has said staff identified $3 million to $4 million in savings achievable without significantly affecting services, and that his office plans to present a broader fiscal sustainability plan to the council in September.

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The tiny plaza of Old Schoolhouse Square in National City was bustling late into the evening Saturday.

Marketgoers crowded around booths selling crepes, lumpia and skewers of barbecued chicken. The rhythmic click-clack of mahjong tiles and a rendition of Bee Gees’ "How Deep is Your Love" filled the air.

Jordan Martin stood in line for lemonade with her cousin, enjoying the atmosphere. Martin said she had just recently moved back to San Diego after a stint in Arizona.

“Coming back to see different things like this, people out in public and fun activities to get into — it makes it worthwhile to be back,” Martin said.

The event, billed as the first National City Night Market, was planned by local pop-up tea cafe and longtime Filipino restaurant . Raven Woodley, a co-founder of Thaiyo, said the market was a reinvention of the local flea market.

“There's so many day markets on the weekends too, so I feel like there's not many night markets in this area,” Woodley said. “I think it was kind of a perfect opportunity to fill a void.”

Night markets, with their vibrant food halls and bustling atmosphere, are a staple of many major cities in Asia. They’re also becoming , from Los Angeles to the Bay Area.

San Diego’s share of night markets includes the , ’s pop-up events and the Convoy District’s , which ended in 2019.

National City has its own tradition of local markets. The , which takes place every weekend at the south end of D Avenue along Sweetwater River, said it has been operating since 1962.

Two years ago, Villa Manila also began hosting Sunday morning flea markets. The markets took place monthly at the Old Schoolhouse Square plaza, where the restaurant is located.

The flea markets were James Camanyag’s idea. Camanyag handles marketing and baking for Villa Manila, which he said has been hosting wedding receptions, baptisms and birthdays for years.

Camanyag’s family moved to National City in the 1980s. He said he saw events like the night market as a way to bring more people to the city’s older east side.

“I wanted to bring and have people, new and old, rediscover East 8th Street,” Camanyag said. “The goal is to keep it growing and bring all kinds of people to a part of National City that no one really knows about.”

The National City Night Market was also co-hosted by First Gen Scholars, a local nonprofit that supports first-generation, low-income high school students, and local event consultant Social Artistry.

Even as clouds gathered overhead Saturday, the market was still bustling with teenagers and families.

Chula Vista resident Sofia Miranda was visiting with her sister, Tatiana, and her mother Karla Sanchez. Their mother loves flea markets, so they typically make the trek to the Little Italy market in downtown San Diego. But Miranda said it was exciting to have a market closer to home.

Miranda also said she appreciated the diverse range of cultures highlighted at the market.

“I see a lot of people from different places,” she said. “I really like it.”

Anne Marie De Jesus, who lives just a 10 minute-drive from the plaza, said she didn’t remember events like this growing up. Back then, she said the main community events were more localized, neighborhood-driven block parties.

“Something like this where it's more community driven, it's really nice,” De Jesus said. “It's nice that my kids also get to enjoy something like this.”

At the east end of the plaza, Fabe Fan was running a set of open-play mahjong tables. Fan said she had worked with Thaiyo on a previous event and was excited to be a part of this one.

“I feel like everyone had a good time,” Fan said of the previous event. “So, same thing over here — just meet more people in the community and introduce people to Mahjong.”

A highlight of the evening was a performance by , a local band from Chula Vista. Marketgoers crowded around to listen as they sang covers of the Bee Gees and James Brown in the glow of the towering Old Schoolhouse Square sign.

For Woodley and her partner and co-founder, Audi Bunchien, the night was exactly what they had hoped for.

The young couple recently left their jobs to run their year-old Thai- and Filipino-inspired pop-up cafe full-time. They have also launched an event series, hoping to create a platform for other local vendors and artists.

Bunchien said he grew up seeing his mother, an immigrant from Thailand, work days and nights to keep their family restaurant running. The business wasn’t the most successful, but it was the only way she could provide for her family.

“My mom showed a lot of passion in the restaurant,” Bunchien said. “We want to show that we can be successful from passion.”

As night fell, a sprinkle of rain fell on the plaza. Vendors broke out umbrellas to cover the mahjong tables, and musicians rushed to wipe off their instruments.

But the summer shower quickly passed, and the market went on.

Thaiyo's next solo event, a celebration of the cafe's one-year anniversary, will take place on Aug. 1. The next National City Night Market is currently planned for Aug. 15.