ADRIAN — The system that the city of Adrian has been using to translate meetings into Spanish was a subject of discussion at the August 5 city commission study session.

The city’s subscription to the Wordly service has expired and renewal would cost $8,100 for another year, communications and marketing coordinator Michelle Dewey told commissioners.

Wordly is powered by artificial intelligence and is intended to provide realtime translations of what is being said during meetings.

Topics discussed on August 5 included how much the service was used over the past year and whether it’s the best option.

Dewey said the largest number of people viewing the translation online at any one time was three, and it was more commonly one or two.

Commissioner Bob Behnke said that when the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy held virtual forums about Crimson Holdings air pollution with professional translators providing two-way translation, the Spanish-language version was so popular that its attendance at the library actually exceeded attendance for the English version. He said that suggests that when a government entity makes a strong effort to welcome people and encourage participation, people will respond.

Behnke also suggested seeking input from Spanish-speaking residents about what would be most useful.

“Instead of having English speakers discuss this, it may be better to have Spanish speakers provide input on that front,” he said.

Commissioner Matt Schwartz said he’d like to see if there’s a way to better enable two-way communication during meetings. He said providing translation is valuable, but wondered if there’s a better way to provide the service.

Dewey said the Wordly system isn’t perfect, but it seemed like the best option when she was evaluating translation services.

“But that was a year ago,” she added, noting that the available services may have changed.