During the period when the Department of Urban Development began reorganizing and reviewing resources, the institution faced a critical influx of appeals and a serious burden on its employees. According to the chairman of the Urban Development Committee of the Riga City Council, Edgars Bergholcs (AS), the content of the incoming documents indicates that most of them were prepared using artificial intelligence tools. Bergholcs urges immediate consideration of how to address such situations and to improve the relevant regulatory framework. Appeals created with the help of AI often differ in volume, contain extensive arguments, and numerous references to regulatory acts that do not always correspond to the actual circumstances or the real legal situation. Moreover, a few days after receiving a response, new letters of several dozen pages may arrive at the municipality. For example, in the past year, one person submitted more than 100 different appeals related to objects in Kengarags. This same person regularly sends applications to other municipal institutions, thereby creating additional administrative burdens. According to Bergholcs, the current situation has become critical. While the department is undergoing reorganization and measures are being taken to reduce bureaucracy, building inspectors and lawyers are forced to spend more and more time reading lengthy appeals and preparing responses instead of fulfilling their direct duties and inspecting objects. Whereas appeals previously occupied several pages, their volume has now significantly increased. Accordingly, staff require much more time to review, assess the information presented, and prepare responses. The head of the Urban Development Committee believes that changes need to be made to the regulations and that municipalities should be granted the right to use artificial intelligence tools to prepare responses to AI-generated letters — for example, when forming references to regulatory acts. In Bergholcs' opinion, artificially created lengthy appeals are already overloading the work of municipal institutions and creating risks for their normal operations. He considers it necessary to improve the Law on Appeals, allowing municipalities not to consider obviously disproportionate and repetitive requests, as well as to permit brief responses strictly on the substance of the issue. Furthermore, he believes that the allowable volume of appeals should be limited so that simple questions do not turn into texts comparable in volume to academic works. One possible solution mentioned by Bergholcs is the use of the portal Latvija.gov.lv. The free-form appeals could be replaced with structured electronic services, while simultaneously setting limits on the number of characters and attachments. The electronic address (e-adrese), in turn, could be used as a reliable tool for identifying the applicant. Bergholcs also believes that officials should be allowed to use artificial intelligence tools when preparing responses to appeals.
