Holly Powers Local Government Modernization for 1 in 2 Californians

Agencies representing nearly half of California's population now use Holly to streamline classification, compensation, and hiring operations

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Holly, the AI-powered workforce modernization platform built for government agencies, today announced its expansion into Marin County, bringing its California footprint to 48% of the state's population and representing over 18 million residents.

The expansion comes as California local governments face mounting pressure from labor shortages, rising overtime costs, and aging administrative systems. County vacancy rates have reached as high as 30%, while cumbersome hiring processes can take six months or longer. That gap forces agencies onto overtime, costing California billions a year without fixing the underlying shortage.

The state is also facing a wave of new compliance requirements, most notably Assembly Bill 339 (AB 339), which took effect this year and has added a new layer of complexity. The law requires public agencies to give unions 45 days' notice before issuing or renewing contracts for work that represented employees could perform. Managing this new rule can force mid-sized counties to parse over a million potential combinations each year.

Holly believes government capacity starts with workforce capacity. The platform builds infrastructure that helps public agencies streamline classification, compensation analysis, hiring processes, and regulatory compliance so they can operate more efficiently and deliver better services to residents. In San Joaquin County alone, Holly has already helped process more than 100 AB 339-related contracts and 2,000+ classification edits. In San Luis Obispo County, the platform has cut down AB 339 analysis time by more than half.

Bay Area Momentum

The company began its Bay Area operations with Contra Costa County in 2025 and has since expanded to Sonoma, Santa Clara, San Mateo, and most recently Marin, representing five out of nine counties and roughly 5 million residents. In Marin, it will help update hundreds of job specifications, analyze contracts amid evolving state labor guidance, and improve inclusive language and requirements across job descriptions.

The region's rapid, county-by-county adoption, with agencies increasingly learning from one another's implementations, has become a model for how Holly is scaling nationwide.

"The Bay Area is where new technology is put to the test, and we're seeing the same thing happen inside government operations," said Brendan Hellweg, co-founder of Holly. "What's remarkable is how fast counties are learning from one another through Holly. Every agency faces its own workforce challenges, but they're all navigating many of the same pressures around hiring, compensation, compliance, and service delivery. Every lesson helps us advance the support we can offer these agencies. That's one of the advantages of serving a community of governments that are willing to innovate together."

"This platform is an example of the government using innovative technology to help us do our job smarter and more efficiently," said Vicky Willard, assistant director of human resources for the County of Marin. "It cuts down on researching and saves so much work on the front end that allows us to really focus on the fine-tuning and some of the more important things."

Expansion Across California

The company's momentum across California reflects a broader shift in how governments are approaching workforce operations. As public agencies face increasing pressure to deliver services efficiently while navigating various challenges, counties are beginning to adopt AI tools not to replace public servants, but to expand operational capacity and transform long-standing administrative systems.

"The efficiency, accuracy and versatility of Holly changed the way we approach our compensation and classification work," said Ann Elliott, director of human resources for Contra Costa County. "Access to regularly updated internal and external data, exclusively from sources we select and trust, streamlines the process to allow our knowledgeable and experienced teams to make the best decisions. The system also features review and approval workflows, tracking edits, general archiving, and the ability to continuously select/remove options to customize our searches. The reporting functionality has been very useful for larger-scale countywide projects and legal compliance initiatives."

About Holly: Holly is an AI-native workforce modernization platform helping governments build the workforce capacity needed to serve their communities. The company streamlines workforce planning, compensation analysis, labor operations, hiring, and organizational decision-making through AI-powered software and data infrastructure. Founded by former public servants and civic technology leaders out of the Harvard Innovation Lab, Holly believes government capacity starts with workforce capacity. The company's platform enables agencies to operate more efficiently, make data-driven decisions, and deliver better outcomes for the millions of residents they serve. Holly currently serves agencies across 12 states, supporting workforce operations for more than 200,000 public sector employees and helping organizations that collectively serve approximately 10% of the U.S. population. Learn more at www.hollygov.com.

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SOURCE Holly