Fort Myers advisory board demos ChatGPT-based ‘Summarizer’ to index past meetings; members raise Sunshine-law, scope questions

A board member demonstrated a ChatGPT-based tool Oct. 2 that indexes and summarizes past meeting audio and public documents to help the Fort Myers Economic Development Advisory Board identify priorities and produce repeatable queries.

Presenter Dwayne described the tool — which he called the “Summarizer” — as an interface that turns recorded meeting audio into text, uploads it into a queryable index, and uses ChatGPT to summarize prior discussions and suggest timelines and priorities. He said he configured the system to prevent the board’s meeting data from being used to train external AI models.

Why it matters: The Summarizer is intended to give the small, volunteer board quick access to prior conversations so members can focus limited meeting time on decision-making rather than rehashing old topics. Members said the tool could save hours and help produce consistent messaging to council or the public.

Sunshine and records concerns: Several members raised Sunshine Law considerations and public-records obligations. City Attorney Alley and other board members cautioned that anything typed into a shared forum could be subject to public-record requests and that questions asked of the tool should be treated with the same transparency as other board communications. Dwayne said individual queries would not be automatically shared with other users and that the link to the tool would be private and revocable if necessary.

Board scope and practical uses: The demonstration included examples — querying the city’s strategic priorities, identifying recurring themes like the four “Rs” (retirees, retail, real estate development, recreation), and generating candidate company lists for recruitment. Members debated whether the board should use the tool for strategic visioning or tactical follow-up (for example, tracking signage projects or FDOT/MPO infrastructure items).

Next steps: Dwayne said he will provide the board with the link and printed copies of the demonstration. Members agreed to try the interface and to provide follow-up questions they’d like the Summarizer to run ahead of the next meeting.