Tallahassee ethics director outlines training overhaul, AI use and budget snapshot

Director Dwight Floyd reported to the City of Tallahassee Independent Ethics Board on the office’s recent activities, describing a new scenario-based ethics refresher and providing a brief budget update.

Floyd said the refresher — described to the board as the "ethics challenge" — uses contemporary, realistic scenarios (including local incidents such as tornado response) and a gaming-style model without a single, scored “right” answer so participants give honest responses. He told the board the course is designed to influence workplace culture and encourage employees to think through ethical dilemmas rather than only recite rules.

Floyd described the office’s tech choices and costs, noting the department maintains two AI voice accounts that help produce the training modules but cautioned that AI outputs can be biased and should be used as a tool rather than an authoritative source. "Using it as a tool, you know, use it as the last word because it's often biased, not accurate," he said.

On the budget, Floyd said the ethics office currently has about $271,000 remaining from an initial $525,000 allocation, with roughly $76,000 earmarked for salary; he estimated leftover funds could be in the neighborhood of $50,000–$80,000. He said staff will shift funds internally where needed and expects to turn the course over to city administration the following week.

Floyd also reported there were no sworn complaints during the reporting period and described several referrals handled administratively, including a right-of-way code-enforcement matter that staff helped resolve through interdepartmental coordination.

The board thanked staff for the training work and for making the materials available for member review; staff said the final module would be completed soon and that the finished course would be shared with the city.

The board did not take formal action on training or budget items during the meeting.