Dallas, TX

Dallas City Hall has a $168 million ‘tech debt.’ How did it get so bad?

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2024

Dallas City Hall has a 8 million ‘tech debt.’ How did it get so bad?

Technology seems to become obsolete almost as fast as it’s invented these days, and Dallas City Hall has shown that keeping up is a struggle.

A lack of investment and effective management of the city’s technology infrastructure over many years has resulted in a buildup of projects that need money and attention. In December, staff from Dallas’ Information and Technology Services updated council members on a plan for more efficient management of technology resources. And, as with most such updates, there is a price tag attached.

It’s a good thing the city is finally working on this plan, but it took too long to get to this point. As of December, the city has about $168 million in what’s called “technical debt,” Bill Zielinski, Dallas’ chief information officer, said during the meeting.

Zielinski explained during the December presentation that having technical debt means having technology that doesn’t do what it needs to. Like any other kind of debt, it becomes increasingly difficult and costly to manage when it builds up too much. That can cause serious problems for the city and how it delivers services.

Last year’s ransomware attack, for example, affected police, courts, 311 and multiple city websites. It took months to clean up, and the city had to spend $4 million on a cyberattack detection system. It was a worthy purchase, but it shouldn’t have been made retroactively, and it highlights the need to keep on top of technology and to budget adequately to handle it.

We asked the city why this has taken so long to address. The city’s press office pointed to a Forrester Research survey indicating that a buildup of ineffective tech is common, and that Dallas IT staff have provided regular updates to the city about how to remediate it in monthly reports since August 2022.

Just because it might be a common problem doesn’t mean it should be a city problem. Effective management means being ahead of the pack, not part of it.

A technology accountability report from March describes a seven-year plan to address the problem, beginning with the highest priority areas first and gradually tapering off to lower ones. The idea is to get to consistent monitoring and management that the city should have already had in place.

During the presentation, Zielinski brought a complete map depicting all the city’s technical systems and which departments are using them. Printed out to a readable scale, the map was about 60 feet long with two rows, he said.

The city has nearly 900 independent IT systems used across over 40 departments, and Zielinski said that in his experience since 2020, there have been far too many application failures that have caused business loss. His goal is to reduce that as much as possible.

Better late than never, certainly, but we wish Dallas had a clearer management plan in place sooner to save both money and loss in time and work.

Budgeting and managing technology properly is part of every modern organization’s bread and butter work. Dallas needs to get this right every budget cycle.

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Dallas, TX

New video of Lake Dallas explosion draws focus on order decades ago to remove old plastic pipes

Published

8 hours ago

April 20, 2026

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New video of Lake Dallas explosion draws focus on order decades ago to remove old plastic pipes

Investigators say last month’s explosion, which critically injured a woman, was caused by a natural gas leak. Atmos Energy said its crews later detected an isolated leak on a short section of pipe buried in the area. The company said the pipe was installed by a predecessor utility company and was made of a material used only in 1970 and 1971.

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Mavericks Owners Might Be Making Big Mistake in Search for New GM

Published

20 hours ago

April 19, 2026

Press Room

Dallas Mavericks Owners Might Be Making Big Mistake in Search for New GM

The search for the next general manager or president of basketball operations of the Dallas Mavericks has begun. They terminated Nico Harrison in November, which was about nine months too late, and gave any available candidates clear notice that they were open for business.

The plan was always to wait until after the season to start the search. While names popped up as the season reached an end, they didn’t begin turning over the staff until the Monday after the season ended. However, Dallas Mavericks fans are not going to like how the team is going about the search.

Mar 23, 2026; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont during the first half against the Golden State Warriors at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Patrick Dumont Leading Search for General Manager

NBA insider Jake Fischer reported that the Mavericks are not hiring a search firm in their hunt for a new lead executive. Instead, team governor Patrick Dumont is “acting as his own point person.”

This is an… interesting decision, to say the least. Dumont is not a basketball person whatsoever, and most organizations usually hire a search firm. The Chicago Bulls hired one as they look for their replacement for Arturas Karnisovas. Just because a firm is hired doesn’t mean a team will listen, though.

The Mavericks hired a firm in their last search for a GM. They let Donnie Nelson go in 2021 after a long tenure with the Mavs. Instead of listening to the firm, though, Mark Cuban ignored it to hire Nico Harrison, who had no previous NBA front office experience. Harrison had been an executive with Nike, which gave him connections with players like Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and plenty of others.

For a while, that seemed to be working out okay. While he still had some questionable transactions, such as trading for Christian Wood and letting Jalen Brunson walk in free agency, they were still able to make a run to the NBA Finals in 2024. Then, he blew it all up, trading away Luka Doncic for an older and injured Anthony Davis, and the team hasn’t been the same since.

It’s imperative that the Mavericks get this hire correct. The interim Co-GM setup with Matt Riccardi and Michael Finley has performed admirably, but the 2026 NBA Draft is important for the Mavs to get right. It’s their best chance to pair Cooper Flagg with another young star, as they don’t own their first-round pick again until 2031 after this.

Hiring the right GM could help bring in more draft capital by bringing in bad contracts or flipping veterans into picks.

Dumont was able to convince Rick Welts, a Hall of Famer, to come out of retirement to be the CEO and lead the charge for a new arena. Maybe Dumont pulls another rabbit out of his hat for the GM.

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Dallas, TX

Petar Musa’s Brace Not Enough as FC Dallas Draws LA Galaxy 2-2

Published

1 day ago

April 19, 2026

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Petar Musa’s Brace Not Enough as FC Dallas Draws LA Galaxy 2-2

For a moment, it looked like FC Dallas was on its way to another statement win at home tonight.

Petar Musa scored two first half goals, to extend his Golden Boot leading tally to nine goals. But after Dallas grabbed control, the Galaxy found a way back before halftime with goals from Lucas Sanabria and Joseph Paintsil.

The second half brought more chances and more frustration for Dallas, which finished the night with 13 shots to LA’s nine. In the end, the point stretched Dallas’ unbeaten run to five games, though just like last week, it felt like another match where Dallas left points on the table.

Key Moments

7’ – GOAL! After a poor pass back by a LA defender, Petar Musa was free to go one-on-one with the LA goalkeeper. After a touch to get ahead of a defender, Musa slotted home his eighth goal of the season from outside the penalty box.

21’ – Offside! Joaquin Valiente sent a floating ball over the Galaxy defense, where Musa was able to get behind the defense and make an easy play for what appeared to be his second goal of the night. The play was called offside despite a fairly lengthy review period.

38’ – GOAL! This one counts! Musa gets his second of the night off a great ball from Chris Cappis. Logan Farrington picked off the ball in the midfield. He then played Cappis wide to the left of the penalty area. Cappis immediately played a ball back across the goal for Musa to slide in and finish for his ninth of the season.

43’ – Goal LA. Lucas Sanabria got the ball near the top of the penalty area. He took a couple of touches to get outside the penalty box before firing a shot that beat Michael Collodi at the near post.

45+4’ – Goal LA. Gabriel Pec got the ball near the top of the penalty area. He pulled the ball back a bit, which caught a pair of Dallas defenders. This allowed Joseph Painstil to get free behind the Dallas defense as Pec played him through inside the penalty area. Pec immediately smashed home a shot above Collodi to tie the game.

75’ – Another offside goal. This time on a corner kick for Dallas, after a scrum in the penalty box, Kaick hammered home what looked to be the go-ahead goal. But after a few seconds the flag was raised due to a deflection on Osaze Urhoghide, who was in an offside position.

Instant Reaction

Yeah, this is another disappointing result for this team. In a real way, it felt like the first half against Houston from last month. Dallas grabbed the lead, looked in control, but some defensive miscues opened the game up for the visitors to climb back.

With a double-game week coming up, this will certainly be another game where Dallas will wonder ‘what if’ more than anything else…especially when you factor in the two goals called off for offside.

About the Subs

Eric Quill went to his bench for the first time in the 66th minute, as he brought on Santiago Moreno for Logan Farrington. Quill went to his bench again 81st minute with Ran Binyamin and Nolan Norris coming on for Sebastien Ibeagha and Deedson. The final sub came during stoppage time with Herman Johansson and Joaquin Valiente coming off for Sam Sarver and rookie Nick Simmonds, who made his MLS debut.

Man of the Match

No question about it tonight, it has to be Musa.

Where does this fit into the season

As of this writing, the draw puts Dallas into a three-way tie for 5th place with Real Salt Lake and Seattle. Both are in action right now and look firmly in control of their games. I’d expect Dallas to be in 7th place by the end of the night.