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.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

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Dallas, TX

Anti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis

Published

1 hour ago

January 8, 2026

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Anti-ICE protest outside Dallas City Hall follows deadly shooting in Minneapolis – CBS Texas

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This protest was organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

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Dallas, TX

Dallas Weather: Changes on the way for North Texas

Published

13 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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Dallas Weather: Changes on the way for North Texas

DALLAS – The warm and muggy weather will give way to much cooler temperatures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the next few days.

Thursday Forecast

According to the FOX 4 Weather team, rain chances return on Thursday as a disturbance moves through the Plains.

The best chance for showers and storms will be north of Interstate 20. There’s a marginal risk for severe storms for the areas northwest of DFW and along the Red River.

A southwest wind will also keep things very warm throughout the day. Expect highs to climb into the upper 70s to 80s. Wind gusts may reach as high as 25 to 30 mph.

Weekend Forecast

The next cold front swings through on Friday afternoon. Ahead of it, there are rain chances, especially southeast of DFW.

Behind this front, noticeably colder air moves in for the weekend. Expect lows in the 30s and afternoon highs in the 50s.

7-Day Forecast

A slow warm-up is expected heading into early next week.

The Source: The information in this story comes from FOX 4 Weather Meteorologist Ali Turiano’s weather report.

Weather

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Dallas, TX

Live updates: Washington Capitals vs Dallas Stars at Capital One Arena

Published

1 day ago

January 7, 2026

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Live updates: Washington Capitals vs Dallas Stars at Capital One Arena

Justin Sourdif gave Capitals fans one of the most fun individual efforts of the season, recording five points and scoring his first career hat trick against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. Sourdif had fantastic chemistry with Connor McMichael and Ryan Leonard in their first game together.

Now the question becomes – Can the Young Guns 2.0 keep it up against a usually-stingy, defensively stout Dallas Stars team?

With Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas out again due to injury, Brett Leason will make his season debut with the Capitals. Meanwhile, Dylan McIlrath will remain in the lineup.

The Stars come into on a six-game losing streak. Casey DeSmith will start in goal over Jake Oettinger while the Capitals will counter with Logan Thompson.

Puck drop for today’s game is scheduled for a little after 7:00 pm. The game’s national and on TNT.

I’m dedicating my work tonight to Callie. I love you, my sweet girl. 💔

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More Info

Lines

Washington Capitals

Beauvillier

Strome

Ovechkin

McMichael

Sourdif

Leonard

Dallas Stars

Duchene

Johnston

Rantanen

Tunnel shenanigans

1st Period

Puck is dropped. McMichael-Sourdif-Leonard and Fehervary-Carlson get the start.

Hendrix Lapierre passing directly to a Stars forward in the slot on his first shift of the game is probably not a good sign for his ice time tonight.
— RMNB (@rmnb) January 8, 2026

Ilya Lyubushkin to the box for holding Jakob Chychrun at 2:44.

Stars’ Radek Faska goes 1 on 3 shorthanded and scores after Logan Thompson loses sight of a rebound. WHAT WAS THAT.

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1-0 Dallas Stars

SHG: Radek Faksa (2). Assists: E. Lindell (14). Time: 3:06

Back to the power play and… Justin Sourdif gets tossed from the faceoff dot, starts screaming at the official, Connor McMichael comes in, says something, and he gets an unsportsmanlike doncut penalty, killing the rest of the team’s power play. You can tell Carbery is fuming.

The two teams are now playing four-on-four.

Puck bounces over Dylan Strome’s stick on a wide-open net down low after a great setup by John Carlson.

Stars are outshooting the Capitals 5-0, 5:30 into the first period.

Apparently Beck Malenstyn has returned to the Capitals because one of the commentators said he just made a play. Lmao. No one on the Capitals even wears no. 47.

Sam Steel ailing and holding his left arm after a big hit by Ethen Frank.

At intermission: The Stars lead 1-0. The Caps didn’t really do anything in the first period. They were there. They existed. But that was about it. Shots on goal are 10-8 Dallas.

2nd Period

Puck is dropped.

Ilya Lyubushkin and Brandon Duhaime throwing punches at each other after the play at 1:12. Lyubushkin is going down the tunnel due to a cut on his nose.

John Carlson… just watching a pass through the paint to his man, no stick lift or anything, just chillin.

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2-0 Dallas Stars

Goal: Sam Steel (7). Assists: T. Harley (14), M. Duchene (6). Time: 2:37

Ryan Leonard fakes a dump-in and almost scores with a crazy shot to the far side from center ice.

Brandon Duhaime and Ilya Lyubushkin drop the gloves right off a faceoff at 12:53. Duhaime punches Lyubushkin about 5 times hard in the back of the helmet. Hope his knuckles are doing okay. The Caps crowd is finally into it, though.

Logan Thompson stops Roope Hintz on a two-on-none breakaway after Nic Dowd fails to get the puck deep. Caps look awful.

Mikko Rantanen slashes Justin Sourdif at 15:55. Caps going back to the power play.

At intermission: The Stars lead 2-0. Dallas leads in shots on goal 20 to 13.

3rd Period

Puck is dropped.

Anthony Beauvillier takes it hard to the net, and gets two opportunities but can’t whack the puck through.

Nic Dowd to the box for hooking at 4:57. The Caps look awful. Just listless. Can’t get anything going. A lot of standing around.

4 shots by the Stars on the power play. Thompson keeping the Caps close.

McMichael ices the puck at the end of the kill.

Caps have one shot on goal through the first 7:03 of the third period.

Jason Robertson rips one hard off the post. Thompson is flopping all over the place to keep the puck out.

McMichael and Duchene trade opportunities down the wing off the rush.

Beauvillier sends a horrible pass backwards to Matt Roy in the defensive zone, turnover to the Stars’ Steel, and Wyatt Johnston scores easily in front of the net. YIKES.

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