Some members of the Dallas City Council set their sights on a program to roll out digital kiosks around the city, despite being faced with significant financial and policy hurdles. But other council members had a lot of questions — and even expressed some skepticism.
It’s not a topic that one would generally think would generate intense debate among elected officials, but the council spent hours during Wednesday’s meeting discussing the proposal, with some elected officials questioning how it made it this far inside City Hall.
There has been a back and forth over the issue for at least a year. That process includes soliciting for a digital kiosk vendor, the city council ultimately rejecting two proposals — and a council committee coming up with their own plan.
On Wednesday, city officials told the council they needed guidance on a kiosk policy. Currently, the city has one existing digital kiosk in Victory Park near uptown — and many “static” kiosks scattered around the city, which most elected officials agree are outdated.
Some elected officials seemed on board with bringing the kiosks to Dallas. They cited the need for information in busy areas of the city — like Downtown, near the convention center and Fair Park.
The kiosks could generate over $20,000 per unit, according to city staff. That extra revenue source comes as the city grapples with remedying billions of unfunded liabilities in the city’s public safety pension system.
“I think the devil is in the details here,” District 10 Council Member Kathy Stewart said during the meeting. “We can do this in a very positive way…but I think we really need to get into the details.”
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua, another advocate of the program, suggested the city shouldn’t waste more time delaying and instead use an agreement another local government entity is using — and build off that.
He told his colleagues he had been in contact with the city of Houston about their kiosk contract and said it had been “a fruitful deal.”
But others on the council said they have received vehement opposition to the idea — and questioned who was behind the kiosk push.
“I haven’t gotten a single message, phone call, email, in-person conversation, where someone has said ‘we really want this’ that isn’t a lobbyist,” District 12 Council Member Cara Mendelsohn said during the meeting. “So, who is the constituency that is bringing this forward that says, ‘we want this, this is a good idea’?”
Some of Dallas’ biggest boosters have lent their support to the kiosk program, according to letters obtained by KERA.
Those include the Dallas Regional Chamber, the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, Visit Dallas and Fair Park First.
One company that specializes in digital kiosks — IKE Smart City, LLC — was named specifically in most of those letters.
Two separate firms have filed lobbyist registrant forms with the city of Dallas listing IKE Smart City company as a client — one as recently as Monday. IKE Smart City got a contract from the city of Houston in 2022 to roll out a digital kiosk program.
‘A service that these can provide’
The city is still under a contract for its “static” kiosks. That deal will end in 2028, but the city has an option to terminate it early after giving 90 days’ notice. As it stands, each kiosk brings in about $5,000 annually.
If it wants to end the contract before 2028, the city could be on the hook for paying over $800,000 in fees.
Last year, the city started looking for vendors to provide digital kiosks around the city.
The details of the potential agreement included a five-year contract that required a minimum of 75 kiosks which would use 12% of its ad space to promote city content — and provide free Wi-Fi up to 150 feet around the unit, according to a briefing presented to the council.
The city received two proposals, which the council rejected earlier this year. A couple months later, the city’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee came up with their own plan and offered a motion in September to move it on to the full council.
The committee approved that motion despite the item being noticed as a briefing, not an action item, under the Texas Open Meetings Act.
That plan increases the original kiosk policy specifications to 150 units, bumps it to a 10-year minimum contract and adds design standards. That includes the notification process for vendors to let residents know a kiosk could be installed near them.
Now city staff members wanted the council’s opinion on how best to proceed. Did it want a kiosk program? Where should the units be located? And how should the revenue be spent?
“I would suggest…that 100% of [kiosk revenue] would go back to enhancing the pedestrian realm,” District 1 Council Member Chad West said. “So, putting in ADA ramps, if we don’t have them, landscaping, lighting.”
West said “we’re not taking room away from cars, were going to take it away from our pedestrians” so the city should put give something back.
“We don’t want these where they don’t belong,” District 13 Council Member Gay Donnell West said. “However…I think there is a service that these can provide.”
Others saw it differently.
“I’m opposed to digital kiosks in our city, for a variety of reasons,” District 14 Council Member Paul Ridley said. “For walkability reasons the kiosks…impede pedestrian walkability in key urban areas of our city.”
Ridley also said the council was not taking into consideration the opposition from constituents. Shawn Todd, a partner at the real estate investment firm Todd Interests, told the council he and other Dallas businesses have spent “hundreds of millions of dollars, collectively, on new sidewalks” in order to make the city more walkable.
“This flies in the face of the efforts of all people who have used their private capital to make this better,” Todd said.
‘As fast as possible’
Five of the eight letters supporting the digital kiosks reviewed by KERA specifically mention IKE Smart City, LLC — an Ohio-based company.
When Bazaldua told city staff he wanted “to see this done as fast as possible,” city staff said an option would be to enter a “cooperative agreement” with another local government.
That means the city finds another government with a contract for the service that Dallas officials like — then the city just “piggybacks” off of that agreement.
Bazaldua said Houston’s contract with IKE Smart City would be something Dallas could easily expand on if it wanted to. That deal includes a 12-year contract, 125 kiosk units and the city could receive around $20,000 to $33,000 in revenue per unit, according to city staff’s presentation.
Almost all the case studies used in Wednesday’s presentation were from cities across the country that contracted with IKE Smart City.
Todd, like Mendelsohn, said he wondered how this proposal made it all the way to the full council’s desk.
“I have great concerns over this process,” Todd said. “I have great concerns how something could matriculate itself to this horseshoe and if it’s not staff-led, who led it?”
He told the council he is glad the city has an Inspector General’s Office and hoped elected officials would look “deeply into what’s driving this.”
“…Because the silence is what’s concerning me as to how this has come about,” Todd said.
It is unclear what will come of the digital kiosk program. Bazaldua put on record that the council only needed a simple majority vote to initiate the process. But the contract details, design standards, pending contracts and instillation timeline has yet to be decided.
Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.
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