Dallas bond package proposes $5 million for information technology facilities

The smallest ballot proposition for a $1.25 billion bond package Dallas voters will weigh in on starting this week is expected to help improve how the city securely stores data.

Proposition J asks Dallas voters to authorize the city to issue $5 million in general obligation bonds for information technology facilities and improvements. In this case, all of the money would go to one building, the former IBM building at 1000 Belleview St., where the city plans to move its data center run by the Information and Technology Services Department.

The new building would replace City Hall space used since the 1970s to store equipment and data, but city officials say it was originally designed as an office space and hasn’t been significantly updated in the last five decades.

“Basically, the $5 million bond is slated to go into the new building and do some improvements to things like ensuring the fire suppression system is up to date, the physical access is good and any physical repairs to the building that need to be addressed,” said Brian Gardner, the city’s chief technology and information security officer.

Gardner said Dallas will take over ownership of the former IBM building, which is near the Jack Evans Police Headquarters, in October. The city has been leasing IBM’s parking garage for use by the Police Department since at least 2000.

According to the city, the lease agreement includes an option for Dallas to buy IBM’s parking lot and building for $1 at the end of the lease term. The term expires at the end of September.

Gardner said that of the $5 million in proposed bond money, $2.25 million is planned for building upgrades, $1.2 million for an electronic system that controls physical access throughout the facility, $800,000 for an emergency power supply and $750,000 for the fire alarm system.

“It will help maintain the technology infrastructure of the city,” Gardner said.

According to an August 2023 memo to the Dallas City Council, the city’s current data center lacks a fire suppression system, has a cooling system that doesn’t meet current demands, and lacks enough space for all of the city systems that should be operating out of the facility.

“There are multiple mission critical applications/systems being operated by departments in a space that is less secure, lacks backup power, and does not have adequate climate controls,” Assistant City Manager Robert Perez wrote in the memo. Perez said the city could also consider moving its 911 call center and emergency operation center to the Belleview Street building.

Perez estimated in the memo it would cost the city $175 million to $325 million to build a new data center based on the needs of the IT department.

The IT department initially sought $30 million in bond money to pay for upgrading and moving operations to the Belleview Street building. That included $16.5 million in improvements and $4.5 million for relocation.

Dallas’ municipal government has had issues with data security and storage in recent years and has been slow to upgrade city technology.

The city in 2021 repeatedly had issues with a system meant to alert firefighters of emergency calls while inside fire stations because all station computers had been upgraded from Windows 7, which was released in 2009.

After a city IT employee in 2021 deleted millions of police files, an independent review determined the incident was probably accidental while an internal review found the department lacked clear rules on how to store data.

A ransomware attack last year took some city computers and services offline for weeks and exposed the addresses, Social Security numbers and other personal information over 30,000 people.

The City Council last August approved setting aside nearly $8.6 million to pay vendors for hardware, software, incident response and consulting services in response to the ransomware attack. The council also last year approved several upgrades to help boost the city’s cyber defense, including a nearly $4 million deal for a new system that alerts the IT department to possible cyber attacks.

Early voting is underway and ends April 30. The election is May 4.