Advertise? - Where?

Counselors Chris Trail and G.T. Bynum propose raising additional revenue by placing ads on city vehicles. Congratulations for thinking outside the billboard. Is this really a net addition to city revenue?

First, both Trail and Bynum are intelligent men. Trail has run a restaurant widely known in Tulsa. That industry in a notoriously tough environment in which to survive, let alone profit and prosper. Bynum has a more diverse career going on. His public utterances on city issues are at least articulate and original, even if I don't always agree with him. The source of the idea is credible.

It's also not all that practical. The proposal was to advertise on city vehicles and property. The vehicles are a problem. They are small and already have verbiage and/or ID numbers on them. How much space is left on a truck or sedan? Further, given the available space, the vehicles would have to stationary or travelling very slow for anyone to read the ad. And by the way, could this advertising include police cars and fire trucks? I wonder if that's even legal. I am certainly not ready to see a fire truck racing by me on a call while extolling the value of a Little Debbie snack cake. Something of a credibility issue there.

As far as city property, would the signage ordinances even allow it? The TMAPC is from time to time hearing cases and requests about variances to the sign ordinances for billboards. If the Bynum - Trail idea envisions billboards, who would pay to construct it? What are the operating costs if it is digital? If these are the more standard wood frame or metal frame sings, who maintains them?

Most importantly, who establishes the rates the city will charge? Surely there isn't an employee already on the city payroll that has experiencing establishing ad rates in this market. Is this another "consultant" the city will have to hire?

Keep in mind this idea is VOAB (Void of Any Benefit) if its not a net positive cash flow. And it could well become another boondoggle if all the costs are not tracked through a newly established enterprise fund that accumulates all the costs and revenues from the advertising activity.

Bynum was careful to emphasize that this is something to evaluated first (my words, not his). True enough, here's hoping that evaluation is with an open mind. The devil is in the details.