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.

General thoughts (not random because my mind is so organized)

Tulsa's air quality took a monumental dive this morning. The city of Tulsa decided to burn the recycling we have all (about 50? of us) worked hard to put out on two Wednesday's a month. That's plastic folks. Plastic, isn't that one of the things environmentalists said was dangerous? That's why we recycle, to save the environment. Setting it on fire just puts the offending material in a different part of the environment.

The smell is extremely noticeable. I awoke this morning and had a frightening thought. Sometime in the night, someone (Mayor Bartlett's press secretary?), packed up the entire city and moved it to Cleveland, Ohio. That region was an industrial leader years ago (the 70's and before). Unfortunately, it also had the Cuyahoga River. That's the river that caught on fire. The floating chemical slick he had enter lighter than water. Rumor has it a passing fisherman created a spark when he tried to restart his outboard. The fire burned out eventually for lack of fuel. Anyone know a guy would be fishing in spot that smelled of industrial waste?

Mayor Bartlett has hired a press secretary. Lets see, we have already laid off police and are arguing about how they are going to come back. The firemen took a pay cut that needs to be restored. Seems a little suspicious. Is the Mayor hiring someone to go to the council meetings he(can't?/does not want to) attend, so that hear what the council is saying? That's what we have TGOV for. Is he clearing the board so he can paricipate more in the city's economic development effort? That would be appreciated by all of us that are out of work. Seems the Mayor might be trying to get the conflict with city council resolved. That's was what the mediators (two former judges) were supposed handle? Right?

City officials sell "quality of life" constantly. What do you say about a city who burns plastic overnight while they are supposed to be recycling it, creating a bigger stink than the elected officials. And a mayor who slashes the budget, including some from his own staff, then hires another body to speak for him. Surely not a Cleveland Ohio wannabe. Remeber. that city once called the "Mistake on the Lake" and was led by the ever (fill in you own blank) Dennis Kucinich (sp).

This will give you a bigger headache than Lebron James and Brett Favre.