Is McFarland promising the moon? He certainly has his work cut out for him in Dallas, where, it's said, the business of city hall isn't governing, it's making money. And Dallas has done that remarkably well. The city's rate of economic expansion is one of the highest in the nation. But while rolling out the red carpet for high-tech companies, city leaders have largely ignored the public sector. "Infrastructure isn't glamorous," says Donald Evans, CIO of Public Technology, a national non-profit organisation in Washington, DC, dedicated to advancing the use of technology in cities and counties. "Putting in plumbing, putting in pipes and digging ditches - you don't cut ribbons over this kind of stuff."

Mayor Ron Kirk, in particular, has been criticised by some for his commitment to high-profile, big-ticket projects at the expense of basic city services. In 1999 he persuaded city voters to approve a $US125 million bond to build a new sports arena that will be the home of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team and the Stars NHL hockey team. City leaders have boasted that the arena, slated to open this summer, will be the most wired public venue in the world. Never mind that Dallas currently has one of the most poorly wired city halls in the nation.

"You don't dare say that the emperor has no clothes," says Sharon Boyd, a former candidate for the Dallas City Council and editor of an alternative Dallas news Web site. "No city manager wants to tell the mayor that they need money to upgrade computer equipment or any of the other boring realities of maintaining a city. The mayor does not like to be bothered with details like ageing computers and potholes." (Kirk declined to be interviewed for this article, as did McFarland's supervisor, city manager Ted Benavides.) Boyd believes that the Dallas political machine - notorious for initially underfunding and overhyping projects and leaving managers high and dry when costs balloon - will not back McFarland when he comes to them for additional funding. If the current information technology overhaul goes over budget, McFarland would have to go back to appeal to the City Council for either more funds or a bond proposal to be pitched to taxpayers. "I see real money not coming to him when it's time to start spending it," Boyd says. "This isn't the kind of thing that Ron Kirk likes to go out and sell to the public.'' A cold hard look at the figures in the city's fiscal budget does makes one wonder if all the talk about making Dallas the most wired city hall in the nation is just that - talk. Out of an overall $US1.8 billion budget, the city is allocating $US24 million for technology improvements. IT ranks right up there with parks and recreation, which is getting a $US17 million piece of the pie.

Despite all the obstacles, his sketchy IT background and scepticism from critics, McFarland believes he can pull it off. When asked if he thinks he can overhaul the city's IT on time, within budget and without major snafus, he says, not once but three times, "Yes we do!" And then he adds: "It's not a problem - not if you know what the hell you're doing."