Dunn County Transit committee approves bus-ad pricing; content policy to return in May

The Dunn County Transit Committee voted April 8 to approve an advertising pricing plan for bus and shelter placements and authorized staff to begin soliciting advertisers, while sending a draft content policy back to staff for further legal review and a final committee review in May.

A staff member presented the draft "Dunn County transit advertising policy" and a pricing table from the meeting packet, saying the plan accepts commercial, local business, community-event and government/public-service announcements and disallows misleading, offensive, adult, regulated-product and political-campaign content. "We accept the following categories of advertising: commercial advertising for lawful duties and services, emotional local business and services, community events and activities, government and public service announcements," the staff member said.

Committee members raised free-speech and operational concerns. One member asked whether a breastfeeding campaign would be treated as explicit; others said breastfeeding imagery often draws contested views and recommended the policy clarify coverage and placement. "Breastfeeding always draws that line and what people think is explicit," a committee member said during the exchange.

Members also discussed who would handle contested ads. The committee agreed that staff would screen routine submissions and that the advertising committee—or this committee acting as an appeals stage—would review gray-area cases and provide a single final appeal option. A committee member summarized the procedural approach as having an appeals route to "take the heat off the staff."

The committee debated pricing strategy and exclusivity. Staff described a pricing structure with a higher first-year charge that would include a one-time print cost—a staff member cited a $3,500 print cost for year one—and lower annual rates in subsequent years for multi-year contracts. Members cautioned that high initial prices might be hard to fill in a small market and discussed how exclusivity and package tiers would be managed if multiple advertisers sought the same placement. "It's harder to go back than bump it up," one member said, urging caution about setting low introductory prices only to raise them later.

Chair (the committee chair) moved to adopt the pricing plan as presented and permit staff to begin solicitation while final content-policy language is completed; the motion received a second and, after discussion, the chair called the vote and announced the motion passed. The chair asked staff to return a revised, finalized policy and the content-policy edits at the committee's May meeting.

The committee also received brief operational updates: staff reported January–March ridership gains on several routes and said a planned MTM subcontracting transition for client transportation has been delayed to May 1. No public commenters addressed the advertising item.

Next steps: staff will complete legal review and refine content definitions and procedural language, return the updated policy at the committee's May meeting, and proceed with advertiser outreach for the approved pricing packages.