Thursday, March 28, 2013

WL Council must reject new Place Brand

This past Tuesday in Committee of the Whole - Williams Lake City Council received a presentation from the City's Manager of Economic Development (Alan Madrigga) concerning a new Place Brand called "The Republic of Life".  The approved budget for this project, in 2012, was $45,000 with $41,000 being spent to date

Read Mr. Madrigga's report here

During Committee of the Whole discussions - Council was generally in support.  Councillors Rathor/Hughes did ask for First Nations to be part of the brand while Councillor Bourdon stated that he believed that local opposition didn't matter but it was geared towards an external audience while Councillor Zacharias said she was excited for the opportunities that the new brand would be bring to Williams Lake

Council agreed by a 6-1 vote (Councillor Danica Hughes voting in opposition) to recommend approval of the new brand.  Council will consider approving this recommendation from Committee of the Whole on Tuesday, April 9th at 6pm

Since then - I have heard from directly or read online comments expressing disgust or outrage at this decision by Williams Lake City Council, in Committee.  In fact - one went so far as to say that they were looking forward to next fall's election to replace the current 'puppets' with a new Council and another saying that we should cut our losses now at $41,000 before we spend any more money

For myself - it is readily clear that the general public, by large, does not support this decision of Williams Lake City Council.  If the local community does not support this brand, then it becomes impossible, on a moral basis, to promote this new Brand (Republic of Life) beyond our borders because if Council adopts the new brand and promotes it beyond Williams Lake - it betrays that principle of accountability of "you serve the public that voted you in and you should not do such things that the general public, as a whole, do not support"

If you are concerned about this item and wish to contact your members of Williams Lake City Council prior to April 9th, you can find their contact information here

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it so suits Williams Lake....city hall operates like a Banana Republic with the same amount of corruption, why hide it? R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S!! Council and its poor decision making has, once again, become a source of public humiliation for the citizens of Williams Lake. Come on Kerry, resign before you're forced out.

Anonymous said...

Are your buddies and readers of Welcome to Williams Lake "general public, by large" ?

Steve Forseth said...

Anonymous at 11:06am:

No...

Anonymous said...

How do you define " general public." Considering there are nearly 5000 visitors on the WLNandE fan page in a town of just over 10K; I would say that IS the general public.