Editor:
After attending the April 9 city council meeting my concerns regarding the new branding for Williams Lake have not been laid to rest.
The audience was reassured that there was an in depth public consultation process. The marketing company came to Williams Lake, talked to the people, read reports, formed a committee, constructed a website … basically they did their due diligence.
A plan was presented to council at a Committee of the Whole meeting where they recommended it be approved. Shortly after the branding domain name www.republicoflife.ca was in fact being used to link to the city’s website.
It seems the process left out the public consultation where they get feedback, tweak it and then present a publicly endorsed plan to council for vote and then implement after approval.
But yes we are told they did present it to the public … in the Lower Mainland, in Calgary and who knows where else.
I find it appalling that these people who don’t live here who don’t know Williams Lake are approving our brand.
After overwhelming outrage by the citizens of Williams Lake we are now being told the concept that was recommended to be approved at the Committee of the Whole and was supposed to be voted on at council April 9 was not really the finished product.
I question the protocol of council voting on a concept that was not final. I am also mystified why the public were not informed of the website that was implemented to keep the citizens informed and gather feedback.
A perusal of the city websites shows nothing of the branding in their news feed nor could I find any link to direct citizens to the branding website.
When one visits www.mywilliamslake.placebrand.ca it is clear that the informing ended last July 21 … and it wasn’t until citizen outrage that another update was added on April 9.
So at this point do I feel confident that the new motion to present the latest brand presentation to the public will be in a spirit to gather feedback to maybe tweak to something we all can be proud of?
Not one bit, especially when I hear comments that those that are not happy with it are too old, negative, look at life as a glass half empty, or somehow just not intelligent enough to get it.
Kim Herdman
Williams Lake