It’s the time of the year when leaves usually come down, but the foliage on the City of Lebanon’s iconic logo is proving resilient in the face of a city rebranding effort.
By a vote of 3-3, the City Council on Tuesday of last week rejected a bid to replace the four-leaf symbol with new branding and a slogan focusing on the city’s economic development efforts. This comes after another proposed new logo was abandoned last spring.
During a discussion on the resolution to adopt the logo, some council members expressed frustration over what they saw as a lack of communication and input on the issue.
Mayor Jared Carr said the city arrived at the new concept after meetings with community members. He acknowledged that the first logo proposal presented earlier this year was not warmly received on social media.
“One of the problems was the ‘L’ being broken, I don’t think people liked that,” Carr said, referring to the logo first proposed. “This one, I think, is simple, looks good and energizes Lebanon.”
A report from city staff said the city received 30 logo concepts from marketing consultant Chandlerthinks of Franklin, Tenn. and narrowed the choices down to six.
But Councilman Joe Berkich, who noted he did not like the originally proposed logo either, said he had never seen any of the other logo concepts city staff considered.
“We just got one logo to pick from,” he said. “You would think the council would have some input. My phone rang off the wall the past two days and everybody’s telling me they would rather stay with the original logo than change, because they don’t like the slogan, ‘build your journey here.’ They would rather keep the old slogan, ‘friendly people, friendly place.”
City Communications Manager Derek Gean told the council that city staff met with Lebanon Area Chamber of Commerce members, civic club members and historians and they came back with the recommendation. He said the intent was to introduce a simpler design that highlights the city’s focus on economic development.
“I think it all comes down to the entrepreneurial spirit of Lebanon,” he said. “People build their factories here. They build their careers here. They build their lives here. Lebanon is a place to build things, so we want to start branding this as a place not so much for tourism, but for economic development.”
Councilman Dan Mizell said he thought people were upset because it seemed like the issue had been decided already without giving them a chance to provide input.
“We weren’t given a choice about this, we were handed the logo and told ‘this is the new logo.’ We’re kind of doing that again, but the good news is this one is better,” he said.
Councilman Jaret Scharnhorst said he was still not satisfied with the logo and slogan.
“I think it’s an improvement over the last one, still not a fan,” said Scharnhorst. “I don’t like the ‘build your journey here’ myself.”
Mayor Carr expressed strong support for the proposed logo.
“I like it, I’ll bring it back for a vote at every council meeting,” he said. “I love it. I think it’s a great idea. It builds on Lebanon as a city that’s looking toward the future and what we’ve done and accomplished in the last 10 years or so.”
After some council members expressed reservations about the logo, the council at first discussed tabling the issue, but then accepted a motion to vote on a resolution to approve the new design. Mizell said he saw little to be gained from dragging out the issue.
Councilmen Mike Evans, Joe Berkich and Jaret Scharnhorst voted no. Councilmen Dan Mizell, Chuck Jordan and Bob Garner voted yes. Councilmen Jeffrey Mutchler and Randy Wall were not present for the vote. It was determined that the resolution did not pass because with only three votes in favor it failed to secure a majority of council members.
Later in the meeting, City Counselor Chris Allen said he had checked state laws and suggested making the logo issue an ordinance instead of a resolution on the next council meeting agenda. He said that state laws specifically allow the mayor to cast a tie-breaking vote on ordinances.
The rebranding effort began last year when the firm of ChandlerThinks Franklin, Tenn. was hired to conduct research and design logo concepts for the city and city departments at a cost of $ 74,705.
