New city logo to undergo changes
The Gallup rebranding journey discussed by city councilors on July 13, continued on July 27.
Bandwagon LLC Chief Client Officer Cory Cart’s presentation from the previous meeting was put up for a vote July 27 and the “Visit Gallup” campaign received some criticism.
Gallup Tourism and Marketing Manager Jennifer Lazarz explained that the rebranding is necessary in this era when technology searches help determine vacation destinations.
She showed the council that ‘visit’ is a commonly used term, whereas ‘real’ ‘true’ and ‘real true’ didn’t pull up any results about Gallup or any other city.
She did note, however, that when she Googled “Gallup,” five local restaurants popped up.
She said that the rebranding is an effort to bring people to the city and improve the economy. She also expressed optimism that the website and the new logo would help with both of those efforts.
“I saw first-hand as the CARES grant manager and [in] meeting with businesses and talking with them over the last year, how tough not just the financial impact and the employment impact of this pandemic has been, but how tough it is for them to get information about their businesses out to the public,” she said.
Councilor Michael Schaaf, Dist. 2, asked Lazarz how much the new logo was going to cost. She said the city has already spent $20,000 on the project, but that there won’t be any other additional costs. She did mention the fact that billboards would be a future expense, but she noted that billboards have to be replaced every 18 months anyway.
Councilor Linda Garcia, Dist. 1, expressed her dislike of the colors in the logo. She said she would like to see more turquoise included. She suggested putting ‘Gallup’ in a turquoise font.
Lazarz asked the council to vote on the size and shape of the logo alone, so she could bring it to her web designer to make sure it would work for the website.
The council unanimously agreed on the shape and size of the new logo. Lazarz plans to return with alternative color options for consideration at a later date.
NO PARADE THIS YEAR
The Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial will be coming back this year, but event-goers will miss the chance to see the parades that were originally scheduled for Aug. 12 and Aug.14.
Kyle Tom, the President of the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Association was supposed to ask the city council for permission to close the roads that make up the proposed parade route during the July 27 city council meeting, but he spent that time informing the council that the association wouldn’t be able to do the parade due to a lack of sponsors.
“We tried any way possible to seek sponsorships to reach out to the groups to come and then of course to get the street closures,” he said. “But ultimately without as many groups as we normally have, we felt it would be in the best interest to forego the parade this year.”
The Gallup Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial Association events are all live Aug. 7-15 and information can be found at http://gallupceremonial.com/.
The state’s virtual ceremonial events begin Aug. 15 with the Ceremonial Virtual Artisans Market. For more information go to http://www.gallupintertribalceremonial.com.
REFORMING CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
Mayor Louis Bonaguidi brought a proposal to the city council in April to cut down regular meeting times by introducing work sessions. The original proposal suggested the work sessions be held on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, when the council isn’t having its regular meetings.
Bonaguidi has stated in the past that the special meetings would be for matters that may be of less interest to the public. The council discussed the mayor’s proposal in depth at the July 27 meeting.
While the proposal was being discussed, Bonaguidi changed his opinion from his original plan to one that would call for one work session a month. He suggested that meeting be held on a Thursday before a regularly scheduled meeting.
The resolution concerning the meetings listed four possible proposals. One version included Bonaguidi’s original suggestion. The second version suggested having only one work session a month. The third version stated that work sessions could be scheduled on an as-needed-basis.
Something that was discussed at the earlier meeting was the possibility that the city staff would have to provide the upcoming meeting agendas earlier than they do now, in the case of twice-a-month special meetings The agendas are currently made available to the public the Friday before an upcoming city council meeting.
Councilor Fran Palochak, Dist. 4, expressed her concerns about having work sessions twice a month. She explained that on the Tuesdays they don’t have council meetings, she schedules appointments that are usually out of town. That would mean she would probably have to attend work sessions by phone or video.
She also talked about the amount of work city staff would be saddled with if the number of meetings doubled.
“I don’t see the value in it,” Palochak said. “What I’m seeing is a lot of work for the staff.
“You’re working them to death to get a work session that makes your life a little easier because you’re going to get out of here a half an hour early,” she concluded.
City Manager Maryann Ustick told the council that she and City Clerk Alfred Abeita usually have rough drafts of the meeting agendas completed a month in advance.
She offered to send the agendas to council members at the beginning of each month, so councilors could notify the city about which topics they would like addressed in a work session.
The council unanimously decided to go with the third proposal: having work sessions scheduled on an as-needed basis.
By Molly Adamson
Sun Correspondent
