Alborn: Prince William Should’ve Tapped Local Talent for Logo

OPINION 

I’m assuming anyone who reads Potomac Local News has seen something about the ongoing story involving Prince William County’s new logo.

I don’t particularly like the proposed design; however, I also don’t expect staff to react to what a few people don’t like. There are, perhaps, a couple of larger issues in play.

There were a lot of reasonable questions surrounding the selection and implementation of the logo. A few simple and fast answers would have put the whole thing to rest.

Instead, it was left to local reporters bloggers to dig for the details. Drip… drip… drip.

Thanks to a story published on this website on Friday, now we know it was an outgoing staffer at the Prince William Office of Economic Development who tapped their former employer, Michigan-based David Castlegrant & Associates, to create a new logo for Prince William County that will be used to better brand the jurisdiction with businesses, residents, and visitors.

I’m sure that David Castlegrant & Associates is a fine company; however, they have no presence in Prince William County, or Virginia, or the East Coast for that matter.

Prince William County has rules in their purchasing and procurement guidelines that prevent the local government from only doing business with locally-based firms, county spokesman Jason Grant told Potomac Local News.

But clearly, they could’ve asked.

Creating the logo for Prince William County should be a point of pride for any local business. Losing the opportunity to help a local business by giving them the recognition for producing something this fundamental to our identity just doesn’t make sense.

Perhaps Prince William County needs to review its purchasing policies and develop its own economic development slogan – “Consider Prince William County businesses first!”

I certainly hope the Prince William Chamber of Commerce, which is made up mostly of small, local businesses, perhaps decides to weigh in on this issue.

How can we market ourselves to companies as a good place to do business when our local Government doesn’t even do business here for something this important… this symbolic… this fundamental to Prince William County’s brand and identity?

This isn’t about the logo. It’s about public trust in our local government. The handling of creating and rolling out this new logo raises a number of disturbing questions discussed at great length in the local blogs.

The nature of government is changing because of these local blogs. Love them or hate them, they often ask a lot of very good questions, and keep issues that deserve scrutiny by the public alive past the twenty-four hour news cycle that politicians and bureaucrats depend on.

They also are beholding to no one for access, advertising, or editorial oversight.

I cringe when they insult people I’m rather fond of, and do my own fact checking. That being said, I recognize the value of fully independent news sources that keep digging on issues that would have simply went unnoticed ten or twenty years ago.

This whole logo thing was handled “off the books” (not in the budget, approved by the Board, or subjected to public input, comment, or a hearing). It would appear to a reasonable person that the decision to ship the work out of state, ignoring local businesses, was based on a personal relationship.

If you are a Prince William County business that designs logos, you might object to that.

When I look at just how badly, in my opinion, Prince William County handled the logo issue, I can only wonder just how much of its business is conducted in a similar manner.

The logo issue is a symptom. The decisions made, the processes used, and its ability to respond to public inquiry and input is the problem for this local government. Our Chairman and Board of County Supervisors need to fix this problem. They need to address the logo issue if, for no other reason, to demonstrate that they actually do run Prince William County.

Supervisor John Jenkins has taken the lead on this issue from the beginning. I don’t always agree with Jenkins on public policy, however, I always admire that he comes from an honorable place. I also respect that he has muster when it comes to facing down his fellow Supervisors and Prince William County staff regarding issues in which he has a strong opinion.

Jenkins said the roll-out of this proposed logo by county staff deserves closer inspection and that staff needs to discontinue action and expenditure of funds spent on the logo. Many of these issues will be talked about at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. I agree with Jenkins.

I like our county staff. They work hard to do the right thing for residents. I know their behavior reflects a culture of county management. But, I didn’t vote for any of them.