Branding Abilene--at what price?

This article appeared in the Abilene Reporter News during the last week in July:
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By Sidney Levesque
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

A Nashville, Tenn., branding firm may be developing a new logo and motto to market Abilene -- if city leaders come up with the money to pay for it.

The Abilene Branding Partnership, which includes the city and the Abilene Chamber of Commerce, wants to hire North Star Destination Strategies to develop a marketing campaign to replace the present "Friendly Frontier" label. The two have negotiated a fee in the "low six figure" range, said George Nichols, partnership chairman.

He declined to name the exact figure because a contract has not yet been signed. He said the money to pay for North Star's services needs to be lined up first.

All five entities -- all supported at least in part by tax dollars -- that are part of the partnership have pledged money. Nichols hopes to have the funding resolved in the next three weeks.

"It looks very promising," he said.
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The Abilene City Council continues to tell Abilene citizens that it needs to raise our taxes. On this blog, I continue to tell my readers that our city coffers have PLENTY of money flowing into them, even surpluses at times; we are just mis-spending what we're raising. And we cannot continue to spend money in foolish ways.

A few months ago, our city manager--whose salary approaches 200K--hired an outside consulting firm (at around 50K) to come mitigate the argument between the fire chief and his squad, who were bickering and losing focus. What a waste. Surely acting as a liason between city employees can fall into the city manager's job decription--can't it? Why did we spend that money, which could have gone toward real needs, for this reason?

And now, despite all the creativity in our city, our council seeks to hire an outside agency--at great expense, in my opinion--to come to town, stay awhile, interview people, and leave us with a marketable slogan.

Please investigate--find out which council members voted for this expenditure--then vote out these liberal, money-pilfering people when elections come around.

City Link woes

Abilene City Link is in trouble. It is not able to operate in the black because its revenues are insufficient. Thus, the city leaders of Abilene are considering raising taxes.

This is another illustration of why our city leaders need to be replaced. They spend the citizens’ money improperly and wantonly, rather than prudently. Three years ago, they decided that taxpayers should subsidize the zoo to keep it from tanking because it was in the red and in trouble. So now that City Link is in trouble, rather than forcing it to raise fares, seek outside funding from grants or the private sector, or cease operation, they are considering making me—and you and all—subsidize it (even more than we already to).

Abilene city leaders need to realize that we are not big enough as a town to support the same services that Ft. Worth, or Little Rock, or Atlanta, or Louisville, or other big city supports. We are a small, rural city. Simply stated, we don’t have enough demand for a zoo or a transit service such that we need to continue forcing our citizens to pay for them. If we did, then ticket sales and fares could pay keep them afloat. Why do you enact legislation upon the public that is improper and unworthy of public funds?

If there are citizens who want to keep City Link in operation, then I make the same charge I made for those who wanted to keep the zoo open: form a private collective, solicit donations, and appeal to the private sector. Don’t force me to pay for city goods and services I do not believe in.

Sharpton flies racism flag

Right now in Georgia, there is a legal law dispute about whether to retroactively apply a change in laws to an earlier case. Years ago, a minor had consensual sex with another minor and drew a felony charge--today, it's only a misdemeanor. While judges and justices ponder what to do, Al Sharpton had this to say:

"If he had a different complexion, and a different connection, we'd be having a welcome-home party. But since he didn't have anybody in the Oval Office to deal with excessive sentencing for him, he got hundreds in the streets that will speak on his behalf."

So, Sharpton argues, it's not about setting sticky precedent, weighing evidence, or considering the effect on society--the things we elect and appoint justice officials to do--it's about the prisoner's being black.

Well, at least his saying it is keeps Sharpton in the spotlight.