Mounds View continues discussing new tagline
Kate Garlock
Bulletin staff
It's back to the drawing board for the city of Mounds View as it continues its re-branding process.
Last week, the City Council was presented with a tagline to replace the current tagline, "Pride, progress, partnerships."
Instead of ratifying "See for yourself" as the new tagline, the city decided the issue warranted further discussion at a future work session.
The new tagline was decided at the Oct. 12 Economic Development Authority (EDA) meeting. Since the meeting, the tagline had been published and feedback from Mounds View residents was "less than positive," said Community Development Director Ken Roberts.
"It's really important that it [the tagline] really reflect something about Mounds View and something unique about Mounds View," Roberts said.
He said it was important to keep the branding process moving forward, however he didn't want to rush the council into a decision.
Risdall, the marketing group spearheading Mounds View's re-branding process, presented the council 35 tagline ideas. The city also solicited ideas from the community and received a total of 82 suggestions. Of the total 117 submitted suggestions, the EDA chose "See for yourself" as the tagline they felt best represented the city.
The chosen tagline was submitted by Council Member Al Hull.
The "less than positive" reviews of the new tagline were sent to city staff by e-mail, in letters, and one resident addressed the council on the matter.
Valerie Amundson, a resident of Mounds View, spoke about her feelings regarding the proposed tagline.
Amundson said the tagline should reflect the city's promise, which is, "The city of Mounds View is an active community with a small town feel committed to being family friendly, safe and fun, with planned and managed growth and development overseen by an open government that is responsive and fiscally responsible."
"The tagline should be unique, it should emphasize a compelling benefit and it should say something about our city and it should differentiate us from our neighbor cities," Amundson said.
She said she didn't believe there was something to see in Mounds View. Amundson listed items to see including the Medtronic building, Winsong 10 Theater and "a lake that's seen better days."
"I love this city," Amundson said. "and it has countless benefits. But being scenic and terribly beautiful with lots to, quote, see, isn't one of them ... My opinion is that this tagline is not the very best we can do and it doesn't, in my opinion, fit the city."
She referred again to the goal of the city to create a brand that could be marketed to encourage growth - both residentially and commercially.
Amundson listed several traits she felt positively reflected the city, including the school system, the level of involvement of city residents and housing prices.
Amundson also solicited responses from other residents, none of whom reviewed the new tagline positively.
She asked the council reconsider the tagline and said she would rather not have a city tagline than settle on one that, she felt, wasn't right for the city.
Council Member Sherry Gunn noted that by adding a phrase like "A special kind of town" before "See for yourself" the city could qualify the phrase see for yourself. She also mentioned, as a possibility, "A gem of a place, come see for yourself."
She said she thought the issue needed to be discussed further and recommended tabling the item and addressing at a work session.
Council Member Carol Mueller recommended using the tagline to note a feature that distinguishes Mounds View from other communities, for example The Mermaid Event Center.
"My mom liked it," Hull said sheepishly to general laughter. Mayor Joe Flaherty liked it as well.
Flaherty said it was something short that people would remember and he wanted to play on the word "View" with the word "See."
He said it was important to have a tagline people would remember and that it was important to give the issue the attention it needed.
"I'm not in any hurry to make this happen today," Flaherty said.
Hull said he thought the issue was being taken too literally. He said it should be viewed as completing a sentence, he gave as an example, "We have one of the best school districts in the state, see for yourself."
Council Member Roger Stigney suggested disseminating the potential logos to the community members and providing them with the opportunity to provide feedback. Rogers noted that there was a polling function on the web site that could be set up to accomplish that goal.
Flaherty tabled the issue until the work session on Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. in the City Council chambers at City Hall.
Kate Garlock can be reached at kgarlock@lillienews.com or 651-633-2777.
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