Cedar Park City Council Votes To Replace Newly Selected Municipal Flag

CEDAR PARK, TX — Oh say, does that four-X-bangled banner yet wave over Cedar Park? Not for long.

City Council members unanimously voted Thursday night to consider a new design to replace the recently unveiled Cedar Park flag after several residents expressed their dislike of it on social media. Council members now plan to take a public vote on a redesigned flag after other residents complained the selection process in choosing a new flag wasn't inclusive of the public.

In a final indignity for the new flag, it's now set to be taken down from city facilities where it's been flying, either at the twilight's last gleaming or the dawn's early light (actually, the time of its removal wasn't discussed).

The action comes after a groundswell of opposition emerged about the new Cedar Park flag unveiled last month to great fanfare during the city's holiday tree lighting ceremony just before Christmas. People weren't crazy about the banner's interesting design that featured four prominent Xs in the foreground to simultaneously convey the four names the city has been named throughout its history and representing barbed wire.

It's more difficult to describe the flag than it is to show it:

Arguably the most vocal resident expressing disapproval of the flag—less for its design than for the selection process that selected it among some 250 submissions from the public—is Joe Pollard, who joined a lively discussion among residents on a neighborhood Facebook page.

After securing a meeting with Mayor Matt Powell, the stage was set for the council action on Thursday. Pollard was in attendance at the council meeting, along with other Cedar Park residents eschewing the new flag.

Before residents were given a chance to air their comments on the new flag, Powell reiterated the effort to come up with a flag was undertaken with the best of intentions.

"The idea was done with nothing but positivity to have another great identifier for Cedar Park," Powell said. "Both the idea of doing a flag and the process were done with the best of intentions."

Powell referenced the backlash, attributing it to a "perfect storm" of dynamics: The long five-week holiday break that made council members unavailable and past violations of open meetings guidelines by council members' predecessors on the dais before the current makeup.

"I think several things went into this rancor," Powell said, referring to the tsunami of criticism heaped on City Hall over the flag and process in picking it as the official city banner. "Let's do a flag, he said! It'll be fun!" Powell added in a bit of self-deprecation, describing his enthusiasm in initially coming up with the idea of a flag to complement the city's unofficial logo featuring an illustration of a leaf but never anticipating the backlash.

The mayor acknowledged city officials could have made the process more accessible to public input, even though updates and finalist submissions were shared along the way.

"We missed a step," Powell said. "In the past, we've shared different concepts and designs for feedback. We didn't do that here; it just didn't come up. We missed it and I missed it."

Still, he gently chastised some critics, urging those disagreeing with the flag selection to choose a civil tone: "Things got a little out of hand in terms of rhetoric," Powell said. "Our Cedar Park way has always been to agreeably disagree. I'd like to see us return to this, on this and other issues."

Council member Lyle Grimes also acknowledged the city could've been more inclusive in the process. In retrospect, he said, the vote on a flag could have been delayed until more public input was secured, he added.

"The saying is hindsight is 20/20," Grimes said. "We're human beings, we all make mistakes. It could have been tabled that evening until we got more public input, but we didn't."

But he echoed Powell's sentiments in calling for a re-do: "We can build a flag together as one city."

After such comments from the dais, several residents addressed the dais, touting the decision to reboot the process. Several residents voiced support for design elements to a re-booted flag that evoked the history of the city with images rather than symbols like the four Xs. Some pointed to the city logo representing a single leaf as a template for a new flag.

It might not be as simple as all that, though. Earlier, Powell pointed to a TED talk from which he got his original inspiration for a new flag that outlines specific, multi-step guidelines outlining city flag designs. In the end, Powell made the motion to restart the process, with guidance from the Cedar Park Parks, Arts, and Community Enrichment (PACE) advisory board and help winnowing down the number of designs.

In other words, it might be some time before a new flag will wave o'er the land of Cedar Park.

To view the full council discussion, see below:

>>> Photo showing unveiling of city flag courtesy of City of Cedar Park