Disenchantment Grows In Cedar Park Over New City Flag Design, Selection Process

CEDAR PARK, TX — There's something of a mutiny brewing in Cedar Park, with the uproar centered on the city's new official flag unveiled last month.

Some think the new flag is ugly. But still more are upset that residents weren't able to weigh on their preference from a field of 250 submissions the city received for the official banner.

"It's terrible," Cedar Park resident Joe Pollard said when asked what he thought of the flag. "It's terrible," he repeated during a telephone interview with Patch.

A San Antonio native who moved to Cedar Park in 2012, Pollard and his wife were lured to the city as an ideal place to raise their three children, all under the age of four. Pollard, who works in the pharmaceutical research industry, made clear how much he loves living in Cedar Park, as much for its quality-of-life amenities as for its growth and job opportunities.

It's the selection process that yielded the new flag with which he takes issue. Instead of letting residents decide among the best of the entries, a subcommittee was formed comprising Mayor Matt Powell and two council members who he said chose the winning entry, Pollard noted.

The flag was unveiled to much fanfare in December, during the city's official holiday tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 9. The entry submitted by Cedar Park resident Catherine Van Arnam ultimately was selected to serve as the basis for the new flag.

As for the actual design, it consists of a blue rectangle, another green rectangle and a white line with four Xs running across it. Those Xs have a dual representation, a reference to the four names the city has had throughout its history but also reminiscent of the barbed wire that is a nod to one of Cedar Park's first industry's, the chopping of trees to make cedar fence posts for barbed wire.

The blue rectangular, meanwhile, represents the bucolic creeks running through the city, welcoming early settlers who found a land in which they were able to thrive, city officials said at the time of the unveiling.

Here's what it looks like:

The unveiling during the Cedar Park holiday lighting event was videotaped for those unable to attend, as Patch reported then. That footage, in retrospect, has become something of a Zapruder film of focus, reenactment and introspection. While Patch merely embedded the video as a visual accompaniment to a previous report oh the flag unveiling, Pollard noted that if one studies the reaction of the crowd, it's clear disappointment over the new flag's design is evident.

Full disclosure: Pollard volunteered that he was among those who submitted a design that was ultimately not considered. But he assures that his issue is not with the ultimate pick but with the process.

"It's not so much the design but the fact that this was the first time the public hasn't been invited to vote," he said. "It seems like this was the mayor's pet project. We almost feel cheated because we didn't have a public vote on this issue."

Pollard is now leading the charge in asking for a re-do, his calls being echoed on a community Facebook page where roughly 90 percent of those commenting on a growing thread oppose the new flag. Up to 30 people have said they'll attend the next Cedar Park City Council meeting to voice their displeasure, Pollard added.

But Pollard isn't optimistic the process might be re-done given that the new design already has been reproduced by the city to make smaller, personal flags and emblazoned on T-shirts.

Reached at her office late Tuesday afternoon, Cedar Park spokeswoman Jennie Huerta disagreed with the notion that the public wasn't engaged in the process. The idea for a flag was first publicly discussed in February, followed up by a formal call for residents to submit their entries in April, she said.

On May 26, a sampling of submissions was displayed at a regular city council meeting, followed by the formation of a subcommittee on June 6 and then a presentation and approval of two top designs by Sept. 22, leading up to council approval of the current design in October before the December public unveiling, Huerta said.

"The effort was born from the best of intentions," the spokeswoman said. "It was a very well-publicized process." She noted modifications were made to the chosen submission in September toward the eventual selection of the current design.

The members of the subcommittee selecting the new flag were Powell, mayor pro tem and Place 3 Council Member Lyle Grimes and Place 2 Council Member Corbin Van Arsdale. The latter member wasn't able to attend one meeting in September, but was otherwise fully engaged in the process, Huerta noted.

Asked if the growing chorus of discontent might lead to a re-do of the process, Huerta would only say: "We've received a variety of feedback, and are taking all feedback into consideration."

Those voicing their displeasure on Facebook were less diplomatic.

"Looks absolutely horrible," Christine Huelskamp wrote succinctly.

Another resident commented he thought the four imposing Xs on the flag's foreground were meant as placeholders for some future design elements: "When I was handed a flag on a stick I looked at it and asked what it was. The man said I guess it is the new flag. I was thinking the X's where in place of real symbols to be unveiled, like the fields in the early Internet forms."

Carlos Rumbaut referenced the same element, choosing humor to deal with his own misgivings over the new flag aesthetics: "I don't always design flags," the resident wrote while emulating the world's most interesting man. "But when I do, it's Dos Dos Equis."

>>> Photos, flag image provided by City of Cedar Park; photo above, flag unveiling during holiday tree lighting ceremony Dec. 9.