Visalia City Council votes on updated logo earlier than expected

The City of Visalia has decided on another new logo.

It's submission number 59 out of 87. The new look is designed by a local artist.

The change comes after a controversial rebranding process that included updating this longtime logo.

A simpler design was released back in May but received significant criticism.

Some residents felt it did not represent the city's rich history, and others felt more should have been done to gather input.

"We thought we put the information out there but obviously didn't reach as many people as we thought and that is on us and so we apologize for that," said Visalia Mayor Brian Poochigian.

The backlash prompted Mayor Poochigian and the council to each select someone to participate in a committee to spearhead the new logo selection.

The committee of five includes local business owners, a teacher, and hospitality experts.

They began holding meetings to review new logos submitted by the community and narrowed down the options.

"This whole situation has portrayed how much people care about our city, how passionate they are about the logo they have here, that means they care about where they live, and I'm happy about that," explained Mayor Poochigian.

The original plan was to keep public comment open until July 26th, before a council vote on August 5th.

However, the city decided last Friday to accelerate the process and close public comment at 3 pm on July 15th with a council vote that evening.

One local resident, who is also running for council, did not agree with the decisions.

But the city says at least one of the committee members was being 'attacked' online and the city did not want to put anyone's safety at risk.

Local leaders also felt they had a good amount of feedback from multiple public sessions.

Efrain Becerra, a Visalia resident, has been to every recent meeting and encourages residents to show up to meetings to let their voices be heard.

Although, he is a fan of the original legacy logo, Efrain mentions that 'modernization is good as long as you don't lose your identity as a city, meaning we have historical roots to 1882 when the city was founded and agriculture.'

The city has decided to honor the old logo as a "legacy logo."

It will also pay the artist of the new logo up to $1,500.

That's in addition to the $150,000 price tag for the original rebranding, which included a total of 1,500 tangible pieces, including a recruitment and hiring portfolio to attract more employers and employees to the city.

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