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 The item on the agenda was listed as “Approval of branding
proposal of DCC Marketing in the amount of $17,255" had been tabled
since April 6th. When the council got to the item, Kathy Horn made a
motion to keep it tabled with Jonie Tibbs offering the second. Todd
Mourning immediately countered with a motion to take it off the
table. However, that was not a valid motion, as city administrator
Clay Johnson noted there cannot be two motions on the floor at one
time. Mourning's motion was consequently ignored.
When an item is tabled there can be no further discussion until it
is put back on the floor. Therefore, the vote was taken immediately.
Aldermen Horn, Marty Neitzel, Steve Parrott, and Tibbs voted in
favor of leaving the item on the table. Aldermen Michelle Bauer,
Scott Cooper, Mourning, and Jeff Hoinacki voted against leaving it
on the table.
With a four-four split and no Mayor to break the tie, Neitzel asked
Johnson what should be done. Should they entertain a second motion?
Johnson said that any motion entertained would have the same result,
so the item is technically dead, but still listed as tabled on the
agenda where it will stay until someone changes their opinion, or a
mayor is appointed to the Council.
 The Council is expected to appoint a mayor from the sitting aldermen
in the near future. When that is done, the council numbers will
temporarily shrink to seven. If a vote is taken then, there will be
a clear majority, and ultimately the new mayor will influence the
decision because he or she is no longer able to vote as an alderman.
If the item should remain tabled on the agenda until a new council
member is appointed, then the vote could end in a tie again, at
which time, the sitting mayor would offer the tie-breaking vote.
The thought of hiring DCC for a marketing plan was first introduced
to the Council by Andi Hake of the Logan County Alliance. At that
time, the LCA was offering to spearhead the project with DCC and
create a clear marketing program for Lincoln.
The Council balked on a couple of things. First, it was questioned
that with a Strategic Plan being created and the use of Retail
Strategies as the firm marketing the city to prospective new
businesses, was a third project needed? Former Mayor Keith Snyder
along with Hake at that time explained that the work of DCC would be
separate from the other two, and also would develop a program that
could be an asset to Retail Strategies in marketing the city to new
business.
Secondly, the LCA was seeking out approximately $30,000 to spearhead
the project, which did include paying DCC for their work. The
council questioned whether or not they wanted the LCA to take the
lead on this project, and ultimately decided that if there were to
be a marketing firm hired, the city would do so itself without the
assistance of the LCA. The LCA had recommended DCC because that
firm had completed a marketing plan for the Logan County Tourism
Bureau. Their work with the Bureau included a new logo and tagline,
a new website, and a marketing playbook. Hake told the council that
working with a firm that was already familiar with Lincoln and Logan
County would be to the city’s advantage in the long run.
On March 24th, Kathryn and Kelly Smith of DCC Marketing delivered a
presentation to the council and offered to create a marketing plan
and a brand for the city for the cost of $17,255. The item was
placed on the agenda to approve the hiring of the firm.
 At the
April 6th voting session, the council was scheduled to vote on a
motion but changed their minds after hearing from Lincoln resident
Tracy Welch.
Welch voiced several concerns about the performance of DCC Marketing
when working for the Tourism Bureau. He noted that the new website
designed was not fully functional. He noted that links to local
attractions did not work, and spoke specifically about the
Railsplitter Covered Wagon and the Postville Courthouse.
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Welch said the Tourism Bureau had replaced a perfectly good website, Explore
Logan County, created by a local person, David Doolin, with one that did not
represent local tourism to the fullest.
[Technically the website designed by Doolin was not the official website of the
Tourism Bureau though the two, Explore Logan County and abe66.com, were linked
together.]
Welch concluded that the lack of maintenance of the new website was an
indication of the quality of work DCC Marketing did for the Bureau. He asked the
council to take a step back and take another look at other options if they were
going to hire a marketing firm.
That night, with all eight members of the council present the aldermen voted to
table the motion to hire DCC Marketing.
On Tuesday, April 14th, Andi Hake, with the LCA appeared before the council to
offer a report on that entity. At the end of her presentation she also spoke
briefly about what is going on at the Tourism Bureau. She said that DCC
Marketing had designed the new website but had never been responsible for the
content or maintaining the website.
The Bureau had once again been in transition as it was without a director. The
previous director, Sarah Wallick had begun the work on the website, but now it
was the newly hired director Maggie McMurtrey who would be maintaining the
content. She noted that some of the issues Welch had addressed involved links to
other sites and that those entities had changed their websites without letting
the Bureau know. Therefore, the links had to be updated. She also said that even
though only eight days into her new role with the Bureau, McMurtrey had worked
to address all the issues with the website.
This week after the call to order and roll call of the council, Marty Neitzel
said she had something to share before the aldermen heard public participation.
She passed out a copy of an invoice and a copy of a flyer for a walking tour of
Lincoln designed by David Doolin. She said she had heard from a concerned
citizen on this topic and was following through by sharing the information with
her fellow aldermen.
She said that she had purchased the flyers with money out of her pocket, not
city funds, and would encourage the aldermen to take a look at the flyer. She
said she wanted to table the vote for DCC Marketing and give David Doolin an
opportunity to come to the council and present his marketing ideas for the city.
At the end of the night, there was no indication given that the city would
invite Doolin to present his marketing plan to the city.
In addition, the future of this project could be at risk. The next opportunity
to vote on this will be May 4th, the first meeting of a new fiscal year. The
dollars for a marketing plan are budgeted for the year that will end April 30th,
but are not currently in the new budget. That money could be moved forward into
the new year at the discretion of the council, but it would mean either using
cash reserves or reducing another line item from the 2015-16 budget draft.
[Nila Smith]
Past Related Articles
City to vote on financial support for Logan
County Alliance
Lincoln constituent asks City Council to
re-evaluate DCC Marketing
Discussions move
from marketing firm to Logan County Alliance and Tourism |
