The "People's Flag" has not yet been adopted.
Will Milwaukee adopt a new city flag soon? That’s the question on the minds of many across the city. The question will definitely not be answered before the end of the year, as the Milwaukee Arts Board decided Tuesday to tell the Common Council that a request-for-proposals should be issued for a consultant to lead the search for a new flag.
“I personally like the [People’s Flag] a lot, but I want to respect what the Common Council asked the Arts Board to do, and we’re going to come back with a recommendation and we’ll go from there,” said board chair Alderman Michael Murphy.
Ald. Murphy is referring to the council’s Steering and Rules Committee, which decided that the process that the People’s Flag of Milwaukee group took regarding the creation of a new city flag was not inclusive enough at a meeting in July. The committee tasked the Milwaukee Arts Board with figuring out what to do regarding the flag and reporting their decision back to the council before Monday, Dec. 31.
The Arts Board City Flag subcommittee began to meet months ago to discuss the issue, deciding on three possible options which they presented to the Arts Board Tuesday. Those options included a general call for entries, a request-for-proposals process or for the process to be handled by city staff. The Arts Board unanimously decided on the request-for-proposals option, adding that they would like to see more community engagement done regarding the process.
|
|
“You can specify the scope of work, and stipulate that it must include a process by which the community has been invited to comment… or there are listening sessions,” said Arts Board member Emilia Layden, regarding the request-for-proposals process.
It was agreed upon that town hall-style meetings should be held across the city to gain the community’s feedback. This is something that some board members said suffered with the People’s Flag of Milwaukee process—even though the group did perform community outreach events.
The People’s Flag of Milwaukee is the result of a 2016 design contest organized by Steve Kodis to create a new city flag that included more than 1,000 entries. Robert Lenz’s Sunrise over the Lake design was selected as the winner after receiving more than 6,000 votes online. However, many aldermen said they heard from their local constituents that they weren’t involved in the new flag process.
“I think we need to put some flesh on the bones and tell the council if we want to do this right and get a really great new flag that everyone can truly be fine with, we’re going to need to hire a professional to do it right, and not necessarily to design it, but to create a process,” said Ald. Nik Kovac, who is also a member of the Arts Board.
But don't count the People’s Flag out yet. Ald. Murphy said that the Arts Board is neither endorsing nor saying no to the Sunrise over the Lake design. He simply stated during the meeting that the process was not inclusive enough for the city to adopt yet.
