GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s city council has decided to wait before voting on whether to spend $101,000 on a rebranding initiative.
The plan is to spend the next two months trying to find private money to help with the effort and taking it up again as part of the city budget process.
Getting more talent to move to Green Bay has been the main selling point as the city considers the investment in rebranding.
“I was quite surprised. It completely changed my opinion of rebranding,” said Mark Berglund, a Green Bay resident, when talking about a 20-minute presentation North Star Place Branding & Marketing provided to the city’s finance committee last week.
North Star Place Branding & Marketing’s president virtually attended Tuesday’s council meeting but didn’t speak. However, people like Berglund rehashed major parts of the sales pitch to the finance committee while giving their own opinion.
“Going into it, everybody thinks it’s a flag, some stickers, some logos, things like that — but after looking at the presentation, I realized it’s a lot more than that,” said Berglund. “Even though I think it’s a good idea and I think it needs to be explored, my opinion is it’s the wrong time to do it.”
The vote on buying the rebranding efforts comes as city property owners were just mailed assessment notices.
“I got calls saying, ‘What is keeping me here anymore? I’m ready to leave, my taxes keep going up, I don’t see my services improving,’” said Jen Grant, an alderperson, who said the city should be doing more to keep existing residents in the city. “So, I’m worried with this we don’t have a measurable outcome.”
City officials say while their new property values could be alarming, it does not necessarily mean they will be paying more in property taxes.
“I think if we get a thousand people to move here or 2,000, that is going to lower taxes,” said Jim Hutchison, a Green Bay alderperson.
Council vice president Brian Johnson pitched the idea of trying to get outside help with the funding of the rebrand.
“Make no mistake, if you talk to employers, there is a talent crisis in our community, just as there is every other place,” said Johnson, who said he is currently working to keep a company in the city that is struggling to find talent.
Half the council said they’d rather put an end to rebrand talks now.
“The country is in the middle of a recession right now and we have a lot of projects we constantly talk about here that we’re not getting done,” said Alderperson Chris Wery.
Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich broke a 6-6 tie, choosing to put the rebrand vote on hold.
