City considers value of branding

City officials are looking at a brand new way to raise funds for families displaced by the June 1, 2005 landslide.

The City Council on Tuesday appointed a sub-committee to study Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider’s proposal to put the city’s logo on T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts and jackets to be sold on television as a fund-raiser. She called it “branding.”

“I believe the city should authorize the use of the city emblem to place on merchandise which would raise money for the victims of the Bluebird Canyon landside,” Pearson-Schneider said.

Using the city’s logo for commercial purposes requires council approval. The use would not violate the legal ban on gifts of public funds for private use as long as a public benefit can be identified, even if it is an incidental private benefit, according to City Attorney Philip Kohn. However, it would reverse a long-standing city policy.

“I have long been in favor of doing something like this, but we have turned down everyone else,” Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said. “And we just raised the sales tax because we didn’t have the money to do things. Now, we say, ‘Oops, we did have a way to raise a half million dollars’?”

The value of the logo is unknown and may be inflated currently due to an MTV show featuring Laguna Beach, Kinsman opined.

Pearson-Schneider said that the allocation of the proceeds would be recommended by the Adopt-A-Family Committee, of which the mayor and Kinsman are the city’s representatives, and subject to council approval.

“The committee could request that MTV put a link on its website to help market [items] to raise money for the landslide victims,” Pearson-Schneider said. “Also, a link can be registered on search engines as the official logo of Laguna Beach.”

Mayor Pro Tem Steven Dicterow volunteered to serve on the sub-committee with Pearson-Schneider.