Source: City of Richardson.
I've already covered the Richardson City Council's deliberation on applying for grants from CDBG and creating a UDC ("Council Recap: CDBG and UDC Spell PROGRESS").
The agenda also had an item for how to honor individuals or organizations. There were two parts. The first is awarding a "Key to the City." The second is namiing a City asset like a building after a person. At the time, I said I'd cover these when a final draft policy came back before council in a week or two for approval. But I don't expect the final policy to differ much from the draft policy we saw. The design of the "Key to the City", on the other hand,...
Policies for "Key to the City"
According to the draft policy, awarding a Key should be rare. A Key should be awarded in recognition of exceptional service to the city and not for ideological, political, or religious beliefs.
Council Member Jennifer Justice wanted the policy to clearly recognize that "naming ball fields or somethihg after somebody" is a higher honor than awarding a Key. No one objected. In presentations, we should avoid calling the Key the City's highest honor.
According to the draft policy, a nomination for an award should be submitted to the City Council by the Mayor or any member of the City Council. Council member Arefin asked to raise the bar. There was a consensus of support for requiring three council members to nominate someone and a supermajority of 6-1 to approve an award.
Legal advice is that none of the deliberations regarding awarding Keys or naming assets can be done in executive session. To that, I say, give that lawyer a Key.
The Council agreed to control cost by setting a to-be-determined maximum number of Keys that could be awarded in any given year and awarding Keys at otherwise scheduled events and not create a new event dedicated soley for this function.
There was way too much discussion about the design of the Key itself, and in my opinion, too much confusion about the symbolism in the sample designs. All I want to say is that whoever designed the Key should listen to this discussion and try again to find design elements that clearly represent Richardson. It's not an easy assignment. City Manager Don Magner offered to come back with two to three additional options.
Naming Assets
The second part of the agenda item was the policy for naming things like buildings or streets and bridges. Midway through the deliberation, City Manager Don Magner said naming "anything within a park would not be subject to this [new policy], because there's a policy that's set aside for that."
The draft policy was similar to the draft policy for awarding a "Key to the City" with one notable difference: "Posthumous recognition preferred (or after significant tenure)". This seems wise to me. Give Keys to the living. But name permanent assets for the dead after there's no chance of future bad behavior making us regret the name we chiseled onto a public building. Justice wanted to leave the policy open.
According to the draft policy, removing names should be rare and go through the same approval process. Council member Curtis Dorian was against changing the names of "our significant named buildings and/or streets...It takes away the history of how the city was designed and developed." In my own unsolicited opinion, removing names should be easier, not harder. Perhaps it should be at least considered after a predetermined amount of time. Such an automatic policy would make it that much easier to eliminate names of, say, dead Confederate generals on our buildings and streets.
The Council didn't discuss this, but I think we should also consider selling naming rights to assets. The City of Arlington owns AT&T Stadium. The City of Dallas owns the American Airlines Center. The City of Frisco owns Toyota Stadium, Ford Center at The Star, and Riders Field (formerly Dr Pepper Ballpark). Slapping names on buildings in exchange for money helps pay the bills, and the contracts set an expiration date on outdated names.
Council member Barrios suggested we limit the number of assets we name after any one person. Mayor Omar suggested leaving that to future councils. Justice said the draft policy already says, "Avoid duplication." So I don't expect to see any formal caps on honors. With that, Mayor Omar brought the deliberation to a merciful end.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
"Key to the City
opens no city hall doors.
Still, the Key glistens."
—h/t ChatGPT
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