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The City of Issaquah just announced they are temporarily changing their name to 12saquah in honor of the Seahawks exciting return to the Superbowl. Meanwhile Renton, the proud home of Seahawks headquarters, has been mulling a proposal since November to remove the football from our City’s logo.
Renton’s current logo includes a football celebrating the Seahawks and our sports/recreation history. A staff proposal would remove it.
[updated 2/3] Fortunately, several Renton Council Members have expressed opposition to the idea, as have many members of the public. Councilmember Ed Prince, an avid Seahawks fan whose son plays football sport competitively, was very opposed to the logo change. Councilmembers Perez, Alberson and O’Halloran also expressed concerns about the change. The once seemingly-greased November 17 proposal from Renton’s communication department recommending the change said the next step would be Council action to officially adopt the new version of the logo removing the football (along with the airplane and the salmon). Happily at this point at least four Councilmembers seems uninclined to do so.
The logo proposed by Renton Communication Division in November, and still in review, removes the football (along with the airplane and salmon).
Perhaps Seahawks fever might put an end to the idea of doing away with the football once and for all. Our Seahawks’ triumphant return to the biggest and most-watched event in US sports will certainly help remind the current council why we put the football in our logo in the first place.
And as we near the exciting Superbowl LX, we certainly can’t let our friendly neighbor “12saquah” appear more devoted to the Seahawks than we are in their loving, exuberant hometown of Renton Washington!
The staff presentation (available here) said the next step in revising the logo is formal legislation, which will require Council approval. The presentation is titled CITY LOGO
Formalization & Refresh, Council Update, suggesting Council may already be onboard.
I appreciate your blog and have been following it for the past 20 years. I value the dedication you show in keeping the people of Renton informed. However, in this instance, I was disappointed by what seemed to be a lack of thorough investigation of the facts. I attended the meeting in question and observed that the five council members present were openly opposed to the new logo. The meeting was recorded, and I encourage you to request access to this recording.
It is crucial to rely on verified facts to maintain credibility, and I felt let down because I believe your coverage may have misled the community. What I witnessed were council members who were clearly upset about not being informed in advance, disagreed with the process and the outcome, and strongly disliked the new logo. Additionally, they were told that there is no an existing policy allowing for council action, so they will move without requiring council approval. Because previous council members did not establish a policy regarding logo changes, a new policy has now been requested to ensure council authority over official changes to the logo and city identity.
This discussion occurred two weeks before you reported the change, so it is unfair to suggest that the council reversed course due to your blog, criticism, or public opinion. I know you are capable of more thorough reporting. In today’s environment, where everyone feels like a “journalist” and social media is often rife with misinformation, I have always trusted you to carefully research and present the facts. Please continue your commitment to factual and responsible journalism.
Sincerely,
Disappointed Follower
[Note from Randy: this was a valuable comment, and led to my update which identifies Council Members against the proposal; thank you to this commenter and to the Council Members]
Thank you for your comment Disappointed Follower. I’m grateful for the additional information you’ve provided me, and I’ll probably make an update to one or both of the blog entries on this topic because of your insight.
I would like to point out that I reported accurately and thoroughly on the staff proposals, and never presumed or claimed to know where the Council stood on the proposals.
Council has formally budgeted money for staff and consultants to work on websites and branding, and the proposal that was brought forward looks pretty polished. It also looks to be part of a body of work that Council has funded.
If the Council has truly and definitively chosen to stop working on this new logo, then they should have issued a report to stop the work. The normal and public process would be for the Council President to prepare a brief report saying “Council has decided not to change the logo”. This report would be signed by the Chair of Committee of the Whole (the Council President), and then taken up by Council at the Council Meeting. The Council President would then present the report, Council would vote, and action would be taken to end staff work on the new logo.
This process ensures that future resources are not spent on the logo, and that residents that have seen the staff proposal know the dispensation of the issue. I looked for a Council report on this topic before I wrote my blog entry, and found none.
Since the staff proposal gave a written sequence/calendar of future events towards changing the logo, and the Council has not taken any formal action to stop the work, neither you nor I can say with certainty that it will not happen. It is in fact still being mulled over in Committee, until the Committee formally acts to stop it. Individual Council Members have been known to change their minds.
Again, I am encouraged that you witnessed a majority of Council Members being dissatisfied. That is good news.
When the City Council has a major issue like this coming before them, they would do the public a favor to chose to hold the meeting in the Council Chambers which are set up with good audio and video recording, as well as broadcasting. They held this discussion in a room with a microphone but no video, and I’ve learned from the past that it is often hard to know who is saying what when there is only an audio recording.
I’ll also point out that my article was just one week after the Council discussion, not two, and it could have served as a useful reminder for Council Members that they left the subject open-ended, and did not bring it to resolution.
If they don’t like the idea of changing the logo, then make that statement. Their reluctance to writing such a report gives the impression that they do not want to confront that Mayor and the Staff that presented the proposal. The Council has to find the courage to act decisively, and not be concerned about offending the administration with their decisions. The City would be much stronger with a Council that publically made its position clear more often.
Thank you again for your illuminating comment and the good news contained therein. I have even greater hope that our pretty logo will endure.
I just realized I did not address the logo “policy” question. In prior years we did not need a policy regarding who had the power to make changes to the logo. The state law says cities have the power to “use a corporate seal approved by its legislative body.” Past Renton Councils and Mayors treated the logo similarly to the seal, which makes sense because they both similarly represent the city. If I understand your observations correctly, you’re saying Council feels that they now need to construct a new policy to ensure they have control of the design of the logo. This sounds like the Mayor is making an unreasonable and senseless power grab, and distracting council focus in the process.
Having just read the 2025 city survey results, I did not see a single reference to residents wanting the Council to give priority to creating a new city logo policy.
I think the logo is just fine, and if I were on Council I would say the policy is simply that future Councils will decide if and when the logo should be changed, consistent with the clear intent of state law.
RCW 35A.11.010
Rights, powers, and privileges.
Each city governed under this optional municipal code, whether charter or noncharter, shall be entitled “City of . . . . . .” (naming it), and by such name shall have perpetual succession; may sue and be sued in all courts and proceedings; use a corporate seal approved by its legislative body;
Disappointed Follower thanks for providing additional information on the city logo presentation. Since you attended the Committee of the Whole, can you please indicate which council members were there? You say 5 were there, so 2 council members were absent. No statement has been made since this meeting regarding moving forward with a new logo, so we in the public have only the information provided from that meeting. If you know differently, it would be valuable to hear directly from Council, as I doubt the Administration will say anything since the idea was met with pushback from council members. This isn’t the first time a mayor pushed changing the city logo without input from council until it was presented. Perhaps a new policy is in order to better define all angles of the issue, rather than leave it open for the next push to bypass Council.
Marcie Palmer
Thanks for asking those questions Marcie. I was wondering also when the meeting was held, and wanted to listen to the presentation, so I found it.
Renton Committee of the Whole Mtg 11/17/2025
In attendance (discerned from the audio):
Ruth Pérez, James Alberson, Ed Prince, Ryan McIrvin, Valerie O’Halloran.
Ed Prince was most vocal against the logo change, followed by Ruth Pérez & James Alberson and Valerie O’Halloran. Ryan McIrvin was the only one who vocally stated of being convinced that the new logo was a good change.
Link to the meeting audio:
https://edocs.rentonwa.gov/Documents/Browse.aspx?id=11765580&dbid=0&repo=CityofRenton
Link to the meeting agenda (shows the presentation slides):
https://edocs.rentonwa.gov/Documents/DocView.aspx?id=11766505&dbid=0&repo=CityofRenton
That being said, in my opinion, with all the urgent items going on in the City I just can’t understand why staff is even wasting their time on this right now. If the small icons “can’t be seen on embroidery”, then just don’t use the icons on when you embroider the logo on something. Again, fixing things that don’t need fixing. I have to say, I stand with Ed Prince on this topic.
Thanks Sarah! Good information. I’ll add some of these details to my post. (And thanks again to Disappointed Follower who identified the split Council on this topic)
I find it hard to believe that the city employees can just decide for themselves to change the City of Renton logo.
There has to be someone in upper management who is directing them to do this.
I also find it hard to believe that City Council, who are elected to represent the residents of Renton, don’t have the final say on the official logo that represents both the city and the citizens.
The logo is fine. Why are we wasting money on this.