“When you wish upon a star,
makes no difference who you are ...”
OK. So I didn’t “wish upon a star” or anything nearly so theatrical.
But I did make a suggestion in this space a couple of weeks ago that is coming to fruition, and for whatever reason, that’s a good thing.
Your star-studded Corsicana City Council will be asked Tuesday evening to give their blessings to a review of city operations by the State Comptroller’s office.
“Hooray for Hollywood ... that screwy ballyhooey Hollywood ...”
Whether it be a result of the county doing the same, the call for action by Stephen G. Andrews, or my not-so-subtle suggestion here, I’m happy to see it happening.
Actually got a call from Connie Standridge, sharing her intentions to seek the free service of the comptroller’s office for the review of operations. I’m happy to see (or hear, actually) that as well.
Your city manager also said they hoped to get a handle — finally — on the accounts receivable situation with the ambulance service — another topic of conversation in this space recently. The “tale of the tape” was to have been in her possession around July 1, as I recall from our conversation.
Then, she says, action will follow. Standridge said the city would be submitting the overdue invoices for ambulance service — probably about $760,000 worth as I recall from our conversation — to the collection company the city uses for delinquent water bill accounts.
How that number — $760,000 — came to be is another story for another day, I suppose. But it appears we’re making progress on a couple of fronts, and that beats a kick in the pants and an overdue ambulance bill any day of the week!
One thing we did not agree on — and still don’t — is the “double dipping” scenario I described for people who pay both city property taxes and county property taxes. In effect, those of us who live in the city are actually paying “twice” to subsidize the ambulance service — from the city’s general fund transfer to the department, and from the subsidy the county has been paying the city.
Sorry, but we are still paying twice. There is no other way to look at it.
Then again, we didn’t attend the same college, and maybe Texas A&M; math is different than Long Beach City College math is.
But there we’ll just have to agree to disagree, and move on to, oh, maybe the animal shelter ....
***
Actually, we’ll move on to something entirely different.
Again, I’ll reference a previous column — in fact, last week’s offering on “Selling the Sizzle.”
I received an e-mail from a reader who was not in agreement with the $80,000 price tag for the marketing team to create and execute a new “brand” for the city — a theme that can be used universally to create an image for the city. She suggested the same kind of work could be produced locally by local artists or college students at a much lower cost. And there, she is correct in her thinking, but it goes much, much farther than just creating a logo.
“Corsicana, where Country meets Culture” is the result of such a “local” submission, and it was in fact a good one.
Here is the problem, however, with that effort, and others in the past.
One word.
Execution.
Two more words.
Follow through.
None of the previous efforts to “brand” the city — no matter how spiffy or creative the message — had either the proper execution or the follow through to “keep the ball rolling” to make and keep that message meaningful. The best commercial or printed ad in the world will not be very effective if it is only used once or twice. Such has been the experience with previous efforts.
The people who chose the group to do the work are pretty darn picky — with all due respect to the SPG. That’s their job. And, that’s why, I think, they were chosen to do the groundwork on this effort.
Let’s give these folks a chance to do us proud.
Click here to e-mail Bob Belcher.
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