The Town Council revisited a proposal for a new logo to be used for Town marketing purposes at its April 18 meeting and, after some heated discussion, approved a design with minor changes from one presented in March.

Councilwoman Brenda Kalivianakis asked that the item be revisited after saying she heard too much negative comment from the public on the design. She had the support of Council Members Gerry Friedel and Allen Skillicorn for bringing up the discussion again.

“You would have to be completely tone-deaf to live in Fountain Hills and think there is any support for this (design),” Kalivianakis said. “I take this as an opportunity to correct a bad decision I made (in previously voting for the logo). I wanted a logo we could be proud of.

“Citizens don’t think government is listening to them. They see an elite class telling them what they should like.”

Councilwoman Hannah Toth asked Economic Development Director Amanda Jacobs to clarify implementation related to the logo, if that is an added cost.

Jacobs said there is no additional cost for implementation, the new logo is introduced as needed to new, updated materials that would be included in routine operational costs.

“I think the conversation surrounding this logo has gotten extraordinarily out of hand,” Toth said. She told Jacobs she appreciated the effort and thanked her for the additional effort to have the minor changes made.

At the opening of the conversation Skillicorn had made a motion to suspend all work and effort to implement a new logo. Kalivianakis said she would prefer to chalk this up to a $20,000 mistake and learning experience over accepting the proposed logo.

The motion to suspend the project was defeated on a 4-3 vote with Skillicorn, Kalivianakis and Friedel supporting it.

A second motion to accept the proposal as presented was approved 5-1 with Skillicorn voting no and Kalivianakis choosing to abstain.

The new logo does not preempt the use of the existing Town Seal.