Lisa Gardner, City Council Communications Director, 509.625.6226
Monday, May 10, 2021 at 12:50 p.m.
The Spokane Flag Commission is excited to announce that Derek Landers’ design (shown below) has been selected by the public as the new official Spokane city flag!
Description of the Flag from the Artist
We’re blessed to have a beautiful river running through our city. As the river flows, it cleanses. That’s the Spokane I love; a city of change and acceptance that washes away the old ways and makes way for new ones.
The sun represents the Salish meaning of “Spokane” – “Children of the Sun”. It’s important to continue honoring those that were here before us. The blue lines represent the river and the falls, always bringing beauty and change to our city. The green represents the trees and lands that make up the area. As Children of the Sun we are the land and the land is us. We must protect it.
About the Artist
Derek Landers is the art director at The Great PNW, co-founder of Spokane Print and Publishing Studio and principal of his own design studio Landers Design. A designer for over 20 years he specializes in branding, logos, and gig posters focused on clean and bold imagery. A lifelong Spokane resident, he is passionate about where he lives and deeply appreciates its history and indigenous ancestors. He feels very fortunate to have grown up in such a beautiful and diverse area and continues to enjoy all it has to offer with his family and friends.
About the Flag Selection Process
The Spokane Flag Commission was formed by Council resolution in June of 2019 and met for the first time that December. From August to September 2020 designs were solicited online, with over 400 designs submitted. The Commission filtered out joke and submissions otherwise not in compliance with the rules and presented approximately 300 designs to the public online for a consultative vote in December 2020. The top 100 designs from this vote were selected as semi-finalists, and the commission voted internally to produce 12 finalists from this set.
For the final binding vote, a special website was set up through the Spokane Public Library and Spokane Tribe. Any Spokane Public Library cardholder or Spokane Tribe member could rank the 12 finalists in order of preference. The votes were counted using Choice Plus Pro, a free software program for counting ranked choice ballots used by the City of Cambridge Massachusetts to conduct their city council elections.
About the Results
The first count shows the allocation of first preference votes. The final count resulted after 10 rounds of counting in which the lowest ranked flag was eliminated and all its votes redistributed based on preferences. Ballots which failed to designate enough preferences to proceed past a round of counting are considered “exhausted” and removed from the count. Re-allocation continued until one design had greater than 50% of all votes.
First Count
Landers: 463 (21.9%)
Jennings: 340 (16.1%)
Clabaugh: 223 (10.6%)
Zellman: 220 (10.4%)
Farnworth2: 168 (8%)
McDonald: 145 (6.9%)
Franklin: 143 (6.8%)
DeRosier: 122 (5.8%)
Schaffert: 102 (4.3%)
McHugh: 93 (4.4%)
Cook: 49 (2.3%)
Farnworth1: 42 (2%)
Total: 2110 (100%)
Final Count
Landers: 1178 (55.8%)
Jennings: 772 (36.5%)
Exhausted: 160 (7.5%)
Total: 2110 (100%)
Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding.
