Finalists announced for new city flag design; voting to begin in April

Spokane residents will soon be asked to vote on a new city flag.

The city’s Flag Commission expects to launch voting on 12 finalists for a new city flag design in early April.

The top vote-getter will replace the seldom-referenced, decades-old current flag.

Voting will occur online, where residents can rank their four favorite flag designs.

The binding public vote will be the final step in a process to replace the city’s flag that began more than a year ago with the formation of the Flag Commission. It includes representatives from each City Council District, the Spokane Tribe, the arts community and city government.

“While it’s been a long road getting to this point, we’re incredibly excited to let the public make the final choice,” Spokane Flag Commission Chair Joshua Hiler said in a statement. “It was amazing to see how much interest there was from both Spokane and abroad to design a new flag, and it was a hard choice to narrow down to just 12 finalists – there were dozens of incredible designs, but we think this set offers a diverse group of options.”

The Flag Commission sent out a call for designs last year and received a deluge of proposals.

The Flag Commission narrowed choices to 12 finalists from the top 100 favorites selected in an online public survey in December.

Voting will last for one month and be open only to Spokane Public Library cardholders.

Library cards are not limited to Spokane residents, but those who live outside the city’s borders must pay a fee. Registration can be done online at spokanelibrary.org/signup.

Spokane Tribal Members will be offered a separate voting portal that will be free of charge.