After lengthy debate Tuesday night, Newton’s City Council approved the city’s new seal design.

The vote was relatively narrow, with 13 voting in favor and 10 voting against. Councilor David Micley was absent (he’s vacationing with his family).

The new seal was up for a vote at the City Council’s Feb. 3 meeting, but Councilor Bill Humphrey (a member of the group charged with getting a new seal created) asked that a vote be held so councilors could have more time to decide on the seal.

Some background

The current seal, depicting John Elliot evangelizing to indigenous people, has been deemed problematic for years.

In 2020, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller established the City Seal Working Group—which includes City Councilor Bill Humphrey; Newton’s Director of Community Engagement and Inclusion Hattie Kerwin Derrick, Historic Newton Director Lisa Dady, Planning Department Urban Designer Shubee Sikka, as well as residents Jim Murphy and Ryan Naragon—to address the seal and make recommendations.

The city hired designer Sebastian Ellington Ebarb, who had worked on updating Boston’s seal and created a new seal for Natick, last winter to come up with options for Newton. Once three concepts were drawn up, the Working Group took feedback from the public before picking a final seal.

Newton’s city seal, created in the 19th century. Courtesy City of Newton

A new look

The new design shows City Hall, a big tree and the Charles River and has the words “Liberty and Union” on the left side and “Thirteen Villages” on the right side, with the date 1688 (when Newton was incorporated as a town) on the bottom.

The word “Nonantum” was featured on the original seal, but it won’t be on the new one. That’s because the word on the seal refers to small “praying towns” that existed back then and moved to Natick, and it doesn’t refer to the current village of Nonantum, which was named after the seal was made.

The design is simple enough that it can be replicated on a variety of items, from trash barrels to stationery.

A range of responses

During their Feb. 3 meeting, Humphrey called for the vote on the new seal to be delayed because City Councilors hadn’t had time to review public feedback and discuss the new design.

Councilor Julia Malakie, for example, noted that much of the public feedback was sent to them just before that meeting.

“I realize a significant number of my fellow councilors, while on board with replacing the image of John Eliot proselytizing to Native Americans, were at the very least ambivalent about whether the proposed new seal is what we want as a substitute,” Malakie said Tuesday.

Malakie noted that the public feedback sent to them just hours before the Feb. 3 meeting included nearly 500 comments expressing varying opinions and that she put them all into a spreadsheet so she could see all the answers to all four questions asked in the survey.

“It’s clear that there’s some disappointment and ambivalence and not just from people who want to keep the current seal,” she said.

The reasons for disliking the new seal varied as well. Some said it looked “childish” and “boring.” Others wanted the tree drawn differently.

“More people didn’t want City Hall in the design than liked it, 55 to 43,” Malakie continued. “Forty people liked getting rid of John Eliot proselytizing—only one against—but 13 were not happy about erasing Native Americans.”

Some didn’t think the new seal represents Newton. Some wanted flowers to reflect the Garden City. Others wanted the 13 villages represented.

Councilor Leonard Gentile said he initially wanted to examine a new seal design but is not a fan of the proposed one.

“When I put the two seals right next to each other, to me there’s no comparison as to which example looks at least more official to me, or more stately, or what I would expect a seal to look like, and that’s the current seal vs. the new proposed seal,” Gentile said.

Gentile added that he agrees with a lot of the complaints Malakie listed. He doesn’t like the way City Hall is depicted. He doesn’t like that the outer ring of text noting dates of town and city incorporation was removed.

“This is going to sound negative, but I agree that it looks like clipart or a young kid did it or whatever, and it doesn’t look very stately or very impressive to me,” he said with a sigh.

Councilor Becky Grossman differed, a lot.

“I think it looks really nice,” Grossman said with a smile. “I also think the process was thorough, and thoughtful, and professional and appropriate. And I believe that, when it comes to design, the eye is in the beholder, and there is no design that is going to be put before a large group of people that everybody is going to jump up and down for joy over. It’s just not how design works.”

Grossman quipped that when she and her husband had their kitchen remodeled, they each had different opinions and so did the professionals doing the remodel.

“It’s art, it’s interpretive,” she said.

Councilor Tarik Lucas said he was voting “no” on the new seal because it shows City Hall.

“To me, that represents we, as a city, are putting government over people, government over Newton’s history, government over nature, and I don’t think that should be on the new seal,” he said.

Lucas said he’d rather have the Jackson Homestead on the new seal.

“I think the Jackson Homestead truly represents Newton at its finest moment. And it’s a part of our history and a part of our story that we need to tell.”

The Jackson Homestead was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and there’s a display going on for Black History Month detailing that home’s role in promoting abolitionism and civil rights.

“The Jackson Homestead represents liberty, union and freedom, helping runaway slaves to their freedom, and I know I am damn proud of that, that Newton was part of that important chapter in history,” Lucas continued. “I think that needs to be on the seal. It certainly would be a better design, a better image, than city hall, which, let’s face it, is an office building.”

Councilor Maria Greenberg said she supports the new seal because the current seal features a Christian man.

“This does not represent the diversity of our city,” Greenberg said. “Also, I understand that the simplicity of the new design is a concern. But the simplicity is actually a strong aspect of the design. It’s easily understood and replicated.”

Councilor Andreae Downs said she finds the idea that including City Hall puts government above people to be “mistaken.”

“As long as we are a democracy—and God, I hope we remain a democracy—where our decisions are made democratically by our elected officials is in fact us as a city. It is more us as a city than a tree—which is fairly generic—although I’m happy to have trees and gardens in our city seal. But this is where we make decisions for ourselves or where the people we elect make decisions to govern ourselves.”

You can watch the entire debate online.

Newton’s new seal has a simple design that can be replicated on to various city items and stationery in both color and black-and-white. Courtesy City of Newton

Gentile motioned to recommit the seal design process to Programs and Services Committee. That motion failed, with nine in favor, 14 opposed and one absence.

The new design is the property of the designer until the city approves it, so rejecting the design would mean starting the entire process over if the mayor’s office doesn’t allocate more money for the current design process.

And as pointed out multiple times in discussions, since there’s no more money budgeted for the design change, this new seal is the final design for this process. So, the City Council had to either approve the new seal or keep the old one.

And the City Council opted to try the new. They approved the new seal with a vote of 13-10.

Here is how each councilor voted:

Yes

• Susan Albright
• Lisle Baker
• Martha Bixby
• Vicki Danberg
• Andreae Downs
• Maria Greenberg
• Becky Grossman
• Bill Humphrey
• David Kalis
• Joshua Krintzman
• Marc Laredo
• Alison Leary
• Rick Lipof

No

• Randy Block
• Stephen Farrell
• Leonard Gentile
• Rena Getz
• Andrea Kelley
• Alan Lobobvits
• Tarik Lucas
• Julia Malakie
• John Oliver
• Pam Wright

What now?

Councilor Joshua Krintzman, who chairs the Programs and Services Committee, noted that the vote is not the end of the process. The ordinances involving the city seal include a description of the city seal, and the Council will have to docket and approve that.

“This is essentially an indication that the City Council supports this design and will then have to go about crafting the ordinance,” Krintzman said.