About This Movement
TIMELINE
The People's Flag of West Bend, drafted by Maxim Zernia, is an unofficial flag for West Bend, and has been in the works for over a year. Careful consideration has been put into each color as well as the symbolism and visual aspects of the flag.
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October 2022
The City of Port Washington, Ozaukee County adopts its own official city flag after its Mayor; Ted Neitzke IV, put together a public election after a local middle schooler expressed his desire for Port Washington to adopt a flag.
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March 2023
Maxim Zernia drafts his first design of a city of West Bend flag after discovering that Port Washington had adopted a flag.
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Summer 2023
Zernia's flag is redrafted twice before he begins to canvass West Bend neighborhoods, attend farmer markets, and the Washington County fair for signatures of city of West Bend residents/property owners that support the idea of West Bend adopting a flag. After two weeks, around 110 signatures were amassed before Zernia put the project on hold because of the school year starting. During this time, Zernia also attempted to get on the common council agenda.
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December 2023
Zernia's flag undergoes one last revision with the addition of a darkened northern half of the river, representing the now defunct village of Barton that was incorporated into the City of West Bend in 1961. Maxim Zernia meets with Alderman Justice Madl who helps him get placed on the February 19th Common Council agenda.
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February 19th 2024
The West Bend flag item is placed on the February 19th Common Council agenda under a "discussion only" item. During this meeting, a vast majority of the alderpeople gave their uncommitted support to the idea, while also expressing some concerns they had. Maxim Zerna was also told by a number of the Alderpeople to come back to the council with more specifics and a more detailed game plan.
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March 2024
Maxim Zernia gives a presentation about his flag idea to the West Bend Sunrise Rotary
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May 20th 2024
After attempting to get on an agenda a few more times, the West Bend flag item was placed on the May 20th Common Council agenda as an action item. In preparation for this meeting, Zernia put together two documents; one outlining some of the Alderperson's concerns and general information on the item, and the other document detailed three different flag adoption processes for the Alderpeople to choose from. The item ended quickly when Alderman Allen said "I'm not sure this is a good use of the council's time, to be honest with you. I've had none of my constituents come to me with a request we create a flag, and we have a lot of big issues that we need to deal with and that might be a better use of our time". It seemed that a majority of the council agreed with this statement. It was after this meeting that Maxim Zernia began pursuing a "People's flag" route.
Our Goals
Give West Bend a greater sense of unique character and culture
Convince the City of West Bend government to support a flag adoption process
About Creator
MAXIM ZERNIA
Maxim was born in 2007 in the City of West Bend. He originally lived in the Town of Farmington and was placed in the Kewaskum School District. Maxim has always had an interest in local history and geography. This naturally led him to become interested in local politics. Maxim was able to be active in the West Bend mayoral campaigns during the 2023. Maxim has spent considerable amounts of time looking through old newspapers, putting together lists of previous West Bend Alderpeople and mayoral elections. Maxim became an intern for the Village of Kewaskum in December 2023 and has worked on many projects there, such as the amassing of a list of all of Kewaskum's previous Trustees and Village Presidents (among other village officials). Maxim is passionate about Washington and Ozaukee County communities. More recreational hobbies of Maxim's are wakeboarding, biking, tubing, etc.
Flag Adoption Processes
Based on a document presented to the common council on May 20th, 2024
Scenario I (Public Election)
The process of choosing a city flag would be done through receiving public input by way of a
public election put together by Maxim Zernia. The election process would not be done by the
city of West Bend; rather the city’s only obligation would be to narrow down flag designs if necessary and adopt the most popular flag design as it appears from said election. This election would be done through an online form created by Maxim Zernia that incorporates a rank-choice voting system. This form would be open for seven days and be posted on the "West Bend Flag" Facebook page. Interested parties will have thirty days to send submissions of their flag design to a specified email that will be posted on said Facebook page. The flag design that receives the most votes in said online form through
the rank-choice vote system would then be put on the next available city of West Bend Common Council agenda to await adoption.
Scenario II (No Election)
No public election would be held; rather the "People's Flag of West Bend" designed by Maxim Zernia would be chosen as the flag to be adopted as the official West Bend city flag.
Rank-Choice Voting
A system of voting where voters are able to list out their first,
second, and third favorite candidates (flag designs in this situation). If no flag design has over 50% of
the vote, those who voted for the design with the least amount of votes will go to their second favorite
design. This will continue until a design has 50% of the vote.