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Solvang council debates protecting city branding, copyright and ethics rules after dispute over private tourism app
Summary
Council members debated whether to register certain city marketing assets, how aggressively to enforce copyrights and trademarks, and whether to strengthen the ethics code after public allegations that a private tourism app used city content and raised conflict-of-interest concerns involving the mayor.
A lengthy council discussion on April 27 focused on whether the City of Solvang should register and more actively protect its marketing assets and whether the city's ethics code needs stronger enforcement tools.
City Attorney Chelsea O'Sullivan outlined options for intellectual-property policy: the city may register copyrights and trademarks (which creates standing for federal enforcement and potential statutory damages) or rely on cease-and-desist letters and case-by-case remedies. Registration costs for individual copyrights are modest, O'Sullivan said, but building an enforcement program requires staff time and legal resources; larger trademark questions (for example, protecting a tourism slogan) may need outside trademark counsel.
Public commenters raised an immediate example: they said a privately run tourism app for Solvang had scraped material from the city's Solvang USA site and that the mayor's association with tourism promotion created a perceived or actual ethics problem. One resident said the mayor "stepped out" during a part of the discussion and raised concerns that the app represented "a conflict of interest and a breach in ethics." A retired attorney at the meeting warned that registered marks can be lost if not enforced: "if you are the owner of a trademark ... and you don't enforce your rights, you will waive them." Business owners urged clear rules about who may appear on city-endorsed promotional channels.
Council members coalesced around a phased approach: do not attempt to register and police every piece of content, but identify and consider registering a small set of high-value assets (for example, key marketing videos and photos) and the citywebsite bundle where possible. They asked staff to produce a list of recommended assets, cost estimates for registration, and an inventory of the citydigital-asset library. Separately, council directed staff to adopt a policy to send a formal letter asking unauthorized users to stop using city-owned assets when staff becomes aware of inappropriate uses. Council also asked staff to draft narrowed disclosure language for the ethics code (Section 8) and to propose a censure resolution mechanism the council could use when an ethics-code violation is found. The council did not adopt immediate registration or sweeping new enforcement measures at the meeting.
The discussion included both protections for city reputation and a caution about turning the ethics code into a political tool; staff and council sought narrowly tailored language to preserve fairness while improving transparency and public disclosure.
