City of Albany employees attend rebranding ‘pep rally’

ALBANY — About 900 city of Albany employees squeezed their way into the historic Albany Municipal Auditorium Tuesday for a rebranding “pep rally,” at which City Manager Sharon Subadan exhorted workers to be “TERRIFIC.”

“You’ve heard me say this before, but I’ll repeat it,” Subadan told the employees. “Always be TERRIFIC: that’s Trust, Effectiveness, Responsiveness, Respect, Integrity, Fun, Innovation and provide the best Customer Service.

“As you leave out of here today, no matter where you are, I have one request — that you be a brand ambassador for our city.”

Consultant Brian Butler of Tampa, Fla.-based Vistra Communications, who had worked with Subadan and city officials on the branding campaign, took employees through the process of creating new vision and mission statements and a new unified logo.

“We got great response from surveys we asked you to complete and of those surveys, 95 percent of you said the city of Albany is a good place to work,” Butler said. “But you were less clear on the city’s vision and mission. In fact, about 80 percent of you said you were not familiar with either, and around 50 percent of you said you were unclear or did not think favorably of the city’s brand.

“That’s about to change.”

Subadan had the city’s employees read their new mission statement — “The city of Albany delivers fiscally responsible, highly dependable services to the citizens in the community and the region with integrity and professionalism” — and vision statement — “The city of Albany is a collaborative regional leader delivering exceptional services and enhancing quality of life, while fostering an atmosphere where citizens and businesses can thrive” — before dismissing them to the lobby of the auditorium to collect T-shirts with the city’s new logo and Combos snacks produced in Albany.

Butler had made a brief presentation before the Albany City Commission Tuesday morning, after which that board voted to approve the rebranding campaign.