In honor of its upcoming 100th birthday, Signal Hill’s city seal is getting a makeover.
Signal Hill City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to change the design of the city seal, as part of its festivities for the city’s centennial anniversary.
The city council formed the Centennial Celebration Committee in January 2022 to redesign the city seal. The committee consists of Mayor Tina Hansen, Vice Mayor Lori Woods, Parks & Recreation Commission Vice Chair Tim Anhorn, Planning Commission Chair Chris Wilson and Planning Commissioner Victor Parker as an alternate member.
Since the city was founded by local oil magnates in 1924, it has changed the design of its city seal five times. The City’s first seal was created in the 1930s, and pictured the hilltop,with a mansion, a tree, a water tower and oil derricks of various sizes.
The current city seal was designed in 1988, but wasn’t formally adopted until 2008. It depicts 31 stars above the words “Signal Hill,” with a depiction of a Native American woman watching a rising smoke signal and a cornucopia filled with oil derricks and birds.
City staff said that the Centennial Celebration Committee decided they wanted a modern design that incorporates elements of the area’s history, such as the original Native American residents of the land, the Zinnia flowers grown by Japanese farmers on the hill, and an oil derrick.
The new seal was designed by the City’s graphic designer Alejandro Jaramillo, reusing many of the symbols included in the last seal. The new design will include the following elements:
- An oil derrick
- Catalina Island in the background as an homage to the Indigenous tribes on Signal Hill and Catalina who would use smoke signals from the hilltop to communicate
- An eagle feather, which Jaramillo said is used in Native American ceremonies to represent strength and courage
- Zinnia flowers that were cultivated in Signal Hill until the Alien Land Act forcibly removed Japanese farmers from their land.
“This seal design is intended to be reflective and sensitive, capturing the city’s history while also providing a sense of hope for the future,” Jaramillo said.
City staff said that the City had reached out to local Native American tribes, including the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe to get their feedback and approval for using the eagle feather imagery on the city seal, but had not heard back.
“A pretty large portion of [the current] seal is the Native American woman sitting there, and so we didn’t want to take that away from the community […],” Jaramillo said. “And so to keep that tradition and history continuing in this seal we wanted, that’s why we added the eagle feathers as a symbolic representation of that.”
As part of the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget, city council allocated $25,000 for replacing the city seal on various items created or owned by the City, such as stationary, vehicle decals and facility podiums.
The City Municipal Code also has to be updated, as the current ordinance describes the old city seal. The city council voted to introduce a new ordinance with wording that reflected the newest city seal.
The City has to post the upcoming ordinance on various public buildings by Nov. 3, and the item will come back to city council on Nov. 14. The ordinance would go into effect 30 days after a city council vote.
“I think it will be great,” said City Clerk Daritza Gonzalez. “It’s different but not too different from what we’re used to, which I think is important too because we don’t want a completely new image of what we know ourselves to be.”
Signal Hill City Council meetings are held biweekly on Tuesdays at 7 p.m, and can be watched online live or as a recording on Granicus.
