The Sparks City Attorney received a letter on March 5 from the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce, alleging that the city was duped by DDI’s tourism branding campaign suggestion presented in February. The letter also put the possibility of a lawsuit on the table against DDI for selling the "Festival City" brand to two cities.
"It is our contention that we paid $25,000 to Destination Development and Destination Development then sold out the idea to you (the city of Sparks) for $114,000," the letter stated.
The city of Sparks contracted with DDI in spring 2008 to perform a branding assessment. The town of Pahrump got the ball rolling on a similar branding assessment in April 2007.
In recent months, Pahrump has tried to position itself as the "Valley of Festivals." On Feb. 18, DDI presented a draft plan that would brand the city of Sparks as "Nevada's Festival City."
Representatives of the Pahrump chamber said Wednesday that they were optimistic that in the end Sparks could pursue its own branding while Pahrump pursues theirs.
"The ideal outcome is that Sparks would get their particular branding and that Pahrump will get their particular branding," said Lucy Ivins, executive director of the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce. Ivins was also the signer on the March 5 letter.
The double branding debacle may be a moot point, however, as Roger Brooks of DDI said Wednesday that Sparks' brand is being changed.
The dispute began after Pahrump's Chamber of Commerce got word that DDI Cad suggested branding the city of Sparks as "Nevada's Festival City." A similar idea had been adopted by the town of Pahrump just months earlier.
According to Ivins, both the Sparks and Pahrump contracts with DDI were meant to produce a similar result: a brand identity.
However, Ivins also added that the branding assessment by DDI for Pahrump is not complete.
"They didn't finish ours," Ivins said of the contacted work, adding that in recent conversations DDI had said they are planning on finishing it.
Although Pahrump's branding assessment was started in April 2007, it hit a snag in April 2008 when lines of communication began to break down.
According to Brooks, the town was uncooperative in providing the data needed to move forward with the assessment. At the same time, the town also alleges in the March 5 letter that DDI did not respond to their requests either.
According to Ivins, the chamber was going through administrative changes at the time and went several months without the leadership of an executive director.
"Due to the lack of a response from Destination Development on their findings and/or results of their work, the Pahrump Tourism Advisory Board undertook work on its own to develop a Tourism Strategic Plan," the letter states.
And thus, officials said, the "Valley of Festivals" concept was born.
According to the letter, the festival concept was pitched to DDI representative Vicky Soderberg in an e-mail.
However, according to Brooks, the festival concept was Pahrump-grown and was never suggested by DDI.
"The festival thing was never on our minds," Brooks said.
Some ideas that Brooks said he was thinking of for the town included the "equestrian capital," the "RV capital" and a water park capital.
Brooks also said that the letter from the Pahrump Valley Chamber of Commerce was placed in his hands by the city of Sparks.
Regarding the city's involvement, Ivins also said that the tension between Pahrump and DDI has nothing to do with Sparks.
"They certainly were not the issue," Ivins said of the city of Sparks. "It was an issue we had with DDI."
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