After Public Backlash, Boca Raton Won’t Be Redesigning Its City Flag After All

Boca Raton City Flag (Photo: Boca Daily News)

It started as a novel idea, crafted by an obscure nonprofit from Boston that is the self-proclaimed “largest organization of flag enthusiasts and scholars in the world.” Then, the people had their say.

Boca Raton’s city flag – made up of horizontal blue, white and green stripes with the city seal on the left – did not exactly pass muster with the North American Vexillological Association. Known by its acronym “NAVA,” the group examines flags from across the country and volunteers to improve them using various criteria that its members believe makes them ideal in nature. The group heavily opposes logos or seals in flags, and heavily relies on symbolism – such as a forward-looking arrow to symbolize progress, for example – in its design efforts.

The group proposed numerous flag redesigns for Boca Raton late in 2024, leading city officials to place them on its website this spring to solicit opinions from residents. A social media post from March 31, however, led some to believe the page with the would-be designs was an early April Fool’s Day joke, sparking a mix of serious opposition and good-natured ridicule as the new designs seemed to be summarily pilloried in the comments section.

The designs were real, and had been the subject of a short discussion at a city council meeting when they were first received by officials. Ultimately, after about two months of public scrutiny, the city council last week voted to maintain the status quo: the city’s longtime flag won’t be retired after all.

“City flags, like all flags, are there to show identity and, I hope, unity,” Mayor Scott Singer said when the new designs were first presented, explaining that NAVA is almost always opposed to seals on flags because they are difficult to see from a distance.

“There was a TED Talk that actually talked about this and inspired a lot of flag changes,” he said. “Cities have been doing this for around ten years and have seen a lot of civic engagement.”

After the group of newly-proposed flags were released to the public, however, opposition grew. Several residents came to council meetings to express their opposition to the new designs, which are embedded in the gallery below this paragraph.

For some, the very idea of changing the flag was symbolic enough.

“The nonsense about changing the flag needs to go away,” said resident Bill Trinka. “Those of us who have spent our lives here – leave a little bit of old Boca for us.”

For others, the opposition was more clinical.

“What authority are we vesting in NAVA to dictate what our flag looks like?” asked resident Joe Majhess. “All of the issues that have been raised are non-issues. Our flag is absolutely symbolic … you have the green for the parks and the blue for the water. The issue of being able to read a flag was an issue hundreds of years ago for ships. It’s not an issue now in the age of digital navigation and GPS. If anything, the proposed designs only contribute to ambiguity and confusion by failing to represent the city of Boca Raton, its history and its residents.”

A resident who is a retired city police officer brought forth a unique perspective.

“I don’t even care if you changed it, but those designs were absolutely hideous,” said David Skrabec. “The fact that they actually made it to the final seven was embarrassing. I would be embarrassed to wear that on my sleeve as a police officer, and I wore the [city] symbol for 25 years.”

While residents all had their own takes on changing the flag, the common denominator was seemingly the fact that no one was in favor of actually doing so.

On May 27, the simmering controversy would officially go away, with the council unanimously adopting a resolution that declares the existing flag the official flag of Boca Raton. The resolution was passed as part of the council’s consent agenda, and did not elicit any comments from either officials or residents.

The resolution stated that it “affirms the design already in daily use and preserves continuity with the city’s longstanding identity.”

Research by the mayor and the Boca Raton Historical Society indicated that the last formally adopted flag, based on a 1964 design and adopted in 1980, fell out of use by the 1980s or early 1990s. The current flag then emerged, but was never the subject of a formal vote or action by the governing body.

The city seal is another matter. It was adopted not only by way of a resolution, but a formal city ordinance in 1978. In some iterations of the city flag that has been produced since then, there were slight modifications to spelling and coloration, with officials saying this was likely attributed to technological limitations in reproducing the hand-designed font at the time. In the modern age, however, the seal will be reproduced as adopted by the 1978 ordinance.

The resolution also authorized the reproduction of the flag for “civic and non-commercial purposes.”

With that vote, the matter seems to have been put to rest, with the familiar symbol officially in place for another generation – a popular reasoning behind maintaining it, according to one resident who spoke at a recent council meeting.

“Residents both full time and seasonal know this flag and how it represents our beautiful city of Boca [Raton],” said Diane King, a resident since 1958. “The city flag is a history of Boca Raton.”