It’s good that Amarillo City Hall has thrown in the towel on the city logo that was, um, appropriated from a company in the Middle East.

Seems the company told the city that the logo, which was a virtual copy of the company’s insignia, violated some copyright laws, which the company communicated in an email to City Hall. Emaar Properties officials told the city that the company logo “is legally protected under various intellectual property laws.”

So the city gave up on the logo and will start over in the search for a new design. It’s going to receive some community input this time.

The design approved by the city had been submitted by a staffer, whose name hasn’t been revealed.

I get some of the reason why the city isn’t releasing the name of the individual responsible for this public embarrassment. It’s a personnel issue and state law gives the city permission to keep that information — such as the person’s name — from the public.

But here’s my concern: This individual, along with senior city administrators, have cost the public a good bit of money. The city spent more than $26,000 on creating a new logo. It hired a company to do the artwork, then the city went with the staffer’s submission. The city spent $12,386 to put the now-defunct logo on various items: pens, pins, banners and paperweights. I suppose those things now will become collector’s items.

Given that the copying of the Emaar artwork has cost the public a good bit of change, doesn’t the public have some right to know who’s responsible for this mess?

I’m quite aware that state law protecting the privacy of individuals enables the city to keep the identity a secret. I don’t believe it requires the city to do so.

I can recall a couple of years ago when the city hired a traffic engineer who then was fired after it was revealed he had gotten into some legal difficulty in another jurisdiction. The engineer then left the country and returned to his native Lebanon. The city changed its vetting policies, guaranteeing that it will do a better job of performing its due diligence in future hiring.

I’m thinking the city now needs to rethink how it will ensure that future design submissions pass legal muster.