Sonoma: city or town?

The Sonoma City Council is taking on Sonoma’s identity at the meeting on Wednesday night and debating whether to change the city’s name from City of Sonoma to Town of Sonoma. Councilmember August Sebastiani proposed the change.
“I just think it’s a better word to describe our town. Town is better than city,” said Sebastiani.
City staff used an informal, unscientific Web poll on the city Web site, which is currently Sonomacity.org. Of the 485 who voted, 60 percent (292) were in favor of changing the name to Town of Sonoma and 40 percent (193) were against the change.
“I was encouraged by the poll and I continue to be encouraged by anecdotal input,” said Sebastiani. “What we need now is broader input from more individuals.”
The estimated cost for changing signage would be $3,725. Other property would need to change as well, including uniform patches, vehicle decals, and letterhead. Those changes could be phased in over time as items were replaced. Staff estimates the cost could range from $4,000 to $25,000 or more in the first fiscal year.
In order the change the name, four of the five City Council members will have to vote in favor, then the change will have to be filed with the state.
According to Webster’s dictionary, a city is: “an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village.” In the same, the word town has a more nebulous definition. The various usages include: “a cluster or aggregation of houses recognized as a distinct place with a place-name,” “a compactly settled area as distinguished from surrounding rural territory,” “a compactly settled area usually larger than a village but smaller than a city,” and “an English village having a periodic fair or market.”
Sonoma may not be in England, but it does have the regular farmer’s market during the warmer months.
However, one of the definitions of town is “a large densely populated urban area: city.” That definition seems to place town squarely as a synonym of city, which might render the issue moot, except for the question of sentiment.
The council meeting begins at 6 p.m. and will be carried live on SVTV Comcast Channel 27.