Downtown Subcommittee - Regular Meeting

data that we can pull about like what our workforce currently is and then there's like this whole um uh matrix of like what um certain positions are on like a um a scale of like medium high and low exposure like certain positions like well because nowadays like like we were talking about when we were last week or something with real estate. It's going to be like lower. Huge group today. That's not going to be as high that AI is going to come.

People will laugh at me when I screw this up.

So there, I did that and we're, is this going? There's somebody that asked about doing it. So great.

And are we looking at in regards to just the work we're looking for? We have 5,000. Remember when we used to come like an hour high and put down a calendar and she leaves.

They used to put it on their house.

It would show 10 years. It was still in the summer of 1130. They don't want to order. And it's like so awesome. But we were always like, I don't like it. It's so impersonal. I'm like, I'm ordering from this machine now.

That's a great idea. Oh, really? I can order and it's not. Yeah.

Even one of my close friends or sister graduated from Sonoma State over the weekend, and it was not a human person reading their names, their graduation. It was AI. Wow. Yeah, it was interesting. It's supposed to be like more accurate, I guess.

Yeah. Name pronunciation is such a problem.

But it was, what was interesting is like, I don't, I don't think it was still, but there was somewhere we were just kind of like laughing. I'm like, you could tell it was like, you know, the way my car pronounces people's names when I go to, like, I have to call people.

Sometimes I'll like, it'll be something simple, like call Danelle. It'll be like, call who, and it's naming all these other names. And so finally, like, I'll try to think, how could it think different? Call J. Neal. And it'll be like, okay, calling J. Neal. That's funny. Right, right.

Just like some people's names, right? It's not a phonetic. I mean, it's just AI making the same mistakes we all must have. Or like different languages, different, yeah. So I saw that too with some words.

Oh, it's so national arts program. And I felt like it was just all these different languages. Yeah. I have practiced before and I put my enunciation next to it of like reminders of how to say things.

Yeah.

Because the last thing you want to do is, you know. Yeah.

And that's, I think, the point of the graduations. But still, it's not perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I did used to do commencements and have to put those together and I would rather blame it on me. But it is a little weird, I agree. Scott may not be able to make it. Gosh, people in the class.

All righty, Mr. Guest Chair, whenever you're ready.

All right, I'll try not to goof this up too bad. Time is 11 o'clock. Go ahead and call the meeting to order. Recording Secretary, can you please take roll?

Absolutely. Board Member Sweet?

Here.

Board Member Henderson? Present.

Board Member Pace? Here. Let the record reflect that all board members are present, with the exception of Chair Rivero and Board Member Renteria.

Remote participation under the Brown Act. I don't believe there is any needed for today. Is there any modifications to the agenda? Seeing none. This is the time for public comments. When any persons may address matters not listed on the agenda, but which are within the subject matter of the jurisdiction. The public may comment on agenda items. When the item is called, each speaker is allowed three minutes. Are there any members of the public? Not really seeing anyone. Very good. Okay, we need to approve the minutes for September, I believe. It's three sets of minutes. Three sets of minutes. Do we have any changes to the September minutes, September 25th minutes? Seeing none, minutes are approved as amended, or not amended, as submitted. Do we have any changes for the October 23rd minutes? HAB-Masyn Moyer- A none minutes are approved is submitted. HAB-Masyn Moyer- Any changes to the January 29 minutes. HAB-Masyn Moyer- A none minutes are approved as submitted. HAB-Masyn Moyer- New business. HAB-Masyn Moyer- We get the one that 6.1. I recommend an action is approved the selection panel recommendation for the event support funding distributions for July 1 26 through December 31 of 2006 that was merited.

I will be presenting Thank you chair. So today I'll be reviewing with you the recommendation for event support funding for events from July 1 till end of this year, December 31st, 2026. The event support program supports events and activities that attract overnight visitors and promote Santa Rosa as a destination. Eligible activities may include festival, conferences, multi-day productions, or media projects that generate hotel stays and visitor spending. The application period opened from February 1st to March 31st of this year for events that were scheduled between July 1 through December 31st. We received in 22 applications, four were ineligible and eight of those were new applicants. So the selection panel met and first they all scored virtually on a scale from one to five. The criteria included how well the event supported the goals of the SRTBI board by increasing overnight visitation to the area, how effectively the event planned to market outside of Sonoma and neighboring counties, and then overall quality and completeness of the application. The review process, they scored virtually, and then they met on May 6th from 9 to 11 o'clock to evaluate the applications and determine the funding recommendations. So the recommendation we have today is for an overall of $50,000. And this is for Snoopy Senior World Hockey, $10,000. The Santa Rosa Marathon, $10,000. Running Fence at $50,000, which is a show at the Museum of Sonoma County. 10,000, Wine Country Classic Bowling, 7,000, Coop There It Is 90s Festival, 5,000, Try to Inspire, 2,500, Polo Film, 2,000, Original Copy Film, 2,000, Railroad Square Music Festival, 1,000, and Wednesday Night Market, 500. And I've also noted with an asterisk the new event applications that are in there. So we have one, two, three, four new events receiving funding. And then here we have a list of the applications that were not recommended for funding along with the ones that were ineligible. All of the ineligible ones were actually taking place outside of the guidelines for the timeframe of this event. So the recommendation today is to approve the selection panel recommendation for event support funding distributions for July 1 through December 31st, 2026.

Thank you, Meredith. I'll open it up for discussion. Anyone has any comments or any members of the public?

Where does Wine Country Classic Bowling happen? That's a multi-day event. They have an event at the Flamingo at La Rosa, and then there is part of the event that's outside of Santa Rosa, which is why the request was larger. So we wanted to distribute it to the funds that were in Santa Rosa.

Curious about how that makes sense if they add other components to their event. I don't think there's a place in Santa Rosa. I don't think anyone that calls themselves a bowling, I love WebCenter, but bowling leagues don't tend to like that. Bowling. Okay. And then how much did Wednesday Day Market ask for out of curiosity? I don't know.

And also, do you know that a lot of these do apply for community promotions funding? Yeah. And some of those that were not recommended for funding that are nonprofits do receive that. $6,000. $6,000 was requested. However, that community promotions funding has not been approved yet for the fiscal year. So we also can't rely on that either. OK.

I know it's hard not being on the committee coming in and asking questions in advance, right?

Where you talk through thoroughly the applications and I don't have them in front of me. I have the applications here too. So if you have any specific questions, we're happy to go over it.

I'm sure. Clearly you looked at the criteria of overnight stays. So I'm sure you did that job. I think the thing that comes to mind for me is Wednesday market is just seeing how they've really transformed the types of events that are coming that, or maybe historically you could have said it doesn't, HAB-Masyn Moyer- Really apply as much increasing overnight stays, but today they're bringing in bigger name bands and there's room to do that. I don't know what they're specifically doing in terms of the marketing. HAB-Masyn Moyer- I don't know if anyone from the committee has any or staff or team has any thoughts on.

HAB-Terry Palmos- Well, they're, they're allowing hotel be an art house this to be affiliated with us, but to book a special rate. room for Wednesday night and it includes two tickets to the VIP tent. So that's an idea to kind of help generate room nights.

Also help with tracking too to see if it's actually bringing people into the area or not. There's some disagreement on whether or not it's actually bringing people into the area or not. I think you can develop a point with the names that they brought in last year like Asia and Block of Seals and stuff that

Well, the night of fuel, we were 100% sold out. And for a Wednesday night, that's really not usual, as well as last week, too. Now, the event last night, really, I don't think it did too much.

Right.

Were there any events that you can see that were not given funding that That you think might Provide a little bit up here too.

Well, it's a lot of these had historical numbers that you would have explored right to look at as far as once it didn't get funding.

Are you

So those decisions were based on historical memory. So we have all the questions through the application on sort of the anticipated amount of stays. This year, we also do have Placer AI data. So some of these events, we did start looking at a bit on, you know, historically, like how many people are coming into the area. And that's something we can also do a lot more in the future and potentially after this. the ones funded through this round, we could always bring back the Placer AI data on all of those events and report back what that's also telling us in regards to their event recap report.

So yeah, I think that's a huge opportunity to leverage for this. It'd be great going forward. Yeah, there was one event, I don't remember which one, that we didn't think, I didn't think that it had brought in a lot of people from out of the area, but then with the AI tracking the cell phones and stuff, it It actually showed a lot of people from out of the area come in, which I thought was interesting.

And kind of also, we talked about like trying to fund new events and kind of cut some of the funding off of the older events off a little bit because they're kind of going like, even though we did give good money to Marathon and Snoopy, but You know, we need more new events, and we need to support those. And, you know, so I don't know. I know as part of the master plan, if there's money budgeted towards, you know, trying to bring new events to Santa Rosa, like paying someone to go out and to try to get new events possibly is something to think of next year. But this bowling thing is gonna bring in teams. And that's gonna be big room nights. It could be a big deal. Hopefully they stay in Santa Rosa. Right. Okay.

Well, I think that mix is important, right? Bringing in new events and not neglecting some of the historical events that, right? Not treating them like they're, well, they're here forever because they're established, right? They could decide to go do business somewhere else. So I think it's a balance for sure. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I think an approach that acknowledges both is important. It looks like that's what you've done here. That's what you've done. As far as the committee disciplines, yes.

OK.

I think those are mine. Anything else?

I think those are my questions.

Very good. Any other comments or discussion items? Any members of the public? Seeing none. So yeah, we just need a motion and a second to approve the recommended I'll make a motion, or somebody else needs to make a motion to approve the funds as suggested.

I will make a motion to approve. Second.

All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? That'll work, yeah. Seeing none, motion's passed. Meredith, did you have any department reports?

I do not.

I don't either. I guess that's it. I will adjourn the meeting if there's nothing else. Yep. All right. Meeting adjourned. Thank you. Record time.

Here.