 Call a meeting through order. Thank you all for being here today on this beautiful sunny Thursday morning. I do have to read off a couple of things. Now that we are doing in person meetings as well as assume means. So members of the public and participate in the meeting by attending in person from the mayor's conference room, which is this one. Santa Rosa City Hall room 10. It is recommended that social distancing be observed or via zoom webinar by visiting srcd.org dot zoom dot us backslash j backslash 8448 1488731 or by dialing 8778 by 35257 and entering webinar ID a 448148. So the recording secretary will now take roll and by the way member pace is no longer participating on the advisory board so I just wanted to point that out right call to order and roll call. Board Member Anderson. Board Member pace. Board Member Renteria. Board Member rumble. Here. Chair Roberto. Here. The record reflect that all members with the exception of board members pace and board members Renteria our presence. Thank you. All right, moving on to public comments. This is a time when any person 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. The speaker is allowed three minutes. So now Lonnie, can you please review how the public may comment or kayak. Yes. If any member of the public has any questions in person, please raise your hands. If any members of the public are joining us via zoom. They may raise their hands, or if you're calling in via phone press star nine. Realize that little hair. The profile. It's a backlight that's what's making it happen. Yeah, it's actually not here. I'm not sure if I can show my weight. That's totally what it is backlight makes me lose hair and gain 20,000. Chair of arrow. There are no hands raised from the public. I think yeah, except for me here. There's one. Well, it's nice. This is Eric Frazier and I'm a resident of Santa Rosa. It's nice to see you all in person again. Thank you very much. I did want to use. Now that I sort of reconciled my comments with the agenda because I think some of what I have to report out applies to some agenda items, but of course overall, the perspective I usually bring into this room has to do with short term rentals and there's been a lot going on regulatory environment with short term rentals, including of course a robust regulations and permits issued and processes and so on and so forth. We have long maintained that short term rentals should have seats on this board, and that the funds that are raised for the bia as well as the to T from short term rentals be properly accounted for and have proper oversight. That hasn't occurred yet. And in the winds are some legal actions concerning the appropriateness of bia as approach as attached to residential addresses under the, under the formation of the state law, where it came from, and other questions about accountability, but it does appear though just sort of as a summary of what's going on that there's some just a few on under 200 permits for what's called non hosted short term rentals. And so those are autonomously managed short term rental opportunities. They're not like hotels because they don't have the same level of occupancy and there's other, they pivot frequently to longer term uses. But those that have permits look like as is the case in the county as well, that there's no further regulations that are going to preclude their operations, except of course for regulations over how they carry about their affairs noise and what have you but those are already pretty well articulated under city ordinances. So the writing on the walls pretty clear that that inventory of some 500 rooms, of course with an occupancy that's well under 50% again because a lot of these places pivot to uses that the owner dictates family visits, as well as long and midterm uses, especially key and emergencies, by the way and evacuations as research will bear out, but it's time to reckon with the wants and needs of that, that group of people, and we do appreciate some of the affiliate organizations that have been adversarial to short term changing their positions to understand that their support is more important for the good of the local economy, as well as just people state of mind. Personally on a personal note, I hope that these these discussions in the public space over short term rentals can turn the corner to where we can just sort of reckon with true conflict that happens in our neighborhood and not try to create conflicts where it doesn't exist. So we can get to the brass tacks of making sure that everybody's quality of life is elevated by the experiences that they seek here in the county. So thanks but there's other things that pertain specifically to the agenda items so I'll be back. Thank you very much for the pleasure. Moving on to item three on the agenda approval of minutes we haven't met for a while and we had quite a few meetings at the end of the last year so item 3.1 minutes from the September 22 2022 have been distributed distributed for your review. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes. Okay, you know, maybe there's not. I'll move on to item 3.2 minutes from the September 26 2022 meeting have also been distributed for your review. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes. Yeah, there's none. I done 3.3 minutes for the November 16 2022 meeting have been distributed for your review. Are there any additions or corrections to those minutes. Okay, now there's none. I'll move on to item 4 for approval of board members. Yeah, so after speaking with our assistant city attorney, we don't need to take a vote on the minutes. Yeah. I sent it via email but now here for the record we don't need to take a vote on minutes anymore. And we also don't need a quorum for minutes either. Okay, so whoever was at those meetings. If you're like an agreement that we can move forward with approval then we could do that. And if there aren't any. And then if there are no minutes then. Just amendment amendments. Yeah, if there's no amendments. And you could just say approve as submitted for the following days. Okay. So chair Rivera, I'll leave it to you to close the loop on that and say approved. These minutes are approved as submitted for these days. These minutes are approved for the September 22, 2022 meeting and September 26, 2022 meeting, as well as for the minutes for November 16, 2022. Thank you. So moving on to item for approval of board members. So at the beginning when we're about to take a road call I mentioned that member pace is no longer serving on the advisory board. He's moved on to, he's still with the hotel, but he's been, he's going to be concentrating on some other activities. So this calls for 4.1 approval of submission of new board members to the city council for appointment. So the advisory board. So just some background and the advisory board is comprised of one center as a chamber of commerce employee, which is the executive officer, just Peter rumble one city employee program specialist Rafael river. And three centers are lodging operators, at least one of whom is employed by a full service hotel. So that position is now vacant. Since Tony pace, as I said, will remain with hotel, but it's moving on to some other activities, and one of whom is employed by a selective service hotel, which is down our entry unfortunately not here today. The remaining representatives may be employed by either a full service or select service lodging operation. And that is Todd Anderson. Good to see you Todd. So in addition, there are two alternative to the city and chamber representatives, the art and culture manager Tara Thompson for the city. And we now have Jenelle Myers. This is center was a program representative. Those are all to do Peter rumble. Staff will present the recommended appoint appointee to the city to the center of tourism business improvement area advisory board as follows you foot trial the representative of representative on owner and an operator of hotel to serve as a representative for full service hotels. So are there any questions from the board about this request. Okay, so now there's none. Before a motion is made. Are there any members of the public wishing to comment on item 4.1. Well, of course. And this does get to the heart of the matter when it comes to give us a moment to put up the comment. I'll take my prompts. And again, once we get the comments. Can you state your name for the record. Okay, thanks. Right. Okay, thanks. So my name is Eric Frazier and my process truth in tourism at Gmail.com. And this item does go to the heart of what what this committee does and obviously there's a huge segment of people contributing to the BIA that don't have representation on the BIA board and and that's ridiculous. And so many ways and has been since this the inception of this board. So it's now noted that my objection again is on that issue. And we'll be pushing for a resolution for that because obviously just bringing up an objection time and time again. It's just, you know, being stuck in the snow. So we will find a solution. And then also I think for the record, Hugh Fitzgerald course is a great guy, civic leader, probably our preeminent developer. His ownership is extends beyond Hoteli and includes the art house I believe and other tax paying entities, lodging entities, is it just that to others have a question about that. The question is about how the art house is constructed and operated as far as an entity and whether they should apply to the str regulations or what exactly happens to the condominium is playing there but but yeah, he's a great guy so not that I have a vote but that's great. Thanks. When it comes to time you'd have to try to sort of let you know if you're okay. Thank you. There's also a big clock behind you. Oh, thanks Peter. And Mr. for trouble be, I think we send the application. I need to follow up to see where the application is. The recommendation also from the city court's office is to actually, they haven't done this in a while so they're recommending that the board does go through ethics training and sexual harassment training so we'll be addressing those are next and hopefully getting some times available. So, members can participate in those trainings and get those items checked off since it's probably in a while since you've done any of those. So, all right, so Rafael we're going to ask for comments on zoom as well we have a couple. Oh yeah okay. If there are any questions for or comments from the public. And you're on zoom you may raise your hands using the function and zoom if you're calling in press star nine chair of error there are no public comments from zoom. Thank you very much. All right, so that leads me to this point. Does anyone wish to make a motion in support of the approval of the new member for recommendation to the city council. I have a second. Is there any further discussion. The recording secretary will now take a role. All right, for the roll call for votes. Board Member Anderson. Board Member pace. Board Member Runteria. Board Member rumble chair Roberto. Hi. Thank you. And for the regular board member pace is not very participating in the advisory board. All right. Thank you. Moving on to item five schedule items. We're going to be leading a discussion and here with us present this morning is raised at the La Rosa. Deputy director for our economic development division. So good to see you. So item 5.1 board ordinance and city policy alignment. Updates clarification and discussion of board roles, responsibilities and processes associated with with and in compliance with the formation ordinance and related city policies. So we're going to take a look at that. And it's a discussion. And we're going to be referencing ordinance number 3946. And in addition to that. City council bodies. Number. 0000 dash 06. People copy of that. That other part. I have that. I just have my own copy. I can go with that one. I'm going to add a couple of revisions. I think that's the last one. I think the revisions are noted. And we can go ahead and add it to. We added to the agenda later, but. We can load it. You can just. You know, I raise them. Yeah, so basically. We're sort of, we want to revisit the policy and the responsibilities and things that we need to a her to as members of the advisory board. And. I don't know if this is the time. Try made, but yeah. Yeah, I can just start on this. So. You know, I just wanted to start with any Raphael talks about it. That everybody has to have an application. And I think you've all been. I think you all do. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if anybody doesn't moving forward. We just need, we need to do that. And the thing that's interesting about having the application in is, or about this board in particular. So we adhere to the ordinance. The ordinance refers to policy. Oh, six. And the thing that's interesting about that is it talks about. Policy. Oh, six is the council policy that talks about appointments to boards, commissions and committees. And then there's the board members who are appointed by individual council members. And then there's a section that talks about board. Committee members. Who are appointed by the full, full council. That is this board. However, it is not listed. In the policy. So we need to find some, get some clarification with our city attorney's office. And then we need to figure out, do we adhere to, because it's not clear. And I think moving forward, that might help us in the future. If there's any question really about appointments. The second thing that I want to say is that the ordinance itself dictates, you know, who serves on the board and other terms, et cetera. So we know there's one chamber staff. Which is called out in the ordinance is acceptable, even though it would not norm. It would be acceptable for a city staff to be on a board of commission. So the ordinance specifically addresses that. And then there's three hotel operators. And that very specifically says hotel operators. At least one of which is a full service. Operator. And one is a select service operator. So. I'll get back to any changes. If there are ever any desire changes to the ordinance that, that change has to be made by ordinance. And it would be a discussion of this board. So at any time we can say, Hey, look. Elements of the ordinance aren't, aren't working. Let's, it's easier because ordinance changes are. A bit laborious to kind of gather them, discuss them, and then make one change. At one time. And by the way, sorry, that's in section six dash five six point eight. And that's in section six dash five six point eight. That's in section six dash five six point four hundred. On the ordinance. So the other thing is in the ordinance. You know, I think in the past, we'd always assumed it's a GM or it's a this or that, right? But there is actually nothing in the ordinance that states. At what level of the organization, somebody needs to be represented or the organization itself needs to be represented. But there, but it is interesting when you look at policy. There's a lot of things that we've been asking for in the past. That we've been asking for. In the last, I think that was six. I think this is something that we had not previously been asking. Is that we need to confirm that people are residents of Santa Rosa. They are registered to vote. No comments on this. You vote or not though, I think you should. And again, have that application form in. So if we're considering anybody in the future. That is one of the things that we're going to have to, that we're going to have to do in the future. And then we're going to have to, we're going to have to, we're going to have to do that. Part of the policy that I want to check on because it, it doesn't specifically relate to. Because we're not listed as one of the boards as appointed by the full council is what are requirements to actually post. Openings on the board. There are requirements generally, whether you're appointed by an individual or by. An individual or by an individual. Or by an individual or by an individual. Or by an individual. Very limited scope assessment. Does it matter? So do we need to do that one? And then two, if we do, you know, is there a consideration of exception? Well, it's probably something we should discuss. For us to recommend. Because in the end, it's, it's, what our actions are, our end up being. And so I think the council would in the end be the one that's voting on any changes or clarifications in either the council policy or in the ordinance. The other thing that, you know, it's interesting when you're looking at the council appointment policy is there are in any other board. That's appointed by a single council member. There are term limits and they're associated with that. And so I think it's, it is different. Again, we run into that thing like a wet point to adhere to it. But if there is an interest of this board, which has not been an issue, we, we've had turnover, particularly with like, you know, I think Tony replaced somebody, replace somebody. I think you're the constant. You're new to it. Yeah. So if there's a question or an interest of having term limits or, or something that is something that can be discussed, but that is something again, that would be part of the ordinance change. We might be able to do something like a clarification if it's, if it's just term limits and putting that in a resolution that's attached to the ordinance, there might be some alternatives to that because it's not a substantial change to, to this, or we could make that clarification within the council policy. And then the other thing that we were looking at. I don't know what it was before. It just slipped out of my mind. So I'll come back to that. The, oh, I know what it was. It was the chair position. I don't know what it was before. I know that I think I inherited something from Danielle. I thought at one point you were a chair. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the interesting thing about that is the chair is actually appointed by the mayor. Per policy regardless. And so we, and we can recommend a chair. It's. You know, and ask the mayor to do that. But it is interesting that we have not had that sort of formal discussion. And it could just be that at that time, a city staff person was appointed and we've had, it has not been discussed or a question. And then the last thing that I wanted to point out, appointment of chair changes by ordinance. Well, let's stop there because I, I don't, oh, you know, I know there's something else is by ordinance. So we had been meeting at one point every month and then we moved it to every other month. The ordinance only dictates quarterly or as needed. So we're required to have four meetings a year or as needed. So, you know, again, it's not that if there's nothing going on that's different than, or that's urgent, you know, then we can sort of set what our, our time is. And, you know, we, in speaking about that, we thought similar to other boards and commissions. It's always helpful to have some standing items, you know, beyond the minutes kind of things, but like an update from visit Santa Rosa or whatever other things. And then, and then otherwise we sort of identified the timeline based on reporting requirements for, you know, review the review and discussion of the animal report. And then another meeting will be approval of the animal report, you know, and budget, budget review. Can we get the budget review to coincide? With your budget review. Ours is standard. We get set. We get told what we're going to do by council. It doesn't matter. We're on off cycles, but it would be helpful to have that discussion in preparation for your budget. And then that, that informs ours when we start our process in March, April, May by the time it gets, which is as early as we started for the June approval. So, you know, I think if we have any thoughts or discussions about that, and I know there's something else, but I'll get that. It was probably super. The most important thing. Anyway, yeah. So I don't know thoughts, discussions. Generally, I mean, checking ourselves back to what the intent is a good idea. None of, none of what we might need to adjust seems to be, you know, significantly profound or, you know, major alteration needed. So. So some adjustments here and there. I think they're fine. Yeah. I think so. And I think as we move back, into in-person, you know, I did know, and I don't, this has never been a problem for this board, but I just want to state it. There is a, an attendance requirement of 75% of the required meetings. That would be three of the four meetings, folks. So we've been good even when it was 12. Yeah. Including Donna, including Donna. Yeah. So, yeah, I think, I think we're just, we're being, you know, asked and, and, you know, frankly required to, to really check ourselves with our meetings. And I don't think this has been a problematic one. You do live in the center. Rosa, don't you? That's what I thought. I recall that during the fire. Yeah. Listed by that much. By that much. So I think we all need to start calling and emailing the mayor to tell him to. So that's really the biggest clarification, right? That I think are the most impactful one is, if the city attorney says that there needs to be direct appointments, then we're going to need to, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, I'm not going to need to. You know, You know, affirm the positions via appointment and go through whatever process that takes, but. And you know, the thing that's interesting is that the policy does say that you can have a waiver of these things, which, you know, it could be is what happened back before you and I. And maybe you I don't even remember where on is that, you know, it could be that they decided to waive that. the limited number of people. So you're right, the waiver would be a good idea just because of turnover in hotel representation. Dawn, it's on the side, right? We've had some some rotation. Basically once a year. Transient bunch. So if a replacement would would necessarily require appointment, that could be a time consuming process. Yeah, exactly. Just on a staff side of getting all the paperwork together, taking the taking the action to the council. So I think what we can do then is just go back and confirm like there. I mean, nobody is here when this thing that I mean, I was here, but I was not at all a part of it. So I don't think there's any recollection of waiver. So I can just go back and confirm that as part of the confirmation of the policy anyway. The other if you run term limits, I would have the same sort of reservation about that just in the sense of it's a limited pool. It's a limited pool. And so I'm not sure that that would be the best solution, right? Yeah, or a needed solution. That's everything. No, we I think we're assuming that anything that comes on this is the recommendation board is good. A good question. Since this was just a discussion, we're going to take a motion, but we do. I understand your question and the answer is no, because he's got his application. He's good. It's a designated assignment, but still no change. Yeah. Are there any members of the public wishing to comment on item? That's a 4.1. There are any members of the public in person? Please raise your hand. And we have one member of the public in person for comments. Okay, thank you. Eric Frazier again, truth and tourism at gmail.com. Obviously, you're ignoring the most important item and raise. I don't know how it's lived or mine, but that would be the influence of STRs in the collection of BIA and of being omitted from this board. That's obvious. There's no shortage of residents of Santa Rosa that could be called into service on this board to oversee the BIA money. The fact that that group of people has been ignored has been a travesty. This gives us a great opportunity to fix that. I'd also like to call attention as to why a chamber of commerce employees sits on the board. Aren't they a contractor of the BIA? They're not a government organization. They're not a hotel. They're the contractor. They hold the contract for administering BIA money through Visit Santa Rosa. That's it. They're not politically elected. They may, in fact, operate as a quasi-government organization, but that's a different scenario. What we're talking about is fair representation that protects the taxpayers' money that, according to council policy, encourages participation of all citizens. And that's not what's happening here. So I find it very interesting, fortuitous even, that now the SIEM has been opened to examine the civil rights aspects of the ordinance that are way out of whack. Get those corrected, potentially with the council involved or legal, or both. So I would say because this is in motion legally, then what date are we meeting just to go over these issues so that we make sure that we're avoiding litigation? I'm not an attorney, but obviously, now would be a good time for a litigated response for all the Defox in the BIA program. So that's pretty fascinating, quite frankly, because make no mistake, the way that this ordinance was first constructed, it severely damages the civil rights of many parties, many parties. And it's not, has a lot of flaws. Again, I'm not an attorney, so I can't speak to the Defax legally, but it doesn't feel right. It doesn't look right. It's a source of conflict, unnecessary conflict. It avoids accountability and oversight over finances. Bear in mind that the BIA is a bifurcated entity. There's millions of dollars that go to the Chamber of Commerce, principal source of income, and then also to the city. Thank you. Try to address it, people. Thank you. Thank you very much. If there are any further comments via Zoom or phone, please raise your hands in Zoom or if you're calling via phone, press star nine. Chair Rivera, there are no questions via Zoom or phone. I thank you, Kai. Quickly, Chair, just opinions about civil rights aside, just a point of fact, the Chamber is not a contractor. The Chamber is a named entity within the ordinance establishing the program. I think it's an important distinction in May. I'd also note that the BIA is not our primary source of revenue. It is an important source of revenue, but not the only, and it is directly spent on marketing this community. And we do have a professional services agreement for services, but that's it, yeah. Yeah. And the section 6-56.290 authorized uses talks quite extensively about that, and that's in the ordinance as well. And as you know, Mr. Frazier, well, I appreciate your comment. I cannot comment, but your comments have been noted on today's meeting. All right. So moving on to item 5.2, Visit Center Rosa Report. That's me. Yeah, hi. Hi, Janelle Myers. I've been overseeing Visit Center Rosa since September or August last year. This is my first meeting, so excited to be here. And yeah, we've been just kind of, we just hit the ground running, and we've hired two new people, Lindsay Yusko and Chelsea Wood. Lindsay's on the call right now, and then we still have Tonga over at the Welcome Center. So yeah, we've just been putting together our media and PR strategies and marketing plan for this year. Met with the advisory committee a couple weeks ago and been talking to each of them individually. Todd, one of them, we spoke earlier this week, just trying to get input about how we utilize that committee to use this input about how we market center as a destination going forward, and how we might change it a little bit. And then yeah, we're just, we're looking into ways that we can work more closely with out there and work together on kind of utilizing each other's resources. We are undergoing any website project that is set to launch later this year, so that'll be a very big project. And then yeah, lots of, we're doing a lot of social media focus, shooting a lot of video at our hotel partners, hospitality partners. We're doing a VR video virtual reality video with the county grant for the Welcome Center. I'm super excited about that, and the Welcome Center is kind of undergoing a little refresh right now. The city is working on bathroom remodeled to make it ADA compliant. A little bit of a disaster over there right now, but I'm excited to see how it looks in a couple months and get the trolley program up and running. And yeah, so a lot of really exciting things ahead of us. A lot of work, but exciting things. It's been a year, not less than a year. It's just a note on the application of the VR video that he mentioned. I think it's a pretty cool idea where you're coming into the Welcome Center and you're interested in a particular property, it's far west, the zip lines, whatever it might be. And you can watch a VR video of that, that location, right, to get a sense of. You can watch it from YouTube too. But you can get a real sense of like, oh my god, there's a giraffe over there on it. It's like you're really immersed in that and that experience and really hook you to to then follow through on a visit to that place. So it's a pretty cool upgrade in how we were, we have been using the Welcome Center to kind of bring it into more modern times. Yeah. And then one more thing that Peter doesn't quite know about, but I just started talking to Schultz Museum about doing like maybe a little pop up in the back. They would also entice people to go to the museum and some more photo ops at the Welcome Center, because people just love to take photos. So yeah, just some little things like that that'll freshen it, give it a fresh new look and entice people to experience, you know, the great things that we have in Santa Rosa. Well, I'm looking forward to, well, thank you so much for the report. I'm looking forward to the changes that are coming to the visitor's center, including the back area, if you'll be able to open that door in the back and such. And we're also very excited to have you on board working on this very important things to promote Santa Rosa as a destination. So very excited. Thank you. Okay. And then I think the members of the, sorry, that since items done, does anyone, I'm on the, we're not making that much of a discussion. Do we have any public comments or members of the public wishing to make a comment on this item? Thank you. Any members of the public in person, please raise your hands. We have one person public would like to make a comment, please state your name for the record. Thank you. Yeah, Eric Frazier again, and my address is truth in tourism at gmail.com. The genesis of that address actually was born out of our observations about the visitor center. When we realized that the visitor count was totally overstated by a factor of about 10. We're like, Oh my gosh, there's a huge problem in the accountability and veracity of information that comes from the chamber and the economic development department. And so truth in tourism was fond sort of a play on words off of truth and advertising, where again, as consumers, they want to know what the real deal is. So here we appreciate your report. Now it's clear to me it's not like the annual report that you do. It's just a standing item on the agenda. So thank you for that. The question of course is how much of that is devoted to promoting and understanding str segments of hospitality. Before money from bia was used antagonistically against strs omitted from the website lack of understanding, no clarity. So that that really is the question. I don't really see the cooperation. I don't feel the cooperation either organizationally in the bia board, or with the tourism money that's spent. Obviously, we can all appreciate the appropriate now suspending money for visitor education and comfort. It's going to be a lot of work to get 60,000 people going to the visitor center to match the claims that the chamber website, I don't know a virtual reality will do it, especially since you can see it on YouTube, but maybe something I don't know. But thank you so much. Those are my comments. It's the same theme. Boe guarding the str segment is just not going to work in the end. And so we better reckon with it now. While this seems open, become transparent. And everything would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Then any additional members of the public on zoom who have questions, please raise your hand on zoom. If there are any members of the public listening via telephone, press star nine to review. There are no members of the public with further questions. Thank you. All right. That leads us to the end of our meeting. I do want to acknowledge again for coming in and talking about the board ordinance and city policy summary. And thank you for bringing that back together here today. Unless there are any other questions from the board, I would like to adjourn the meeting. All right. Thank you all for coming meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.