 Good morning, Brad. If you would please test your audio and visual, that would be great. Morning, Brad. Morning. All right. Eileen, can you hear me? I can, thank you. Wow. I think it has me down as a host, so. Oh, no, that's me. Yeah. Well, anyway. Well, good morning, everyone. We'll go ahead and is everyone here? I think we have a quorum, I believe. Donna has some business to attend, sort of an emergency. She has to cover the desk. So we'll go ahead and get started. I'll call the meeting to order. So before I continue, I have to read this advisement. So I'll go ahead and do so. So I'll call the meeting to order. So due to the provisions of the governor's executive orders, N25, 20, and N29, 20, which has spent certain requirements of the Brown Act and the order of the health officer of the county of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the center is a tourism business improvement area board committee will conduct today's meeting in a virtual setting using the Zoom webinar. Community members and staff are participating from remote locations and are or practicing appropriate social distancing. Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda. Members of the public wishing to speak during item three, public comments, or doing our public hearing items will be able to do so by utilizing that raise hand feature there on the Zoom platform and or pressing star nine on their phone if they wish to do so. All right, so thank you. So, Madam Secretary, could you please take roll call? Let the record reflect that all members are present with the exception of Santa materia. Great, thank you. All right, and then now we open it up for public comments that are not on the agenda. Anybody hear from the public? I would like to provide some comments, please. In addition to no raise hands, we did not receive any voicemails or emails for this meeting. Thank you, Madam Secretary. All right, so moving on. We have item three, which is a style announcements and item 3.1 actually, we currently have a seat opening on the Center for Business Improvement Area Advisory Board. Unfortunately, a good friend, Vern Lacosta, has moved on to another opportunity, so we wish him well. So basically this means that we'll be seeking replacement from a full service hotel. So I don't know if anything else needs to be added. Brad, do you have any comments? Okay, and basically what that means is that I'm not sure how this recruitment takes place, but there are just a few full service hotels within the city. And once we identify an individual, I will need to then go to council with the staff report and other documents prepared. And I understand that might be an opening sometime in October for us to do so. And basically through the staff report and the presentation we'll be making a recommendation to the council and therefore the council will approve this individual to serve on the SRTBIA board. And I understand that that's the protocol and procedure under this ordinance. All right, any comments from the public related to that item? There are no raise hands at this time. Thank you. All right, so moving on, we got a couple of minutes that we need to approve from prior meetings including one of the meetings that we held on May 27th of 2021 as well as the minutes that we held for our special meeting on July 12th to approve the annual report and work plan for 2021-2022. So I don't know if our small group here has had an opportunity to look at those minutes. I'll move to approve both of those. Okay, I second. All those in favor to approve the minutes, say aye. Aye. Okay, any opposed? All right, so minutes approved for all of those two meetings. And as I move on here on the agenda under item five we have event support applications. We happen to have three applications. So we're gonna dive right into item number 5.1 which is the motor sports at the family, sorry, motor sports at the family fun fest. That is an event going from August 6th through August 8th and the agenda has the attached application. So we'll go ahead and have a discussion now regarding that particular item. The event as I said is August 6th through the 8th is the live monster truck performance to be held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. I believe they have applied for funding in the past. The total cost of the event is $62,000. They request this $2,500. And in terms of room nights, they are expecting that they could potentially have between 100 to 250 room nights here in Santa Rosa throughout the time of the event. I guess I'll jump in. My thoughts on this are, and I believe this is how I voted last time, not to support, this seems to be, I feel like we're kind of becoming a permanent funding source. I don't see that many rooms coming in from out of town. They have monster truck events in Ukiah and every other town around here. I love monster trucks, don't get me wrong. I'll probably take my kids to this, but I don't see it as putting heads in beds and it's also on a weekend in the summer when historically speaking, we really don't need the assistance. That's my thoughts. Okay, any further discussion? All right, any comments? Well, I was just gonna say, member Anderson, are you feeling like zero? Is the appropriate level? Are you committed to that number? Is there a sense of any support at all? My vote would be zero, but I mean, I'm not rolling anything off the table, but in Todd's world, that would be my vote. It does sound like the event organizers working with Sandman Hotel for Rooms, and again, they're predicting 100 to 250 rooms a night. So the funds, I'm not sure if they're for marketing purposes or... I realize Sandman had it in the room. Yeah, it says assist with media advertising, marketing, lodging, and site fees, is what they're claiming. I mean, I've been on this, not this board, but the visit to Santa Rosa board for a while, and it seems like we've consistently sponsored, and I just feel like we're kind of becoming a permanent funding source, instead of what our intended purposes, as far as I understand it, to help events start up, bring people from out of the city into the city to put heads in beds. That's my thoughts. Yeah, and eventually I'd like to have a more robust conversation about, sometimes these meetings are mainly for the purpose of going through these applications. I'm wondering if there's other things eventually that we can do as a board to support, to continue supporting tourism, especially as we continue to sort of come out of this horrific pandemic that has just been devastating for the hospitality industry. Well, and that's another thing also. I mean, I'm not sure what this is doing with this new variant of COVID that's coming out. Now we're saying, okay, we all have to mask again, whether we're vaccinated or not. By August, I'm, well, I guess it's not that far away. Yeah, this is, how are they gonna do, the event is what, in two weeks? Yeah. How are they gonna mark it? All right, so again, like the member Rumble mentioned, it doesn't sound like you're supporting this at all. I'm very rumbled with what are your thoughts in terms of the point. But I think we've funded nothing to date, right? Just in the overall COVID context or am I mixing things up? I believe we've funded Sonoma County Pride. That's right, that's right. We've funded Sonoma County Pride and I'm sorry, I was just looking back at our notes to answer member Anderson's questions. We have sponsored monster trucks. It looks like going back, I can tell for sure, going back to 2015. So for quite a while that I can see with the notes that I have. With the exception of 2020, right? Yes, not total, but I'm looking as far back the first time we funded that the SRT-VIA provided marketing funds was back in 15. I'd have to look year by year. It looks like we did do in 16, 17, 18, 19. And then 20 was canceled. So every year since 15 all the way through 19. Can I ask you how much in funding do we have to give out? For this year, 20,000, we've done five, but that 20 assumes revenues for third and fourth quarter also, which we are on target. So we are on target to make that 20, but revenues were a little bit more aggressive. So if the stealth variant does shut things down or change things, that will obviously change. If we keep going on the pace we are, we are in okay shape, funding-wise. And then I think then on top of that, I think we matched that. That's total. That's total. That's for both organizations. So we've approved five out of 20 total. So I definitely would like to have that conversation, Raphael, at a later date about how we can, work to support the hospitality industry in total. I think that's a really important conversation to have. Specific to this motion, I'd throw 500 bucks or something that would get some regional online advice done, rather than zeroing it out altogether. If that's the minority opinion, I'm not going to lose sleep over it though. I would probably support that. It's a family event that people have been hooked up and I know that a lot of folks here in Sissoma County love the monster trucks. And hopefully there's a lot of folks that come visit. We do need the spending dollars, but I'm also concerned about the variance and such. And given that it's two weeks away, I'm not so sure how much advertising will be conducted. However, if they're claiming that up to 250 rooms could potentially be booked, then that's wonderful. And they seem to be working with the Sandman Hotel, which again was closed for quite a while while they were hosting people under quarantine. So I'm okay with 500 dollars. I would support it on the condition or I would ask, I should say, did we get a pickup report from Santa Ana to see how many rooms actually booked? Yeah, I think that's a good idea. And we always do that with any follow-up, so. Do we have any previous years follow-up with how many rooms actually booked? I don't have that in front of me. We would in our system, but I don't have it immediately available. I'll make a motion to approve 500. Yeah, I second. All those in favor? All right. Any opposed? Okay. And I think they didn't skip the comments from the public, right? Just to clarify, are we doing that 500 for marketing outside of Napa, Marin, Sonoma Lake and Mendocino like we have done in the past? It sounded like I heard that it's for, I think Peter mentioned making sure it's for marketing. Todd mentioned it too, so. I would want it outside of Sonoma Lake, then. I would agree. Oh, yes, so just for logistics, protocol, sorry. I mean, do we have any comments from the public? There are no raised hands at this time. Okay, so motion approved to fund $500 for the motor sports at the family fun test. Thank you. All right, so. Marketing outside. Yes, Napa, I mean Sonoma. Which is what we have required of them before, so. And for then to provide another day for a wrap up regarding how many rooms were eventually booked at the Sandman. Which we do receive. Yes, and that close report. Okay, so the next item, thank you. All right, next item is actually the next application is 5.2. It's the, I'm not sure what this means, but it's the DJFE Triathlon Race Series. It sounds like an exciting opportunity. It's a returning event, their seventh year. It's open to families. It's pretty much open to everyone. It's held at the Finley Aquatic Park Center. Their request is $1,500. However, the total cost of the event is around $5,500 according to what I have here. And again, the funds would be used for marketing, assuming that it's outside of Sonoma County. Yes, it is stated here in the application. Perhaps 50 rooms or so, 150 athletes. And I don't know, I think it's got the potential to grow eventually or continue to grow, I mean, but because of COVID again, they're being very cautious. So they want to, I guess, do some minimal advertising eventually. So, and it could be held on September 26th, which I'm not sure if that's, I don't remember if that's big time or not. I certainly like this event as it fits within what we're trying to build as a brand for our community. Bringing athletes back to town is a really, I think smart thing for us to do and to show that we can do an athletic event. So I'd be supportive of the full amount here, although I'll wait to make a motion until we have a conversation. And I do note that the organizer is available here through the chat. Very well. Do you have anything to add? Yeah, I would support this as well. I think it's a good event. I think these events bring people in overnight because they're not gonna show up in the morning, drive in in the morning, run and swim and all that good stuff and then drive home again. And bike. Yeah, and bike, yeah. Yeah, bike is a missing aspect to that one. Just keep biking and home ago. I agree too, I think this is a good event. I would support this for the amount requested. Yeah, I would support it too. And I just wanna add that with the Ironman, basically sort of being gone, the Rampondo moving away from the city. Yeah, I mean, I definitely like this event as well. And so I will support it for the full amount as well. Do we have any comments from the public? I mean... There are no raised hands at this time. Okay, so somebody wanna make a motion too. I'll move to approve the full amount requested. 1500, I believe. All right, I'll go ahead and second that. All those in favor, say aye. All right, aye. Any opposed? Yeah, all right. So we'll... If we could do the same with, was it from our professional marketing outside the Sonoma County? Yes, correct, yeah. And then any other comments from the public, Eileen? There are no raised hands at this time. Very well. All right, so motion approved. For the full amount of their request. Thank you. All right, and then lastly, there is one more and I wonder if I... Oh, here it is. I have it. Okay, so this one is the... I believe it's their first time applying as the historic real world square summer music stroll, student and art show, August 22nd. And then I guess there's another date that it's taking place September 26th. The application state that they will be opening the marketing to folks that are taking the train outside of Sonoma County is to be held at historic real square for the district and Wilson Street and David Street. The total event cost is approximately $1,000. The request is 500, which is sort of half of what the event is costing. And the funding would be for marketing, advertising, printing, flyers, stipend and so on. However, I don't see any information related to how many rooms this... How many room nights this would bring to Santa Rosa. So I'm not sure if maybe they missed that section or anticipated attendance is 150 to 300, just promoting verbal square musicians. Hopefully people from out of town will show up and spend the night, but not quite clear. There's no other information. All right, I can't see a bunch of room nights coming out of this one to be honest. And having said that, I think it's a $500 investment to help an event sort of get off the ground isn't a ton of money, but I'm a little less dogmatic about the room night aspect of it. So I recognize that as my blind spot. Yeah, I think it's a great event and everything, but in my opinion, I feel like they're applying for funding from the wrong source. I think this would be more of like a community event, not bringing people in to put heads in beds. They're marketing to Sonoma and Marin and trying to get people to take the train up. So I think they would do that and then put it around and go right back home. There's something else in here. Yeah, they're mainly marketing to Sonoma County. Like I said, I think it's a good event and everything. I just think they're applying for funding from the wrong source. I don't feel this is what our funding is for, you know, it's quite possible. Yeah, my comment is that perhaps we could see how this event eventually unfolds and then depending on what the outcome is eventually for the 22nd and the 26th of September, maybe they'll have just more better information if they decide to apply in the future and then making sort of a gauge who actually came from out of town and if the five hotels within Reynolds Square proximity had an increase in activity due to the events. So I'm okay with your suggestions or comments as well. And I can count, so that's fine with me. Yeah, Eileen, do we have comments from the public? We have no raised hands at this time. So, unfortunately at this time, it sounds like we will not be approving the final. I think you probably still need to make a motion though to take that action. So, Todd, Peter, you wanna make a motion? No, I'll make a motion to tonight of funding for this application. I'll second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Okay, any votes? Any other comments, I mean, on the public? There are still no raised hands at this time. Very well, so that comes to the bottom of the list of our agenda. And Peter, like I said, and Brad and Todd as well, maybe we just need to get together soon to kind of talk a little bit more about all these meetings are going and the type of applications that we are receiving. Again, in the beginning of 2020, we did receive quite a lot, which was impressive. And I was very excited, but unfortunately, we had the unprecedented situation in 2020, so it was very unfortunate. But it'll be more discussion related to the search or to fill that seat on this board. So, if there isn't anything else, I'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting. I'd like to thank you all for being here this morning again, and it's always a pleasure to see you all. Good seeing you guys too, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.