Good afternoon.

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All right.

Welcome back, everyone, to our September 10th, 2024, Santa Rosa City Council meeting.

It is now two twenty, and we will reconvene our meeting.

Seeing a quorum, Madam City Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Rogers.

Councilmember O'Krepke.

Councilmember McDonald.

Here.

Councilmember Fleming.

Councilmember Alvarez.

President.

Councilmember Stapp or Vice Mayor Stapp is absent today.

Mayor Rogers.

Present.

Let the record show that all council members are present with the exception of Vice Mayor Stapp.

Thank you.

First of all, thank you so much for being here and your interest in helping out the city.

Could you talk a little bit about the demographics of your target audience that you currently market towards or or try to appeal towards?

We appeal we appeal towards uh uh two different proper two different uh hotels that I up that I oversee.

One is a Sandman, and that is on weekends we do um uh families that come in for the um uh events from at the fairgrounds to uh the ice uh the rink near the museum and um different uh wine um tasting areas.

Um the flamingo we cater to a little bit of everything, everyone that in the summertime it's more um families, swimming pool uh is their biggest draw, and um weddings is huge for us, and we draw them, and also in the winter time, as we're going into now is groups.

We have one of the largest uh meeting facilities in the um in the area and in Sonoma, and um we uh go we go for after that market is our biggest one, especially in the association and corporate market and segment.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember McDonnell.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I just have a quick question about maybe some of your experience and business improvement area districts.

Do you have any experience sitting on boards or committees for business improvement areas or BIAs, business improvement districts, BIDs, or similar programs?

Yes, uh in Lake Arrowhead, I uh um sat uh on the chamber and uh I was the uh committee chair of the tourism department and uh it was it had a uh um decline in tourism, and uh we were able to bring events, uh new events to the uh community that helped in that area and um increased our tourism by uh almost 30 percent in four years.

Um also in uh Lake Avisu um we wanted to change our demographics from being known as the party city in America to uh more uh um sports related, outdoor sports, marathons, and we were able to change that and change that to grant demographics and also it uh improved the um uh overall revenues.

Great.

Could you give us some examples of some contributions or outcomes that you had during that time serving in those positions?

Could you repeat the question again?

Sure.

Could you give us some examples of some positive outcomes or anything that you felt you could share with us or some of those experiences serving on those different boards?

Oh yes, it's um all of most of the um uh the developments of the um are those festivals, those um culture events that come in and art events, balloon events, and which I've worked with in three and four different cities that start off with very little dollars and and increased, doubled, and then at that point in time uh when they um have um reached revenues where they could be on their own, then we don't have to uh give them money every year.

And that's that's the balance, and that's what's important for this committee is to once a an event gets started and they're on their own, then you can wing them off money that you donate to them.

Thank you.

Councilmember Fleming.

Yeah.

Why don't uh would you be willing to talk a little bit about why you're interested in the position um why here and why now?

Um I I feel like um that I um uh being in the in the uh hospitality industry as long as I have been, that um I can help um bring events that I know that will do well for this area, uh even though I've not lived in this area for a long time.

I've been in I've experienced events and uh um qualified those and watched them grow and I which is uh uh is how I can um help the uh hotel industry, which is in a in a decline frame right now.

Uh has you mentioned you haven't been here very long.

I I'm not particularly concerned about that, but what have you done to familiarize yourself with area um beyond um your your specific work items that you need to do and then have you had a chance to watch videos and meet other board members video recordings of past meetings uh unfortunately I have not um I uh um this is my f uh um first meeting and uh but since I've only been here since January I've been um very very busy in um uh restructuring renovating and uh operating two hotels that has uh uh been under uh dire straits and renovations I didn't mean city council meetings um there's no reason for you to have to come here too frequently but I did mean the business improvement association have you had a chance to meet those members to attend any of those meetings to do any of that no I haven't okay would you have time to do that you said you're yes absolutely all right absolutely okay councilmember Krepke thank you um sort of uh a question on uh uh uh kind of a SWOT analysis right so could you do um could you tell me what your um what you think are some of the opportunities to capitalize on in this area and then at the same time counter uh that with some of the issues that we need to the counteract or or overcome um well I'll start with the opportunity is um uh I I feel that um the agriculture area needs to be promoted more um uh than what's out there and what I've seen uh I think this area also needs to look at uh being a uh meeting place uh that's that I can see needs some um encouragement and needs some uh development um I think that um international uh is is a good place to start uh as well as uh for tours um I think um what I've seen so far is um where the decline in the San Francisco tourism uh has affected this area and uh what I'm seeing now is people are coming here first and then they're going to the city so where it used to be the opposite and um I've noticed that just going through the history of the hotels and the records and and looking at those groups that have come through here um and uh your your other question was the opposite opposite so yeah so opportunities and then um uh challenges challenges I think is um all of the limited service hotels that are being built uh really is a big concern um uh there's um very nice ones that are being built but they're all limited service and I just would hate for that to be hurt this area which has a lot of opportunity thank you council member alvare good describe your passion for tourism and and and everything that encompasses the word tourism well I've been in it for 40 years so I have a lot of passion for it I love uh uh the development of uh my team members that come on board and uh watch them grow um and um I love to um uh uh have people leave happy and uh come to the come to a community and enjoy it and return have memories when they leave um this area is why I moved here because I fell in love with it and um I asked my um company to be transferred almost a year ago and finally was had an opportunity to when we took over the two hotels and um so that that would be my passion and um to create jobs that that's one of my in the hospitality industry.

You mentioned that you came to Santa Rosa and and you love the place and you want to be transferred here.

What in particular religious set in your heart and said this is where I want to be because it's close to the city but it's not in the city it's in the country where I was raised uh I was raised on a farm and this reminds me of farm country and um I love the Russian river and this whole area and the food and beverage is my passion.

And I love the Russian River and this whole area.

And the food and beverage is my passion.

I went to the CIA Culinary Institute.

And this area has four seasons of great from the sea to uh to the wine vineyards is amazing, and that's what I fell in love with.

Sounds like you're you're you're one of mine, uh River Rat and a country bumpkin.

So I definitely appreciate you for both.

Uh could you describe a perfect event in your mind?

One that you would have there at the flamingo.

An event.