ON THE AGENDA: Twentynine Palms Tourism Business Improvement District, February 27, 2025
Has TBID improved enough to be trusted with a multi-year reauthorization cycle?
Usually TBID agendas are caught up with the details of where to advertise to best attract tourists and which projects to fund to increase the potential of overnight stays in local accommodations. Tomorrow’s agenda for the first TBID meeting of 2025 is no different. In addition to considering a plethora of promotional opportunities including advertising on z107.7 and on billboards, last up on the agenda is an issue that has proved to be highly controversial: changing the timeframe for TBID reauthorization from every year to a multi-year cycle of every five to ten years. Let’s dive in.
PUBLIC COMMENT
Unlike City Council, TBID public comment is the first item on the agenda. Comments on agenda items take place during discussion of that item, while comments on non-agenda items take place near the end of the meeting. The Brown Act prevents TBID from commenting on non-agenda items. To comment, just pick up a green or gold form at the entry desk, fill it out, and hand it to TBID Marketing Director Breanne Dusastre, who usually sits just in front of the dais to the left. Residents unable to attend should email letters to Ms. Dusastre at bdusastre@29palms.org as TBID Board members’ addresses are not published by the City.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar consists of routine items usually approved with a single vote. The public is given a chance to make comments on these items prior to the TBID motion and request that items be pulled for TBID discussion. Again, fill out a comment form if you wish to address any of the items on this meeting’s Consent Calendar.
In addition to approval of minutes from the November 21, 2024, and December 18, 2024, meetings, two promotional opportunities are up for a vote:
2 Renewal of Backlit Panel at the California Welcome Center in Yucca Valley.
While this item renews an existing contract at $2,700, missing from the item is a clear image of the existing 48 x 72 inch panel or a description of content. Is TBID going to use the existing graphic? Update it for new information? And where is that cost if updating is needed?
3 Renewal of Fuse Connect Advertising Agreement for the Palm Springs International Airport.
This item renews a $22,500 contract. The staff report promotes Palm Springs airport and Fuse Connect, the company that runs the advertising, in lieu of statistical information on advertising effectiveness. Missing in the agenda item is any image of the existing advertising as it appears in the airport or description of design or content. In the contract the item is simply described as “BC Digital - Carousel Video.” As with the previous item, the staff report fails to mention whether the content will need updating and at what cost.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
4 Approval of Six-Month Radio Advertising Agreement with Z107.7 FM.
As with items 2 and 3 on the agenda, the staff report reads like a promotional advertisement for the vendor selling the item. Isn’t the role of staff to promote the interest of the TBID and provide an objective report for Board consideration that includes basic due diligence such as verification of stats provided by the vendor?
5 Outdoor Billboard Locations for Consideration.
Yet another staff report/PR campaign, this time for Lamar Advertising, despite a staff instruction to “review and potentially vote to approve location and campaign duration on one or more available billboard options.” In this case, however, the supporting documents provide the details missing in the staff report, including potential billboard locations and weekly impression statistics based on total population.
Billboard locations under consideration are in Twentynine Palms near the Oasis Cave Market facing west, two locations along I-10 freeway also facing west, and three locations on the eastern end of Los Angeles, including the Echo Park/Silverlake area.
The budget for this item is up to $30,000.
6 Modernizing the Visit 29 Palms TBID to California’s Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994.
For readers unfamiliar with the concept of a Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID), the staff report does a great job of laying out the purpose of these special agencies:
Tourism Business Improvement Districts (TBIDs) are special assessment districts formed through public–private partnerships between local governments and business owners within a defined area. Funded through self-assessed fees on lodging properties, TBIDs provide a stable source of funding for tourism marketing efforts designed to raise awareness, promote the destination, and ultimately increase demand for overnight visitation. Leveraging private sector efficiencies, TBIDs enable tourism business owners to coordinate initiatives that enhance local commerce by using these funds to deliver targeted services.
Currently, there are two laws under which TBIDs are formed, one dating from from 1989, and the other from 1994—primary differences are described in the a chart included in the agenda item.
The Twentynine Palms TBID was formed under the 1989 law in 2017 and currently manages a budget that hovers around $500,000. Per a future items request made at the December 16, 2024, TBID meeting, this item proposes to fund a $24,960 contract with Civitas, ”a full-service firm that specializes in developing and advocating for unique tourism and travel promotion funding strategies,” to facilitate conversion to the 1994 law. This is slightly less than the $26,170 paid to Civitas in August 2023 when they shepherded a failed conversion attempt - the subject of much discussion when first brought to Council in June 2023.
What compelling justification is there for even studying let alone making this change now, less than two years later? And does TBID even have the authority to authorize this contract, as this subject was discussed at City Council and eventual payment authorized by Council the last time around? Let’s review what happened then.
A key difference between the two laws is the 1989 law requires yearly reauthorization by City Council while the 1994 law changes the time frame for TBID reauthorization, and Council oversight, to a multi-year cycle of every five to ten years. When the proposed conversion landed at the City Council in September 2023, not only did the Council not support moving to the new law, they voted to de-authorize the body as a whole because of concerns that the Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) monies that fund TBID were not being managed well. The vote was rescinded a few days later.
In speaking in support of the TBID and in favor of greater self-examination and improvement in 2023, City stakeholders and long-time residents Dawn Benton, Larry Bowden, John Cole and Ann Congdon all supported rescinding the vote but with caveats:
Benton: Successful businesses reorganize occasionally…they examine their strengths and weaknesses. I think the TBID group has some strengths and it has some weaknesses…I would encourage you to reconsider your vote and to push a reorganization of the TBID group.
Bowden: Time to sit down and see what is working and what can be improved.
Cole: The adjustments that need to be made, let’s go about making them. That'll take some work and time and energy both from the Council level into the District and the entire community for that matter.
Congdon: …let’s sit down, let’s talk about it, let’s improve it. Please don’t get rid of it.
On the other hand, Mike Usher, president of Rediscover 29 Palms, spoke in favor of a “more transparent community-facing system” while City employee (now Public Events Coordinator) Scott Clinkscales and then TBID board member Ash Maharaj gave more favorable perspectives on the effectiveness of TBID.
Council listened regarding reauthorization but failed to act on reorganization.
In October 2023 TBID and Council held a contentious joint workshop, which featured suppression of public comment and defensive TBID members who were clearly not open to criticism or improvement.
Since then there have been incremental improvements. Council directed TBID to establish a budget for events, and a grant process was developed to distribute those funds. Changes in board members have resulted in closer inspection of spending and promises greater attention to statistical analysis of advertising effectiveness.
Yet the 2024-2025 marketing plan and budget was big on ambition but weak on statistical support. Additionally, the position of TBID chair has not rotated since the District was formed in 2017. The current Chair, Rakesh Mehta, regularly makes errors in meeting protocol such as forgetting public comment, ignoring board motions to counter with his own motion, and inadvertently telegraphing his votes. The Chair has also more than once admitted to not being familiar with need in the City because he lives in the low desert. The Vice-Chair position only changed because long-time Board member Heidi Grunt stepped down.
Stakeholders have already expressed concern regarding the agenda item. Writing on Facebook, short-term rental owner and manager Susan Peplow called this agenda item “the big one”:
There's a proposal to change the TBID from the 89 law to the 94 law. What does that mean for us? It could allow the TBID to run with little to no oversight for 5 or even 10 years at a time. Right now, the TBID has to show budgets and be renewed annually by the City Council, but if this change happens, the board could have a lot more freedom to make decisions without checks and balances. That could be risky for all of us, so it’s important to make sure our voices are heard!
Please read the agenda and, if you can’t make it in person, send a letter to the board and director before Thursday's meeting with your thoughts. Make sure to request your email will be included in the public record—otherwise, it won’t be seen or considered by those unable to attend. We need to be involved in where the budget goes and how decisions are made!
Has the TBID evolved enough to justify considering the change now?
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after attending the Tbid meeting yesterday, the 27th, the atmosphere felt clique-ish and not worth the money they collect.
they want a 5 or 10 year contract rather than the one year they barely have after the Council cancelled them, then relented and gave them this year contract. ALL accountability and transparency would hidden then for 5-10 years.
i witnessed the 3 member panel and definitely felt there should be MORE members on the Tbid council.
There simply is NOT tourist attractions in 29 Palms to advertise. miniature golf ? the glass toilet ?
Now they will pay Civitas 29,000 (?) to do their job that they should be doing !
Billboards on the 10 freeway at tens of thousands of dollars for several weeks !
Let the Tbid pay for the city street sweeper since the downtown area is the only swept area in the city.
For two hours they pat each other on the back for the fine work they have done, but there is no increase in tourism and no statistics to show they are being successful.
The TBID.................not ready for prime time players. Very amateurish for the loads of money they collect.