RECAP: Twentynine Palms Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID), February 27, 2025
New advertising venues, new Board and staff members, and a vote to move to a longer reauthorization cycle
The mission of the Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID), branded as Visit 29 Palms, is to promote tourism to Twentynine Palms and drive overnight room demand through creative and targeted marketing activities and initiatives. (More here.)
During a nearly two-hour meeting, an abbreviated TBID board voted to renew and initiate four advertising venues, and authorized a contract with Civitas Advisors to organize a move to the 1994 TBID law and switch to a five-year reauthorization cycle. The meeting agenda is available for online review as is our agenda preview. Chair Rakesh Mehta, Vice Chair Ashton Ramsey, and new Board member Liz Shickler formed the quorum with Ben Uyeda and Maria Madrid absent. Also in attendance for the monthly convening of the only TBID in the Morongo Basin was City Manager Stone James and City Councilmember April Ramirez.
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING UPDATE
Marketing Director Breanne Dusastre kicked the meeting off by welcoming Liz Shickler, operations manager for the 29 Palms Inn and Campbell House, to the Board. Shickler replaces Heidi Grunt, owner of 29 Palms Inn and Campbell House. Dusastre also introduced new part-time Visitor Center assistant Auregan Falp. Falp joins the TBID staff claiming impressive credentials,1 including 15 years of experience in event management, marketing, and social media, having worked with the French government in the creation of the Paris Film Awards and with Yucca Valley in the creation of their film festival.
Next Dusastre reviewed recent earned media, which are placements in publications where no payments have been made. These included the front-page feature in Los Angeles Times Weekend edition, This desert town near Joshua Tree is brimming with new energy thanks to these 9 hip businesses, published digitally on January 22 and in the print edition in early February. She also mentioned that the new Hotel Wren has opened in the old Circle C Lodge property.
Each meeting the Marketing Director quotes several statistics — note that the TBID runs on an October 1 to September 30 fiscal year, so first-quarter stats are October to December2:
TBID share of Transit Occupancy Tax (TOT) assessments, 1st quarter, $96,000, up 4% from last year
Hotel and short-term rental occupancy (STR) increase of 6.7% for San Bernardino County and 10% for the desert region in January3
25,000 unique visitors to the VIsit29.org website, 1st quarter, up 35% from last year
6,500 outbound links to local businesses from the website
Combined Facebook and Instagram reach: 142,000
GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT
Chair Mehta read a letter from Susan Peplow that contained comments on most agenda items as well as general public comment on non-agenda items such as follow-up with TBID event grantees, who are contractually obligated to link to area businesses and accommodations in their promotions:
Grantees continue to neglect their contractual obligations, particularly when it comes to proper advertisement of their events. Many landing pages redirect to Instagram pages that do not reference the sponsored events, and several grantees have failed to back-link to visit29.org/stay, among other concerns. These repeated issues resemble similar concerns raised in my letter to the TBID Board on March 24, 2024, which included recommendations on setting clear goals and expectations for grantees, as well as establishing reasonable timelines for follow-through.
This concern was echoed by Mary Jane Binge. Eric Menendez requested that TBID meetings be streamed and recorded for improved public access for stakeholders and the community. TBID events grantee and producer of the Twentynine Palms Book Festival, Patrick Zuchowicki, spoke to the LA Times article and the local groundswell in activity that helped make it possible, as well as the grant reporting, which he described as easy to provide. Eileen Leslie was interested in knowing whether there was an increase in web impressions generated from the LA Times article, and expressed concerns about fees associated with STR permit renewals. She also doubted that funded events were translating to stays in accommodations:
And you may or may not know I do have all five of the permits that are available…So I get a really good representation of what's going on, because there are different types of short-term rentals. Speaking to the grants, specifically about the grants, I don't see anywhere where I can find any evidence that that is equating over to tourism.
CONSENT CALENDAR
The Consent Calendar consisted of minutes from the November 21, 2024, and December 18, 2024, meetings, and annual renewals of two promotional opportunities: a backlit panel at the California Welcome Center ($2700) and a digital carousel video at Palms Springs Airport ($22,000).
In public comment on the item, Susan Peplow, in the aforementioned letter, wanted to see more specifics on both opportunities and felt that the airport graphics, which she said consisted only of the Visit29 logo, needed improving. Eric Menendez also expressed concern about the airport graphics not correlating with “visitor information.” He also spoke about the lack of active collaboration with the California Welcome Center and wondered why we didn’t have a similar backlit panel at our own visitor center.
The Consent Calendar was then approved 3-0-2 with no Board discussion.
DISCUSSION AND POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS
Approval of Six-Month Radio Advertising Agreement with Z107.7 FM
As it appeared to be a given that advertising with Z107.7 would be purchased, discussion centered around which six-month contract to choose, both including one rotating website ad: nine on-air 30 second spots at $495 per month or six at $395 per month with placements divided between the morning, afternoon, and evening shows. To sweeten the deal z107.7 had added an additional five ads per month to the packages.
Board member Shickler asked how the return on investment (ROI) would be quantified. Vice Chair Ramsey suggested that returns would be hard to quantify but that it was important to support the local station and that advertising in the high desert would contribute to multiplying “synergy,” shifting Twentynine Palms from “that place is horrible to that place is amazing.”
In public comment, Mary Jane Binge, Blake Hodges, and Eric Menendez all spoke in support of the z107.7 contract. Susan Peplow had posed the question “Will the ads include updated information on events, promotions, and places to stay in Twentynine Palms, particularly for visitors and their families?” in her letter.
The Board voted 3-0-2 to contract for the $395 per month package for a total of $2370.
Outdoor Billboard Locations for Consideration
The Board reviewed six first-time potential billboard locations: Twentynine Palms near the Oasis Cave Market facing west, two locations along I-10 freeway also facing west — one near Palms Springs and another near the 10/60 interchange near Beaumont/Banning, and three locations on the eastern end of Los Angeles, including the Echo Park/Silverlake area. The budget for this item was “up to $30,000.” Also discussed were impression statistics provided by the vendor, Lamar Advertising, based on population demographics in the vicinity of the billboard.
Vice Chair Ramsey was enthusiastic about the proposal:
I've heard from so many people about, you know, we need some billboards! They're seeing Snake Bite [Snake Bite Roadhouse] has two billboards, and there's a spa in Yucca Valley, they have a billboard. Red Dog [Red Dog Saloon] has a billboard. And, you know, we need to capture people coming to town.
Ramsey initially favored billboards located in the Palm Springs and Silverlake markets.
Inevitably, public comment speakers had their own thoughts about potential locations, with Mary Jane Binge favoring Palm Springs, Eileen Leslie Beaumont/Banning and Echo Park, and Blake Hodges Palm Springs and Beaumont/Banning.
Public Arts Advisory Committee and Friends of the Historic Plaza President Paul Razo also favored the Beaumont/Banning location, pointing out its location east of the Morongo Casino and added:
But also wanted to extend any help that we can offer in terms of how this billboard gets completed, in terms of branding, design, consultation, anything that we can do. I do hope that when the billboard is made, it focuses on the key drivers for our city. I hope it's very concise and has something as simple as food, lodging, retail, and trips to Joshua Tree [National Park]. I mean, we need to make it plain and simple and focus on those key drivers.
Susan Peplow expressed concern regarding the lack of information on content, “I would appreciate further details on the costs of developing these billboards and the strategies to ensure they capture attention and drive traffic.”
Heading back to the Board for discussion, Chair Mehta pointed out that the Beaumont/Banning location also sees traffic from Hemet and that it sometimes slows in that section of the 10 freeway, while near Palm Springs, “people are flying.” He also discussed the $2,700 cost for four weeks and availability at the end of April as favorable factors.
Ramsey acknowledged the speed of traffic near Palm Springs as being an issue while Shickler mentioned retired people who are “leisurely traveling” and can make spur-of-the-moment decisions.
Ramsey moved to contract for the Beaumont/Banning location for three months totaling $8,100 not including the cost of fabrication. He then motioned to contract for the “Silverlake” billboard while visually confirming an Echo Park location feeding off of the SR 2 freeway onto Glendale Blvd. That location was available for two months, starting immediately, at $10,000, a discount from the usual $7,000 per month rate. Both motions carried 3-0-2. The total investment for this venue is $15,100 plus $1,600 for fabrication.
Absent from all advertising vendor discussions was design and content of the promotional material — the TBID budget doesn’t have a line item for graphic design or for the authoring of copy for on-air spots. On Friday, Desert Trumpet put in a call to Board member Uyeda to ask about the status of concept development — was there a campaign in mind? Uyeda confirmed that the TBID marketing subcommittee, consisting of Ramsey and himself, were already working on proposals for the billboards but were unable to finalize a concept without knowing locations. With locations determined, they would turn to finalizing proposals to present to the Board at a future meeting.
Modernizing the Visit 29 Palms TBID to California’s Property and Business Improvement District Law of 1994
As we discussed at length in our agenda preview, this is a redo of an failed attempt at updating to the 1994 law that took place less than two years ago. Updating gives the TBID a few advantages — the longer reauthorization cycle of five years allows for long-term strategic and marketing planning, contracting, and stable employment for TBID staff. The public is wary, fearing the lack of yearly reexamination by City Council — even though the rough reauthorization that took place in 2023 was a blip in TBID history and Council has rarely asked the tough questions many stakeholders have requested.
Kelly Rankin joined the meeting, representing Civitas Advisors, ”a full-service firm that specializes in developing and advocating for unique tourism and travel promotion funding strategies.” Rankin explained that to move to the 1994 law, the TBID must demonstrate majority support for the district from its stakeholders, the STR, hotel and other lodging owners who pass funds raised by the 1.5% tax on guests to City coffers:
The support is weighted based on how much [inaudible] business pays in assessment towards the district annual budget. So without meeting this milestone, a 94 district can't move forward with the steps to formation…. Under a 94 district, the governing body would actually be a nonprofit organization,4 such as the destination marketing organization, rather than the City Council, as is under your current [19]89 district.
So this nonprofit organization board of directors would be comprised of those paying the assessment, and they'd be responsible for managing the services and programs for the TBID. This structure allows the lodging business owners to have direct control over the district services. However, City Council is still served an oversight role, and this includes forming the 94 district, continuing to collect and remit the assessment and then also receiving the TBID annual report. So under the 94 law, the TBID is still subject to Brown Act and must provide annual reports to the City Council and other reports also available to lodging business owners.
Rankin was questioned by Chair Mehta about the fee of $24,960, which is similar the the amount paid in 2023. Could any of the work from 2023 be used this year? Would Civitas give the TBID a break on the fee? The answer was no, the work needs to be restarted.
During this discussion, Mayor Steven Bilderain appeared in the hallway, and Eileen Leslie left chambers to confer with him. She returned as public comment on the item opened:
I think I'm going to reserve my right to speak until City Council when this topic comes up. Thank you.
This confirms that the final say on whether TBID can pursue conversion to the 1994 law rests with City Council — although it’s unclear when that would take place. In June 2023 Council weighed in at the beginning of the process and tabled approval of the Civitas contract, which ended up being paid in August 2023 after it became clear there wasn’t stakeholder support for the conversion.
Also speaking in public comment on the conversion were Mary Jane Binge and Eric Menendez, both indicating their doubt that TBID was ready to move to a five-year reauthorization cycle.
In her written comment, Peplow emphasized the need for greater engagement:
To build broader support for a 94 law and longer reauthorization, the board must engage more deeply with stakeholders. Education and engagement are key. I urge the board to focus on improving existing resources and opportunities rather than shifting to a 94 law. Greater outreach to both VHR [vacation home rental] operators and hoteliers will make support for such changes more viable. I believe it’s critical to fix existing issues before embarking on such a significant change.
Vice Chair Ramsey framed his defense of the conversion as “Do we believe we deserve a TBID?”:
Do we believe we deserve this tax that we put in place to market the City? To give us a strategic advantage over Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree — not that I don't support them — If we're strong, they're strong. But this puts us in the big boy leagues. If we want to have this, well, why would we want to redo it every year...like why?
Schickler chimed in:
It's pretty new to me a little bit. But speaking to my boss and stuff, it's being able to not have just this year in a short time, but to have that time to do things and plan.
Chair Mehta seconded the sentiments of Ramsey and Schickler and made another attempt at lowering the Civitas fee but to no avail.
After some discussion about timelines and whether the process would be complete prior to the next reauthorization in the fall — an unknown — a motion was made to approve the contract with Civitas and move forward with the conversion. It was carried 3-0-2.
The potential move to the 1994 law is coming at a pivotal moment as the TBID also makes a push into new advertising venues such as billboards beginning this spring. Overall the TBID committed to $43,770 across four promotional vendors, not including copy and design costs. Will the success of this second push for a five-year reauthorization cycle be contingent on stakeholder satisfaction with the upcoming campaigns? To be continued when TBID’s desire to evolve lands at City Council in the coming months.
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Stats are as reported by the Marketing Director and not independently verified
Many Destination Marking Organizations are 501(c)(6) nonprofit organizations - see this chart for a comparison between 501(c)(3) charitable organizations and 501(c)(6) business leagues (ie organizations formed to support their members business activities).