RECAP: Tourism Business Improvement District Board Meeting, November 13, 2025
The board approves, and reopens applications, for grants and sponsorships for events from January to June 2026 with a new deadline of December 31
On Thursday, November 13, 2025, the Tourism Board Improvement District (TBID) held a sparsely attended but significant monthly meeting. Present were Vice-Chair Ashton Ramsey, and board members Maria Madrid and Liz Shickler. Chair Rakesh Mehta and board member Ben Uyeda both had excused absences. There were four members of the public in attendance, and all made comments.
The agenda was focused on making recommendations for the first round of TBID sponsorships and grants for events taking place from January to June 2026. The applications were initially due on October 15. However, due to lack of publicity and a low number of applications, and after public comment and discussion, the board voted to re-open grant and sponsorship applications. It extended the deadline to December 31, 2025.
Marketing Director update
Marketing Director Breanne Dusastre gave a marketing update that highlighted recent events supported by the TBID, as well as press mentions. She underlined the success of the 10th Annual Night Sky Festival at the Sky’s the Limit Observatory, which sold 268 tickets and hosted over 80 volunteer astronomers. She also noted the Vacation Races Joshua Tree Half Marathon, which attracted nearly 2,000 runners, 80% of whom hailed from out of town. Anecdotally, Dusastre noted that in her conversations with runners many said they were staying in Twentynine Palms, but she did not provide any statistics. She also spoke about the success of the Joshua Tree National Park Art Exposition and the Twentynine Palms Book Festival.
Dusastre explained that the TBID is investing in advertising in “drive markets,” such as Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and the Bay Area. Media in these markets have continued to cover Twentynine Palms, including recent coverage in the Los Angeles Times and Pasadena Weekly.
It appears that Twentynine Palms is enjoying a fairly busy fall tourist season, despite economic uncertainty and the government shutdown. As Dusastre shared in her annual report in August, tourism was projected to drop in this fiscal year. Though fall has often been a robust season for overnight visitors, Dusastre did not analyze how overnight visitorship and event participation is tracking so far this fall compared to 2024 or if predictions for a slowdown are bearing out.
Public comments focus on transparency and grantee accountability
In general public comment Susan Peplow urged the TBID board to set clear expectations for grantees around event advertising and set up a process for auditing the marketing that event producers are undertaking to ensure they are drawing overnight visitors.
Peplow also advocated for event grantees to be better prepared to advertise all lodging partners, and specifically vacation rentals:
Considering that vacation rentals are now pulling up nearly neck and neck with hotels and motels with Transient Occupancy Tax [TOT, which funds TBID] submissions … We continually are not reaching out to Vacation Home Rental owners to be part of these special lodging options or even represented … So what can we do to make sure that these grantees are prepared with the marketing materials that VHR owners need?1
Peplow suggested providing grantees with boilerplate promotion language or a clickable QR that could lead to the Visit 29 “Stay” webpage.
In her comment, Cindy Bernard questioned whether the change in process for sponsorship review earlier this year was a possible Brown Act violation. Bernard, a former member of the TBID events and grant subcommittee who helped design the grant process, explained that sponsorships were to be evaluated and approved by the entire TBID board.
However, in the April 2025 TBID meeting, Chair Mehta brought forth a list of eight recommended sponsorships (out of 14 applications) for approval that had been evaluated and funded prior to the meeting. Bernard further noted this could be a violation of the Brown act, as any substantial changes to the grant sponsorship review process should have been discussed at a public TBID meeting and approved by the TBID board before to the April meeting.
After Bernard’s comment, Dusastre reviewed meeting agendas and notes and said that the change in sponsorship review process was discussed at the August 14 TBID board meeting. However, none of the revisions were redlined in the guidelines, making it hard to see upfront what had been changed.
Bernard then pointed out that the August revision was after April meeting, so the violation remained but at least was fixed for the current review process. Round one sponsorship applications were reviewed and awarded.
The TBID’s budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year is $547,843. Of that, $150,000 is budgeted for supporting events, with $30,000 specifically designated for event sponsorships. Funding is given out in two rounds: Round one, which supports events from January to June 2026 and round two, which covers events in the second half of the year.
Grant and sponsorship applications were due on October 15, but lightly promoted. The Desert Trumpet noted two Facebook posts advertising the original deadline of October 15, from October 10 and September 25, but could not find any emails advertising the application deadline. Only five applications for sponsorships and three applications for grants were received.
Sponsorships range from $100 to $3,000. According to the application website, sponsorships support smaller-scale projects or initiatives that align with Visit 29 Palms’ tourism goals and five destination pillars. Those pillars are: Outdoor Recreation; Arts, Culture, History; Health and Wellness; Culinary Experiences; and Stargazing and Astronomy. Sponsorship applications are evaluated on a twenty-point scale and minimum score of 15 out of 20 points is recommended to advance for funding.
The events subcommittee recommended funding four of the five applications. They awarded:
$3,000 for the Mojave Experience, an art and rock festival with a day-long event held at the Joshua Tree Lake RV and Campground in March. The board noted the potential for the event to grow, attract new visitors to the area, and overnight stays for those who choose not to camp. The opening night of the festival is being held in Yucca Valley, however, so the board expressed some reservations that participants may stay there instead of Twentynine Palms.
$3,000 for the Comedy Camp Out at the Palms in Wonder Valley in April, a repeat event that is established with a website and marketing channels in place to help spread the word.
$1,500 for the 10-Minute Play Festival at the Palms in May, which the board noted is a repeat event and is picking up traction among visitors.
$1,500 out of the requested $3,000 to All Summer’s Eve Desert Rendezvous XII, also at the Palms. Though it is a repeat event with an established audience, Madrid remarked that she wanted more clarity on the event and the business that it will attract.
The board declined to fund the Mojave Zine Festival, which will be held at Corner 62 in May. Despite being the only event among the sponsorship proposals that will actually be located in the city of Twentynine Palms, in her evaluation Madrid noted, “I felt like I needed a clear explanation on the the way that tourism was going to be enhanced to Twentynine” and concluded it would not attract enough overnight visitors. Funding decisions for these events passed 3-0-2.
Sponsorship public comment: Clarifying guidelines, review process changes, and re-opening applications
Unlike grant applications, which are reviewed by a committee that includes community members and the TBID subcommittee members, sponsorship applications are only reviewed by the TBID events and grants subcommittee. In public comment, Bernard advocated for a community review of sponsorship applications. She pointed out that that the subcommittee, currently composed of board members Madrid and Schickler, essentially gets to “vote twice” on sponsorship proposals since they both review them, recommend them, and sit on the TBID board that approves them.
Bernard also advocated for clearer direction to be given for the difference between grants and sponsorships, stating,
Sponsorships should be reserved for events that provide entertainment for guests who are already in town, while event grants should be reserved for larger projects that will attract tourism and have the potential to become signature events … I think the lack of this distinction is why sometimes there’s so much confusion in evaluating the grants, and you can see it in the scoring … sometimes the grants are being evaluated for bringing tourists from out of town, and sometimes the grants are being evaluated for people that are already here.
Bernard also suggested re-opening the sponsorship and grant application process for the same reasons noted above.
In public comment Susan Peplow concurred with Bernard, that clearer guidelines for sponsorship and grant application evaluation and a larger committee reviewing sponsorship applications would both be helpful.
Round one grants reviewed and awarded and application re-opened until December 31
The stated goal of grants on the Visit 29 website is to fund larger events with significant potential to increase tourism and overnight stays, particularly during the non-peak season. Grants range from $3,000 to $20,000 and are reviewed by a community committee, as well as the TBID events and grants subcommittee. Grants are evaluated on a 1 - 100 scale, and grants a minimum score of 80 is required to advance for funding consideration.
The TBID board received only three grant proposals. They recommended fully funding one proposal and partially funding another:
Full $20,000 funding supporting the second half of the 2025 - 2026 season at Theatre 29.
Partial funding of $3,000 for the Desert Fringe Theatre and Cultural Arts Festival to be held at the Glass Outhouse Art Gallery in April.
The board declined to fund the To Be Continued festival in Wonder Valley, citing that it felt too locally focused to bring in new overnight visitors.
Board members explained that their follow-up calls with the applicants helped provide greater context and clarity around these events that drove their decisions.
In a public comment, Bernard reiterated her ask to re-open the submission process, as well as re-raised her concern about the TBID’s subcommittee members ability to vote twice on proposals.
She expressed frustration with the lack of publicity around grant submissions stating,
We’ve had so many grants come in in prior periods, and here we have three, and we’re only going to fund one. It’s pathetic. And I just can’t understand why it would be so difficult to just reopen the grant period and give other people a chance, because there was so little publicity. People didn’t know there was a deadline. It was the middle of Pioneer Days. And don’t you really want to have more happening in the first six months of 2026?
Finally, Bernard also encouraged the TBID to re-think the role they play in supporting event organizers with promotion to drive markets, stating,
I also think that way back when we were really idealistic, [we thought] that some of these very small organizations could manage drive market promotion. Most of them are too small. They don’t have the staff, and they don’t have the contacts … It’s not like you just do an Instagram and the LA Times looks at it. You have to know who the people are at the LA Times who might be interested in writing about what you’re doing and placing that or at the Orange County Register, or the other publications that exist.
Peplow, who did not plan to comment, presented a different view than Bernard, and reiterated the importance of grantees being responsible for advertising to drive markets. She noted that a $20,000 grant represents about $1,330,000 in lodging, based on the 1.5% TOT.2 She felt that if producers did not have the connections, contacts, or expertise to do so themselves, they should write advertising help into their grant application budgets. She insisted,
The dollars are going to evaporate if we don’t get heads and beds, the event program is going to crash and burn if people don’t stay in 29 Palms … There’s value in that supporting community … but there has to be expectations to how are you going to get people here.
Jeff Dunn, from the Twentynine Palms Historical Society, expressed concern about missing the grant deadline, especially as he was seeking support for the Desert Rat Convention. The convention was originally started in Twentynine Palms in 1948 and ran annually until 1958 before being brought back last year by the Historical Society, with support from the TBID. He supported re-opening the process stating, “I’d like to reopen, because we need that help.”
Gary Daigneault, President of Theatre 29, advocated for funding for the Fringe Festival. He said,
They bring a lot of new people out here. A lot of people will do something with a Fringe Festival, and then that same person, six months later, is doing something at the one act (plays). So these are creative people that need that crucible … adding to that application, the fact that they are creating new artists who will then be bringing people into Twentynine Palms.
Following the public comments, the board discussed the potential of re-opening the grant and sponsorship application process. Dusastre offered a staff recommendation to re-open the grant process, while being mindful of holiday closures around the end of the year. Daigneault then questioned whether the board could make the motion, as it was not on the agenda, though the vote fit under agenda item five, “discussion and recommendation of 2025- 2026 TBID grants.”
Confusion around the motion, seconding, and voting process followed. Madrid made a motion following Dusastre’s recommendation to approve funding for the recommended grants and re-open the application window for six weeks. Vice Chair Ramsey seconded the motion, which Shickler opposed, and called for a vote. Daigneault then asserted from the audience that the motion needed three votes to pass. However, the board, with three of five members present, had a quorum and the motion passed 2-1-2, with Madrid and Ramsey for, Shickler opposing, and Uyeda and Mehta absent.
While it’s welcome news that the grant and sponsorship applications will be re-opened, the board did not discuss how they plan to publicize the extended deadline nor diagnose what went wrong before. Although the extended deadline is now published on the Visit29 website, as of Sunday, November 16, there are no posts about the extension on the Visit29 Instagram, though there is a post on Facebook. The TBID could easily send out an email to past grant and sponsorship recipients and applicants, informing them of the revised deadline and encouraging them to apply, as well as leverage their social media accounts. These grants are a powerful opportunity for Twentynine Palms to position itself as a dynamic tourist destination. As part of their role TBID board members could take ownership for spreading the world to ensure a fairer, more diverse, and robust application pool.
Future agenda items and next TBID meeting
The next TBID meeting will be held on December 11. Future agenda items include the Twentynine Palms Visitor Center (covered in our recap of the City Council meeting on November 12), changing event and program guidelines to include more venues, and bringing the full community subcommittee in to review sponsorship applications.
Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Please note that we do not allow anonymous comments. Please be sure your first and last name is on your profile prior to commenting. Anonymous comments will be deleted.
Feel free to share this article!
Help us reach our 2025 goal of $10,000 in subscriptions! Upgrade to a paid subscription for just $5 per month or $50 per year.
Would you care to donate more than $100? Our Paypal account is up and running!
This quote was edited for reader clarity.
Peplow’s statement was edited to include the correct 1.5%, as she originally made her statement based on 1%.
My math was off by a full decimal. Nearly 1.3 million dollars in gross rents = $20,000 in TBID ToT. The significance being that $20K is the maximum per-award amount under the current event grant program.
Writing comments here is a pain in the you-know-what. I had to go through three rounds of verification from SubStack, which, when finally done, landed me on a generic Substack page from which I had to search to find The Desert Trumpet. If you can adjust the settings for verifying comments, I suggest you do so, or you will get very few indeed. This is *after* I not only signed up, but contributed. This is not the way to encourage engagement.