Agenda — Santa Maria City Council, November 7, 2023 (part 1 of 4)

CITY COUNCIL AGENDA

CITY OF SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA

Tuesday, November 7, 2023
CLOSED SESSION - 4:30 P.M.

REGULAR SESSION - 5:30 P.M.

Oral Comments during the meeting:

In-person format. Attend the meeting in-person in the City Hall Council Chambers at 110 East Cook Street, Santa Maria, and submit a request to speak to the Clerk or City staff. •
Zoom Meeting Portal. Participate via Zoom to register to speak during the Public Comment portion of the meeting or on a particular Agenda Item. Use the Zoom link below or dial-in via telephone.
•
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Webinar ID #: 897 6301 4776
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Watch an instructional Video on Participating using Zoom.

Public Written Comments prior to the meeting (must be received by 2:00 p.m. in advance of the meeting*):

Email - Submit Comments via email to [email protected]. In the body of your email, please include the date of the meeting and the item number (if applicable). Emails will not be read aloud during the meeting.
•
Mail - Delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Address letters to the City Council, Attn.: City Clerk's Office at 110 East Cook Street, Santa Maria, CA 93454. Letters will not be read aloud during the meeting.
•
*All written correspondence will be distributed to Councilmembers and attached to the associated meeting agenda (under Public Comment or Agenda Item); however, submissions received after the deadline will not be processed until the following day.

How to watch the meeting from home:

Comcast Channel 23 - Live during the meeting, and rebroadcast on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. after the meeting and again on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. the following week.

1. Live Webcast - Online from the Agenda Center & Meetings Portal (select meeting date) or at https://video.isilive.ca/santamaria/live.html. Note - When no meeting is streaming, the window

2. will read "Searching for live stream."
You Tube Live Stream - You Tube Webcast.

Note: Live Webcast and You Tube Live are typically available within 15 minutes before the start of the meeting. There is a delay of about 15-30 seconds with both the Live Webcast and You Tube Live Stream.

3. Zoom Meeting Portal - Registration is required (link above) even for observing the meeting.4.

American Disability Act Accommodations:

Any member of the public who needs accommodations should email the City Clerk’s Office at [email protected] or call 805-925-0951 x2306. The City Clerk’s Office will use its best efforts to provide reasonable accommodation by request at least 48 hours ahead of the meeting.

CLOSED SESSION

1. CALL TO ORDER
ROLL CALL: Councilmember Aguilera-Hernandez, Councilmember Cordero, Councilmember Escobedo, Councilmember Soto, and Mayor Patino

2. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
In-person oral comments will be accepted during this time. There is no Zoom participation available for the Closed Session Public Comment period. Written comments may be submitted per the instructions above.

3. RECESS-CLOSED SESSION
The City Council will immediately recess to a closed session for the following:

3.a Conference with Legal Counsel, Pursuant to California Government Code §54956.9(d)(2)
Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to subdivision (d)(2) of the California Government Code §54956.9: One potential case

3.b Conference with Legal Counsel - Existing Litigation, Pursuant to California Government Code §54956.9 (Paragraph (1) of subdivision (d)) Name of Case: In re: Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Products Liability Litigation, Case No. 2:18-mn-2873-RMG

3.c Public Employment Recruitment - City Manager, Pursuant to California Government Code §54957(b)(1)

3.d Conference with Labor Negotiators, Pursuant to California Government Code §54957.6
Agency Representatives: Interim City Manager Alex Posada and Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Dawn Jackson.

Employee Organizations: All bargaining units, unrepresented employees, managers, and executives.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION
OPEN SESSION - 5:30 P.M.

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5. INVOCATION

6. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

7. CALL TO ORDER
ROLL CALL: Councilmember Aguilera-Hernandez, Councilmember Cordero, Councilmember Escobedo, Councilmember Soto, and Mayor Patino

8. REPORT BY THE CITY ATTORNEY FROM CLOSED SESSION

9. PRESENTATIONS / PROCLAMATIONS

9.a Presentation – Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce 2022-2023 Annual Report The City Council will receive and file the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Commission, Visitors Bureau & Tourism Marketing District 2022-2023 Annual Report.

9.b Retirement Resolution for Mike Davis
The City Council will consider adopting a Resolution honoring and commending Mike Davis for 34 years of exemplary service.

Environmental Notice: The activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act State Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to State Guidelines Section 15060(c)(3) no environmental review is required.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution honoring and commending Mike Davis for 34 years of exemplary City service and congratulating him on his upcoming retirement.

10. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD (Not to exceed 15 Minutes)
The City Council values your input. Instructions are provided above (page 1) for communicating with the City Council. Individual speakers are limited to three minutes or as directed by the Mayor.

11. CONSENT CALENDAR
The following routine items are presented for City Council approval without discussion as a single agenda item in order to expedite the meeting. The Consent Calendar is approved by roll call vote with one motion. These items are discussed only on request of Councilmembers. Members of the public may speak on Consent Calendar items during the Public Comment Period.

SHOULD A COUNCILMEMBER WISH TO DISCUSS OR DISAPPROVE ANY ITEM, it must be dropped from the blanket motion of approval and considered as a separate item.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt the Consent Calendar as submitted.

11.a CITY MANAGER/CITY CLERK DEPARTMENT

11.a.1 Ordinances and Resolutions
RECOMMENDATION:

Waive the reading in full of all Ordinances and Resolutions. Ordinances on the Consent Agenda will be adopted by the same vote cast at the first meeting, unless City Council indicates otherwise.

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11.a.2 Approval of Minutes
RECOMMENDATION:

Approve the Minutes of the regular City Council meeting of October 17, 2023.

RECOMMENDATION:

Approve the Minutes of the special City Council meeting of October 24, 2023.

11.b COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

11.b.1 Fiscal Year 2023-24 HOME Consortium Allocation Recommendation The City Council will consider adopting a Resolution to approve the use of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) funding to be allocated to assist the City of Santa Maria’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program and an affordable housing project in Santa Barbara County.

Environmental Notice: The Project qualifies for an Exemption pursuant to Section 15061(b)(3) (common sense exemption) of the California Environmental Quality Act State Guidelines.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution approving the use of Fiscal Year 2023-2024 HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) funding to be allocated to assist the City of Santa Maria’s Tenant-Based Rental Assistance program and an affordable housing project in Santa Barbara County.

11.c FINANCE DEPARTMENT

11.c.1 Payment of Warrants
RECOMMENDATION:

Order ratified subject to having been certified as being in conformity with the budget and having been approved for payment by the Director of Finance.

11.c.2 Payment of Payroll
RECOMMENDATION:

Order ratified subject to having been certified by the proper Department Directors, as shown on records on file in the Department of Finance, and having been approved for payment by the Director of Finance.

11.d LIBRARY DEPARTMENT

11.d.1 Approval of an Agreement with the County of Santa Barbara and the Cities of Lompoc, Goleta, Santa Barbara, and Carpinteria to Provide for the Operation of a County-wide Free Library System for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 The City Council will consider approving an Agreement with the County of Santa Barbara to provide for the operation of a County-wide Free Library System for Fiscal Year 2023-2024.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution approving an Agreement with the County of Santa Barbara, the Cities of Lompoc, Goleta, Santa Barbara, and Carpinteria to provide for the operation of a County-wide Free Library System for Fiscal Year 2023-2024.

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11.e POLICE DEPARTMENT

11.e.1 Donation of Community Outreach Vehicle from the Santa Maria Police Council The City Council will consider approving the receipt of a donation of a 1960 Chevrolet Bel Air from the Santa Maria Police Council to be utilized as a Community Outreach vehicle.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution approving the donation of a 1960 Chevrolet Bel Air to the Santa Maria Police Department from the Santa Maria Police Council.

11.f PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT

11.f.1 Award of Bid for Citywide Sewer Manhole Rehabilitation, Project, Bid No. 2023-09
The City Council will consider approving the award of Bid No. 2023-09 to Ayala Engineering Inc. for the construction of the Citywide Sewer Manhole Rehabilitation Project. This project will consist of relining existing manholes owned by the City at various locations throughout the City, including preparing and implementing traffic control. Staff is requesting the City Council appropriate adequate additional funds to cover the cost of the work along with all associated expenses.

Environmental Notice: The Project qualifies for a Statutory Exemption pursuant to Section 15301 - Class 1 pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act State Guidelines because the scope of work to be conducted is an existing public facility, with negligible expansion of the existing uses.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution awarding a bid to Ayala Engineering, Inc., in the amount of $390,050, for the construction of Citywide Sewer Manhole Rehabilitation Project, Bid No. 2023-09.

11.g UTILITIES DEPARTMENT

11.g.1 Second Reading of Ordinance No. 2023-03 Approving Water and Sewer Rates Commencing Each January 1 from 2024 through 2027
The City Council will conduct the second reading to approve water and sewer rates commencing each January 1 from 2024 through 2027.

RECOMMENDATION:

Conduct the second reading to approve water and sewer rates commencing each January 1 from 2024 through 2027.

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12. PUBLIC HEARING
ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS FOR PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS:

Council Agenda Report to be given.

Applicant/Appellant comments.

Questions from the City Council.

Written communications/Public input.

Public hearing to be closed.

City Council discussion and action.

12.a Santa Maria Cemetery District Expansion General Plan Amendment, Zone Change and Planned Development Permit at the 600 Block of East Newlove Drive The City Council will consider approving a General Plan Land Use Map Amendment and Zone Change (GPZ2021-0003) FROM MDR-12 (Medium Density Residential) land use designation and R-2 (Medium Density Residential) zoning TO CF (Community Facilities) land use designation and PF (Public Facilities and Institutional) zoning designation and a Planned Development Permit (PD2022-0014) for the Santa Maria Cemetery District to construct a 2,550-square-foot prefabricated storage building with attached 544-square foot office and break room, with a 15,900- square-foot gravel base storage area and associated site improvements on a 0.87- acre site.

Environmental Notice: Environmental Review for this project was completed through the preparation of an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (SCH #2023040484) pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act State Guidelines.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution to adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the General Plan Land Use Map amendment, zone change, and Planned Development Permit for Santa Maria Cemetery District Expansion, located in the 600 block of East Newlove Drive; and
RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution amending the General Plan Land Use Policy Map for approximately 87 acres FROM MDR-12 (Medium Density Residential) TO CF (Community Facilities) for the Santa Maria Cemetery District Expansion, located at the 600 block of East Newlove Drive; and
RECOMMENDATION:

Introduce for first reading, and continue to a future meeting, an Ordinance amending the General Plan Land Use Policy Map for approximately 0.87acres FROM MDR-12 located at the 600 Block of East Newlove Drive from PD/R-2 (Planned Development/Medium Density Residential) TO CF (Community to PD/PF (Planned Development/Public Facilities) for the Santa Maria Cemetery District Expansion, located at the 600 block of East Newlove Drive; and RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution approving Planned Development Permit PD2022-0014 for the Santa Maria Cemetery District Expansion, located at the 600 block of East Newlove Drive.

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12.b Solar Power Award of Contract
The City Council will consider approving agreements with ForeFront Power for the construction of Solar Photovoltaic Systems to eight City real property sites. The City of Santa Maria was able to secure ForeFront Power through School Project for Utility Rate Reduction, a joint power authority, which offers the Renewable Energy Aggregated Procurement Program, for which the City is an eligible entity.

Environmental Notice: Public Resources Code, section 21080.35 (added by Stats.2011, c. 469 (S.B.226), § 3), statutorily exempts from CEQA evaluation the installation of a solar energy system, including associated equipment, on the roof of an existing building or at an existing parking lot.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution entering into Power Purchase Agreements and related contract documents with ForeFront Power for facilities at the City’s real property sites.

13. REGULAR BUSINESS
ORDER OF PROCEEDINGS FOR REGULAR BUSINESS ITEMS:

Council Agenda Report to be given.

Questions from the City Council.

Written communications/Public input.

City Council discussion and action.

13.a Santa Maria General Plan Update Preferred Land Use Alternative The City Council will consider approving the General Plan Update Preferred Land Use Alternative.

Environmental Notice: The activity is not a “Project” as defined under Section 15378 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) State Guidelines; therefore, pursuant to State Guidelines Section 15060(c)(3), no environmental review is required.

RECOMMENDATION:

By motion, approve the Preferred Land Use Alternative (modified Alternative C – Hybrid).

14. REPORT BY INTERIM CITY MANAGER

15. ORAL REPORTS OF COUNCILMEMBERS AND OFFICERS (INCLUDING AB1234

REPORTS)

16. ADJOURNMENT

PLEASE NOTE:

The next regular meeting of the City Council will be held on November 21, 2023, at 5:30 p.m.

The deadline for submitting items for the November 21st meeting is November 8th.

City Council Meetings are televised live on Comcast cable television channel 23 and are rebroadcast at 9:00 a.m. on the next Thursday and on the following Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Council Meeting videos are also available for viewing on the City’s website. Your attendance

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at this public meeting may result in the recording and broadcast of your image and/or voice.

If you challenge a determination made on a matter on this agenda in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described on this agenda, or in written correspondence to the city council at, or prior to, the public hearing.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING INFORMATION AND PROCESS:

This agenda is prepared and posted pursuant to Government Code Section 54954.2. By listing a topic on this agenda, the City Council has expressed its intent to discuss and act on each item. In addition to any action identified in the summary description of each item, the action that may be taken by the City Council shall include: a referral to staff with specific requests for information; continuance; specific direction to staff concerning the policy or mission of the item; discontinuance of consideration; authorization to enter into negotiations and execute agreements pertaining to the item; adoption or approval; and disapproval. Items not on the agenda may not be discussed or acted upon except under emergency circumstances. (Government Code Section 54954.2).

Copies of the staff reports or other documentation relating to each item of business referred to on the agenda are on file in the Office of the City Clerk and available for public inspection during City Hall business hours the Friday before the meeting. Any written correspondence or documents provided to a majority of the City Council after distribution of the Agenda will also be available for public inspection in the Office of the City Clerk. If requested, the agenda and supporting documents shall be made available in alternative formats to persons with a disability. The City Clerk’s Office will answer any questions regarding the agenda.

Materials related to an item on this agenda submitted after distribution of the agenda packet will also be available with the agenda material for public inspection during normal business hours in the City Clerk’s Office, 110 E. Cook Street, Santa Maria. Subject to the ability to post the documents prior to the meeting, such documents will also be available on the City’s meetings website portal for the current City Council meeting at https://cityofsantamaria.org/meetings.

The City of Santa Maria welcomes orderly participation at its meetings from all members of the public. Orderly participation means speaking only on items of City business or on subjects within the City’s control. Though the City Council wants to hear your concerns and values your input, it is inappropriate to defame, yell, use profane language, interrupt, or disrupt the meeting. All cellular telephones are to be turned off or set to vibrate, and signs are not to be displayed in a manner that violates the rights of others or prevents others from watching or fully participating in the Council meeting. Pursuant to Government Code Section 36813, the Mayor is authorized to prohibit such conduct, up to and including ordering anyone that disrupts the meeting to be removed from the City Council Chambers.

To receive reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act during the meeting, please notify the City Clerk’s office of your needs during business hours at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting (typically before 3 p.m. on the Thursday before the meeting). The Office of the City Clerk is located at 110 East Cook Street in Santa Maria; telephone (805) 925-0951, extension 2307. The City will give primary consideration to your request in providing assistance. Examples of assistance may include exhibits in large-sized format, use of assisted listening equipment, use of the California Relay Service, texting by

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cellular phone, or the services of a live interpreter.

Assisted listening equipment can also be used for interpretation by Spanish-only speaking persons. To allow the City to coordinate and request a Spanish interpreter from the volunteer corps, contact the Office of the City Clerk by 1:00 p.m. on Monday before the meeting.

Equipo también puede ser utilizado para la asistencia de interpretación para esas personas que solamente hablan español. Para permitirle a la Ciudad que coordine y solicite un interprete de un grupo de voluntarios, llame al (805) 925-0951 extensión 2307 a la 1:00 de la tarde el lunes antes de la junta.

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FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 7, 2023

COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT

TO: City Council

FROM: Interim City Manager Alex Posada
Prepared by: Community and Government Affairs Analyst Danielle Clayton

SUBJECT: Presentation – Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce 2022-2023 Annual Report

The City Council will receive and file the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Commission, Visitors Bureau & Tourism Marketing District 2022- 2023 Annual Report.

BACKGROUND:

Attached is the annual report from the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, which encompasses the Economic Development Commission, Visitors Bureau & Tourism Marketing District. This report comprises their most recent activities, programs, and services from the period July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.

DISCUSSION:

Glenn Morris, the President/CEO of the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, will be making the presentation.

ATTACHMENTS: A: 2023 Annual Report – Santa Maria Valley Chamber B: Supplemental – Visitors Bureau Marketing Report
Santa Maria Valley Economic Development Commission
Santa Maria Valley Visitors Bureau & Tourism Marketing District

ANNUAL REPORT
2022-2023
www.santamaria.com
www.santamariavalley.com
Attachment A
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 2
TABLE
of contents
Message from the CEO
Economic Development Commission
Visitors Bureau
Appendix A: Financials
03 04
22 38

MESSAGE
from the CEO
September 2023
Alice Patino, Mayor
Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, Mayor Pro Tem
Mike Cordero, Council Member
Carlos Escobedo, Council Member
Gloria Soto, Council Member
On behalf of the Board, staff, and members of the Chamber, I am pleased to share with you the results of our efforts to promote tourism and economic development on behalf of the City and surrounding region. We are proud to work as partners with the City and others to advance economic vitality in our community.

This report focused on the work that the Chamber performed in these areas during the 2022-2023 fiscal year. We also try to provide some look ahead at the key areas of emphasis for the coming year.

As the community’s lead economic development organization and destination management organization, the Chamber is committed to providing support for both existing and prospective businesses, ensuring that families and individuals looking for travel values choose our region, and in general providing leadership around efforts to raise the income and quality of life for those who live and work in our community.

As you review this annual report, we trust that you will be as proud as we are of the progress our community has made.

We are also confident you’ll join us in being optimistic about the prospects for even greater progress as we collectively continue to establish conditions that allow local businesses to be successful and our neighbors to thrive.

We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the City Council and staff and welcome your input and feedback as we work to increase our effectiveness and impact.

Sincerely,
Glenn Morris
President/CEO, Santa Maria Valley Chamber
While many staff at the Chamber assist with various Economic Development-related activities, the individuals below play a direct role on the Chamber’s Economic Development team:
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 4
Economic Development
Team
ABOUT
Suzanne is the primary contact
for the Economic Development
Commission and oversees all
partnerships & projects related
to local economic development
for the Santa Maria Valley.

David assists with local
business assistance specifically
for the Hispanic Business
Committee in the Santa Maria
Valley.

Molly oversees the local
workforce development and
education programs and
partnerships with community
stakeholders related to these
programs.

Suzanne Singh
Economic Development
Director
David Hernandez
Hispanic Business Outreach &
Development Coordinator
Molly Schiff
Director of Member &
Community Engagement
The Economic Development Commission, made up of approximately 30 local industry and city leaders, provides guidance to the Chamber’s development and implementation of Economic Development strategies and action plans.

The Commission receives quarterly updates on key economic indicators and activity; identifies opportunities for, and barriers to, economic growth in the community; and helps to identify key initiatives to be undertaken by the Chamber.

Commission Members:
• Sam Cohen, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians;
EconAlliance
• Dave Cross, Fletcher Cross Associates
• Cara Crye, Farm Supply Company
• Eric Daniels, PG&E
• Mark Fugate, Charter Brokerage
• Angelica Gutierrez, L & G Farms
• Andrew Hackleman, City of Santa Maria
• Rob Himoto, Santa Maria Valley Railroad
• Sofia Lariz, Emerald Broadcasting
• Vince Lopez, V Lopez Jr. and Sons
• Ben Marsalek, CalPortland
• Steve McCarty, McCarty Davis CRE
• Chuen Ng, City of Santa Maria
• Ben Oakley, Western States Petroleum Associates
• Martin Pehl, Santa Maria Public Airport
• Matt Richardson, Marian Regional Medical Center
• Jerry Schmidt, Pacifica CRE
• Tim Seifert, Highcraft Builders
• Janet Silveria, Community Bank of Santa Maria
• Laurie Tamura, Urban Planning Concepts
• Brett Vernon, The Vernon Group
• Kevin Walthers, Allan Hancock College
• Ted Wendel, AT Still University
• Jeff Wilson, County of Santa Barbara
• Brooks Wise, Pacific Premier Bank
The Chamber held a housing summit
to discuss the need for affordable
housing and new housing projects &
developments in the Santa Maria Valley.
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 6
KEY
Metrics
While there are many potential metrics and data points that could indicate the health of the local economy, the Chamber has chosen five key metrics that we believe provide a high-level view of economic activity. This report provides some initial snapshots of these data points; in future reports we anticipate being able to provide more context in the form of trends and potentially benchmarks against comparable communities.

The five metrics chosen as indicators of local economic vitality include:
• Employment: Total jobs and Unemployment Rate
• Housing: Median Home Prices
• Investment: Building & Construction Valuations
• Business Growth & Potential: Business Licenses and Vacancy Rates • Retail Activity: Sales Taxes per capita
Gina’s Piece of Cake celebrates the
opening of their second location in
Orcutt.

Employment
From July 2022 - June 2023, the City of Santa Maria saw a growth of 1,000 jobs.

Source: California Employment Development Department (https://labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/) Source: California Employment Development Department (https://labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/)

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 8
Housing
Data Source: Central Coast Regional MLS
Data compiled by McCarty Davis Commercial Real Estate
Data Source: Central Coast Regional MLS
Data compiled by McCarty Davis Commercial Real Estate

Investment
Total permits issued (Residential and Non-Residential): 2,391 Source: City of Santa Maria
Business Growth & Potential
Business Licenses (within the City of Santa Maria) July 2022- June 2023 • New: 793
• Renewed: 4848
Source: City of Santa Maria
Business Vacancy Rates
Source: McCarty Davis

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 10
Retail Sales
Sales tax per capita based on sales tax received July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023 are as follows:

Source: City of Santa Maria

CATALYZING
Economic Growth
The Chamber’s Economic Development team provides assistance to the business community on a variety of issues. From those looking to start a business in the community to those needing workforce labor or looking to expand, the Chamber’s economic development work connects business professionals to the resources they need to be successful. Additionally, the Chamber works with community partners to bring new developments to the Santa Maria Valley. This year, the Chamber has made an intentional effort on outreach to the Hispanic business community with the created of the Hispanic Business Group. “ As a new women-owned company in Santa Maria, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber has been extremely valuable to my business. I have relied on their guidance, resourcefulness, and reliable connections. They always bring solutions and options to grow my business. The Chamber has been an important partner in my business growth, and I firmly believe that their support will help my business thrive. ”

- Petra Hernandez, Owner, 805 Solar Clean
The Hispanic Business Group held a
series of mixers to provide networking
opportunities and business resources to
the community.
210 Community Outreach & Site Visits
The Chamber’s Economic Development team connected with local businesses and community organizations through outreach efforts including 150+ local businesses and community efforts through outreach efforts including canvassing shopping centers including La Joya Plaza Shopping Center, Stowell Shopping Center Plaza, La Brea Shopping Plaza, West Main St. Businesses and others. The EDC has also had a presence at community events including Downtown Fridays, the CET Job Fair, and the Santa Maria Fairpark Farmers Market.

New business leads come through our partnership with the Governor’s Office of Business (Go-BIZ) and from direct contacts with potential business operators or their representatives. While not all leads turn into actual new businesses, each provide us with the opportunity to share our community’s assets with prospects and learn more about what businesses are looking for in communities. Potential new businesses that engaged with the Chamber’s Economic Development team in the past six months included:
21 Business Attraction Leads
• Packing House
• Electric Bus manufacturer
• Semi-conductor manufacturer
• Electrolyzer manufacturing company
• Preisker Storage
• Westgate Village commercial
• Betteravia Plaza commercial
• Caring Hands Veterinary Clinic
• Behavioral Health facility
• Elements commercial
• Nothing Bundt Cake
• Guitar City
• Firehouse Subs
• Korean restaurant
• Coffee house
• Entertainment/drinking facility
• Ice Cream Mobile facility
• We Work concept
• Public Market
• Mobile Appliance Repair business
• Mobile Magnetic Massage
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 12
236 Businesses Assisted
In addition to these community vitality indicators, the Chamber also tracks several activity indicators to ensure that we are being effective in attracting and supporting businesses in our community. For the period covered by this report, those metrics showed the following activity levels:

The Chamber’s Economic Development team regularly
assists businesses in making needed connections,
understanding regulatory or licensing procedures,
researching needed data, or engaging with the proper
partner or resource. Of the 92 businesses assisted in
this six-month period, we’re pleased that about one-
third were inquiries related to potential new business
start-ups.

9 Expansion Projects
Housing availability continues to be a significant constraint on economic growth for our region. The Chamber was proud to work with development teams proposing a wide range of housing products as new additions to our community. Projects worked on during the past six months included:

In addition to working with businesses looking to join our community newly, the Chamber’s Economic Development team also provides support to existing businesses looking to expand by growing their current facilities or add additional sites. Expansion projects that the Chamber engaged with during the past six months included:
• Holiday Inn
• VTC Enterprises – new vocational training building
• Dutch Bros (2nd location)
• MAXCO
• A Street Deli
• Windset Farms
• Starbucks
• Bonita Packing
• Home Motors
19 Housing Projects
• Westgate Village - 126 units
• Blosser Ranch - 1,380 units
• Betteravia Plaza- 443 units
• Celebration - 56 homes, 33 senior, 7,000 sq
ft community center
• Barcellus Senior Apartments - 80 units
• Elements - 164 apartments
• Northman - 63 single family homes
• Solomon Hills - 4,000 homes ‘Planned
community” south of Orcutt in process for
county approval
• Downtown Revitalization Project -
approximately 700 units
• Cook Apts - 104 units
• Heritage Lofts - 102 studio apts
• Santa Maria Studios - 160 senior apts
• Avante Apts - 80 units
• Skylight homes - 49 homes
• Paradiso 90 duplexes - 150 senior apts
• Gateway Apts - 30
• Las Brisas - 340 apts, 103 townhomes
• Centennial Square - 184 affordable units
• Centennial Gardens - 169 affordable units
Elements Housing Project
Heritage Lofts
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 14

HISPANIC
Business Outreach
The Chamber has made an intentional effort to increase outreach and support to the Hispanic Business Committee. These efforts have included adding a “Hispanic Business Outreach & Development Coordinator” to the Chamber team and the creation of the Hispanic Business Group.

The mission of the Santa Maria Valley Hispanic Business Group is to strengthen local business through fostering community engagement, providing business resources and tools, and supporting youth education.

This Hispanic Business Group currently has over 40 active members, and a committee who meets monthly to plan networking events and discuss strategies to better engage with the local Hispanic Business community.

The Hispanic Business Group has held three mixer events, and plans to continue these outreach efforts and also focus on Hispanic business support and youth education in the coming fiscal year. The group has also started a monthly “Grow Your Business” event as another way to provide networking opportunities and increase awareness around resources available for local businesses. “The SMV Chamber supported me before I even became a member. I used to work in a local sign shop and I decided to start my own business. Now I have two years in the market and being part of the chamber has helped me a lot with introducing myself to other business owners and making those connections. ”

-Luis Arroyo, Aplicca Brand Partners

Monthly Featured Businesses Program
The Chamber has continued it’s partnership with
the City of Santa Maria on the Monthly Featured
Businesses program.

This year, we have been highlighting long-standing local businesses, and businesses in the healthcare industry.

In addition to being recognized during City Council
meetings, the Chamber highlights these businesses
on its various communication platforms, and the City
publishes a press release each month.

Local Business Spotlight Video Series
The Chamber continues its partnership with the Santa
Maria Times on the “Local Business Spotlight” video
series highlighting different businesses in Santa Maria.

Videos are shared by the Chamber, and the Santa Maria
Times publishes an article, podcast and video from the
business interview.

Videos produced the first half of this fiscal year have received over 700 views on the Chamber’s YouTube
channel. Businesses also get exposure through the
Santa Maria Times, who publishes the video, and article on the business and a podcast version of the content
each month.

PROMOTING
Local Businesses

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 16
Regional Collaboration
The Chamber further extends our impact by participating and leading a number of regional economic development and advocacy organizations. Key among these groups are:
• CalChamber Local Chamber Coalition (legislative/policy advocacy) • California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (business services) • Central Coast Coalition of Chambers (business support coordination) • EconAlliance (economic development advocacy)
• Partners in Education (workforce development)
• REACH Economic Action Coalition (economic development) • Tri-County Chamber Alliance (legislative advocacy)
• Workforce Development Board of Santa Barbara County (workforce development)
“The Santa Maria Chamber of Commerce has been an excellent partner with Vandenberg Space Force Base’s ( VSFB) Space Launch Delta 30 through our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for development of a Space Industry Expansion Master Plan with the Regional Economic Action Coalition (REACH).

The Chamber has been instrumental in the coordination of communication between VSFB and local businesses identifying solutions for the needs of our base personnel and their families. ”
- Thomas E. Stevens, NH-04, USSF, Executive Director, Space Launch Delta 30, Vandenberg SFB
Local Community Partners
The Chamber partners with a wide range of community stakeholders to maximize the impact of our work. Some of these partners include:
• Allan Hancock College
• SCORE
• Santa Barbara County Education Office
• Santa Maria Public Airport District
• Small Business Development Center

COMMUNITY
Partnerships

STRENGTHENING
Workforce Development
Junior CEO
Junior CEO is an 8-week program that teaches 6th grade students the fundamentals of starting their own business. At the end of the program, participants get to launch their business and sell their products to the public. This year’s program (Fall 2022 & Spring 2023 Sessions) has a combined total of:
• 113 student participants
• 30 businesses opened on business launch day
Most profitable businesses:
• Caylee Suarez - Caylee’s Candles: $2,429
• Brenden LeRoy - B’s Berry Dips: $1065
Junior CEO will resume in September 2023. A “Junior CEO Alumni Group” has been added to the program to provide additional support to those looking to continue their business after the program ends. This will launch in the Fall of 2023.

Additional information is available at www.santamaria.com/education- workforce/junior-ceo

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 18
Leadership Santa Maria Valley
Leadership Santa Maria Valley is an 11 month program designed to foster and create future community leaders. The program allows participants to increase their understanding of local issues, challenges and solutions while expanding their personal and professional networks and refining their leadership skills. Each Class gives back to the community with their own unique Legacy Project.

Founded in 1995, Leadership Santa Maria Valley has over 330 graduates serving on boards of local organizations and in a variety of leadership roles within government, service, non-profit and business sectors today. 16 individuals kicked off the 2023 Leadership Class in August with their weekend-long retreat at the newly rebuilt Rancho Allegre near Lake Cachuma.

Additional information on this program can be found at www.santamaria.com/education-workforce/leadership- santa-maria-valley/
“I wanted to participate in LSMV to make connections with other leaders in the community as well as learn more about what our community has to offer.

It’s important for the community to offer this program because it allows for individuals to grow within the community and become a part of something larger.

I would encourage others to apply for the program because it has really helped me grow professionally as well as personally. I have made some great connections and made wonderful friends. Also it is an opportunity to give back to the community as well. ”
- Kelli Padilla, LSMV Class of 2023

Santa Maria Teacher Tours
The Teacher Tours program is done in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Education Office Career Technical Education (CTE) programs. The Teacher Tours program aims to:
• Build relationships between local industry leaders and teachers. • Educate teachers on local industry best practices and what local business leaders are looking for in employees. • Generate interest for businesses to participate in additional workforce development programs, including hosting student interns and teacher externships.

Teacher tours are day-long, career pathway-specific tours that provide CTE teachers the opportunity to connect with local businesses and better understand local workforce needs, so they can bring that information back to the classroom and best prepare students for jobs in our Santa Maria Valley community.

The Teacher Tours program launched in October 2022 and did 6 tours throughout the school year. 7 tours are planned for the 2023-24 school year, along with two “teacher tour mixer” events to provide additional networking opportunities between teachers and business leaders.
“Witnessing the enthusiastic curiosity and passion for learning displayed by the participating educators has been truly inspiring. Collaborating with these dedicated teachers has reinforced my belief in the commitment of our educators and the transformative power of education. I am honored to have played a part in this program and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will undoubtedly have on students and the education landscape as a whole. - Jeffrey M. Marecic, Chief Information Officer, City of Santa Maria,

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 20
“How to Start Your Business” Courses
The Chamber has partnered with Allan Hancock College to teach a series of “How to Start Your Business” courses.

These non-credit courses were bilingual (English and Spanish) and intended to to help entrepreneurs get answers to questions they have about starting their own business, including the processes, how to set up the business, how to obtain a business license, other paperwork needed, etc. 4 courses were taught with a total of 220 in attendance. Future classes will be a series of 5 topics taught twice each for a 4-5 month series course.

Additional Programming
The Chamber is involved in additional programming supporting developing our future workforce, including:
• Paid Student Internship Program
• FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) Speaker Series Additional information is available at www.santamaria.com/education-workforce/ Community partners including the
high school CTE program and Partners
in Education spoke at the Chamber’s
“State of Education” event about the
importance of business involvement in
workforce development.

WHAT’S
Next
• AHC Business start-up course expanded with 5 topic classes/utilizing business experts • Added Grow Your Business (Learning component/networking/business spotlight) within the Hispanic Business Group
• Work closely with the downtown community on business outreach and new development in the pipeline • Continue providing assistance & resources to our business community • Further work with SMX on their plan update and promoting of the airport area as the next job center for employment
• Continue to outreach to potential businesses as a potential 1st, 2nd or headquarter location • Continue to support Regional efforts of coordination and marketing of the region The Santa Maria Valley Chamber’s Tourism team, which includes both the Visitors Bureau and the Tourism Marketing District, provides leadership in the community around two key roles.

First, the Visitors Bureau actively promotes events that occur in our community which generate economic activity both by attracting out-of-town guests and by including local residents. As an adjunct to this mission, the Visitors Bureau serves as the administrator for the Tourism Marketing District, which concentrates on out-of-market marketing targeting more specifically increased overnight visitations.

Secondly, the Visitors Bureau works to ensure visitors to our community are welcomed, provided with direction and connections, and leave having experienced the best possible hospitality during their stay, resulting in strong referrals and repeat visits.
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 22
Santa Maria Valley
Visitors Bureau & Tourism
Marketing District
ABOUT
Jennifer plays a key role in
the overall tourism marketing
efforts and provides leadership
and oversight within the
Santa Maria Valley Chamber
& Visitors Bureau and Tourism
Marketing District.

Taz works with the local
hospitality industry to ensure
programs and initiatives
are well facilitated and
implemented. Also, attends
industry trade shows and
networking events to foster
positive relationships with
community peers.

Cheryl works as a liaison
between the TMD advisory
committee, marketing agency
and the Chamber tourism
team.

Jennifer Harrison
Tourism Director
Taz Dougherty
Tourism Coordinator
Cheryl Cuming
Tourism Marketing District
Santa Maria Tourism Marketing District
The Santa Maria Tourism Marketing District (TMD) provides dedicated funding for tourism promotion without new local taxes or direct government spending. Under California law, TMD’s are non-profit organizations formed by area businesses in partnership with local government. Funds are generated through assessments on participating businesses and are then used to promote the destination to visitors.

Tourism Marketing District Members:

Advisory Committee:
• Chair: Cherag Patel, Hampton Inn
• Past Chair: Ryan Swack, Historic Santa Maria Inn
• JP Patel, Fairfield and Candlewood Suites
• Jerry Patel, Economy Inn
• Ketan Panchal, Laura Lodge
• Seth Foster, Holiday Inn
• Gilda Cordova, Radisson
Chamber Representatives:
• Emily Kitts, Board Liaison
• Glenn Morris, President & CEO
• Jennifer Harrison, Director VCB
• Taz Dougherty, Tourism Coordinator
• Cheryl Cuming, Administrator TMD
City Staff:
• Mark van de Kamp, Public Information Manager
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 24
KEY
Metrics
Public Relations/Media Stories
The Santa Maria Valley was featured in over 2,200 regional and national stories throughout the fiscal year. With 35 stories placed and 9 FAMS, we were able to achieve $1.62 million in publicity value.

Web/Social Media Engagement
We posted 1,205 posts and are currently at 18,500 followers across all of our social media channels. This is a 30% increase in total number of posts and a 26% increase in total followers. Between the months of July 2022 and June 2023 we had 45,000 total engagements, which is an increase of 75% The Chamber has identified a set of key metrics that we believe provide a high-level view of tourism/hospitality activity. This report provides some initial snapshots of these data points; in future reports we anticipate being able to provide more context in the form of trends and potentially benchmarks against comparable communities. The metrics chosen as indicators of local tourism vitality include:
• Lodging Industry Trends. While tourism’s economic benefits to the community go beyond the lodging component, Transient Occupancy Tax collections, along with Average Daily Rate, Occupancy Rate, and Room Revenue metrics provide a high-level indication of the strength of this economic sector. • Additionally, the Chamber’s Tourism team has identified the following strategic metrics to measure the effectiveness of our marketing and sales efforts. Specifically, we are now tracking Public Relations/Media Stories, Web/Social Media Engagement, and Large Group/Event RFPs.

Large Group/Event Sales
The Visitors Bureau partnered with consultant Whereabout to research and develop a report, which will detail the current state of events & festivals in Santa Maria Valley and identify key strategic opportunities. We spent some time reviewing all data related to current and past events in Santa Maria Valley. The purpose of this review was not to compile a complete catalog of Santa Maria events, but rather to begin to ascertain patterns in what events have been most successful and why. We gathered existing event & festival ideas so that they can be vetted through this process. We compiled a scan of regional events & festivals so as not to duplicate events that take place in neighboring communities.

We held three workshops consisting of city leaders, event organizers and local stakeholders to develop an event scoring mechanism. Additionally, using the scoring tool we worked to discover the types of events and festival opportunities beneficial to the community. The events will then be compiled into a developed plan to target similar events that have the possibility to significantly impact overnight stays city-wide.

TOT/TMD Assessments
The data below shows the growth in assessments versus the prior year.

Specific metrics on visitor activities and the reach and impact of our marketing campaigns are detailed later in this document. We are pleased to report that the key metrics which we use to measure the return on investment of our programs were up year over year.

Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)
Fiscal year comparisons for FY23 (July - June), FY22, and FY21 Hotel Occupancy, ADR, and Hotel Revenue Trends
YTD Comparisons as of June 30, 2023 vs 2022

Local Event Support
Rather than trying to organize a year’s worth of events ourselves, the Visitors Bureau supports event organizers by providing support in several areas. Through the Special Projects Grant program we offer financial support as well as complimentary services ranging from welcome bags, social media, event calendar listings, assistance with hotel room blocks, site selection, and media support to mention a few. Some of the noteworthy events supported this year included:
• AIDS Life Cycle
• AirFest
• Annual All Ford Car Show
• Santa Barbara County Fair
• Santa Maria Strawberry Festival
• Elks Rodeo
• Elks Parade
• West Coast Kustoms Crusin’ Nationals
• Santa Maria Discovery Museum Kite Festival
• Santa Maria BBQ Festival
• West Coast College & University Wine Festival
• Disc Golf Santa Maria Open
• Welcome to the 805 Summer Classic
New events that received grants this year were: AIDS Life Cycle, West Coast College & University Wine Festival, and Welcome to the 805 Summer Classic.
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 26

SUPPORTING
The Hospitality Industry
Hospitality Internship Program
As hotels continue to experience hiring challenges in a post COVID environment the Visitors Bureau sought out Professor David Jones, Ph.D. and Professor specializing in the development of innovative hospitality and tourism internship solutions based in curriculum and coaching. Professor Jones, retired and recently relocated to the Santa Maria area, is now offering to share his decades-long experience through structured systems with oversight on both interns and current hotel and hospitality leadership. Streamlining a workforce pipeline between Allan Hancock College and Cal Poly, this pilot program is intended to create long-term solutions around the need for students to enter the industry in leadership capacities versus entry-level positions.

Public Art Initiative
In partnership with the City of Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department, and non-profit partner PLAY , Inc. the Tourism Marketing District and Visitors Bureau contributed a significant amount of funding to create, purchase, construct, install additional public art throughout the city, and use the public art pieces as a marketing tool to increase cultural tourism in Santa Maria Valley. The five-year annual contribution will continue to build on existing city art initiatives while creating new opportunities. Current projects include building murals and utility box art. 770 2,500+
Unique Riders Total Ridership
Santa Maria Valley Wine Trolley
The Wine Trolley began as a collaboration between City of Santa Maria’s Transit Division and the Visitors Bureau in 2016 as a pilot program. We saw the program return in 2022 after a few years of non-operation due to the pandemic.

Initially the 2022 trolley season was scheduled through October 16, 2022, however due to a bump in ridership, the service was extended to include weekends through the 2022 Thanksgiving weekend, ending with 770 Unique Riders and a total ridership of over 2,500.

With the increased popularity of the Wine Trolley at the end of the 2022 season, the 2023 season factored the previous year’s extension into its plan, and set the dates from May 13 – November 26, 2023. This year’s trolley runs on Saturdays and Sundays, and includes a new trolley stop at the Santa Maria Public Market. The route has also been reversed this year to give riders a more immediate wine country experience at the front end of the loop.

As of June 30, the trolley has seen 152 unique riders and a total ridership of 463. This is a 32% unique riders and 15% total ridership YTD increase. Looking forward at July 2023, ridership reports indicate a similar increase when compared to July of 2022.
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 28
Managers Meetings
In the 22-23 fiscal year, we were able to restart our monthly meetings with local hospitality industry managers. This includes managers from lodging properties, restaurants, wineries, breweries, attractions, and more. These meetings give the Visitor Bureau a direct communication pipeline to the hospitality industry and provide the industry learning opportunities.

The meetings started in March of 2023, and have seen a steady attendance through the 4 meetings we have had so far. June’s meeting saw a learning opportunity for the attendees where our marketing team, KPS3, hosted a Social Media Training. The training provided insight to the industry on best social media practices, how the industry can leverage our current social media channels, and how we can better collaborate to raise Santa Maria Valley’s social media presence as a whole.

Restaurant Month & Craft Cocktail Contest
The beginning of 2023 brought back our Dine Out Santa Maria Style campaign, which was a month-long celebration of Santa Maria Valley culinary culture, held from January 13 – February 12, 2023. All-month long, some of our favorite restaurants served up special menu items for just $20.23. 2023’s Dine Out Santa Maria Style campaign saw the participating restaurants increase from 15 to 16, of which 5 were new restaurants that hopped on the campaign.

Our Craft Cocktail Contest returned and ran in concurrently with Dine out Santa Maria Style. We again had 8 participating restaurants take part in our Craft Cocktail contest, of which 2 were new participants this year. The handmade and unique cocktails found at various establishments are meant to represent our region’s history and culture. Secret judges visited each location to get a taste of the cocktail offerings and additionally, consumers were able to judge by taking pictures of the cocktails and using the hashtag #SMVCraftCocktail and #SMVDineOut and posting to their social media channels.
2023 Craft Cocktail Winners:
• Fan Favorite: Cool Hand Luke’s, Luke’s Wild West Bourbon Berry • Judges’ Pick: Cubanissimo’s, Guava Mojito

ATTRACTING VISITORS
to the Santa Maria Valley
”Less is More” Ad Campaign
Shortly after the start of the fiscal year, the creative team got to work on an evolution of the highly successful Spice campaign – our primary campaign running for our paid social campaigns. This campaign had been out there since February of 2021 and, with a couple of refreshes, garnered results unlike any we’ve ever seen on the platform relative to ad and website engagement. As we saw that start to plateau, we knew it was time to give the campaign a bit of a “glow up,” introducing something new for Santa Maria Valley while leveraging components from the Spice campaign that we knew would continue to resonate with our audience. From this, the Less is More campaign was born.

The concept behind the Less is More campaign is this: We know that Santa Maria Valley is still less crowded, less expensive and less stuffy than some of our neighboring destinations. So, we wanted to talk about what visitors get when they focus on ‘less.’ Less worry means more seizing the moment; less distraction means embracing more experiences; spending less money means fitting more into your vacation. This concept focuses on all of the meaningful moments you can have when you add up Santa Maria Valley’s space, affordability, location and attractions.

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 30
Barbecue Month
Santa Maria Style is the superior style of barbecue and it’s backed by a 150-year-old tradition, rooted in California history. Yet, for some reason, when people think of famous barbecue, they think of every region in the U.S. except for the Central Coast. Central California has been referred to as “one of the best-kept barbecue secrets in America.” We don’t want to keep it a secret anymore. This Barbecue Month, we put Santa Maria Style on the map. The Barbecue Month mini-campaign was led by organic social–it’s the most conversational and offers the perfect platform for sharing our story and having that story shared. By leveraging primarily vertical video, complemented by popular social media trends, we went all in on barbecue in a space that met the audience where they were with the type of content that would get their attention.

The campaign was driven by a strong creative concept and supported by public relations and paid social media tactics to broaden our reach and to ensure a consistent and well-saturated message throughout the month.

The best part? The concept was designed to live on beyond just this month and this year. It would become a longer- term identity for Barbecue Month in Santa Maria Valley – one for which we can build recognition and continue to iterate on each year.

Barbecue Month results:

We sent 25 Barbecue Month press kits out to key national and LA-area food and travel media. Follow ups will continue, but it’s already led to a connect with the digital editorial director of Travel + Leisure magazine.

Our boosted posts resulted in 240,858 impressions, 3.6k clicks to the website (a 1.52% CTR) and nearly 49k engagements
• Our posts led to nearly 3k website sessions, two newsletter subscribers and three hotel referrals • A dedicated email sent at the top of the month saw an open rate of 58% and a CTR of nearly 3% - the highest engagement metrics we’ve ever seen from a single email
• The Sizzle Central landing page attracted 2,518 unique page views with an average time of page of more than five minutes, 57 newsletter signup clicks, 94 cookbook downloads and 147 link clicks.

Influencer Marketing
This year, we welcomed five social media influencers to Santa Maria Valley through our partnership with Glocally. Social media sharing from a first-person perspective is a primary component of our influencer campaign. Influencers create and share content on their personal social media profiles which then gets amplified through the organization’s owned channels. Instagram is our priority platform for this program, so we seek out micro-influencers whose audiences take interest in travel, wine, food and outdoors.

Overall, this year’s influencer campaign resulted in:
• 436,000 impressions
• 147 posts
• 1.05% engagement rate
Public Relations and Paid Media
Our PR approach continues to be to primarily target the leisure travel audience, continuously reinforcing our unique experiences, Santa Maria Style barbecue, wine country and authentic hospitality at a value.

With Cision, we are able to add publicity value for stories trackable by the monitoring service. Throughout this fiscal year, we achieved $1.62 million in publicity value through 35 stories placed and 9 FAMs.

Here are headlines from a few of our favorites in the last year:
• July 19, Yahoo Entertainment, Wine Tasting ‘Santa Maria Style’ with the Santa Maria Trolley • August 16, New York Times, 12 Reasons to Love California Chardonnay • September 13, Thrillist, Bust Out the Binoculars for This Wildlife-Fueled California Adventure

A full list of PR coverage can be found at santamariavalley.com/industry-info/in-the-news Group Leads
The 22-23 fiscal year yielded 24 new group leads via a combination of website meetings/events submittals, our general partnership with CalSAE, CalSAE’s 2022 Seasonal Spectacular, general complimentary services inquiries, and special project grant submissions. Out of the 24 leads we had 19 responses, leading to a total of a 79% response rate. Some highlights include:
• 2024 CA State Square Dance Convention
• CCAPP
• Mini West Meet 2023
• CalSAE – AMC Owners Retreat

Influencers & Journalists
The first half of this fiscal year, we hosted 5 FAM (familiarization) Tours for influencers and journalists:
• Molly O’Brien - Molly O’Brien is a Los Angeles-based journalist who writes for a variety of travel and lifestyle publications, including Fodor’s Travel, Travel + Leisure, Matador Network and Business Insider, among others.
• Laura Beausire - Laura Beausire is a Colorado-based freelance writer. You can find her work in Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Wine Enthusiast, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, The Telegraph, Hemispheres, Sierra, Robb Report, Family Traveller, The Denver Post, TravelAge West, and other publications.
• Rina Nehdar - Rina Nehdar is founder and editor of L.A. Family Travel. Her work can be seen in L.A. Family Travel, Travel + Leisure, Parents, Global Traveler Magazine LA Parent and more. • Hannah Stephenson - Hannah came to Santa Maria Valley through a partnership with Visit California. She is a journalist with the UK’s Press Association.
• Jeff Buchanan - Jeff Buchanan is a California-based motorcycle journalist and co-founder of Robb Report Motorcycles, primarily writing for RoadRUNNER, an independently owned and published motorcycle touring and travel magazine.
• Jochen Schliemann - Jochen Schliemann is co-host of Reisen Reisen - Der Podcast, the largest travel podcast in the German-speaking world. He has written for multiple German publications, and more recently, Reader’s Digest.
• Judy Karnia - Judy Karnia is an Arizona-based journalist and expert contributor to TravelAwaits, a publication focusing on travelers above the age of 50. Her work can be found in TravelAwaits, Flipboard and Wander with Wonder.
• Cori Solomon - Cori Solomon is an award-winning journalist and photographer based in Los Angeles. Her work can be found at her blog, The Written Palette, along with Wander with Wonder, FWT Magazine and TravelWorld International Magazine.
• Andrew Harris - Andrew Harris is a Southern California-based veteran specialty radio show producer and an accredited food, wine and travel journalist. He is the showrunner for The SoCal Restaurant Show, a food and travel-focused radio show serving Southern California since 2012. 22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 32
Photo from Jeff Buchanan’s article
for RoadRUNNER Magazine, “Santa
Maria Valley: California Shamrock
Tour”.

Social Media Channels
The Santa Maria Valley remains active on a variety of social media channels. A full report can be found in the supplemental report included with this document. Some highlights from the fiscal year include:
7,000+ hotel
referrals from
social media
advertising.
651
TikTok Followers
263,800 video
views on TikTok.

Instagram reach
was up 109%
compared to last
year.
7,600
Instagram followers
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 34
Website Updates
In the first half of this year, we updated the design for the lodging property detail pages as we noticed that hotel referrals (instances of people clicking from hotel pages off to the booking sites) were dropping. After an analysis, we determined it was because of the placement of the “Book Now” button, especially on mobile. We’ve updated these pages to be optimized for mobile and with the addition of featured amenities on each page. Just two months after the update, the results confirmed our hypothesis:
• Hotel referrals were up 30% year over year (that’s +150 referrals!) • There were 395 ‘book your stay’ clicks
• There were 242 ‘check availability’ clicks
• The average time spent on these pages has more than doubled Around the middle of the year, we designed a new, dynamic flyout on the website that would be a global feature to encourage more email signups. This was implemented in early February, and in one month alone we saw a 195% increase year- over-year in email signups directly attributed to the new flyout.

That success continued through the end of the fiscal year with noticeable year-over-year growth in email signups from that feature, as compared to the year prior where we had the more subtle flyout.

Digital Visitor Guide
Early in the second half of the year, we shifted our focus toward the design and development of a digital Visitor Guide. We wanted to be able to point potential visitors and trip planners (via social, email, etc.) to a visually aesthetic version of the printed visitor guide that they can use to gain inspiration for upcoming trips. Because the vast majority of our website traffic comes in via mobile device, the existing printed Visitor Guide PDF download isn’t a great user experience on your phone. The idea behind the digital version was for it to be a dynamic landing page with visually interesting content types and a clear path for consuming the information.

The digital visitor guide launched on June 8, 2023. By the end of the month, engagements and conversions were as follows:
• 246 pageviews from 203 users
• Average time on page of 38 seconds
• 1.21 average pages per session
• 3 downloads of the printed Visitor Guide
• 14 newsletter button clicks
• 3 clicks to the lodging page

Advertising
Paid advertising placements included both print and digital publications targeting domestic leisure travelers. When possible, the Visitors Bureau participates in co-op advertising opportunities offered by our regional and state associations and/or coordinates co-op advertising with our local partners in an effort to extend the reach of our investments.

Advertisements promoting the Santa Maria Valley were placed in the following during the 22-23 fiscal year:
• PCPA Program and Ticketing Website
• Sunset Magazine Harvest Addition
• Roadrunner Magazine
• California Visitor Guide
• Central Coast Tourism Council Visitor Map
• The Sun Magazine
• CalSAE Meeting Planner e-blast
• Visit Santa Barbara dedicated e-blast
Website KPI’s
The Santa Maria Valley tourism website remains a huge asset in bringing visitors to the Santa Maria Valley, and saw improved performance throughout the 23-24 fiscal year.
2,000
Newsletter
Signups
369,000
Website Visits
7,000
Hotel Referrals
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 36

REGIONAL
Partnerships & Events
CalSAE
The California Society of Association Executives held their Seasonal Spectacular on December 13 & 14 at the Sacramento Convention Center. Taking advantage of the appointment exchange and trade show components, we were able to maximize the Santa Maria Valley presence among one of the largest association planner shows in the nation. The return of the Seasonal Spectacular event was successful in many ways and brought together an industry hit hardest by the pandemic. Having the opportunity to speak with many of the attendees first-hand, builds relationships and provides open-door discussions that otherwise would have been missed. Introducing Santa Maria Valley as a historic and family friendly host city for meeting and event planners is a win-win for those looking to connect outside of the congested larger destinations. Our community is positioned in a way that appeals to both restrictive budgets and those hoping attendees have experiential opportunities outside of their meetings as well.

CalTravel Summit
The Visitors Bureau attended the CalTravel Summit 2022 in the Greater Palm Springs Area. Travel, tourism, and hospitality professionals came together during this summit to discuss pressing advocacy issues, learn future tourism outlooks and forecasts, and to create new connections within the tourism space.

LA Travel & Adventure Show
The Santa Maria Valley Visitor Bureau recently attended the Los Angeles Travel & Adventure Show on February 18-

19. This was our first Travel Trade Show back since the pandemic, and it was a huge success. We came in about 2000 pieces of printed collateral and tons of swag items and left with only empty boxes. The trade show also generated over 100 email sign ups.

Association Memberships
Association memberships allow the Visitors Bureau an opportunity to leverage large-scale platforms that provide cooperative advertising, industry relations, networking opportunities, data and trends specific to travel and tourism and advocacy. Currently, a member of CalTravel, U.S. Travel and the Central Coast Tourism Council, we actively work and advocate for travel and tourism alongside many of our industry peers.

WHAT’S
Next
• FY23 influencer strategy + execution
• Spice campaign refresh
• Digital media mini-campaigns
• Refreshed Print Guides
• Events & Festivals Strategy | City-wide Event
• Mid-week Campaign - $100 gift cards
• Targeted meeting planner effort
• Trade Shows
• SMX Allegiant inbound marketing campaign
22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 38

APPENDIX A
Financials - Economic Development
Economic Development Commission
Fiscal Year 2022-2023 - Annual Financials

APPENDIX A
Financials - Tourism Marketing District
Tourism Marketing District
Fiscal Year 2022-2023 - Annual Financials

22-23 ANNUAL REPORT | 40

APPENDIX A
Financials - Visitor Bureau
Visitor Bureau
Fiscal Year 2022-2023 - Annual Financials

Santa Maria Valley Economic Development Commission
Santa Maria Valley Visitors Bureau & Tourism Marketing District 614 S. Broadway, Santa Maria
(805) 925-2403
www.santamaria.com
www.santamariavalley.com
Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce
Visitor & Convention Bureau
City Council Update

FY Goals & Website Overview

Our 2022-23 marketing plan was designed to increase overall awareness of Santa Maria Valley, its offerings, events and local flavor in an effort to attract overnight visitors.

Our approach for the year leans heavily into organic, owned and created content to promote awareness, visibility and engagement among our audiences. This is balanced with a paid media plan dedicated to paid search and paid social platforms, the combination of which continue to drive intent-based visits to core website content and gain visibility for the brand. We continued to focus on the key selling points of Santa Maria Valley as a Central Coast tourism destination. Paid efforts are also leveraged to provide lift to organic content and PR efforts which will allow us to reach a broader, but targeted, audience for specific messaging across channels.

We measured success by way of defined key performance indicators (KPIs) for the year:
• Website engagement
• Hotel referrals
• Earned media placement in priority outlets
• Social media engagement
• Search rankings & organic traffic

Organic Social Media

The majority of our efforts on social media this year were focused on the Santa Maria Valley Instagram and TikTok accounts. Video content consistently outperforms static image content, and consumers’ trust of organic content on these platforms is key when it comes to making travel plans and travel decisions.

The majority of the content we create is video content, using assets from our existing library and new assets captured throughout the year. Our video content is intended to showcase all that Santa Maria Valley has to offer from the point of view of a visitor. The content is visually appealing but not overly edited, and it’s relatable.

The Santa Maria Valley TikTok uses video content that’s primarily repurposed from our Instagram Reels, reaching a slightly different audience via a different algorithm. Each month, we evaluate the type of content that’s performing best on each channel so that we can optimize accordingly during content planning for the future.

Attachment B

City Council Update

Instagram

• Total Followers: 7,600
o +44% compared to last year
• Reach: 588,000
o +109% compared to last year
• Number of posts: 577
o +49% compared to last year

City Council Update
TikTok

The Santa Maria Valley TikTok was established in July 2021. A year later, in July 2022, we had 145 followers. By June 2023, we’d more than quadrupled that. While growth is slower on this platform, it has happened steadily, especially in the last year.

TikTok is the new-and-improved Google search engine for many users, meaning they use it to search for anything from educational material to hidden gems to explore at their next vacation spot. TikTok actually surpassed Google in 2021 as the most-used website. Because of this, it is important for Santa Maria Valley to have a presence on the platform and to continue to stay up-to-date on trends and hashtags to best leverage the algorithm.

TikTok does not provide historical or year-over-year comparison data, so the following information is specific to July – December 2022.

• Total Followers: 651
• Total Video Views: 263,800
• Avg. Engagement Rate: 5%

Boosted Posts

As part of our paid media plan, we dedicate a certain portion of the digital spend to boosted posts, which means we’re putting money behind our organic posts in order to push them out to a larger, targeted audience. In doing so, we’re able to leverage the organic content we’re creating and reach more than just those who already follow us on each platform. This results in not only more post engagements on-platform, but it drives website visits and engagements.

This year, our boosted posts have resulted in:

• 184 hotel referrals
• 834,000 post engagements, including 3,000 shares and 125 comments • 35,000 website visits

Overall, 80% of all Facebook and Instagram ad engagements came from boosted posts, which leverage the same assets we use for our organic social media content.

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Top-performing Boosted Posts

Paid Social Media

73% of all of our paid website visits come from paid Facebook & Instagram ads.

Looking at year-over-year KPIs for paid social media, hotel referrals are relatively flat, even taking into account the considerable spike we saw in hotel referrals last year from the Beat Inflation Vacation campaign that launched in May 2022. If we remove that campaign from the equation, hotel referrals from paid social media are actually up 49% year-over-year!

Newsletter signups from paid social media are up 46% year-over-year. Even better is that engagement with our ads is through the roof–on-platform engagement is up 316%,

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with shares alone up 298% year over year. Shares are considered the most valuable type of engagement.

Key Website KPIs

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Paid Social Media KPIs by Campaign

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Paid Search

Paid search is our most targeted marketing tool, capturing intent-based search queries based on closely tracked keywords in order to drive quality website visits and engagement.

• Website visits from paid search are up 30% at 45,000 total for the year • Click-through-rates have nearly doubled (+98%)
• With the new lodging detail page design, hotel referrals are up 13% year-over- year
• We've increased our CTR by 98% while increasing (and nearly maxing out) our top-of-page rate of 91%.

Paid Search KPIs

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Organic Search and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This year, we continued to focus our SEO efforts on increasing non-branded, non-event organic search visits to the website, with a focus on branded searches, Santa Maria Valley lodging-related searches and Santa Barbara and Central Coast wine rankings.

Our stretch goes is to gain two page rankings for California wine terms. So far this year, we have achieved the following significant ranking gains, which contribute to overall growth in organic traffic to the site:
• We have gained the #1 position (outranking Visit California) for the keyword wine tasting central california, which was ranked #20 at the beginning of the year. • The keyword santa maria tri tip wine pairing is now ranked #1, previously ranked

15. • Our average position has improved from 24 to 17 for all tracked keywords. • We have continued to gain rankings in our top 20, top 10 and top three positions.

New Keywords in the Top 3

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Blog Content
We published several new blogs on the site this year. New and updated blogs are a combination of SEO-driven content pieces aimed at increasing rankings in wine space, filling content gaps, and featuring significant news about Santa Maria Valley wine country. Blogs published or updated during this fiscal year are below:

• KTLA: Wine tasting ‘Santa Maria Style’ with the Santa Maria Wine Trolley

• Hotels in Santa Maria Valley for Every Experience
• The Great Outdoors in Santa Maria Valley
• Stroll, Sip, Shop & Savor in Old Town Orcutt
• Wine Enthusiast: Miller Family Wine Company’s Nicholas Miller Named 2022 Wine Executive of the Year
• California Wine Country, #SantaMariaStyle
• The First People of California’s Central & Southern Coasts • Fodor’s Travel: 12 Spots in North America to Experience Pantone’s 2023 Color of the Year
• Thrillist: 5 Reasons to Drive to the Santa Maria Valley, California • Celebrating Santa Maria Valley’s Leading Women in Hospitality • Experience California Car Show Culture in Santa Maria Valley • Travel + Leisure: Santa Maria Valley is a must-visit
• USA Today 10Best: Is Santa Maria the new Napa?
• Santa Barbara Morning News: Hitch a Ride on the Santa Maria Wine Trolley • We Travel There Podcast: Santa Maria Valley
• Sarah Dandashy: The Perfect Weekend Getaway in Santa Maria Valley • Rovology: Wineries and Butterflies – Exploring Santa Maria Valley, CA

Website Design
In the first half of this year, we updated the design for the lodging property detail pages as we noticed that hotel referrals (instances of people clicking from hotel pages off to the booking sites) were dropping. After an analysis, we determined it was because of the placement of the “Book Now” button, especially on mobile. We’ve updated these pages to be optimized for mobile and with the addition of featured amenities on each page. Just two months after the update, the results confirmed our hypothesis:

•
Hotel referrals were up 30% year over year (that's +150 referrals!) • There were 395 ‘book your stay’ clicks
• There were 242 ‘check availability’ clicks
• The average time spent on these pages has more than doubled

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Around the middle of the year, we designed a new, dynamic flyout on the website that would be a global feature to encourage more email signups. We’d had one on the site already, but it was much more subtle and passive than one we’d previously had on the old website before it was redesigned. We set out to reimagine this flyout and reinvent it so that it was still cohesive with the look and feel of the website as a whole, but so that it was more prominent and noticeable.

Further, we wanted to be able to customize that email signup CTA based on the content they were currently viewing to provide some more context to what we’re asking them to do.

We ended up with a visually interesting feature with messaging that varied between a general sign-up ask and different CTAs that are wine, barbecue, and outdoors-forward depending on the page they’re viewing.

This was implemented in early February, and in one month alone we saw a 195% increase year-over-year in email signups directly attributed to the new flyout. That success continued through the end of the fiscal year with noticeable year-over-year growth in email signups from that feature, as compared to the year prior where we had the more subtle flyout.

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Creative

Less is More
Shortly after the start of the fiscal year, the creative team got to work on an evolution of the highly successful Spice campaign – our primary campaign running for our paid social campaigns. This campaign had been out there since February of 2021 and, with a couple of refreshes, garnered results unlike any we’ve ever seen on the platform relative to ad and website engagement. As we saw that start to plateau, we knew it was time to give the campaign a bit of a “glow up,” introducing something new for Santa Maria Valley while leveraging components from the Spice campaign that we knew would continue to resonate with our audience. From this, the Less is More campaign was born.

Static Image Ads – Facebook and Instagram

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Campaign Video – :15 – Facebook and Instagram
Instagram Reel – Wine
Instagram Reel – Barbecue

Our primary KPIs to measure the success of the digital visitor guide are on-site engagement metrics, first and foremost, but we’ll also be paying attention to event conversions coming directly from that page:
• Time on page
• Pages/session

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• Hotel referrals
• Email signups

Barbecue Month 2023

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Santa Maria Style is the superior style of barbecue and it’s backed by a 150-year-old tradition, rooted in California history. Yet, for some reason, when people think of famous barbecue, they think of every region in the U.S. except for the Central Coast.

Central California has been referred to as “one of the best-kept barbecue secrets in America.” That’s great and all, but we don’t want to keep it a secret anymore.

This Barbecue Month, we put Santa Maria Style on the map. We know that once someone tries Santa Maria Style barbecue, they don’t need much convincing. But to get them to recognize it and to try it and to start talking about it, we needed to get their attention–in a big, entertaining and scroll-stopping way.

The Barbecue Month mini-campaign was led by organic social–it’s the most conversational and offers the perfect platform for sharing our story and having that story shared. By leveraging primarily vertical video, complemented by popular social media trends, we went all in on barbecue in a space that met the audience where they were with the type of content that would get their attention.

The best part? The concept was designed to live on beyond just this month and this year. It would become a longer-term identity for Barbecue Month in Santa Maria Valley – one for which we can build recognition and continue to iterate on each year.

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Barbecue Month results:
• We sent 25 Barbecue Month press kits out to key national and LA-area food and travel media. Follow ups will continue, but it's already led to a connect with the digital editorial director of Travel + Leisure magazine. • Our boosted posts resulted in 240,858 impressions, 3.6k clicks to the website (a

1.52% CTR) and nearly 49k engagements
• Our posts led to nearly 3k website sessions, two newsletter subscribers and three hotel referrals
• A dedicated email sent at the top of the month saw an open rate of 58% and a CTR of nearly 3% - the highest engagement metrics we've ever seen from a single email
• The Sizzle Central landing page
attracted 2,518 unique pageviews with an
average time of page of more than five minutes, 57 newsletter signup clicks, 94 cookbook downloads and 147 link clicks.

Public Relations
Our PR approach continues to be to primarily target the leisure travel audience, continuously reinforcing our unique experiences, Santa Maria Style barbecue, wine country and authentic hospitality at a value.

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Articles
• July 19, Yahoo Entertainment, Wine Tasting ‘Santa Maria Style’ with the Santa Maria Trolley
• July 22, Drift Travel, Wine Tasting ‘Santa Maria Style’ with the Santa Maria Trolley
• July 28, Visit California, California’s Best Breweries to Celebrate International Beer Day
• August 3, MSN Travel, California Central Coast Road Trip Itinerary: castles, wine and more
• August 10, Visit California, September 2022 Events in California • August 16, New York Times, 12 Reasons to Love California Chardonnay • September 13, Thrillist, Bust Out the Binoculars for This Wildlife-Fueled California Adventure
• October 16, San Francisco Chronicle, Highway 1 Road Trip: Six itineraries along California’s iconic coast
• October 19, Santa Maria Times, Enjoy a trip on the Santa Maria Wine Trolley through Thanksgiving
• October 19, Visit California, California’s Most Haunted Hotels • November 10, Santa Maria Sun Online, Santa Maria Wine Trolley offers extended wine tasting transportation through Thanksgiving weekend • November 13, RoadRUNNER Magazine, Santa Maria Weekend Romp • November 28, Daily Traveling News, The first people of California’s Central & Southern Coasts
• December 2, Visit California, Kidifornia Foodie Finds • December 7, Forbes Online, This Small Town Along The Central California Coast Is A Hidden Gem For Wine Lovers
• December 21, SFGate, The best places to eat between SF and LA • January 6, Fodor’s Travel, 12 Spots in North America to Experience Pantone’s 2023 Color of the Year
• January 12, Santa Maria Times, ‘Dine Out Santa Maria Style’ culinary celebration kicks off January 13
• January 12, Thrillist, 5 Reasons to Drive to The Santa Maria Valley, California • January 26, Visit California, Discover the Best and Most Unique Times to Visit California
• February 28, Pride Journeys, Embracing Wellness in Santa Maria Valley • March 8, TravelMole, An off the beaten track California road trip • April 17, Thrillist, The Best LA Road Trips to Take This Spring • April 21, Diablo Magazine, The Western Way at Alisal Ranch • April 21, Reisen Reisen – Der Podcast, Kalifornien – Roadtrip mit dem E-Auto • April 26, Afar, California’s Best Wine Regions: Where to Stay and What to Drink • May 1, Associated Press, Santa Maria Valley Becomes Sizzle Central This May • May 1, Yahoo!, Santa Maria Valley Becomes Sizzle Central This May

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• May 10, KTLA-TV, Best California Road Trip Stops
• May 10, Travel + Leisure Online, The Best Towns to Visit on a Road Trip Down California’s Central Coast for Incredible Food, Wineries, and Hotels • May 12, KEYT-TV Online, All aboard! Santa Maria wine trolley ready to start rolling this weekend
• May 14, KEYT-TV Online, The Santa Maria wine trolley hits the road this Mother’s Day
• May 14, KEYT-TV Online, The 5th Annual Santa Maria BBQ Festival brings BBQ lovers from San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County
• May 15, We Travel There, Luffa Farm, BBQ Festival & Wine Trolley in Santa Maria Valley, California
• May 15, 10Best – USA Today, Is Santa Maria the new Napa? Why wine lovers should visit this California valley now
• May 18, Visit California News & Events, 13 California Wineries Offering Next- Level Epicurean Experiences
• May 31, The Arizona Republic, Santa Maria Valley is underrated food, wine destination
• June 1, Adventures & Sunsets, 31 Unique Things to Do in Santa Barbara You Haven’t Thought Of
• June 19, Trips to Discover, 15 Best California Wine Trails to Sip and Explore • June 19, RoadRUNNER, Santa Maria Valley, California Shamrock Tour • June 25, SoCal Restaurant Show, June 24: Executive Chef Alfonso Curti of Trattoria Uliveto, Orcutt, CA
• June 28, HuffPost, What You Should Know About Regional Styles of Barbecue in the U.S.
• June 30, Sunset Magazine Online, These Fourth of July Party Recipes Will Make Menu Planning So Much Easier
• June 30, SoCal Restaurant Show, July 1: Cork & Fork, Dewlson Family Farm, Naughty Oak Brewing Company
FA`Ms
• Molly O’Brien
Molly O’Brien is a Los Angeles-based journalist who writes for a variety of travel and lifestyle publications, including Fodor’s Travel, Travel + Leisure, Matador Network and Business Insider, among others.

• Laura Beausire
Laura Beausire is a Colorado-based freelance writer. You can find her work in Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Business Insider, Wine Enthusiast, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, The Telegraph, Hemispheres, Sierra, Robb Report, Family Traveller, The Denver Post, TravelAge West, and other publications.

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• Rina Nehdar
Rina Nehdar is founder and editor of L.A. Family Travel. Her work can be seen in L.A. Family Travel, Travel + Leisure, Parents, Global Traveler Magazine LA Parent and more.

• Hannah Stephenson
Hannah came to Santa Maria Valley through a partnership with Visit California.

She is a journalist with the UK’s Press Association.

• Jeff Buchanan
Jeff Buchanan is a California-based motorcycle journalist and co-founder of Robb Report Motorcycles, primarily writing for RoadRUNNER, an independently owned and published motorcycle touring and travel magazine.

• Jochen Schliemann
Jochen Schliemann is co-host of Reisen Reisen - Der Podcast, the largest travel podcast in the German-speaking world. He has written for multiple German publications, and more recently, Reader’s Digest.

• Judy Karnia
Judy Karnia is an Arizona-based journalist and expert contributor to TravelAwaits, a publication focusing on travelers above the age of 50. Her work can be found in TravelAwaits, Flipboard and Wander with Wonder.

• Cori Solomon
Cori Solomon is an award-winning journalist and photographer based in Los Angeles. Her work can be found at her blog, The Written Palette, along with Wander with Wonder, FWT Magazine and TravelWorld International Magazine.

• Andrew Harris
Andrew Harris is a Southern California-based veteran specialty radio show producer and an accredited food, wine and travel journalist. He is the showrunner for The SoCal Restaurant Show, a food and travel-focused radio show serving Southern California since 2012.

Email Marketing
Our bi-monthly tourism emails feature news, events, recipes and all things Santa Maria Valley and are designed to keep our subscribers engaged and consuming information on the website in order to inspire a future visit.

This year, our subscriber growth has been strong and steady, especially after implementing the redesigned email flyout in February. Further, we continue to manage our active subscriber list and segment out folks who are not opening/engaging with our

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emails, so that our true ‘active’ subscriber count remains true to those who maintain an interest in content from Santa Maria Valley.

We also maintain our email drip campaigns, ensuring that subscribers who have expressed a specific interest in certain content types (wine, barbecue, or outdoors) are also receiving more of that content, in addition to the bi-monthly email.

In the early part of the year, we redesigned all of our drip campaign emails so that the overall look and feel would more closely match the website and the email redesign that was completed in the later part of the last fiscal year.

• Our email open rate has nearly doubled year-over-year, steadily climbing ever since July 2022 and is consistently above 50%, which is huge compared to industry benchmarks. Our average open rate for the year was 54% • Our average click-through-rate also exceeds industry benchmarks, coming in at a flat 2% for the year.
• We gained more than 2,000 new email subscribers this year, an average of 166 per month.

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Influencer Marketing

This year, we welcomed five social media influencers to Santa Maria Valley through our partnership with Glocally. Social media sharing from a first-person perspective is a primary component of our influencer campaign. Influencers create and share content on their personal social media profiles which then gets amplified through the organization’s owned channels.

Instagram is our priority platform for this program, so we seek out micro- influencers whose audiences take interest in travel, wine, food and outdoors.

We aim to vary the itineraries (and therefore, the content) for each influencer so that, by sharing that content on our own channels, we’re able to showcase multiple offerings and perspectives of the region by way of an actual visitor’s point of view.

This year’s influencers:
• @california_diary_

• @hayleyscellar
• @dtlawanderer
• @happymessmom
• @jujuroca

Overall, this year’s influencer campaign resulted in:
• 436,000 impressions
• 147 posts
• 1.05% engagement rate

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead to FY23-24, we’ve got some exciting plans to look forward to! This year will be all about taking our learnings and the strategies we know have worked and making our marketing efforts work harder. As we do every year, we’ll keep an eye on our goal tracking, adjusting and optimizing as we go.

Our FY23-24 priorities are:
• Grow our active, engaged email database
• Increase our paid media spend
• Expand SEO efforts to a new category
• Secure more PR story/article placements in top-tier, target media

The marketing plan for the year addresses each of the above, with the following strategic direction being our north star:
• We’ll keep content at the forefront of our marketing efforts • We are shifting away from an annual creative campaign – focusing on mini campaigns and frequent promotion of data-driven content

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• Increasing our raw media spend to better promote all of our content • Staying consistent with our top performing channels - SEO, PR, paid search o This includes diving head-first into a new SEO content strategy: California Trip Planning
• We’ll continue to collect content with a focus on video– specifically, vertical video

We look forward to another year of success and excitement for Santa Maria Valley! FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 7, 2023

COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT

TO: City Council

FROM: Interim City Manager Alex Posada
Prepared by: Public Information Manager Mark van de Kamp

SUBJECT: Retirement Resolution for Mike Davis

Description:

The City Council will consider adopting a Resolution honoring and commending Mike Davis for 34 years of exemplary service.

RECOMMENDATION:

Adopt a Resolution honoring and commending Mike Davis for 34 years of exemplary City service and congratulating him on his retirement.

BACKGROUND:

Mike Davis began his long career with the City of Santa Maria in September 1989, when he was hired as a part-time Data Processing Operator. He quickly advanced and became full-time in February 1990. As the years then decades passed and technologies evolved, he stayed well-informed and became an integral member of what we now know as the Information Technology (I.T.) division. Mike was promoted to an Information Systems Programmer in October 1998, became a Systems Analyst in Jul y 2000, then six months later a Systems Analyst II, a position he held until his retirement in October 2023.

DISCUSSION:

Mike served a lead role in several noteworthy projects and was known for effort and getting the job done well. In the early days, he was responsible for programming and producing all the financial/budget reports, accounts payable checks, utility bills/ notices, payroll checks, and all types of City record reporting. Whether it was fixing ailing computers, telling stories about antiquated hardware, or being a friend and mentor, Mike could be counted on to lend a helping hand. He started the City’s first website, his City email address was the first one created for the City, and he installed the first automated phone answering and voice mail systems in the City. He installed the City’s first personal computer and Windows networking technologies and provided training and support.

2 As the years then decades passed and technologies evolved, he stayed well -informed and became an integral member of what we now know as the Information Technology (I.T.) division. Upgrades to the City’s phone system and circuits were successful in large part due to his institutional knowledge and careful attention to detail. He helped the I.T. team rebuild the communications structure for all 10 departments. He played a significant role in the rollout of Windows 7 and Office 13, and in 2015 with the City’s launch of its ShoreTel phone system.

Mike was integral in improving technology multiple times within the areas o f phone systems, radio systems, computer-aided dispatching, financial systems, 9-1-1 telephone systems, computers, networking systems, access control systems, and other technologies.

Mike has a love for the City that was reflected by the time and effort he put into maintaining a high-caliber work product. In 2008, he was among I.T. teammates who received the City’s “Going the Extra Mile” (GEM) Award for outstanding teamwork and dedication under deadline pressure to ensure the new Public Library had a fully functioning computer network by its opening day. Additionally, he received an Award of Excellence from the Administrative Services Department for his invaluable contributions to the Library Project.

Mike was also recognized by Recreation and Parks for cre ating a state-of-the-art, after- school computer lab in the Abel Maldonado Community Youth Center.

A major accomplishment was the multi-million-dollar Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS) hardware, Mobile Data Computers (MDCs), Call Works 9-1-1 Phone System, and software installation at the Police Department and Fire Department, which went live in 2019.

Mike has engaged and volunteered in the City and local community as member of the local National Management Association (NMA), Secretary of the SEIU Local 620, Loan Officer and President of the Santa Maria Associated Employees Credit Union, member of the Santa Maria Elks Lodge 1538, member of the Fraternal Order of Eagles 1745, member of the Moose Lodge 1409, 3rd Degree Member of Knights of Columbus, and Commodore of San Luis Yacht Club.

Mike chose to retire on October 6. He described his City career as wonderful and said he is so appreciative of the opportunity. City staff would like to commend him for his dedication and commitment to the City of Santa Maria and wish him well in all his future endeavors.

ATTACHMENTS
Retirement Resolution

RESOLUTION NO.

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE

CITY OF SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA, COMMENDING MIKE
DAVIS FOR HIS 34 YEARS OF EXEMPLARY PUBLIC SERVICE

WHEREAS, Mike Davis has been a valuable member of the City team since 1989; and

WHEREAS, with 34 years of service, Mike served a lead role in several noteworthy projects and was known for his effort and ambition; and

WHEREAS, during his tenure, Mike started the City’s first website, had the City’s first email address, and his knowledge and carefu l attention to detail assisted in several upgrades to the City’s telephone system; and

WHEREAS, Mike helped the Information Technology (I.T.) team rebuild the City’s communications structure for all 10 departments, and played a significant role in the rollout of Windows 7 and Office 13, and in 2015 with the City’s launch of its ShoreTel phone system; and

WHEREAS, a major accomplishment he assisted with was the multi - million-dollar Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management System (RMS) hardware and software installation in 2019 at the Police Department; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Davis retired on October 6, 2023, and the Santa Maria City Council wishes to recognize Mike for his lasting contributions to the community.

///

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Santa Maria, as follows:

MIKE DAVIS
is hereby recognized and commended for his 34 years of exemplary service to the residents and businesses of Santa Maria, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors.

PASSED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Santa Maria, California, held this 7th day of November 2023.

ATTEST:

Assistant City Clerk

Mayor

APPROVED AS TO FORM:
_______________________________
City Attorney
APPROVED AS TO CONTENT:
_______________________________
Department Director
_______________________________
Interim City Manager

A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA, COMMENDING MIKE DAVIS FOR HIS 34 YEARS OF EXEMPLARY PUBLIC SERVICE WHEREAS, Mike Davis has been a valuable member of the City team since 1989; and

WHEREAS, with 34 years of service , Mike served a lead role in several noteworthy projects and was known for his effort and ambition; and

WHEREAS, during his tenure , Mike started the City ’s first website, had th e City ’s first email address, and his knowledge and careful attention to detail assisted in several upgrades to the City’s telephone system; and

WHEREAS, Mike helped the Information Technology (I.T.) team rebuild the City’s co mmunications structure for all 10 departments, and played a significant rol e in the rollout of Window s 7 and Office 13, and in 2015 with the City’s launch of its ShoreTel phone system; and

WHEREAS, a major accomplishment he assisted with was the multi-million-dollar Computer A ided Dispatch (CAD) and Records Management S ystem (RMS) hardware and softw are installation in 2019 at the Police Department; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Davis retired on October 6, 2023, and the Santa Maria City Council wishes to recognize Mike for his lasting contributions to the community.

NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Santa Maria, as follows:

MIKE DAVIS
is hereby recognized and comme nded for his 34 years of exemplary service to the residents a nd businesses of Santa Maria, and we wish him well in all his future endeavors.

PASSED AND ADOPTED at a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Sant a Maria, California, held this 7th day of November 2023.

Mayor Alice M. Patino Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez
Mayor Pro Tem

ATTEST:

Mike Cordero
Councilmember

Assistant City Clerk Carlos Escobedo
Alexandra Valadez Councilmember

Gloria Soto
Councilmember

City of Santa Maria
Santa Maria, California
Resolution No. 2023-136

1 CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES CITY OF SANTA MARIA, CALIFORNIA

October 17, 2023, 4:30 p.m.

City Hall Council Chambers
110 East Cook Street
Santa Maria

Roll Call: Councilmember Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, Councilmember Mike Cordero, Councilmember Carlos Escobedo, Councilmember Gloria Soto

Members Absent: Mayor Alice Patino

Staff Present: Interim City Manager Alex Posada, City Attorney Thomas Watson, Interim Assistant City Manager Chuen Wu, Fire Marshal James Austin, Director of Public Works Brett Fulgoni, Director of Finance Mary Harvey, Interim Director of Finance Xenia Bradford, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Dawn Jackson, Chief Information Officer Jeffrey Marecic, Interim Director of Recreation & Parks Angela Oslund, Chief of Police Marc Schneider, Director of Utilities Shad Springer, Administrative Assistant Brittany Short, Assistant City Clerk Alexandra Valadez

_____________________________________________________________________

CLOSED SESSION

1. CALL TO ORDER
In Mayor Patino's absence, Mayor Pro Tem Aguilera -Hernandez called the meeting to order at 4:32 p.m.

ROLL CALL:

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Councilmembers Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, Mike Cordero, Carlos Escobedo, and Gloria Soto.

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Mayor Alice Patino

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

2 Interim City Manager Posada, City Attorney Watson, and Assistant City Clerk Valadez (for roll call only).

For item 3.b: Interim Chief Human Resources Officer Jackson, Human Resources Manager Plata, Director of Finance Harvey, and Interim Director of Finance Bradford.

2. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD
There was no public comment.

3. RECESS-CLOSED SESSION

3.a Public Employment Recruitment - City Manager, Pursuant to California Government Code Section 54957(b)(1)

3.b Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to Section 54957.6 of the Government Code Mayor Pro Tem Aguilera-Hernandez recessed to a Closed Session at 4:34 p.m.

4. RECONVENE TO OPEN SESSION
OPEN SESSION - 5:30 P.M.

5. INVOCATION
Pastor Israel Gonzales gave the Invocation.

6. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Councilmember Escobedo led the Pledge of Allegiance.

7. CALL TO ORDER
Mayor Pro Tem Aguilera-Hernandez convened the meeting and called the meeting to order at 5:48 p.m.

8. REPORT BY THE CITY ATTORNEY FROM CLOSED SESSION
City Attorney Watson reported that instructions were provided to the City's negotiators.

9. PROCLAMATIONS

9.a Proclamation – “World Polio Day” – October 24, 2023 The City Council presented a Proclamation recognizing October 24, 2023, as World Polio Day in the City of Santa Maria.

9.b Proclamation – Recognizing October as Arts and Humanities Month The City Council presented a Proclamation recognizing October as Arts and Humanities Month in Santa Maria.

9.c Proclamation – 100-Year Anniversary of the Kiwanis Club of Santa Maria – October 2023 The City Council presented a Proclamation to recognize the 100-Year Anniversary of the Kiwanis Club of Santa Maria.

3 9.d Businesses of the Month – October 2023
The Mayor and City Council presented certificates to the featured Businesses of the Month for October 2023 – Akeso Occupational Health and the Santa Maria Valley YMCA.

10. PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD (Not to exceed 15 Minutes)
Gary Hall representing North Santa Barbara County Mobile Homeowners Team (NSBMHT) spoke about the concerns the Mobile Homeowners Team has regarding the pace of negotiations. Mr. Hall stated that the team looks forward to continuing discussions with City staff.

11. CONSENT CALENDAR
Consent Calendar Items 11.a.1 through 11.c.2 were approved as presented, including the adoption of Resolution Nos. 2023-133, 2023-134, and 2023-135. The recorded vote appears with each item below.

Moved by: Councilmember Escobedo
Seconded by: Councilmember Cordero
Adopt the Consent Calendar as submitted.