City Council — September 28, 2026

Okay. We'll be starting our meeting now. It's five o'clock, we will be starting our City Council closed session meeting at 5 p.m. on September 28th 2026. Good evening welcome to the council meeting. Roll call please

Right hand over your heart and repeat with me.

Thank you, Aaron.

Okay, we're gonna get started here. First of all please a little house cleaning if you would please silence your phones and we will be allowing people to talk uninterrupted and we're going to start off

we're limited

for public comment to 30 minutes and we have 10 And I don't know if there's anybody on Zoom, but so far we already have 10 speaker slips. So 30 divided by 10 is going to be three minutes a piece unless there's... So anyway that's how we're going to proceed. So we are gonna go then public communications on closed session and this is only for items 2A B or C.

We'll start off with Candace Libera And next would be Jennifer Cabello.

Good evening mayor, council members and staff and audience. Today marks day 14 of the strike by City of Solvang union represented employees. Fourteen days we have stood on that line truthfully none of us wanted to be there to begin with We want to be back at work serving the community we care about with a fair contract in place. There is no doubt this has been stressful and difficult for everyone involved, but this no longer only is about a contract it's something much harder to repair that is being lost in the process and that is trust.

Every additional day we remain on that line makes rebuilding that trust more difficult We continue to feel undervalued, unheard and disrespected because we care deeply about the work we do. We are not simply names on a payroll or numbers in a budget and yes I do understand those things are important for a city to be fiscally responsible as we've heard We are your employees, your staff and members of this community. Many of us have dedicated years of our lives to serving the city because we genuinely care about solving. We understand that negotiations require compromise. We're just asking to feel that our work does matter too as does admin and the city managers.

That our voices matter. That the people who keep this city running are worth fighting for. This strike will eventually end, and when it does we will walk back through the doors and we will have to work side by side again. We will have to rebuild relationships, rebuild morale, rebuild period. But rebuilding cannot begin if we continue to move further apart. We should be working together for solving and not against one another. Thank you.

Good evening Mayor Brown, City Council members and staff. I'm here tonight because i want you to think about what you're actually paying for when you pay a city employee. We are the people working on the streets maintaining infrastructure responding to problems and emergencies serving residents and helping keep this community running every day Just because some of us didn't go to college doesn't mean we don't have specialized skills, training, knowledge and years of experience.

These skills take time to develop and are essential to this city. We've heard that management needs raises to retain employees. I understand that the importance of retention, but I ask you do you want to retain your skilled line staff too? Because when you lose experienced employees, you lose institutional knowledge specialized skills and people who understand this community and how the city operates.

Is Solvang supposed to be an entry-level city where employees gain experience and then have to leave to find a wage that reflects their skills? Many of us grew up here, live nearby or have been here long enough to consider Solvang home. We care deeply about this community. We take pride in what we do. We don't want Solvang to be a stepping stone. We want to build our careers here. We want to raise our families here as we have been raised here.

But we also deserve compensation that reflects our skills, experience, responsibility and dedication. We should not have to rely on overtime to earn a good wage. Overtime is not guaranteed compensation when employees work nights weekends and holidays or respond to emergencies they do it because their neighbors and this community need them. So please look beyond the paycheck number, look at the experience, the training, responsibility, dedication behind the job. We are not asking to be treated as expendable. We are asking to be valued. Solvang deserves skilled experienced employees who want to stay and those employees deserve a fair wage. Thank you.

Thank You Erin Peterson's next followed by Hank Hamburg

Hi, my name is Aaron Peterson. I'm here not taking sides on this at all. I just own some businesses in town, some real estate in town. Grew up here, my kids have gone here. I've got kids in the military serving in Iran and San Diego and all over the place. I know a lot of those folks. I obviously know a lot of you folks here. I think everyone in the room obviously has Solvang at its best heart.

Come on, that's why we live here. It's a matter of just trying to sit in a room, compromise and get it. I'm just urging you from a business position standpoint that we get this done. It's not hurting business yet but it gives us a black eye. It makes us just feel a little bit less united and I don't even pretend to understand the details of 3% to 8% to 2%. It's above my pay grade. All I'm saying is that if we could all sit in a room, get it compromised, get it done, move on. I think I'm speaking of the choir everyone probably wants this done to so there's no knowledge. I'm just trying to speak from the business standpoint that it does affect us day-to-day and as we get into the fall season.

Good luck. I am glad it's all you folks and not me.

Thank you, Erin. Hank Hamburg followed by Denise El Amin. Good

evening council members mayor city manager and all the employees in the audience it's really disturbing to me that we're sitting here like this with white shirts and Teamster stuff on that should only be on at barbecues. My view is, and my understanding is that mayor council and city manager type of government is run by the mayor and the council members. takes his direction from you, particularly the mayor but also the council members. You guys represent people of the city, the constituents.

This is on unfortunately on the council members I know it's like a big poker game or whatever between the city, the city attorney, city manager, the Teamsters. But you guys have to have communication and trust and that starts with you guys reaching out to your city employees whether you guys have coffee with all your city employees. I don't think that's a realistic thing but maybe a couple of city employee groups come and have coffee with you guys once a month and discuss stuff. That way we don't have this kind Friction when it comes down to salaries, and I think that onus is on you guys But it's also one on the teamsters and the workers here too. You guys have to have open communication I don't think they're asking for a lot The way the economy isn't such I don'y think it's a lot at all You guys were responsible for giving the city administration staff a huge raise.

I mean incredible raise I've never heard of anybody getting upwards of 40% raises And you guys approve that The city workers deserve 666 in my opinion, but that's not for me to decide. Like Aaron said it's over my pay scale, but you need to sit down and have open communications and discussion and get this thing resolved ASAP. This is ridiculous okay? And I hope I only see Teamster shirts at their Teamster barbecues from now on because i don't want to hear the honking. I don't want to see them out there with their Their families on a picket line, it's crazy. So please do your due diligence as mayor and council members and give direction to the city manager like you're supposed to not the other way around and the city attorney and get this thing done.

Thank you.

Thank you. Denise Allen-Meen and you'll be followed by Jonathan Flynn

Hi, I'm Denise Ellamine. I worked for AT&T for 30 years. I was a union representative and I negotiated contracts for those 30 years. And yes, I was very good at it. It appears that no one on the City Council has any background in negotiating contracts with employees. Because if you did, they wouldn't be on strike. 4% and 6%, I've never heard of that being rejected. Especially after you throw in their face a 40% raise to 1 person It doesn't make sense. So if you realize that you don't have the capacity to negotiate a union contract, then there is an option for people like that and you should've taken the moderator.

But for some reason, you guys don't know how to negotiate and you didn't want to take the moderator either. Now that's where I'm confused. If you don't know something, you're supposed to ask. And this strike has been going on too long. It needs these great workers. I know most of them and I love all of them. They need to come back and work. And you guys need to make that happen.

They are more important than one employee being paid 40% more on his pay raise and having more assistants now working for him. The employees that are behind me, the Teamsters Union deserves a lot better than what you guys have given them. And I'm hoping that soon, November the 3rd, that you will have somebody on this city council that will be able to acknowledge and help you guys with union contracts. Because we've never been here before in this city and this city is so small it's really sad and pitiful to see the things that are being written up about Solvang We're a Danish happy place, sort of like Disneyland I guess. But if you neglect your employees and you treat people bad, the happiness is gone. So please come together with love, Danish, and get these employees back to work as soon as possible.

Thank you. Jonathan Flynn, followed by

Melanie

Bates.

A city is only as strong as the people who maintain its water systems, handle administrative business and keep its streets safe and clean. Our municipal workers bargain in good faith for over five months before being forced into a work stoppage. The city has referenced comp and class study again and again as reason for this huge disparity in pay. What's been clear to me through this is that simply because something is normal for the time does not make it right.

The city claims it wants a fair agreement that returns everyone to work, yet it has failed to initiate a single bargaining session since imposing its initial offer. The community wants this dispute resolved. We ask you tonight to retract the imposed terms of Resolution 26-1334, initiate immediate bargaining with Teamsters Local 986 and agree to the contract that respected our dedicated workforce. Thank you guys.

Marianne Bates followed by Adrienne Reyes.

Good evening, my name is Marianne Bates I am a fifth generation Solvang resident and an active member of this community. I wanted to speak briefly in support of our city employees and the importance of the roles they serve in this community. I think sometimes it's easy for all of us to forget how many people it takes behind-the-scenes to keep this place going every single day These are people who work with us from the beginning of building our homes and businesses to the ongoing and continued maintenance to keep them running.

They maintain our streets, they care for our public spaces, they assist residents, they keep projects moving, and they handle countless other responsibilities that we all greatly depend on every day. Within this community I interact with staff from multiple city departments on a weekly or daily basis. I see firsthand the knowledge that these experienced people commit to their roles.

These employees are also members of this community, they live here, they raise their families here, they shop here and they've dedicated so many years of their lives to this city If we want to retain good experienced people, we have to make sure they feel valued. And part of that means recognizing them and their responsibilities, providing a fair wage and a competitive one.

There's a tremendous value in the institutional knowledge of these people. What happens when they've spent years learning the ins and outs of everything in this city? And they're just dismissed and are no longer here. Those years of experience and those relationships within this community are gone. You can't just hire someone new. I hope the city and its employees can find a path together that allows everyone here to feel heard, valued and maintain the quality of service that this community depends on.

Supporting our employees is supporting our community and retaining experienced staff is essential to that. I respectfully ask all of you to please listen to these people, recognize their value and give serious consideration to what they have raised.

Thank you. Adriana Ries is next, followed by Brian Baca.

Hello, my name is Adriana Reyes and I'm a founding board member with both SYB Pride and Centro Corazon Comunitario, two non-profit organizations serving the San Ines Valley. As you are aware we have proudly hosted both Pride and Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in the City of Solvang. Both events operate through the City of Solvang special events process which requires us to work closely with various city's departments particularly the parks and recs and maintenance teams.

Throughout my more than five years of working with these two non-profit organizations, I have consistently found city staff to be extremely helpful, supportive, professional and inclusive of the missions of both organizations. Planning and producing these events requires numerous meetings Emails, conversations, permits and coordination regarding street closures and other logistical matters.

At every step the staff we have worked with have been demonstrated professionalism and a genuine commitment to helping our community events succeed. This year both events welcomed a significant number of visitors from outside of the San Andres Valley who came to Solvang to participate in enjoy these celebrations. These events may not only provide meaningful cultural and community experiences, but they also contribute to the local economy by bringing visitors into Solvang who patronize local businesses.

In the case of Pride, visitors also utilize local lodging generating additional revenue for the community and the city I would like to emphasize the importance of a maintaining professional, empathetic and inclusive city staff. Not only for the successful operation of these community events but also for the many visitors who come to Solvang throughout the year.

With that in mind, I respectfully ask that you reach...that you continue working with the team leaders and representatives involved to reach a mutual agreeable resolution I sincerely hope that meaningful negotiations can take place and that an agreement can be reached that allows the current strike to come to an end. Our community events depend on the collaboration and dedication of city employees, and we deeply value the relationship we have built with them over the years. I hope the City will continue to recognize the important role these employees play in supporting Solvang residents, organizations, businesses, visitors, and non-privates. Thank you so much.

Brian Baca is next.

Good evening, I'm Brian Baca and 21 years ago I had the opportunity and the privilege to sit in that chair right there for three years and then thankfully I was taken out of town to get out here I'm not going to second guess your judgment as to how much of a raise the management should get. Obviously, by the raises you granted, you'd like to keep your employees and your team.

Well, the line staff, represented staff behind me, that's part of your team. And I've lived in Solvang since 1990, and I guess I've lived long enough to see a strike here in Solvang which seems totally out of character. I wondered who these nuts were in the park waving signs because that kind of thing doesn't happen in Solvang. And so I would suggest you put as much effort in retaining your current staff as you did for retaining your management team.

And so I'm just a citizen now and have been for 25 years And the citizens are watching because you can't hardly avoid it. So with that said, good luck in my chair and good luck to the rest of the council.

Thank you. Thank you we've exhausted this lips is there anybody in the room that has a comment to make? Yes ma'am. We'll allow for two more. Is your name in?

Of course. Thank you. My name is Mary Netto, I'm a resident of Solvang. I'm here to support our city employees who have been picketing for over 10 days now. These employees are part of our community. They do the day-to-day that keeps Solvang running maintaining our streets parks water systems offices and other city services Many are also raising families while trying to keep up with a high cost of housing, groceries, gas and other everyday expenses.

Now I understand that the city has a budget to manage but fairness matters too. When upper management receives the lion's share Of the salary increases, the employees doing much of the everyday work deserve meaningful consideration as well. They are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for wages that reflect the work they do and the cost of living in this community.

Fair wages also help the city keep experienced employees and maintain reliable services. Now I'm asking the council to reconsider its position and provide a fair wage increase for these employees. And I was a former employee too in the past, so their value should be reflected in how they are compensated. So thank you.

Thank you and thank you for your

service. Is there a person on Zoom that wishes to speak? No? Okay, then we will now close it to public communications. Madam Clerk would you read our items of discussion in the record please?

Recess to closed session. Item 2a, Conference with Labor Negotiators pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6 Agency Designated Representative Dave Fleischman Assistant City Attorney Employee Organization Teamsters Union Local 986. Item 2b, Conference with Legal Counsel Existing Litigation Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.91 Name of Case Edward St. George v. City of Solvang et al. Case Number 25CB07234 Item 2C, Conference with Legal Counsel Anticipated Litigation Significant Exposure to Litigation Pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9d2 1 Potential Case

Thank you very much and thank you very much for being here this evening we are now adjourned to closed session

Let's

go in here. No. Yeah, I'm just trying to get the video to work as well. It all is fine

here you did your job we're good

Yeah, cheers. Got it.

Hold on, it was out of presentation. Thank you brother. Okay.

The finalizing the um, that there is going to be a mask. Although each individual private school on it's own also have to go through the same process so it's not like all of a sudden trans Christian Anderson schools are getting close to that. They can't get the money yet. . . . I hope it's a hard thing, but we will let it go. You want to change that 0.50, which is great so they can even hear it. Because this is the latest and last time I walked over here was two weekends ago. There's still one more thing, and there's not 15 people waiting in line. And if they do need this, they need to make sure they aren't bothering them at all.

. . . Okay. Okay. Okay. This is my back pocket. Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you. We are back from closed session. Madam Councilor, is there any reportable action please?

Thank you, Mayor. The City Council met in closed session on a conference with labor negotiators pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6. There is reportable action on this item. The reportable action is that the city's negotiator spoke with the union negotiator on Friday and during that conversation the city's negotiator offered to meet with the union this week and provided dates for such meeting For that meeting, the City Council this evening directed the city negotiating team to hold those dates open for a meeting with the union pending a request from the union to meet on those dates.

On the other items, on item 2B and C which were conference with legal counsel existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1 and conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation significant exposure to litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9 D2 there is no reportable actions on items 2 B or C. Thank you mayor

Thank you. Then we are now closed for closed session at 528, excuse me 628. I need a digital watch so we will begin again in about three minutes time if anybody needs a bathroom break or personal break Welcome to the Solvang September 28, 2026 City Council meeting. I'm Dave Brown your Mayor and we will begin with the roll call please.

Thank you, well done. Okay.

We have no proclamations for tonight, but we do have a presentation from Visit San Yanez Valley. I want

to introduce Shelby Simm. He's going to give us a presentation recapping last year. I shared with him when I spoke to him at their event a couple weeks ago that I get goosebumps when I see her and listen to him talk about all the fun things that are going on in our community so I'm looking forward to this one.

Thank you, Randy. Mr. Mayor, City Council, always a pleasure to be out in front of you and great opportunity with you this evening to tell you about 2025 with Visit the Santa Ynez Valley. I'll run through some things very quickly and then spend a little more time on other things but staff-wise, you've got myself, President and CEO Daniela Loudon-Ruiz right here on the side, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Both Daniela and I have been with the organization over 12 years now.

And then Brenda Ball, also a well-known name in this town is our website and membership administrator. Our board is made up of Linda Johansson who represents Builton on the Board, P. Soup Anderson's but also King Frederick Inn. We have Greer Arehu, did I do that right? She represents Fess Parker and all of their enterprises. We have Camden Wyrick he represents the Vinland The Winston, and as well as some hotels in Buelton. And then we have Stormy Strickland, she represents Cork as well as Hadston. And then we have Gretchen who represents Buelton's Marriott, SYB Marriott, and Kathleen Cochran of the Alisal Ranch. Josh just stepped down he was with the Ballard Inn our newest board member is...

Thank you, Clayton with Maddy's Tavern, the GM there. And then we have Jeff Hartman who owns the Zipline Hightline Adventures and then Will Henry who owns Lumen Wines as well as Pico Restaurant. That's our board of directors. So brief history, we are a destination marketing organization. We were formed in 2010 by the hotels funded by The Visitor. We don't receive any government funding whatsoever. Very proud of that. Currently, the visitors pay $3 a night when staying overnight in any of the hotel rooms.

Hotel and Visitors Association merged in 2013 and we became Visit the Santines Valley. DMO, think of it as a spot that markets a specific place, a town or region. We market a region. We do see the towns of Santines, Solvang, Muleton, Ballard, Los Olivos, and Los Alamos as one region so we market all those areas for hotel night stays, and of course the hoteliers know that you're not coming for the hotel. You're coming for the experiences. You're coming from this amazing Danish capital of the world for food, for wine, for activities.

Our mission, of course, is to promote the Sandines Valley region as a diverse destination for everyone to experience which creates prosperous and sustainable outcomes in overnight stays for the towns I just mentioned. How do we achieve our mission? Through partnerships, robust marketing campaigns, grant program and sponsorships, travel trade, PR and media relations as well as event programming.

These are some of our highfalutin partners. We have many others but very proud of our partners. And so let's get into 2025. Financial stuff, you've seen it. It's in the report just to let you know we did spend more than we brought in last year and that was on purpose to take down our savings a little bit and we also invested $100,000 in a brand new website.

We do want to have a little more money in the bank and we're working towards that so our budget is much tighter this year and will be tight again next year but everything is looking fantastic. 2025, we held two networking receptions. Our annual meeting as well as our guide launch both of them very well attended and then overall strategy continue to build awareness and positive perception of the region among highly qualified potential visitors drive visitation through our shoulder seasons and then grow use of attribution based advertising Our target markets for paid digital, you'll see a lot of drive markets but then also direct flight markets is where we spend a lot of time.

And Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle, Portland and we just added Chicago as a direct flight out of Santa Barbara and then we're promoting wine and food travel, romantic getaway outdoors activities and LGBTQ+. Our 2025 markets again, you know a lot of dry markets are flight markets and then who's coming and we take advantage of who's coming. So we're attacking Canada, we're attacking Mexico, Scandinavia, Europe as well as the East Coast.

And then our campaign in 2020-2025 was perfectly Santines Valley And incredible traction, doing great. Stats are in the report but everything looks fantastic. We also do restaurant weeks, San Diego Valley Restaurant Weeks and our participation continues to grow. This year we had over 31 restaurants and 32 tasting rooms participate After COVID, we kind of had to change our routine so that restaurants could afford to do it. So now you can offer a 30, 40 or 50 priced three item menu and many restaurants do all three but incredible and it's become a real community thing as well. It gives the community a chance to go out and try restaurants they may not be able to otherwise.

During our slowest season, our January February March we do the midweek membership club and so if you come and stay in the Santinas Valley Sunday through Thursday for two nights we'll give you a $100 bill. Not a credit card not a gift card anything a literal hundred dollar bill And it's an incredibly successful campaign. This last year in 25, we had 76 redemptions and it accounted for over $43,000 in room sales.

Digital performance. So amazing, all good. Here's a few examples of our videos.

From furry friends to long weekends This is perfectly Santa Ynez Valley. Plan your trip at VisitSYV.com From sunny days to overnight stays, this is perfectly Santa Ynez Valley. Plan your trip at VisitSyv.com From sunny days...

Let's show that one again it was so good

From early blooms to tasting rooms, this is perfectly Santa Ynez Valley.

All right so then we go on our campaign creatives, our audience targeting are of course folks who have been here before and then the folks who go to similar spots and so you see on both lists the different things that we focus on And again, folks who have been here before and then who are folks that come to places like ours that would be a great fit for the Santinas Valley.

Key performance indicators, there's that bunch of numbers but here is the awesome results Based on this particular campaign, we had 11,600 trips and the impact was almost $25 million. Print and distribution, so we do very little print and distribution but we do our destination guide as you know. We do 70,000 destination guides and California's Visitors Guide and California Road Trips Guide and then the Central Coast Visitors Guide. And we also have a great partner in Sunset Magazine and so we do ads with them as well.

Social media, we grew a little bit last year in 25. And then our new website that we're very proud of. It's beautiful if you haven't been there www.visitsyv.com. It is mobile first and we made it easy. That looks kind of confusing. We made it so it's very easy to see, very easy to scroll through, get what you want. We have an incredible events calendar Anybody watching or listening out there, go to visitsyv.com and add your event we'd love to have you.

We've created a custom map so it's easier for people to see and navigate around the Santinas Valley. And then of course a clear path to purchase our bread-and-butter is heads in beds and so on every page you have an opportunity to book a stay And we shifted from inspiration to information. So as we know with the growth of AI, AI is answering a lot of questions people don't have to go to your website so it's our job for our website to have the answers for AI to come and find.

And the results have been amazing on the new website very proud of that And then media relations, 2025 outreach and hosting. Danielle and I went to New York in January and we met with Worldwide Press and we also hosted a wine reception. It was at that meeting when we met with People Magazine and they had told us that you know we're more of a lifestyle kind of thing as opposed to a destination and as we were leaving we said well you know the former president is vacationing in the Santinas Valley right now And by 2 p.m., it was up on People Magazine in the afternoon, so instant value and then of course the whole world picked it up. The proudest thing on our end was that they said the Santinas Valley not Santa Barbara. So we're a destination unto ourselves, the Santinas Valley, very proud of that.

And then we also expanded into international. So for the last few years, we've gone to London for Brand USA's Travel Week And we meet with many, many countries and we've had incredible traction with press with that. And then this is some of the publications that picked us up in the last year. Very proud of that. We got a lot of Sunset Awards in 25. And they're still our partner with Taste of the Santinas Valley again, incredible few examples of the cool coverage And then as you know, in 24 sideways there are 20 the 25th anniversary of Sideways just was off the hook. People extended that into March of last year and did a great story part example of international press And then Taste of the Santina's Valley, which just happens to begin this coming Thursday.

It is going to be Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. This will be our sixth year. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished and that it keeps going. That's a map of all the folks that come to the Santina's Valley. So proud for Taste. It's great! It's from the East Coast, it's from the North, it's from the South. been able to accomplish with this and then here it is last year's video The City Council meeting is being recorded.

Heck of a year it was, but you ain't seen nothing yet. All right so we also do grants and sponsorships as you're well aware. We sponsor Danish days and anything else really that folks ask us and there might be an opportunity for heads in beds. Last year we gave out over $88,000 in grants and sponsorships. Travel trade. We're also going after groups. We've all felt for a long time that we should be the retreat capital of the world 30 or less should be our bread and butter, so we really go after group sales.

So we did a lot of that last year. We also go to US Travel's largest trade show, the United States' largest travel trade show. And last year we partnered with the city of Solvang as well as Buelton and that was in Chicago I believe. And then a real big thing for us, there is called the California Cup. And it's a revolving, moving golf tournament every year in California. It goes up and down the coast and it is a chance to sit in a golf cart with 11 different countries meeting planners, elite meeting planners as well as tour operators. And somehow I won the bid and we hosted them last summer here and it was incredible.

Video, great idea. Let's do it. Welcome to everyone to the 22nd annual California Cup Golf Invitational.

Hi, I'm Shelby Sitt with business at Santina's Valley. Welcome everybody! Welcome to the California Cup Round 1! Hi!

I'd like to introduce the Mayor of Buellton, David Sill.

I want to welcome you to Solvang and the Santa Ynez Valley. We're very honored to host the finale dinner at Sunstone. We're very proud of that place, we're very honored to host everybody. Thank

you so much for being here.

We're so, place we have here in the Santinas Valley. So we also go to industry conferences of course Visit California's annual outlook, Destinations International in Chicago and then we also go to One West Tourism Alliances a couple events they do every year one of them is the Leadership Summit which we hosted this year here in the Santinas Valley And that's it for 2025. 2026 is, again, an amazing year. We're beating last year in a lot of our numbers. We're doing fantastic. We had a really slow first quarter this year but we really made up for it and we're real excited to present next year as we go on. Thank you very much.

Thank you Shelby. Any questions?

Shelby thank you. Your website looks amazing. I have to confess that I still find things to do I didn't know about when I visit your site.

That's fantastic.

Exactly, so two couple questions the did I miss it or what was the stat? Do you have a 25 occupancy rate increase or what are you seeing in 26 yeah in terms of what we are seeing increases in hotel stays and therefore the revenue that were generating. Are you seeing similar things?

Absolutely. Yeah, like I said it was a very slow first of the year but the numbers we're pulling in now are fantastic. It's really hard to project next year as we all know ever since COVID the booking window is a lot shorter so it's hard to forecast how we're doing but we're doing fantastic.

And then how amazing comment on our relationship or your relationship with Sunset Magazine? How long have you been working on that relationship

Oh golly, Danielle you'll have to help me here. I'm going to say 23.

Wow

right after COVID.

Okay i thought you meant 23 years.

No we started TASTE in 19 and then through our agency we started cultivating a relationship with Sunset Magazine so that when we came back from COVID I think our first taste was in 2021 Sunset was very excited to be our partner.

Yeah, that's a big feather in your cap. Good, congratulations! Thank you.

Is Sunset Magazine kind of an industry benchmark?

Well it is, yes. It's like the Bible of California travel and Western influence absolutely. I would say AAA or Westways as well as Sunset Magazines are.

And have you seen any, what changes are you seeing in our demographic that's from three years ago? Where do you see that is there a trend of any kind that you can pick up or where are the changes?

Yeah. So credit to our amazing chief marketing officer over here that reminded me the other night of the K economy ready for this. So the high spenders, here's your, here's your line. The high spenders in this part of the K and then your value spenders. So we aren't getting a lot of the middle but we're getting value in big wallets so they call it the K economy Like a shape of a K.

Okay, that part I got. I'm not visioning the person except somebody's got deep pockets and another person with the lower part of the

value experience. Yeah so you've got the two folks that are getting out today to our destination are the ones looking for luxury experience and the ones looking for affordability.

And are we meeting those needs?

We meet those needs amazingly. Yeah, we're incredible as far as those offerings go. Yes.

As an advisor to enhancing our tourism I like the idea that you're doing discounts for the first quarter type of thing that you do and targeting those small groups 30 or so

We're always

re-evaluating, always talking amongst the board and creating committees to think about that stuff. The midweek membership club is probably going to stay in that first quarter unless we feel like

We're a fairly new destination as far as the world knowing about us. Santa Barbara's been at it a long time, San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach all those folks have been around it a long time. So we're still the new kids on the block. So it's about us still going out there to shows, to those meeting planner shows, to the boutique meeting shows that kind of thing to let folks that they know they can come and stay here.

So it's just about outreach, outreach, outreach education.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions? Shelby thank you very much.

It's my honor and we love selling this place. There's so many destinations in California And how lucky are we that we get to promote this one. So thank you, and we appreciate your partnership very much. City of Solvang, thank you.

Can I say one more thing, Shelby? You guys do a great job. But I recently had an experience talking to somebody in Santa Barbara and referred to us as the Santa Barbara wine country. So I appreciate how much branding work you're doing to make sure we're known as Santa Ynez Wine Country.

Thank you. It's something else.

It bothered me more than I thought it would.