Working Hard on Your Behalf: Chamber Month in Review

The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is here for business. We are a catalyst for business growth, convener of leaders and influencers, and a champion for a stronger Santa Maria Valley. We continue to work hard to serve our members, local businesses and the Santa Maria Valley community. Here’s a glimpse at what we’ve been up to lately.

Catalyst for Business Growth

• The Downtown Revitalization Committee identified their preferred development team and directed staff to formally negotiate with them on the details of a development agreement. The Economic Development Commission has led the marketing, developer recruitment, and review process associated with this project over the past two years.

• The Visitors Bureau launched The Great Santa Maria Valley Takeout to celebrate restaurant month in the Santa Maria Valley. The promotion took place January 22 – 31 and featured local specials from restaurants, wineries and breweries. The campaign also featured a selfie contest where participants could share their photos at a local restaurant for a chance to win a local staycation package.

• The Chamber continues to hold their weekly BYB (Build Your Business) networking event on Zoom, where local professionals have a chance to network and share leads and testimonials.

The Great Santa Maria Valley Takeout ran January 22-31.

Convener of Leaders and Influencers

• The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with Chambers across Santa Barbara County on the “Safe Return to Work” campaign (santamaria.com/safe-return-towork), which argues that we can keep people safe while operating businesses safely at the same time. As part of this campaign, the Chamber sponsored a resolution which the City Council adopted to Support Safe Business Operations.

• The Tri-County Chamber Alliance offered a webinar through partnership with the U.S Chamber of Commerce on how businesses can combat the opioid crisis. A video recording of this presentation can be found at bit.ly/SMVOpioidWebinar.

• The Visitors Bureau continues to connect with businesses in the tourism/hospitality industry through their monthly industry meetings. These meetings allow staff to understand the current challenges faced by hospitality businesses and to share resources and opportunities for these businesses.

• The Visitors Bureau worked with local hotels to address increased concerns about safety and criminal activities associated with homeless or other transients. In addition to a meeting between the hotels and PD leadership, the Chamber facilitated multiple hotels in creating a joint contract with a local security company to increase security patrols around the businesses.

The Chamber partnered with Chambers in Santa Barbara County on the "Safe Return to Work" campaign.

Champion for a Stronger Santa Maria Valley

• The Chamber endorsed the ordinance regulating sidewalk vendors proposed by city council, which requires street vendors be regulated in a similar way as brick and mortar businesses. City Council passed the ordinance in a 4-1 vote. As part of the Chamber’s engagement on this issue, we partnered with City Councilmember Carlos Escobedo to meet with business owners and hear their concerns about negative impacts from unfair competition by the street vendors.

• The Visitors Bureau worked alongside the nonprofit Restaurants Care’s relief fund, which designated financial support to North Santa Barbara County restaurant workers who were furloughed. In total, 20 scholarships were made available to 4 employees at 5 restaurants who had to make the difficult decision to furlough workers.

• The Santa Maria Public Airport District and Allegiant Airlines announced new passenger service from Santa Maria to Portland, OR. The EDC continues to be an active participant in the Airport’s Air Service Team and is proud to be part of increasing options for our community.

• The Chamber continued to add new resources to our COVID-19 Tool-Kit (http://santamaria.com/COVID19-Recovery )including materials related to the PPP-2 loans, additional funding programs and the updated Cal/OSHA emergency COVID regulations.