By TR Robertson
Several presentations centered around the effects of the COVID pandemic on businesses and the return to normalcy was on the agenda for the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee meeting held on Zoom Wednesday morning.
Presenting a look at the COVID Effect on Local Hospitality was Tim Stripe, Owner of Grand Pacific Resorts. Tim gave an overview of the effect COVID has had on the hospitality industry. Prior to COVID, the Hotel industry was a $500 billion dollar industry generating $216 billion of annual revenue. It employed 8.3 million people. During the height of COVID 70% of these people were displaced meaning 5.8 million were out of work. Cities in states across the nation lost $17 billion in tax revenue, $1.9 billion in California. It is estimated that Carlsbad revenue loss was $16.8 million, a 60% overall loss and $280 thousand was lost in hotel revenue. Mr. Stripe felt it will take several years, if the reopening goes as planned, to try and get the hospitality industry back to a level it was prior to COVID. He felt the San Diego Convention Center needs to be reopened as a number of these people who attend conventions visit the Carlsbad and surrounding areas. There also needs to be a concentrated effort locally for continued business improvement. Carlsbad was one of the harder hit areas of the hospitality industry. He showed a graph which indicated that it took 4-5 years after 9/11 and 5-6 years after the Great Financial Collapse of 2008 for business to return to a financial stability. It is hard to predict exactly how long the climb will take for businesses and the hospitality industry after California completely opens.
Mark Rudyk spoke about the Carlsbad Destination Marketing Efforts with the Visit Carlsbad program. He noted that June 15th is currently set for California reopening and it could not come any sooner. Currently Carlsbad is seeing a rise in visitation for the area, especially when compared with other cities in Southern California. The Carlsbad travel campaign is going strong. There are lots of planned publicity programs for the city to encourage attending dining and hotel businesses in the city.
Aaron Byzak, Chief External Affairs Officer for Tri-City Medical Center presented an overview of the success Tri-City had in dealing with the COVID issues and what the future looks like for the hospital and medical center. Tri-City Medical Center recently received 18 awards for the medical center’s marketing, communications, and community engagement activities, including their COASTAL Commitment outreach initiative. Remarking retrospectively about the COVID-19 pandemic, Aaron stated that health systems across the country took an “all hands-on deck” approach when COVID surfaced, and the pandemic had a major impact on hospital care nationally.
Nationally, the Biden administration has taken a number of actions to roll back many Trump administration decisions. Recent changes include Executive Orders that extended the enrollment period for ACA marketplace insurance sign-ups and supported expansion of Medicaid, known as MediCal in California. A recent CDC report for 2020 listed Heart Disease, Cancer and COVID as the leading cause of deaths. Aaron anticipates there will be long term behavioral and physical health challenges for many people due to COVID, including delays in care that many experienced during the pandemic.
Like hospitals across the country, Tri-City Medical Center experienced significant financial losses during the pandemic caused by many different issues, such as longer lengths of patient stay in the hospital, as well as the high cost of equipment, medication, and labor in dealing with COVID issues. The hospital lost an estimated $37 million dollars in calendar year 2020 due to the pandemic and has received approximately $11 million in Federal support and no state financial support to offset those losses.
Some positive developments that have emerged from the pandemic include use and reimbursement for Tele-medicine, rapid innovation in dealing with vaccine development and treatments, and the extreme collaboration that grew among the health systems. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Tri-City has treated 750+ COVID-19 positive patients. The highest single day total for admissions was in January of 2021 when 100 people were being treated at the hospital. The average length of stay for COVID patients is 12-15 days. Tri-City has thankfully experienced an exceptionally low infection rate among their employees and for many months has had a COVID website, as well as their Community Connections eNewsletter, providing information to the public about the pandemic and Tri-City. As of today, more than 17,000 people have been vaccinated at the Medical Center.
This summer, Tri-City Medical Center will be celebrating its 60th anniversary of serving the community and has undertaken several projects to recognize the occasion. The Medical Center is renaming its three hospital towers after the cities of Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Vista. A Health Care Heroes poster campaign is underway, as is the development of a History Timeline Wall about Tri-City. New signage will begin to appear along with new art and photography in the hospital. A $1.83 million dollar grant will be used for the purchase of new equipment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Also, a Psychiatric Health Facility with 16 inpatient beds is being built in partnership with the County of San Diego. Along with all of this, a $1.2 million dollar Copley Foundation Grant will be used for redesigning the Emergency Department Waiting Room and several treatment areas.
Legislative Reports
Jason Haber – City of Carlsbad – A Citizens Committee is being formed to look at goals for growth management, homeless issues, ethics ordinances, and the Fire Department standards for care. Also under discussion is the establishment of a Citizen Oversite Advisory Committee to assist the police department. The City Council is also looking at the homeless issue in Carlsbad and use of social workers and other agencies to help with the situation. On May 11th there will be an update from the Palomar Airport Advisory Committee. At the next City Council meeting the housing element for the city will be discussed.
Kristal Jabara from Supervisor Jim Desmond’s Office – The Board of Supervisors passed a pilot program to deal with cities homeless issues. There is now a waiver for Special Events fees. We are currently in the Orange and a new set of guidelines now exists for restaurants, breweries, wineries, bars, movie theaters, amusement parks, live events, entertainment centers, museums, zoos, and aquariums. June 15th has been set for the removal of all tier guidelines for the state, as long as COVID #’s are down.
Alex Kiwan from State Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath’s Office – A bill is in the works for the Mira Costa College Community Project to help with work programs for retraining people displaced by COVID shutdowns. AB 66 is close to passing dealing with eroding bluff issues and establish an early warning notification program. Any young woman, ages 18-25, interested in taking part in a Young Woman’s Empowerment Network Training Program, living in District 76, should contact their office. Go to https://a76.asmdc.org/north’county-young-womens-empowerment-network for more information.
Matthew Phy from State Senator Patricia Bates Office – Still working on assisting with EDD issues. Legislators return from Spring Break Monday. Working on SB 668 which delays parts of Prop 19. The Senator is still advocating to help local schools reopen. Vallie Gilley of Oceanside was awarded Woman of the Year by the Senator.
Kyle Kradel-Frolander from U.S. Congressman Mike Levin’s Office – Congressman working on Business Protection Program and Rescue Plan for smaller businesses. This Friday there will be a Federal Relief Program Webinar at 10 am sponsored by the Congressman. He introduced 50 pieces of legislation. On March 18th one piece of legislation was to study and prepare for any additional future disasters.
Bret Schanzenbach – CEO Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce – The Chamber’s first in person event will be on April 21st at the Flower Fields – A Green Business Expo, from 2-6 pm, a $10 donation requested. Information is available on the website about an international trip to Greece in October. The May Government Affairs will cover Job Killer legislation from the Assembly and Senate.
May Government Affairs to be held on May 6th.
