Bid to derail occupational lodging tax falls short

An attempt by local lodgers to derail a voter-approved occupational lodging tax has been stopped in its tracks. Citing multiple infractions of state initiative and referendum law, Salida City Clerk Janella Martinez said earlier today that she was forced to disqualify all of the 580 signatures collected on petitions circulated by the lodgers.

According to state statues, disassembling or taking the petitions apart for any reason brings into question the integrity of the petitions since each signature must be witnessed by the person circulating the petition. All of the 30 petition sections had evidence of disassembly including multiple staple holes, some had entire corners cut off, while others had faxed pages inserted and still others had color variations and nonsequential signatures.

Secretary of State election rules, aimed at preventing fraud, explicitly state, “Each section (of a petition) shall be checked for evidence of disassembly. If it appears that the section was disassembled, all entries in the section shall be rejected.”

Highlighting of sections of the cover pages is also prohibited by statute and was another serious infraction found on a number of petitions, Martinez explained. Martinez said the lodgers, who had their own attorney, had not asked her advice on the petition process which she said, she would have provided.

When asked for his response to the city’s announcement, de facto lodging industry spokesperson Don Jackson said simply that he had no response. He said it was too soon and he needed time to collect his thoughts before commenting on the decision and/or what the lodgers’ next steps should or could be.

Martinez explained that the lodgers have the right to appeal her decision to District Court or they can begin another petition process.

Even if the lodgers had been successful in obtaining the 199 necessary signatures, a larger problem loomed. Back on Jan. 30, when Martinez ruled that the form of the petition complied with state statute, she informed the lodgers that their proposed amendment to the occupational lodging tax code “could create a lodging tax that is beyond the authority of a statutory city to impose and which was not approved by Salida voters.”

In today’s letter to the lodgers, Martinez reiterated the point and noted that she had received a letter on Feb. 19 from the lodgers’ pro bono attorney, David Waller, admitting that the lodgers’ request would be unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, the occupational lodging tax of $2.50 per night per occupied room took effect March 1. Revenues from the tax are earmarked to fund improvements to cultural and recreational amenities, with repairs to the locker rooms and hot water line to the Salida Aquatic Hot Springs Pool at the top of the list of improvement projects.

City Administrator Jack Lewis said the city estimates first-year revenues from the tax may total around $193,000.

When asked if he thought this would be the end of the controversy over the occupational lodging tax, City Councilman Hugh Young, who has personally devoted hundreds of hours to this issue, replied that he hoped today would mark the beginning of the community coming together to put some positive energy into the city.

Martinez made it clear that only she, and the city’s deputy clerk, administrator and city attorney Lee Leavenworth had been involved in the petition review. She stressed that the decision is administrative and that at no time was any city councilmad involved in the administrative review.

In addition to local media representatives, citizens present at today’s press conference included Chaffee County Visitor’s Bureau Marketing Director April Prout, Super 8 Motel co-owner Brit Fadden, and Salida Recreation Advisory Commission co-chair Bill Smith.

The full text of the City Clerk’s letter to lodgers accompanies this article. To read it, click 2b.lodgerslet.031809