Lodgers Tax board faces criticism by AG, cancels meeting
The Las Vegas Lodgers Tax Advisory Board rescheduled this week’s special meeting because it failed to post the agenda to its website 72 hours prior to the meeting, as required by law. The cancellation comes just weeks after the Office of the Attorney General ruled the board violated the state’s Open Meetings Act multiple times.
The meeting had been slated for Feb. 11 but has now been rescheduled for Feb. 18. This follows several other cancellations, most recently Jan. 14 and Feb. 4.
According to board member Allan Affeldt, the last time the board met was in August.
Lodging taxes collected by the city are earmarked for programs and advertising aimed at drawing more visitors to Las Vegas, but according to Affeldt, that can’t be achieved if the board doesn’t discuss recommendations on how to spend the money.
“The (money) is not being deployed,” Affeldt said. “The money is collected specifically to bring more tourists to Las Vegas, and obviously that can’t happen if we’re not advertising.”
Affeldt said he is concerned that the recent dysfunction within the city’s government is preventing money collected to help promote the city as a tourist destination from being used in a productive manner.
“This is an easy (problem) to solve,” Affeldt said. “If we had a full board making recommendations to the city council … we could put that money to productive use in the community. But this paralysis of the city is hurting everyone.”
Until recently, the board has been short the five members required by the Las Vegas City Charter, which has made it difficult to establish a quorum.
During the Jan. 15 City Council meeting, councilors approved the appointments of three new Lodgers Tax Board members selected by former mayor Tonita Gurule-Giron before her resignation in January.
As previously reported by the Optic, during the meeting, Councilor David Romero questioned why Mayor Vince Howell, who will serve as mayor until a new mayor is elected on March 3, approved Gurule-Giron’s recommendations instead of allowing the person elected in March to select their own appointees after taking office. Howell defended his decision by saying all three members had already signed agreements to fill the vacant positions prior to Gurule-Giron’s departure.
The appointments expand the board to the five members required by the Las Vegas City Charter. The charter further stipulates the board be comprised of two members who are owners or operators of lodging establishments that are subject to the city’s occupancy tax; two other members must be owners or operators of businesses located within city limits that primarily provide services or products to tourists; the fifth member can be any resident of the city.
The Lodgers Tax Advisory Board has also faced recent criticism for violations of the state’s Open Meetings Act, or OMA.
In a response to complaints filed by Lee Einer, a former public information officer for the City of Las Vegas, the Office of the Attorney General determined Einer’s complaints were valid and reprimanded the board for violating the law.
In a Jan. 23 letter sent to the city’s attorney Esther Garduño Montoya, Assistant Attorney General John Kreienkamp ruled the board violated OMA by approving minutes of a previous meeting without listing the vote on its agenda, and by voting to approve minutes from an April meeting via email rather than in an open meeting.
“It is unacceptable for any public body in New Mexico to engage in such a flagrant violation of OMA as taking a vote on public business through email,” Kreienkamp wrote. “The public policy of the State of New Mexico is that the people are entitled to ‘the greatest possible information’ as to the affairs of its government, and the board must honor and abide by that principle.”
