Hotel tax review could be done in secret

Group can decide for themselves whether to have open or closed meetings, city attorney says

(Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)

A group reviewing where Sioux Falls hotel taxes go will be allowed to meet in secret.

Five years after the Sioux Falls City Council established a business improvement district at the request of the hotel industry to generate marketing and promotion dollars from room stays, Mayor Mike Huether is putting together a review committee to reassess how the $2-per-room tax is being used. That group, expected to convene for the first time in the coming weeks, has no obligation to conduct its meetings in public, according to City Attorney Dave Pfeifle.

Pfeifle said in an email last week that ad-hoc advisory committees do not fall under the umbrella of open meeting rules prescribed in state statute and city charter. Whether or not the meetings are open, he said, will be at the discretion of the review committee.

That might not aid the review committee, charged with considering the influence brick and mortar spending would have on hotel business, in convincing hoteliers and travel industry professionals change is needed.

Shailesh Patel is a member of the board that oversees the hotel tax dollars and owns Harihar Management, Inc. He said many hoteliers are already skeptical about the need to review the tax. If the review committee makes recommendations without complete transparency, it risks even more resistance, he said.

“I’ve heard from a lot of hotel people … and they’re not convinced this committee will do a fair judgment,” he said. “The meetings should be open.”

Jan Grunewaldt, regional director of operations for Regency Hotel Management, used to serve on the business improvement district board. She said because that board operates with multiple levels of transparency – open meetings, published minutes, city council review – a committee tasked with retooling what those dollars can be spent on should be held to the same standard.

“There shouldn’t be any secrets, so what’s to hide? I don’t know why it would be closed,” she said.

Sioux Falls Finance Director Tracy Turbak told Patel and other board members last week the committee will have the final say on the openness of the meetings it conducts. Keeping them closed, he said, sometimes encourages more forthright debate.

“One of the advantages of having a closed room meeting is people are often times less inhibited about having free and open discussion,” Turbak said. “So there’s a tradeoff there and that’s something the group is going to have to sort through themselves.”

While the decision will be a collective agreement among members of the review committee, which Turbak says hasn’t been finalized, some who expect to serve on the mayor’s committee are leaning toward keeping the meetings open.

“I’m an individual who always believes in being open and transparent,” said Tom Bosch, a review committee member who spent 14 years as the general manager of Holiday Inn Sioux Falls before taking a role at Avera McKennan. “I’d be in favor at this point, unless I hear a reason otherwise, … to have it be an open meeting.”

Paul Schiller, another person expected to aid in the review, agreed.

“I wouldn’t have any problem keeping it open,” he said. “I’m hoping for a very open and honest debate going back and forth about how these funds are used.”

Source: www.argusleader.com