Perhaps eager to adjourn to their closed session at the conclusion of the meeting or possibly ready to celebrate the city’s eight-year anniversary, the council made short work of the agenda at Tuesday night’s Goleta city council meeting. The open meeting went on for about an hour, applauding the progress the city has made by receiving a special designation from the National Weather Service as being “Storm ready,” and swearing in new employee Everett King as the Environmental Services Coordinator.
One of the main topics of concern was brought forth by Marti Schultz, Principal Civil Engineer, who made a recommendation on behalf of one citizen and Brandon School’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator, Ruth McGolpin, to replace yield signs with stop signs at the intersections of Padova Drive and Salisbury Avenue and Padova Drive and Deerhurst Drive. Schultz explained that drivers were simply rolling through these intersections disregarding the present yield signs in place – and putting children who attend the school at risk.
A couple of citizens, one being McGolpin, took the podium and spoke in favor of the stop sign installations. “I’m all for the 2-way stop, if we can look at again next year, if it’s still a problem, switch it to a 4-way (stop),” stated McGolpin, seemingly unconvinced that a pair of 2-way stop intersections would be sufficient to remedy the situation. Councilmembers Roger Aceves and Edward Easton had questions concerning the current layout of the neighborhood and why it became that way; but the council as a whole voted unanimously for the installation of the stop signs.
The next item delved into whether the city should follow the lead of Santa Barbara, and have the public vote on keeping the Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) at the existing 10 percent or have it ratified. The TOT refers to the percentage tax a hotel owner or similar establishment can charge from the rent for transient occupancy, originally being set at 8 percent in Santa Barbara County. In 1990, it was raised without being put to a populist vote to 10 percent. The California Supreme Court determined that this 2 percent hike was done in violation of Proposition 62, which was created in1986, to assure that no general tax be levied without approval of the electorate.
However, because of Goleta’s recent cityhood, circumstances are a little different than its next-door neighbor’s. In 2001, when Goleta was incorporated, it was decided by the Local Agency Formation Commission that county taxes, fees and charges would continue to be collectable by the newly formed city as one of the terms of being granted cityhood. City Attorney Tim Giles asserted that the existence of the 10 percent TOT during the city’s incorporation legally still holds valid on the basis of this original agreement.
Whether or not the 10 percent tax could be challenged legally and what the cost would be of staging an election similar to Santa Barbara’s upcoming one in June, were additional issues that were also discussed on this night. Giles estimated that the cost of defending a possible Superior Court action in an attempt to recuperate the potentially illegal excess percentage of tax collected, could range anywhere from $10-25,000 should the city seek outside legal counsel.
The council for now believed it’s best to keep their money in its pockets, as they prepared to reconvene in closed session with legal counsel to discuss another anticipated litigation matter.