Fayette County commissioners debate, approve hotel tax ordinance revision
UNIONTOWN — At their regular meeting Thursday morning, the Fayette County commissioners contentiously discussed revising a hotel tax ordinance for nearly a half-hour before unanimously approving it.
After Solicitor Jack Purcell confirmed for Commissioner Angela M. Zimmerlink that the commissioners were considering approval to raise the county’s hotel tax from 3 to 5 percent, Purcell and Zimmerlink agreed that the commissioners approved both a memorandum of understanding between the county and the Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau and a general marketing plan for the bureau using a dedicated percentage (2 percent) of the 5 percent hotel tax last month.
But Zimmerlink noted that the commissioners unanimously passed the 2 percent hotel occupancy tax increase in December 2016 beginning effective Jan. 1, 2017.
“So why is this on the agenda again?” Zimmerlink asked, adding that the increase needed to have been publicly advertised in a local newspaper before the commissioners approved it.
Zimmerlink asked Purcell to make certain that legal requirements were met before the 5 percent tax was actually enacted.
Commissioner Vincent Vicites called Muriel Nuttall, the commissioners’ Laurel Highlands Visitors Bureau liaison, while Zimmerlink was talking and put Nuttall on speakerphone to weigh in on Zimmerlink’s comments.
“I want to make sure this is done appropriately,” Nuttall said. “I feel that it has been. The piece was that published (for advertisement) and is on the agenda for today is the ordinance, and it needed to be published. I don’t believe anything in the other pieces needed to be published.”
Purcell said the only issue with the ordinance is determining from what time it is effective, an observation that Zimmerlink agreed with.
Vicites noted that the 2 percent increase was designed to maximize tourism promotion in Fayette County.
“(Visitors) know Fayette County is the heart of the Laurel Highlands,” Vicites said. “Once they get here, we want them to stay longer in our hotels, spend more money and help our local economy. So this 2 percent is an effective way to get that accomplished.”
“It was passed in December,” Zimmerlink said. “The money started to be collected (by the county) in January. Last month, it’s in the paper that says, if you want to look at what’s being passed, stop in the commissioners’ office. That’s not the way that county government is supposed to run.”
“Does this mean that we’re not going to be able to collect the 2 percent because you raised this question?” Vicites asked Zimmerlink. ” … We passed it in December. We’ve been collecting it for six months, seven months. Now are we allowed to collect that? And if not, we’re going to have to give that money back and we’re not going to be able to promote Fayette County tourism for the first six months of the year.”
Commissioner Dave Lohr said that it was his understanding that “everything has been done the proper way” regarding the ordinance, which Vicites agreed with.
Purcell recommended that the commissioners adopt the ordinance and noted that the legality of the January enactment will be examined.
In other business, Zimmerlink noted that the commissioners would hold an executive session at noon Thursday with attorney Tom Pellis.
Pellis is representing Senior Judge Gerald R. Solomon and retired Judge Ralph C. Warman, who were found by a federal judge last month to have intentionally withheld potentially exculpatory evidence in the case of David Munchinski, who sued Solomon and Warman after his dual murder convictions were vacated and he was freed after more than two decades in prison.
The executive session was planned to discuss litigation of the Munchinski case, with no further action to be taken on the matter immediately following the session.
Solomon was the district attorney, and Warman, assistant district attorney, in 1986 when Munchinski was convicted of killing James Alford and Peter Gierke.
Alford and Gierke were found dead in Bear Rocks in Bullskin Township in December 1977. The murder remained unsolved for five years, with Munchinski and a second man, Leon Scaglione, later convicted.