Pitamber
City of Vacaville v. Pitamber
Opinion
Opinion
Marchiano, J.
The City of Vacaville (the City) imposes a duty on hotel owners to collect and remit to the City a transient occupancy tax as authorized by Revenue and Taxation Code section 7280. (Vacaville Mun. Code §§ 3.16.010-3.16.120 (VMC).) Ron Pitamber, operator of the Best Western Heritage Inn (Best Western), refused to comply with the City’s audit request for records used to compute the tax. The superior court ordered compliance and Pitamber and Best Western appealed. We agree with the reasoning and holding in Patel v. City of Gilroy (2002) 97 Cal.App.4th 483 [ 118 Cal.Rptr.2d 354 ] (Gilroy) and affirm.
BACKGROUND
The City had conducted regular compliance reviews of Best Western in 1993 and 1997 without incident. In March of 2003, the City’s auditor notified Best Western of its intent to conduct another periodic audit of the records of Best Western.
This time, Pitamber’s counsel notified the City that under the authority of City of San Bernardino Hotel/Motel Assn. v. City of San Bernardino (1997) 59 Cal.App.4th 237 [ 69 Cal.Rptr.2d 97 ] (San Bernardino), Best Western was not obligated to disclose its books and records to the City. On April 25, 2003, the City’s finance manager…