San Diegans for Open Government v. City of Oceanside

The record here demonstrates that in publishing its agenda with respect to its consideration of an agreement under which a developer would be paid a subsidy in the form of remission of $11 million for transient occupancy tax (TOT) collected from a luxury hotel the developer agreed to build, as well as other concessions, the city council of defendant and respondent City of Oceanside (the city) met the requirements of the Ralph M. Brown Act (Gov. Code, § 54950.5 et seq.). Under the agreement, the city was initially obligated to pay the developer 100 percent of TOT receipts generated by the hotel and, thereafter, smaller percentages of TOT receipts from the hotel, until the city’s $11 million TOT obligation had been satisfied. When the agreement was presented to the city council for approval, the council agenda stated that the council would consider the developer’s agreement to guarantee development of the subject property as “a full service resort”; an agreement ‘“to provide a mechanism to share Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) generated by the Project”; and a report, required by statute, ‘“documenting the amount of subsidy provided to the developer, the proposed start and end…