ANAHEIM — Mayor Pro Tem Lori Galloway has, along with Mayor Tom Tait, placed the matter of allowing a public vote to consider overturning the decision of the Council to give $158 million to spur hotel development in the Garden Walk project area on tonight’s meeting agenda.
Residents of Anaheim have been hammering the council majority for a little more than a month over the rushed decision made to give 100% of available future Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) revenues to the developers of two luxury hotels. The matter was slipped under the radar of the general public when the Council majority decided to take action on the matter rather than just discuss it as the agenda said. A lawsuit was filed last week in an attempt to derail the deal.
A week after the vote Mayor Tait called a special meeting of the Council to reconsider the earlier action after receiving comment from the public. Council members Gail Eastman, Harry Sidhu, and Kris Murray all decided they had better things to do and refused to attend the special meeting, preventing a quorum and vote. Since this round will occur at a regularly scheduled meeting, they are not likely to duck a vote to let the voters decide.
The discussion will be the second matter after the consent calendar right after an update on Ponerosa Libriary Services.
9. Discussion of a possible initiative measure relating to the use of Transient Occupancy Tax as an incentive for hotel development and possible direction to staff to prepare initiative measure.
The meeting starts at 5:00 pm in the Anaheim City Council Chambers.
Did you guys hear about Lorri Galloway voting on issues that donors to her charity are stake holders in? These donors donate to her charity the Eli Home from which her and her husband draw over 100K in salaries. Not very kosher if you ask me.