Local News in Brief : Initiative Planned on Agoura Hills Bed Tax

Saying that he is frustrated at having his “ideas shot down” by “certain elitists,” Agoura Hills City Councilman Ernest Dynda is seeking an initiative that would force expenditure of 75% of the city’s hotel bed tax on civic projects.

Dynda is the lone pro-development voice on a City Council whose other members are growth-control advocates. On Tuesday he announced formation of a group to spearhead the drive for an initiative that would force the city to spend most of the revenue from its 8% hotel bed tax on library services, roads, recreation and senior citizen and youth facilities. The other 25% of the tax revenue would go into the city’s general fund.

The city has no hotels, but three are under construction and are expected to bring in $600,000 a year in bed-tax revenue, Dynda said. He complained that all that revenue is slated go to the city’s general fund for spending as the City Council desires. The council, he alleged, “squanders money on studies, frills and redevelopment.”

Dynda refused to name the “elitists,” but he criticized his council colleagues for voting last week to oppose a proposed hotel and coffee shop. That project would have generated at least $120,000 in bed taxes, he said.

Dynda said the petition drive will begin April 1. To qualify for the Nov. 3 ballot, the group must collect the signatures of 930 Agoura Hills residents, 10% of the city’s registered voters. It would become law if approved by a majority of voters.