ASHEVILLE – The city is changing how it does appointments to the body controlling Buncombe County’s estimated $14 million hotel room tax, a board at the center of a heated debate over how much tourists should pay for public services.
City Council members have said they will now hold public interviews for Asheville’s appointments to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. The council appoints people to 34 boards and committees, but only a few, such as the Asheville City Board of Education and the Planning and Zoning Commission, require an interview process.
As with the board of education and planning commission, authority applicants must now submit written answers to essay questions and go through an interview process.
Council members said little about the change, though Vice Mayor Marc Hunt noted at a Sept. 8 council meeting that “over the past few days there’s been a little sort of one-on-one discussion on council about this topic.”
The city and authority members have faced off over the hotel tax, which is estimated to grow soon from $9 million to $14 million annually with new state legislation increasing it from 4 percent to 6 percent. That comes on top of the county’s 7 percent sales tax. City leaders and Asheville activists say some of the tax should be used for funding public services such as police, affordable housing or sidewalks. But authority members have supported the current legislation that calls for all of it to be spent boosting the hotel industry through marketing and projects that attract tourists.
The new legislation also expanded the authority’s voting members from seven to nine members. The majority must be hoteliers or be associated with other business such as bed and breakfasts that pay the lodging tax, according to the law. The city gets to appoint four members: two must be associated with hotels with more than 100 rooms each, one must come from a hotel with 100 or less rooms and one must be someone from a tourism-related industry.
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners appoints four members and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce appoints one.
The city is now considering applicants for two positions, one to replace past authority chairman Bob Patel and one for a new position. Both appointees must be owners of large hotels.
As of Tuesday, applicants are:
Authority members recommended Froeba in a letter to the the council. Authority Chairwoman Paula Wilber said Froeba has served on the committee that decides which projects get hotel tax funding, a process that “requires a significant investment of time.”
Interviews will begin at 3:45 p.m., Oct. 13, at City Hall and are open to the public.
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