Multnomah County's elections department ruled Tuesday that opponents of a plan to build a hotel to the Oregon Convention Center can't refer the plan to county voters.
Opponents of public subsidy for the $198 million Hyatt filed notice with the county last week, saying they planned to ask the voters to overturn the Multnomah County Commission's approval of a tax plan to pay for part of the hotel's construction.
The plan calls for using room taxes on stays at the Hyatt to pay off $60 million in bonds that would subsidize construction of the 600-room hotel. In exchange for that bond package, plus $14 million in direct government subsidy, Hyatt would use a site across from the convention center, guarantee that 500 of the hotel's rooms would be available for large conventions, remain amenable to a union workforce and meet other criteria.
In a letter released Tuesday, Multnomah County elections director Tim Scott said a referendum does not meet the requirements of the Oregon Constitution, Multnomah County Charter or Multnomah County Code.
"The initiative and referendum process is reserved to the people of the county relative to the legislative acts of the Board of County Commissioners," Scott said. "The subject of the Petition filed… relates to the exercise of the Board of County Commissioner's Executive and Administrative powers."
In other words, the county said the change to the tax structure to pay off the bonds was an administrative restructuring, no different than a budget amendment, instead of the creation of new policy.
Ed Sullivan, a Portland attorney who once served as county counsel in Washington County, said Oregon's initiative and referendum rules limit voter review to legislative matters.
"You can refer out policy items but not specific things, such as an individual agreement or an individual conditional use permit," Sullivan said. "But you can do policy, like a policy of dog kennels in residential zones. But if someone wanted to refer out this one dog kennel, you couldn't do it."
Sandeep Kaushik, a spokesman for the Coalition for Fair Budget Priorities, said the change in the visitor tax agreement between Metro, Portland and Multnomah County was more than an administrative action.
"This is clearly a complete restructuring of an existing tax," Kaushik said. "It's essentially the creation of a new tax. Our attorneys will weigh in on this as we get more time to digest this ruling, but absolutely we think this is referable."
In a statement, Metro Council President Tom Hughes said the county acted properly.
"The action taken by the county in December was an administrative code change that simply rearranged the way the county allocates its tourism dollars … to include new projects like the convention center hotel," Hughes' statement said.
If the Coalition moves forward and appeals the county's decision, it would have to do so by the end of next week. That appeal would be reviewed by Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Meanwhile, Metro continues to negotiate with Hyatt and its development team on a final development agreement for the hotel, with a negotiating session set for Jan. 10. A development agreement would have to be approved by the Metro Council before work could start on the project.