Augusta commission hears more about hotel overstay issues, might consider an ordinance
Augusta commissioners heard during committee meetings Tuesday about the possible merits of a local ordinance on people in hotels overstaying without paying.
Laura Lee Blake, president and CEO at Asian American Hotel Owners Association, returned to the commission to discuss a recent Georgia State Supreme Court ruling on whether or not hotel clients who stayed for multiple years counted as tenants.
"The facts in that case are markedly different than what we're seeing in Augusta," she said. "... With respect to our AAHOA members in Augusta, that's not what they're facing. These are short term, usually a week, maybe two weeks they're staying. Maybe up to 30, 40 days sometimes. But they're going into the hotels, then they're refusing to pay, then they're continuing to stay."
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The Georgia State Supreme Court ruling Efficiency Lodge, Inc. v. Neason et al., where several residents of a long-term stay hotel sued when management attempted to evict them without filing a formal eviction claim in court, determined that under some circumstances a resident at a hotel could be considered a tenant. But they returned the ruling to the lower court to determine whether or not that applied in this specific case.
Blake said other municipalities have passed ordinances to give clarity to law enforcement and make it easier for them to oust people from hotels.
Richmond County sheriff's Maj. Gerald Metzler said the sheriff's office shifted its policy on the hotel as the case moved its way through the court.
"The courts kind of made everything gray ... made it difficult for us to understand where the innkeeper-guest relationship started and stopped," he said, and unless people had only been in the hotel two or three days the deputies did not want to fall afoul of the court ruling.
Metlzer said that a county ordinance could be helpful.
"A county ordinance would let us write a citation, kind of another step to make them leave," he said.
In other business:
Commissioners discussed creating a maintenance schedule for vacant lots and right of ways as they work on finalizing a "right sizing" plan for Augusta.
Dr. Hameed Malik, director of the engineering department, discussed a proposal to increase trash collection fees.
A vote to approve a search firm contract to find a new city administrator was delayed due to commissioner concerns over the firm having a prior Augusta city administrator on staff.
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Hotel overstays again before commissioners, sheriff
