Title
Ordinance to Amend and Reenact the City Code of the City of Hampton, Virginia by Amending Chapter 16.1, Hotels and similar establishments, Section 16.1-3, Section 16.1-8, Section 16.1-12, Section 16.1-14, Section 16.1-15, Section 16.1-16, to change the previously required hotel permit to a hotel operating license, remove the requirement that hotel records be made available for inspection by the police at any time, and make other changes to conform to state and federal law Section 16.1-17, Section 16.1-18, Section 16.1-19, Section 16.1-20, and Section 16.1-21; and, the repeal of Section 16.1-4, Section 16.1-5, Section 16.1-11, and Section 16.1-13 to relocate the requirements of those sections to become requirements of the hotel operating license
Purpose
PURPOSE/BACKGROUND:
In City of Los Angeles v. Patel, the United States Supreme Court specifically ruled that a City of Los Angeles requirement that hotels allow officers to physically search the records of a hotel, at the hotel, on demand, constituted a search and violated the 4th Amendment. The City of Hampton’s current requirement is virtually identical to the one used by Los Angeles.
Discussion:
Following the Patel case, the Hampton City Attorney’s Office reviewed the City’s Hotel Ordinance and determined that the provisions of records could be made a condition of a hotel operating license (specifically permitted by the City’s Charter), thereby avoiding the need for a physical search of hotel records. Instead hotels will now simply send their records to the City Manager once a month. The records are used to ensure that hotels are complying with the Hotel Ordinances prohibition on allowing guests to stay in a hotel for longer than 30 days within a 180 day period, unless the guest meets an exemption.
No other substantive changes were made to the requirements for hotel owners or guests. However, many of the provisions regulating hotels were moved from ordinance requirements to requirements of the...
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