City Council to adopt ordinance updating transient occupancy tax regulations.

PUBLIC NOTICE SUMMARY OF PROPOSED ORDINANCE as prescribed by Government Code section 36933(c)(1) NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that at their meeting to be held April 14, 2026, the Vacaville City Council will conduct a second reading and adopt the following ordinance: AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF VACAVILLE REPEALING AND REPLACING CHAPTER 3.16 OF THE VACAVILLE MUNICIPAL CODE RELATING TO THE TRANSIENT OCCUPANCY TAX, TO MODERNIZE PROVISIONS THAT HAVE NOT BEEN COMPREHENSIVELY UPDATED SINCE 2003, REFLECT CURRENT LEGAL REQUIREMENTS, AND STRENGTHEN ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY This ordinance repeals and replaces chapter 3.16 of the Vacaville municipal code, which governs the city's transient occupancy tax. The existing tax rate of eight percent is unchanged. Among other things, the ordinance will: update definitions to reflect the current title of Director of Finance for the Tax Administrator, and add definitions for short-term rental and short-term rental facilitator expressly establish that the hotel operator is primarily liable to the city for all tax required to be collected, regardless of whether the operator actually collected it from the guest reorganize the exemption provisions into two sections, separating the categories of qualifying exemptions from the process an operator must follow to claim them, and expressly placing the burden of proving eligibility on the operator strengthen the collection provisions to address commingling of collected tax funds with an operator's general operating funds and authorize the Tax Administrator to take enforcement action to protect the city's interest in such funds add new suspension and revocation authority, allowing the Tax Administrator to suspend or revoke a transient occupancy registration certificate if an operator is delinquent for more than ninety days, subject to prior written notice and an opportunity to cure add a new section incorporating the framework of the Short-Term Rental Facilitator Act of 2025 (Government Code section 50990 et seq.), which will not be operative unless and until the City Council adopts a separate ordinance implementing short-term rental regulations expressly cap the maximum cumulative delinquency penalty at twenty percent of the tax due and extend penalties to short-term rental facilitators that fail to comply with reporting or remittance obligations establish a clear three-tier appeal process from the director of finance to the City Manager and from the City Manager to the City Council, with grounds for reopening a final council determination expressly limited formalize the city's audit and inspection authority and establish a cost-shifting mechanism under which the operator bears the cost of an audit upon a finding of underpayment of more than five percent or submission of a materially false return allow recordation of liens against real property owned by a delinquent operator anywhere in California and direct collection warrants to the sheriff of solano county or any other authorized levying officer replace the existing criminal misdemeanor enforcement framework with a civil enforcement framework, consistent with current best practices among California cities add new administrative rules and severability provisions This ordinance will become effective 30 days from its adoption. A full text copy of the ordinance may be reviewed in the office of the City Clerk at City Hall, 650 Merchant Street, Vacaville, CA 95688. The foregoing ordinance was introduced at the regular meeting of the Vacaville City Council on March 24, 2026, by the following vote: AYES: Councilmembers Stockton, Ritchie, Chapman, Fremouw, Wylie, Vice Mayor Silva, and Mayor Carli NOES: None ABSENT: None /s/Michelle Thornbrugh, City Clerk