HomeMy WebLinkAbout022125 email - PUBLIC COMMENT_ Unfair treatment of LTAC volunteersALERT: BE CAUTIOUS This email originated outside the organization. Do not open attachments or click on links if you are not expecting them.
Commissioners,
A 90-year-old Supreme Court decision known as Humphrey’s Executor <https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/295us602> is in the news now, and it brings up a concern that I have about the
way that you dismissed the entire membership of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.
The unanimous 1935 Supreme Court ruling established that presidents cannot fire the appointed leaders of the alphabet soup of federal agencies without cause. The justices ruled unanimously
that the law establishing an agency was constitutional and that FDR’s action was improper.
“For it is quite evident that one who holds his office only during the pleasure of another cannot be depended upon to maintain an attitude of independence against the latter’s will,”
their opinion read.
The point of having an LTAC is that they can, and should, provide advice and recommendations regarding the expenditure of lodging tax revenues, unbiased and not influenced by the particular
and individual preferences of the county commissioners who are in office at any given time. Members of the committee may even have been appointed by a prior “administration”, but that
is not a valid reason to discharge them. In Humphrey’s, the court noted that the law allowed removal of an agency commissioner only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance
in office.” Those criteria seem not to have been applied in the case of the LTAC massacre.
Your actions in the LTAC matter are concerning to anyone who is currently a volunteer on a county committee, and will likely serve to dissuade future applicants.
Tom Thiersch