Council authorizes staff to prepare charter-amendment resolutions on transient-occupancy tax cap, board compensation and election timing

Fairfax City Council instructed staff to prepare resolutions introducing charter amendments that would remove a cap on the city’s transient-occupancy tax, delete a $50-per-meeting compensation cap for boards and commissions, and clean up election/timing references in the charter.

City Manager Bridal Foster opened the discussion by saying the chief driver for the potential charter changes was the city’s inability under the charter to raise the transient-occupancy tax above 4%, and that the council should decide whether to seek state approval to remove that cap so the option is available for next year’s budget if desired. “If you wish to pursue this… we would put a resolution on the consent agenda at your next meeting to introduce, set a public hearing for your October 28 meeting,” Foster said.

Council members discussed implications and next steps. Foster said removing the charter cap would not obligate the council to raise the tax; it would only give the council the option to do so if it chose. City staff estimated 1 percentage point of transient-occupancy tax currently yields about $110,000–$112,000 annually; the full 4% cap equates to roughly $450,000 under current conditions. Staff added that changes in the number of hotel rooms would change any projection.

On board compensation, Foster said the charter currently caps compensation for service on boards and commissions at $50 per meeting; removing that text would let council set different compensation levels later if it chose to do so by resolution or ordinance.

Council members asked about adding a proposed fourth charter change — removing the requirement that appointees be registered voters so long-term noncitizen residents could be eligible for boards and commissions. Several members said they wanted more time or more legal review before adding that item to the October introduction and public hearing. Others said they supported placing that item on the hearing list so the public could comment.

Foster and other staff advised the council that if it wanted to include any item in an amendment package, that item needed to be placed in the introduced resolution at the Oct. 14 meeting to meet the timeline for state legislative consideration and to be effective (if approved) by July 1, 2026. Majority council support was sufficient to introduce the resolution; the mayor could break ties on later votes.

Council consensus at the end of the discussion was to move forward with the three items involving the transient-occupancy tax cap, board compensation cap removal and election language cleanup; the registration-for-appointment item requiring more legal review was not added to the introduced package that night. Staff will prepare the formal resolution for introduction on the Oct. 14 consent agenda and set the public hearing for Oct. 28 as part of the charter-amendment process.

If the council later approves introduction and the General Assembly enacts the local amendment, the transient-occupancy tax option would be available for council consideration before the budget adoption process in spring 2026.