In late 2015 and early 2016, an issue arose as to the application of current City Ordinance Section 7-602. This very brief ordinance requires a hotel to keep a registry of guests occupying a room and allows a city official to inspect this hotel guest registry upon request. This ordinance has been in the City Code for decades and there is no useful legislative history as to its original intended purposes. However, the ordinance has mostly remained unutilized over the past few years and particularly since the mid-2015 U.S Supreme Court case of City of Los Angeles v. Patel struck down a similar Los Angeles, California city ordinance. Some other Montana cities have a similar ordinance, however it is unknown as to whether such similar ordnances are enforced or have been repealed. 

A meeting was held with the Yellowstone County Lodging Association, Police Chief St. John, Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Dan Schwarz and City Attorney Brent Brooks in the fall of 2015 to discuss the continued existence of the ordinance with amendments conforming to the above case or to simply repeal it. The consensus of the meeting was that the ordinance was no longer needed nor useful, should be repealed and would continue to be unenforced based on the above case pending recommended repeal.

Based on the above case and with the repeal of this ordinance, law enforcement may continue to obtain hotel registry information in one of three ways:

1. The hotel may consent to the registry access; or,
2. The hotel may refuse access and law enforcement may then apply for a search warrant to obtain access to the registry. A search warrant requires certain procedural steps and a factual basis for the search which is then presented to and reviewed and approved by a judge; or,
3. If a true emergency exists (often referred to in case law as "exigent circumstances") where there is no time to obtain a search warrant, law enforcement may require immediate access to the registry without consent and without a search warrant. This may occur depending on the facts of the specific situation indicating an emergency.

 

↵City Council may:

• Approve the repeal of Ordinance Section 7-602, or
• Disapprove repeal of Ordinance Section 7-602, or
• Amend Ordinance Section 7-602 to comply with City of Los Angeles v. Patel.

There is no financial impact with repeal of this ordinance.

Staff recommends that the City Council conduct a public hearing and approve this ordinance repealing City Code Section 7-602 on First Reading.