Vallejo alleges residential motel used in Project RoomKey failed to produce tax records

VALLEJO – The city of Vallejo sued the owners of the Rodeway Inn last month alleging that the motel owners did not provide the city with required information to ensure the accuracy of taxes paid to the city.

The lawsuit filed in Solano County Superior Court pits the city against a former partner, the operators of the two-story residential motel at 4 Mariposa St. that the city rented in 2020 and 2021 to house people in its Project RoomKey program.

Now the city alleges that Rodeway Inn operators Jay and Kuldeep Solanki failed to turn over records to an auditor the city retained to determine the motel’s compliance with transient occupancy taxes required by the Vallejo Municipal Code, including during the city contract.

According to the suit, the auditor sent the Rodeway Inn a letter on Nov. 17, 2021 requesting records of taxes the motel paid to the city from Jan. 1, 2018, to June 30, 2021, but the Rodeway did not provide them. The lawsuit states that the Rodeway was required to pay the city an 11% surcharge on each occupant’s rent plus $2 per occupied room per night. The lawsuit does not disclose how much tax the Rodeway paid.

A copy of the letter is attached to the suit. Among the records the city demanded were the names of all guests who stayed more than 30 days, the dates they checked in and out, and the rate for their rooms.

For a large portion of that time period, the city was the Rodeway Inn’s sole customer as it rented the entire motel to be used for its Project RoomKey program. Invoices show the city paid the Rodeway Inn approximately $1 million during that time.

In fact, the city had considered purchasing the property to use as a permanent shelter.

Project RoomKey was a statewide program intended to help vulnerable homeless people isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, Project RoomKey residents in Vallejo were housed in the Hampton Inn on Fairgrounds Drive, but in July 2020, they were moved to the Rodeway Inn.

One woman who would later die during the Project RoomKey program, Cherie Nicoletta, immediately complained about the conditions at the Rodeway. She told her daughter in a July 13, 2020, voicemail that was provided to the Vallejo Sun that the motel was, “the biggest fucking dive I’ve ever been in.”

“Both my lamps don't work, no light in the bathroom. No hot water, paint on the floor,” Nicoletta said in the voicemail. “The TVs don't work. It's just one thing after another. The only thing that does work is the air conditioner and the phone. So yeah, we're gonna have a real big problem here. They’re probably gonna have to move us all.”

A log of complaints from August 2020 corroborated Nicoletta’s complaints.

Residents described leaking ceilings, sinks and toilets, and broken beds, refrigerators, phones and TVs. Two residents asked for accommodations for their disability – a raised toilet seat or bar handle to get into the bathtub – which the Rodeway did not provide. Many residents reported roaches. One person said there were maggots all over the floor. Some residents reported mold, including an asthma patient.

Records later released by the city show that the city ordered a mold evaluation of the Rodeway Inn in August and found a substantial mold infestation. But the city apparently took no steps to remediate.

Vallejo contracted with San Jose-based nonprofit Unity Care in October 2020 to provide case management services for people at the Rodeway.

That following month, three people staying there died. Two died in their rooms and one was not found for days. Cinthia Castenada was taken to the hospital the night of Nov. 9, 2020, and died there. On Nov. 20, 2020, 52-year-old Gary Berg Jr. was found dead in his room. Ten days later, 50-year-old Angie Cook was found dead. The coroner’s investigation notes that Cook had not been seen for three days before she was found.

On Dec. 1, 2020, the day after Cook was found dead, Unity Care program director Kevin Sharps wrote an email to Vallejo Housing and Community Development Manager Judy Shepard-Hall alerting her to mold infestation in the units. Shepard-Hall did not inform him that the city had previously done an evaluation until after the inspectors came and confirmed the mold infestation.

More than 1,600 photos from the December inspection released by the city show that the inspector went room-to-room measuring the moisture level, photographing mold and taking samples.

Numerous photos show rooms with large black patches of mold on walls, windowsills, in the air conditioners, growing on the sides of doors and in corners of kitchens and bathrooms. Moisture readings in many of the units exceeded the top range of the instrument used.

Early in 2021, Project RoomKey participants were moved back to the Hampton Inn.

City spokesperson Christina Lee previously told the Vallejo Sun that discovering the mold  triggered the move. “The City had been in discussion with the owners of the Rodeway Inn regarding a purchase of the building for longer-term use as transitional housing,” Lee said. “When discussions in that regard did not prove fruitful, the City instead took action by moving out of the building and terminating the contract with Rodeway Inn.”

No one answered a phone call to the Rodeway Inn.