New regulations adopted this month by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission require city officials who get free tickets to concerts, ballgames or other entertainment as part of their ceremonial duties to publicly report them in a “prominent fashion on the agency’s website.”
It seems, however, that to the city of Anaheim the word “prominent” means somewhere deep inside its website.
We’ll save you the trouble of searching — here is the page.
We checked the July 13 baseball All-Star Game, which was played in Anaheim’s Angel Stadium. As is the case with any event at a city-owned facility, officials who took the All-Star tickets could have paid their face value, listed them as personal income or donated them to charity.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle said he was getting four free tickets from the city but would pay taxes on their value. He wouldn’t say who he was taking, but in the end, according to the city’s report, he accepted only two box seats valued at $350 each.
Council member Lucille Kring accepted four of the $350 tickets with the explanation “the job duties of the City Official requires his or her attendance at the event.”
Four tickets valued at $200 each went to Councilwoman Lorri Galloway for her “performance of a ceremonial role or function representing the City at the event.”
Four more of those $200 seats were given to Marines from Camp Pendleton by Councilman Harry Sidhu.
And 12 tickets worth $65 each were allocated to the city’s Visitor and Convention Bureau.