The Trouble With Free Passes

In a countywide contest to select the most naive public group, the Anaheim Planning Commission would win hands down. Commission members were either pulling the public’s leg or live in fantasyland if they really believe that the free “silver passes” they have been receiving from Disneyland pose no conflict of interest.

City Council members years ago surrendered the passes that allow the holder and three guests unlimited use of the amusement park. The Planning Commission didn’t. That recent discovery surprised and, we suspect, annoyed even the City Council, especially when the seven Planning Commission members declared themselves ineligible to vote on a proposed hotel near Disneyland that Disneyland officials had once opposed.

State law requires the disclosure of such gifts and prevents public officials from voting on issues affecting donors of gifts worth $250 or more.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission has determined that the Disneyland annual free passes are worth between $620 and $720, which means that no public official who carries the silver pass can vote on any issue affecting Disneyland for 12 months following receipt of the pass.

That obviously means that as long as the planning commissioners keep accepting the passes they never can vote on a Disneyland issue. The fact that they couldn’t earlier this month is an object lesson for every elected and appointed public official and staff person in Anaheim and throughout the county; they should be refusing free passes to Disneyland, Rams and Angels games, or any similar event.

Anaheim Planning Commissioner Lewis Herbst said the passes are “one of the nice things that Disneyland does for people.” It’s one thing for Disneyland to be “nice.” What Herbst fails to comprehend is that it’s not all right for public officials to accept those “niceties.”