State May Ease Rules on Passes, Other Gifts

Anaheim Planning Commissioner Glenn P. Fry has owned a “silver pass” to Disneyland ever since his father, a former city councilman, helped bring the Magic Kingdom to the city.

For Fry and his family, the annual pass is more than a free ticket to Disneyland. It’s “a keepsake” that allows him access to “the neatest place in the world.”

And Fry isn’t giving it up. Neither is Planning Commissioner Charlene LaClaire, who owns stock in Disney.

But five other city planning commissioners said last week that in the last month they have returned their passes. The alternative was to declare themselves ineligible to vote on issues affecting the park.

The question soon may be moot for the commissioners and other public officials, however, because the state is relaxing its policy regulating gifts, a spokeswoman for the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission said Friday.

Chose to Leave Post

Last week, Herb Leo, a member of the Anaheim Community Redevelopment Commission for 15 years, chose to leave his post rather than return the silver pass that potentially could pose a conflict of interest for him.

City Council members stopped accepting the passes in the late 1970s. But planning commissioners either did not realize or ignored the possibility of a conflict of interest until the issue surfaced last year.

Last April, all seven members declared themselves ineligible to vote on a proposed hotel near Disneyland and sent the matter to the council for a vote. A city attorney then recommended that the commissioners return their passes.

And, before the end of this year, the Anaheim Planning Commission may face a vote on a redevelopment project in the Katella Avenue area that includes Disneyland.

All the planning commissioners interviewed last week disagreed with the idea that the passes, which allow the holder and up to three guests unlimited use of the Magic Kingdom, pose a conflict of interest. But most returned them.

LaClaire, a commissioner for 12 years, said she rarely uses her pass. But she kept it, she said, partially because she owns stock in Disney and faces a potential conflict of interest regardless of her possession of a pass. Also, she said, compared to council members, “It’s one of the very few things that any of the commissioners received that was nice.”

And, La Claire noted, commissioners contribute their time to the city, taking them away from their other jobs.

Fry kept his pass for a different reason.

“I find it very hard to believe that Disneyland, which is the main attraction in Anaheim, is going to ask for anything out of line. And quite truthfully, if it did, I would be the first to vote against it,” Fry said.

‘Kind of a Tradition’

“There’s been a silver pass in my family since 1955, when the park opened. My dad (Glenn G. Fry) was in the negotiations to bring Disney to Anaheim,” he said. “It’s kind of a tradition in our family.”

“To me, how do I put it? It’s a home away from home. It’s the neatest place in the world.”

Fry and several other commissioners point out that they received their passes not because of their role in the commission but because of their involvement with other groups, such as a Disney awards committee.

Lewis Herbst, a planning commissioner for 23 years, has received the pass for his involvement with a Disney committee for about two decades. He hasn’t used it much, he said, just “once in a while. I probably take my grandkids once or twice a year.”

Last month, he returned it for the first time.

“In fact, I haven’t told my grandkids that I returned it. They’re going to be disappointed,” Herbst said.

Worth $620 to $720

Under the Political Reform Act of 1974, an official who receives a gift worth more than $250 cannot vote on issues affecting the giver for 12 months.

In 1978, the Fair Political Practices Commission determined that the silver passes are worth between $620 and $720. Since then, Disneyland began selling annual passes, now priced at $135 per adult and $100 per child. Public officials objected to rules that they report the value of the pass at more than $600, since many used the pass only occasionally. Planning Commissioner Mary Bouas, for example, said she could “count on one hand the number of times I’ve used it.”

Planning Commissioner Bob Messe called the regulations “a little nit-picky.” Like Commissioner Chuck McBurney and others, Messe said that he rarely used the pass. But, Messe said, “If that’s the state law, then that’s the state law.”

It won’t be for much longer.

In reaction to the criticism, the state commission, which oversees campaign reporting and conflict-of-interest laws, last month voted to allow public officials who receive gifts such as Disneyland’s silver pass to report a value based on actual use, said Jeanette Turvill, a commission spokeswoman.

Reporting Requirements

A daylong ticket to Disneyland costs $20 per adult. So if an officeholder, for example, uses a pass four times in one year for two adults, he or she would report its value as $160.

An office holder who gives the pass to another person then must report the fair market value of the pass, Turvill said.

Under the revised policy, which is scheduled to be submitted this week to the Office of Administrative Law for review, the state will have to rely on the officeholders to say how often they used their passes.

The change, expected to take effect in April or May, was made “because there are public officials who receive these gifts . . . put them in their drawers and never use them. They forget them,” Turvill said.

“And then they can’t participate because they accepted a gift worth more than $250. So we had to take a more realistic look at it,” Turvill said.

Under the new regulation, a commissioner who has a silver pass and then faces an issue involving Disneyland can still vote on the matter if “he has not used a pass for $250 (worth), and he returns the pass to Disneyland” before the vote, Turvill said.

Disney representatives have said that the passes are “a simple gesture of good will.”

Commissioner Herbst called them “one of those niceties” from Disneyland. “And they don’t expect anything in return.”