Anaheim Mayor Urges End to Council Gifts : Government: Reform could cost councilmen baseball, football, parking, other perks. Pickler opposes proposal. State to rule on where past gifts leave three members.

Reacting to the furor over Disneyland gifts to City Council members, Mayor Fred Hunter said Thursday he will recommend a complete prohibition on gifts to all city officials.

The reform could force council members to turn in their season tickets to the California Angels, Los Angeles Rams, Convention Center events and prized Anaheim Stadium parking privileges.

The proposal, which Hunter said would be discussed at Tuesday’s council meeting, comes in the wake of reports that the voting eligibility of three councilmen--including the mayor--could be threatened after they accepted thousands of dollars worth of free Disneyland tickets.

Hunter said he thought his proposals had the support of at least Councilman Bob D. Simpson, with whom he talked for more than an hour Thursday.

Councilman Irv Pickler said he would oppose such a proposal. “No one can tell me what I can take or not take,” he said.

The other two members of the council could not be reached late Thursday for comment.

“We’re going to have a real blowout over this at the council meeting,” Hunter said.

Meanwhile, the number of Disney ticket freebies to city officials continued to grow Thursday as a report filed by City Manager James D. Ruth showed that 424 complimentary admissions worth $11,660 were doled out of his office during 1991--the largest amount of any city official.

Ruth said all of the tickets were obtained for guests of the city and “99% of those requests went through my office staff and not through me.”

Ruth, however, is not constrained by the same state law that now threatens to disqualify a City Council majority, including Hunter and Pickler and Simpson from future voting for a year on Disney’s proposed $3-billion expansion in the city and other theme-park related issues.

Reports filed Wednesday showed that the three elected officials combined had accepted more than $8,000 in free tickets to the park, with each surpassing the state-mandated limits on gifts from a single source.

State law bars elected officials who accept more than $250 in gifts in a year from voting on issues involving the donor for a year. In addition, Hunter and Pickler could also face fines of up to $10,000 if they are found to have violated a separate state law that prohibits local elected officials from accepting more than $1,000 in gifts from a single source during the year. Simpson’s gifts were under the $1,000 threshold.

Earlier Thursday, City Atty. Jack White said the city will defer all rulings on Disney-related issues for a month and will immediately stop issuing free theme-park tickets through the offices of staff and council members.

White said that postponement of council action would allow the state Fair Political Practices Commission to determine whether the three councilmen should be disqualified for a period from voting on the Disney expansion and whether Hunter and Pickler violated the $1,000 gift limit.

He said, however, there is little likelihood all three would be barred from voting on Disney issues. Even if the FPPC made such a finding, he said, significant Disney issues are not due to come before the council until late in the year when at least one of the three would likely be able to vote on the matter.

An FPPC spokeswoman said the agency would have a ruling within 30 days.

The mayor said recent revelations have tossed the council into an ethical turmoil, prompting his ideas for reform and a decision to cancel his family’s plans to attend the April opening of EuroDisney in Paris.

“I’m saying, ‘Screw it.’ It’s not worth it. We should have to pay for everything from now on. There should be no gifts from anyone. Zip,” the mayor said, adding that he had planned to pay his own way to Paris. “All I would have to do is go to one Disney-sponsored dinner while I was over there and I would be over my (gift) limit for the year. It’s not worth it.”

Hunter said he will initiate discussions about refusing future season tickets to Angels, Rams and the Convention Center.

Hunter said each council member is allocated six tickets to all home games for the Angels and Rams and every event scheduled at the stadium, and Convention Center, but has never felt obligated to report them because the events took place at city-owned facilities.

However, the council is frequently obligated to vote on matters concerning stadium lease arrangements with both professional sports franchises and contracts with event promoters. Season tickets to the Angels games cost between $567 and $891 each.

“If we’re going to draw the line, let’s draw the line,” the mayor said. “All five council members use those ballgame tickets. I know we’re all way beyond the limits on football and baseball tickets. We could drive the FPPC nuts with all of this.”

FPPC officials said they had met with White and a Disneyland attorney on the matter Tuesday.

FPPC spokeswoman Carol Thorp said the commission has been asked by the city and Disney to address “gray areas” in state regulations. Specifically, Thorp said, it has not yet been determined whether the council members themselves had absolute control over who was granted admission to the park.

White contends that Disney officials reserved the ultimate right to either grant or refuse admission to those referred by council members. White said he believed Disney did refuse some admissions, but he said the park only kept records for those tickets granted.

All three council members said the bulk of the tickets credited to them were obtained by them on behalf of visitors to the city. White, however, said a portion of those third-party tickets also included allotments to personal friends and relatives of the council members.

White refused to disclose the roster of those who received tickets from the council members or city staff.

The reports of Disney gifts come as the city is negotiating with the entertainment company about environmental and financial issues related to the Disneyland Resort expansion, and may consider as much as $1 billion in public works improvements to augment the park’s proposed expansion. “All requests for Disneyland tickets are being turned down,” White said. “Until we hear back from the FPPC, it’s not in anybody’s best interest to continue doing what we have been doing. This is probably something that has been going on since the 1950s.”