Anaheim Council Allowed to Vote Despite Tickets : Ruling: State OKs exception to gift-reporting law, leaving majority eligible on $3-billion planned Disneyland expansion.

Granting an exception to gift-reporting laws, a state ethics agency has allowed an Anaheim City Council majority to retain voting eligibility on the planned $3-billion Disneyland expansion, despite council members’ acceptance of thousands of dollars’ worth of free park tickets last year.

In its 14-page ruling issued Thursday, the state Fair Political Practices Commission stated that complimentary tickets would not be considered gifts to council members when they were provided to visiting dignitaries or charitable groups by Disneyland at the request of city officials or their staffs.

Described by the commission as the “protocol exception,” the tickets would not be charged as gifts to the elected officials as long as the tickets were physically picked up at Disneyland.

Further protecting their voting privileges, the commission also provided a 30-day grace period for council members to reimburse the entertainment company for ticket gifts accepted during the past year but not covered by the agency’s protocol provision.

City Atty. Jack White said those reimbursements, for tickets used by council members themselves or their families, for instance, could total “thousands of dollars” and will be paid by the council members themselves.

The ruling was welcome news to both the city and Disney executives, who together requested the commission’s opinion earlier this month. The request was made after it was learned that ticket values accepted by Mayor Fred Hunter and Councilmen Irv Pickler and Bob D. Simpson had far exceeded annual limits set by state law and threatened their voting eligibility on future Disney-related issues.

“It shows that the FPPC has a feeling for the unique problems we have in Anaheim with Disneyland,” Simpson said Thursday. “We certainly don’t want there to be any appearance of wrongdoing. The decision appears to be reasonable.”

Walt Disney Co. spokesman Tom Deegan said the company, too, was satisfied to “have the question raised and addressed.”

“We’re pleased that the commission concluded that no misconduct was committed by city officials and that they will have the opportunity to reimburse Disney.”

City Atty. White, who met separately Thursday with the three council members to discuss the commission’s ruling, said theme park tickets will no longer be issued from the offices of City Council members and municipal executives.

“We’re going to refer all requests for tickets to Disneyland,” White said. “Certainly, the City Council and staff are going to get out of the business of being intermediaries on ticket requests.”

Hunter and Pickler could not be reached for comment Thursday but Hunter had earlier suggested a complete prohibition of gifts to all city officials in response to the recent Disney gift disclosures. That proposal has not yet been considered by the council.

Reports filed April 1 showed that the three elected officials combined had accepted more than $8,000 in free tickets to the park in 1991.

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.

Reports of Disney gifts had come while the city continued negotiations with the entertainment company about environmental and financial issues related to the Disneyland Resort expansion. Officials have said the city could spend up to $1 billion in public works improvements for the expansion.

The commission’s “protocol exception” directly addressed earlier explanations by the three council members who said the bulk of tickets charged as gifts to them represented tickets obtained through Disney for visiting dignitaries, charitable agencies and school groups.

The council members had argued that they should not have been charged for obtaining tickets for third parties, most of whom were not known to them.

According to the ruling, the city and Disney had asked the FPPC to address “gray areas” in state regulations. At issue, specifically, was whether council members themselves had absolute control over who was granted admission to the park.

Both the city and Disney have contended that Disney reserved the ultimate right to refuse admission to those referred by council members. On various occasions, Disneyland President Jack Lindquist said Disney has refused admission to some who had come recommended by council members, but he said records are only maintained for those who are admitted.

In its written opinion, the agency stated that those concerns were considered while the ruling was being formulated.

“The FPPC has acknowledged that there could be confusion about these regulations,” White said. “They also recognized that it was the city officials, themselves, who came forward with these (reporting) concerns rather than having the FPPC ferret out potential problems.”

Except for the protocol provisions, the commission stated that it still regarded the acceptance of complimentary admissions by elected officials as gifts that should be reported on annual gift disclosure forms.

Bob Stern, who helped author the state’s Political Reform Act and reviewed the commission’s ruling Thursday, described the opinion as “pretty well reasoned.”