No More Mickey Mouse

Disneyland made the right decision in abandoning its practice of providing free admission tickets to politicians. Its promotional policy had extended such courtesies to City Council members in Anaheim and to governmental officials elsewhere. No more.

The no-freebies announcement should end the controversy over complimentary tickets that came to a head last year when two Anaheim council members were barred temporarily from voting on matters concerning the city’s famous theme park.

The city attorney ruled then that the two could not vote on Disneyland’s proposed $3-billion expansion project because they had accepted tickets whose value exceeded the $250 annual limit in a state conflict-of-interest law. That meant they had to recuse themselves when the council considered Disney’s extraordinary request that the city provide up to $1 billion in infrastructure for the planned expansion. There’s a lesson here for officials everywhere: You can’t be very effective if you can’t vote on key proposals.

The realization that the longstanding practice of “comping” tickets was more trouble than it was worth dawned slowly both on the theme park and some politicians.

A Disneyland spokesman says the policy no longer is appropriate in Anaheim or anywhere else. Last year, Disney said it had no idea that the practice might be seen as an effort to influence city officials. Most Anaheim council members now seem to understand that taking the free tickets indeed left a public perception that they were too cozy with Disneyland. A council member’s first duty is to look out for the welfare of his or her city. That requires a public official to be free of obligations to theme parks--or anyone else offering free tickets, meals or other perks.

The fact is, perhaps no harm was intended, or even inflicted, by the offering, and taking, of tickets. But the practice looked just awful. In the end it wasn’t worth it for Disneyland--or for the politicians.