Lax Oversight Cited in Concert Ticket Distribution

A top aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson conceded Wednesday that his office exercised little oversight in the distribution of “several hundred” Hollywood Bowl tickets intended for needy and disabled residents and that some may have ended up in the hands of well-off constituents.

“I don’t know who got them,” said Francine Oschin, Bernson’s assistant chief deputy. “It’s very possible that some of the tickets went to chamber of commerce members.”

Bernson and several other council members and county supervisors have received hundreds of tickets from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Community Services Program that were supposed to go to poor and disabled residents,

Oschin said she instructed Bernson’s field staff members to “get the tickets out into the community” without making sure the tickets went to residents that met the criteria.

“The fact is that I did not handle this right,” she said.

Over the course of several months, Bernson’s office distributed “several hundred” tickets to 12 concerts at the bowl, Oschin said. But she said some of the tickets could have gone to members of area chambers of commerce or neighborhood advisory panels. She did not keep track of the tickets and can’t be sure, she said.

An official with the Granada Hills Chamber of Commerce said the chamber received a letter from Bernson’s office with an offer for Hollywood Bowl tickets. But the official said the chamber did not accept any.

Of the several hundred complimentary tickets that Bernson’s office distributed, Oschin said about 100 were thrown away because residents who asked for the tickets never claimed them.

Bernson’s office considered giving the unused tickets to his staff but did not because the city’s Ethics Commission warned that state law prohibited the use of such tickets by city staff members.

Janine Schaedler, the head of group sales for the Hollywood Bowl, said she was “very surprised” to hear about the problems at Bernson’s office and planned to meet with other philharmonic officials to consider new methods of monitoring ticket distribution.

“We don’t want to take the tickets away,” she said. “We may have to help them do it right in the future.”

Schaedler said her organization does not require that council members or county supervisors report specifically who received each ticket but simply asks for general information on how the tickets were distributed.

“We trust that they are taking care of business as they are supposed to,” she said.

Rebecca Avila, executive director for the city’s Ethics Commission, said Bernson’s office has reported to the commission accepting the tickets for distribution, as required by law. Other than that, she said, the Ethics Commission has no authority to ensure the tickets are distributed properly.

“That is between [Oschin] and the philharmonic,” Avila said.