Firm’s Free Movie Passes for Officials Raise Concerns

If you’re a moviegoer, it’s better than a gold card.

You flash it at the door and you’re in.

The card--good for a year of free, unlimited movie viewing for you and three guests at any Edwards cinema--comes in the mail with the invitation: Enjoy!

Here’s the rub--you probably can’t get one.

But public officials in at least three counties, from U.S. representatives to mayors, have enjoyed the privilege of free moviegoing for decades. They are among the thousands of Southern Californians--from movie tycoons to a fishmonger and a nun--whose names are embossed on these precious pieces of plastic issued by Edwards Theatre Circuits Inc. and other chains.

Yet because politicians act on the public’s behalf, at times deciding multimillion-dollar matters affecting the largest California-based theater chain, their use of the Edwards open-ended movie cards has become a matter of public, and at times legal, concern.

It is legal for public officials to accept the passes, as long as they report the gift to the state Fair Political Practices Commission and do not use them for more than $290 worth of yearly movie admissions.

The passes are part of a culture of political gifts--of goodwill perquisites showered on public officials that also encompass tickets to amusement parks, racetracks and pro sports events as well as auto parts and the occasional holiday ham.

The practice has become so entrenched that, in the case of the movie cards, some politicians have come to feel entitled to them, openly soliciting passes on official letterhead stationery.

A vivid picture of the practice has emerged in documents produced during the discovery phase of an unrelated civil lawsuit now underway in Orange County Superior Court by former Edwards employees. Some examples:

“If you are still issuing the annual pass,” wrote Huntington Beach City Councilman Dave Garofalo at the end of 1996, “I wanted to let your office know that I had not received my 1997 pass as of yet. If they are still available, please forward it.”

“We at the City of Cerritos have been most honored to have received guest passes to Edwards Theatres for the past three years. . . . With your indulgence, I should like to present the names for this year,” Assistant City Manager Dennis T. Davis wrote in February 1997, listing 13 city officials including himself, City Council members and other administrators, such as the public works director. (Cerritos officials said they did not request or receive passes this year.)

This time-honored practice is now under review by the company--the result, it says, of queries by The Times and questions from Southland city attorneys about the appropriateness of public officials receiving gifts from a company whose theaters are ubiquitous in Southern California.

The chain now has more than 660 movie screens. By 2000, it plans 82 new screens in six Southern California communities, some of which have given or will give Edwards millions of dollars in redevelopment money or loans to help it build.

Edwards executives say they are now looking at ways to track the cards’ use and perhaps limit their value.

Right now, the value of the cards depends on how often they are used. For example, if a pass holder brings one guest to the movies once a week for a year, that would put the value at more than $700. In a Jan. 2, 1997, letter seeking 12 annual passes for city officials, recently retired Fountain Valley Mayor James D. Petrikin called the card “this generous gift which ‘keeps on giving.’ ” Petrikin, who has moved from the area, could not be reached for comment.

Edwards executives defend the practice of giving politicians free passes as common throughout the industry and good for business.

It is difficult to tell how widespread the practice is: Edwards says it has never compiled a list of public officials with passes.

Shirley Grindle, an Orange County political activist who crafted one of the toughest political-gift bans in California, is outraged.

“It’s legalized bribery, that’s exactly what it is,” Grindle said. “It is this mind-set that elected officials have, that they are almost entitled to this stuff, when they all know that the only reason that it’s being offered or given to them is their position.”

There are at least 13 cities or communities whose officials have written Edwards on official stationary to solicit the passes, according to documents Edwards produced for the unrelated civil lawsuits. Those cities include: Cerritos, Corona, Del Mar, El Monte, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Laguna Beach, La Verne, Poway, Santa Ana, Stanton, Temple City and Westminster. Edwards says that fire, police, health and planning officers also hold the cards in various Southern California cities.

Politicians in most of those communities said they asked for the passes again this year, but only about half received them. Some said the company founder’s death in April 1997 may have slowed the distribution. Lawrence H. Davidson, company executive vice president and general counsel, confirms this, adding that the secretary who handles the passes has been overworked since the death of founder James Edwards II, and the practice has grown less consistent.

The custom of giving movie passes is so commonplace that the state Fair Political Practices Commission specifically addresses it and demands that public officials disclose their use.

Davidson says he has no exact number but suspects Edwards has issued a couple of thousand cards each year.

That kind of largess is part of the lore surrounding the career of the chain’s late founder.

“He started giving passes to people who were friends,” recalls Davidson. “He gave them to business associates. . . . As time went on, Mr. Edwards had a lot of friends who became politicians.”

James Edwards III, who ascended to company president after his father’s death, declined to comment.

But Davidson said the passes are meant only as gifts of goodwill and are not intended to gain favor for Edwards projects. Among the thousands of recipients, he pointed out, are neighbors, the Edwards family’s favorite fish market on Santa Catalina Island, other movie chain executives, and movie studio bigwigs. Passes also have been distributed to the media, including employees of The Times, although the newspaper’s policy prohibits editorial employees from accepting them.

“The reason Mr. Edwards liked to have public officials visit the theaters was for them to know the quality of his business,” Davidson said. “He wanted the fire and police officials to understand just spontaneously, without announcement, that we are in compliance.”

Accepting Gifts May Suggest Impropriety

Not all public officials agree on this approach.

Many Huntington Beach city officials for years received and used Edwards annual passes. But given an expected Edwards theater proposal for the Huntington Center renaissance, some of the city’s planning commissioners grew concerned that keeping their passes might pose a conflict. In early 1997, they asked City Atty. Gail Hutton for guidance. In a Jan. 10, 1997, memo, she concluded that establishing a value for the passes required factoring their use at maximum fathomable, thus ruling them out as gifts. She also pointed to Huntington’s “gift ban,” which prohibits city officials from receiving gifts from people doing business with the city, and its purpose: to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

This was not long after a city administrative clerk wrote Edwards requesting annual movie passes for all planning commissioners. Not all commissioners or council members had accepted movie passes, and those that did say they returned them after the city attorney’s advice.

Councilman Garofalo said he had not questioned whether having such a potentially valuable pass was appropriate. When he took office, the City Council secretary issued him his office keys--and the Edwards pass, he said. “I figured, ‘Well, no one can give me more than $290 a year,’ and during that time I had one, I monitored it at $7.50 a time, and I put them on my [disclosure] forms.” Garofalo said he was sent a pass in response to his letter, but lost it and never requested another one.

In La Verne, Edwards’ plan to build a 2,962-seat multiplex provoked a ballot measure that opposed the theater’s size. The measure lost in April 1992, and Edwards’ 12-screen theater was built. Five years later, city officials were still requesting free movie passes on city stationery.

In 1997, La Verne City Manager Martin R. Lomeli wrote Edwards: “Would you please renew the passes for the following La Verne officials,” naming 19 people including himself.

Lomeli said city officials initially received Edwards passes unsolicited, after the theater was constructed. Only in subsequent years did Edwards ask city officials to provide the names of those desiring passes, so the numbered cards could also be embossed.

“I have some staff members who have returned them,” said Lomeli, who has a 1998 Edwards pass. “It’s a personal matter individuals have to decide on for themselves. I kept track of my use and I’ve done what’s legal.”

Politicians who list the passes on yearly financial disclosure statements often claim their value at $250 or $290. These recipients point out that they are complying with the law. And, many of them say that such a pass would not influence their decisions. Any gift exceeding $290 would force a politician to abstain from decisions affecting the donor.

“I can tell you Edwards has not received any special considerations,” said Poway City Manager Jim Bowersox, who wrote for yearly pass renewal on behalf of himself, the City Council, the city attorney, the city clerk and an assistant. Bowersox said city officials also have passes from Pacific Theaters and United Artists, and that he diligently tracks use of his card.

In West Covina this year, the movie freebies caused a stink dubbed “Passgate.”

City Atty. Elizabeth Martyn said the problem occurred after the West Covina Edwards theater manager gave a number of passes to the city’s then-redevelopment director for distribution among personnel. The redevelopment director put the passes in the mailboxes of City Council members, unsolicited. Edwards had built a multiplex with the help of millions of city redevelopment dollars. So the City Council consulted with Martyn, who had them return the passes. The redevelopment director has since left the city.

The late Edwards Sr. operated in a tradition of business dealings that long predated California’s landmark 1974 Political Reform Act, which established limits on donations and gifts to public officials.

Attorney Davidson said the company’s tradition would be difficult to undo: “It’s hard to take them away after you’ve given them. I think officials who are no longer officials still get them.”