Free Tickets Are a Given for Officials

When the country music duo Brooks & Dunn rolled into the Hyundai Pavilion in Devore last year, San Bernardino County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger had a prime spot to enjoy the concert: free luxury-box seats.

Hansberger was chairman of the Board of Supervisors at the time, a position that gave him access to four free passes to any event at the Pavilion, which operates on county parkland.

The tickets are among hundreds of complimentary passes that county officials receive each year to attend concerts, festivals and fairs that take place on county property. They range in value from $65 for passes to the annual Huck Finn Jubilee in Victorville to a 40-seat luxury box at the California Speedway in Fontana that’s worth up to $22,000 on a NASCAR race weekend. But the county doesn’t pay a dime.

Those kinds of perks are not unique to San Bernardino County.

San Diego City Council members get free tickets to see the San Diego Chargers and the San Diego Padres. The Anaheim City Council has luxury-box seats for Angel and Mighty Duck games. The Alameda County supervisors enjoy luxury-box seats to Oakland Raider games, and a handful of San Francisco officials watch 49er and Giant games for free.

Although most of these cities and counties have strict policies dictating how those freebies are distributed, San Bernardino County allows three high-ranking officials to hand out the tickets almost at will. And unlike most of these government agencies, San Bernardino County does not keep a record of who gets what.

Under state law, public officials must report gifts of more than $360. However, if free tickets are provided to a city or a county as part of a stadium or entertainment venue contract -- and then distributed to individuals -- they are not considered gifts and do not need to be reported. The law requires only that government agencies adopt formal policies describing how the tickets are to be used.

San Bernardino County’s ticket policy is brief -- half a page long -- and does not specify the title or qualifications of employees who can use the tickets.

In contrast, Anaheim has an eight-page policy that describes in detail who gets the tickets and how they can be used. Los Angeles has four pages of regulations that detail who distributes the tickets and which county officials get priority consideration.

San Bernardino County officials and law enforcement authorities say there have been no reports of county officials misusing the tickets, such as selling them for personal gain or distributing them to campaign contributors.

But government watchdog groups say that, without a record of who received the perks, there is no accountability.

“At the very least there should be a public record of who used the tickets,” said Rebecca Avila, state chairwoman of the government watchdog group California Common Cause. “We should know who benefits from these tickets.”

But problems arise even when records are kept.

Last month, a set of Golden State Warrior basketball tickets that were reserved for Alameda County officials was sold on EBay. County authorities used county records to identify the culprit, who was directed to reimburse the county for the cost of the tickets.

San Bernardino County officials defended the county’s ticket distribution system, saying there had been no complaints or reports of ticket scalping or other abuses. “It works out fine,” said David Wert, county public information officer.

County officials say they receive hundreds of free tickets each year, including:

* Access to a luxury box at the Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen Regional Park for the season, plus 50 passes and five VIP parking passes for each event. The pavilion holds seven to 10 concerts each year. The box has eight seats, four reserved for the supervisors chairman and four for the vice chairman. The 50 passes are distributed among the other board members, members of the county’s parks commission and other county officials who request them.

* A total of 150 tickets to rodeo exhibitions at Glen Helen Regional Park.

* One hundred tickets to the Huck Finn Jubilee, a three-day summer festival in Victorville.

* More than 2,000 passes to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, a five-week celebration that was held at the Glen Helen Regional Park in Devore for 16 years. After a contract dispute, the fair operators relocated this year to the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale.

* A luxury box at the California Speedway in Fontana, which is on unincorporated county land. The box holds about 40 people. Access to such luxury boxes typically ranges in price from $3,000 to $22,000 for a weekend of racing.

San Bernardino County’s ticket policy states only that the venue operators have no control over the ticket distribution; that the distribution shall not be based on race, age, sex or religion; and that priority for the tickets go to those officials who are responsible for inspecting the venues.

In San Bernardino County, most of the free tickets are accepted and distributed by Thomas Potter, the head of the county’s parks department, and Wert, the county’s public information officer. The county’s redevelopment chief, John Nowak, also distributes tickets to the speedway, under an agreement to promote the facility.

In Anaheim, the executive director of the city’s convention center is the city’s “ticket administrator” and is responsible for keeping a record of everyone who gets a ticket. Anyone caught violating the city’s ticket policy can lose the privilege.

The Los Angeles County ticket policy designates that the Board of Supervisors get priority in receiving the tickets and states that tickets for events at publicly owned facilities, such as the Hollywood Bowl and the Disney Concert Hall, can only be used by county officials and their immediate families. The county administrator is responsible for keeping a public record of who receives the free passes.

Potter said most of the tickets not used by county employees are distributed to churches, charities and civic groups, such as the local chambers of commerce. Some of the tickets are donated to members of the military or given as gifts to winners of “employee of the year” contests, Potter said.

Judi Penman, executive director of the San Bernardino Area Chamber of Commerce, said she couldn’t recall getting free tickets from the county. But she said the chamber already gets free promotional tickets from entertainment venues.

Wert and Potter said no one had ever questioned the way the county distributed the tickets or suggested that the county keep records.

Supervisor Paul Biane, the vice chairman of the board, said he had attended four events at the Hyundai Pavilion in the last two years. He said he had heard no reports of problems with the county’s ticket policy, but said he might suggest changes to ensure that the tickets are not misused.

“We want to give the public assurances that no abuses are taking place,” he said.