Thanks to a reader who saw my earlier post about an attempt to curb the use of free sports tickets for San Diego city officials and pointed out that the city box at Qualcomm Stadium was the subject of a 2007 grand jury report, “Going, Going, Gone From the ‘Q’.”
The report, which can be read here, found that some City Council members abused the free tickets by inviting guests, such as relatives, that didn’t meet the city’s policies. A decade earlier, the grand jury had issued a similar report on misuse of the city box, this time in a report titled “Take Us Out to the Ballgame.”
The 2007 grand jury report prompted a new requirement that city box sign-in sheets be posted online. (You can read the latest batch on the City Clerk’s website.)
However, the city rejected other grand jury recommendations, such as selling the tickets and using the proceeds for youth sports programs.
That’s not too far off from what new council members Carl DeMaio, Todd Gloria and Sherri Lightner proposed yesterday. They said tickets to Chargers and Padres games should only be used to recognize volunteers or as charity raffle items, in light of a state Fair Political Practices Commission ruling that politicians must treat free tickets as gifts or income.