- NEWS
- Hundreds mourn fallen Marine 3 hours & 37 minutes ago
- Auld Dubliner tries to break world record
- Clerk tackles woman trying to steal diamond rings 3 hours & 36 minutes ago
- Mrs. Claus banned from Christmas parade
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- ENTERTAINMENT
- LIFE
- TRAVEL
- OPINION
No more free tickets, but OC Fair turns the other cheek
December 25th, 2008, 6:30 am · 6 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
Talk about the spirit of the season.
Fellow Watchdog Tony Saavedra has been firmly at the heels of the Orange County Fair and the Anaheim City Council for some time now over their largesse - giving away tickets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to their board and council members.
Saavedra has been so dogged, in fact, that the state’s political watchdog, the Fair Political Practices Commission, put the kibosh on freebies just days ago.
To its credit, the Fair apparently holds no grudges. Saavedra is on its Christmas card list. He was undoubtedly touched when he opened the bit of holiday cheer pictured here, urging him to “THINK BIG; informing him that the Orange County Fair was now the Super Fair; and touting the upcoming short film “Al’s Brain” (that’s “Weird Al” Yankovic, by the way, not Al Gore, though it’s hard to decide which would be more entertaining).
Saavedra is already poking around “Al’s Brain,” so to speak; he’ll be telling us more about that later.
Anyway, the Fair’s holiday card budget is $4,068.75, Communications Director Robin Wachner told us, and includes the printing of the cards, envelopes and postage.
“This represents 0.01% of our total budget,” she wrote us in an email. “It is the expectation of an enterprising agency of the state to engage in proper business development and public relations to promote the upcoming Fair. The holiday card is part of our ongoing awareness and marketing campaign and functions as a ’save the date’ for the annual event.”
Saavedra, I’m sure, has entered it on his calendar.
Merry Christmas, everyone! And a happy new year.
(To read more about the FPPC decision on tickets, click on).
- The FPPC decision means municipal officials across California may no longer accept free tickets to concerts and sporting events at publicly-owned venues.
- Instead, public officials must treat such freebies as gifts, subject to a strict $420 annual limit, or as taxable income.
- Each council or agency will be responsible for deciding whether the tickets are something the official “earned” or are a gift.
- The decision comes in response to a series of stories by the Orange County Register that revealed how Orange County officials had accepted hundreds of free tickets to events at the Anaheim Stadium, Pacific Amphitheatre, and other OC venues.
- The Register reported that Orange County Fair Board members had accepted a total of 8,892 free tickets worth $376,532 for top-name concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre during the last two years.
- In Anaheim each year, each council member got 486 tickets to Angels games, mostly in a luxury suite, and 164 tickets to Ducks hockey games, every year.
More Watchdog:
- O.C. Fair directors gave themselves $376,000 in free concert tickets
- VIPs got lobster, steak, prime rib at fair dinners
- Who got free fair tickets?
- Fair board to meet with state over freebie tickets
- Anaheim officials insist freebies aren’t gifts
- Group protests OC Fair Board practices
- Fair board says it will reconsider freebies
- Fair board again reduces freebies
- State regulator targets O.C. Fair, Anaheim freebies
6 Comments
Leave a Reply
-
ADVERTISEMENT
-
Follow this blog:
-
More from OC Watchdog reports-
ADVERTISEMENT
You can follow this blog: on 
I’m still not going anymore.
It’s still not enough! Why should they even get $420 worth of free stuff?? This is the problem, they think “oh it’s just a little bit, and they get taxed”. The problem is, the rest of us end up paying that cost when we pay to get in. How about $0, PERIOD?!? And how bout ZERO DOLLARS in the budget for stupid things like Christmas cards?? I’m with Kevin, my OC Fair/Pacific Ampitheatre & Anaheim Stadium days are OVER. I can’t stop these criminals from getting free stuff, but I can stop giving my money to them and I can vote against these venues in any election that involves them.
“In Anaheim each year, each council member got 486 tickets to Angels games, mostly in a luxury suite, and 164 tickets to Ducks hockey games, every year.”
So basically they get 3 season tickets for baseball and 2 season tickets for hockey per season. No wonder they can’t do a da#n thing for the city, they have to go to all those games. Heck if they sell all the tickets they’d be rich. Fools and greed run the county.
So they get $420 worth of free tickets. Big Deal. They are still doing a job that requires them to know the business, why should it come out of their own pocket? Before, it was in excess. Not, it is just.
And, um, why shouldn’t they send out holiday cards to promote the fair? This isn’t taxpayer money. It is generated by the fair itself. What is with the vitriol about this nothing, throwaway story??
Really? This is the level to which the Register has sunk? Christmas cards? The Fair, according to the Register, has a $30 million budget and they are getting raked over the coals for $4,000 worth of Christmas cards? Scandalous! I’m more shocked by the amount of money Tony Saavedra and Teri Sforza get paid to “investigate” this drivel.
What is the next scandal you will latch upon: the free school field trips at the Farm or the after-school program by the equestrian area? Those fat-cat school kids taking advantage of the tax payer! The shame.
Oh, wait, the Fair doesn’t get tax dollars, they are self-supported.
Um, what’s this all about again?
Anyone VOTED into office or holding a public office SHOULD NOT RECEIVED ANY GIFTS WHATSOEVER!
Have you seen HOW MUCH these BOZOs make? They can afford to pay for their self.
I agree with the signs CHOP AT THE TOP, meaning cut frivolous spending, and reduce salories to a REALISTIC figures.
Why would they need a GIFT, possibly to be swayed to vote in one direction or another…..