Publication Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Gifts to councilmen raise ethic's questions
Gifts to councilmen raise ethic's questions
(April 14, 2004) Beecham, Ojakian accept free tickets to events from Stanford
by Bill D'Agostino
Two Palo Alto City Council members, who privately negotiate on the city's behalf with Stanford University, accepted free tickets to school sporting events in 2003 -- an act that, while legal, makes political ethics experts uneasy.
Mayor Bern Beecham attended a football and basketball game on Stanford's dime, while Councilman Vic Ojakian went to a football game for free, according to recently released conflict of interest forms.
The value of the gifts did not rise to the level of legal impropriety. According to California law, an official receiving a gift valued $350 or more becomes legally unable to vote on issues relating to the giver. Beecham reported his two events -- on Nov. 8, 2003 and an unknown date -- as being worth $194 total, while Ojakian reported his one football game on Dec. 31, 2003 as worth $110.
The council members reported the gifts as part of legally mandated disclosure forms, submitted to the state on April 1.
The gifts create "the appearance of a conflict of interest and ought to be an area of concern," said Kirk O. Hanson, the executive director for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University who also teaches government ethics.
The fact that the two council members sit on the Stanford Liaison Committee, which privately negotiates with Stanford, makes the gifts even more problematic, Hanson said.
"The more responsibility a city official has for negotiating with and making decisions regarding an institution in that community, the more careful they ought to be about accepting any gifts from the institution," he said.
Last year, the three-member committee privately negotiated a deal for the university to build new soccer fields on a 6-acre property at El Camino Real and Page Mill Road. Although many locals lauded the agreement, a few criticized it for giving Stanford guaranteed rights to develop commercial properties in the Stanford Research Park.
"Stanford is being a good community citizen," Ojakian said during the June council meeting when the elected body formally approved the deal.
The small value of the gifts does not take away the issue, Hanson reasoned.
"The argument is not that a public official can be bought for $100 or $200 but that the familiarity it breeds and the impression it gives can interfere with the public officials doing their job," Hanson said.
The tickets were the only gifts any Palo Alto council members reported last year.
Both councilmen pointed out the gifts were below the legal limit, and said they went to the games to speak with other officials.
"I go because it's another way to interact with Stanford management in a casual and relaxed environment," Ojakian said.
Beecham said he went to the game to mingle with colleagues from other cities, who also accepted invitations from Stanford.
"It's simply a casual opportunity to do that," he said.
The issue of public officials' perceived impartiality is currently high on the national consciousness, thanks to a duck-hunting trip Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently took with Vice President Dick Cheney. The trip came after the high court agreed to hear an appeal Cheney filed. Scalia has refused to step down from the case, garnering intense criticism.
Ojakian made a similar claim to Scalia's -- arguing that nothing of relevance was discussed during the event in question.
"You've got to have a little latitude because you need to converse with people and not make things so restricted," Ojakian said.
Ojakian also admitted having other standards for eating meals with citizens and others regarding city business.
"Will I go out to dinner with them? Yes. Will I let them pay for it? No," he said. "I don't know how to do that in a Stanford case."
The third member of the council's Stanford Liaison Committee, Yoriko Kishimoto, was on vacation and not available for comment by press time.
Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
E-mail a friend a link to this story. | 
