"San Diego Airport panel votes to ease ethics policy as unworkable"

Friday, February 7, 2003

Airport panel votes to ease ethics policy as unworkable 
Rules problematic for elected officials 
By Jeff Ristine 
THE SAN DIEGO (CA) UNION-TRIBUNE


San Diego's new airport authority board has backed away from one of the
toughest ethics policies in the state, saying after only a month it proved
unworkable for elected officials who serve on the panel. 

Members of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority board of
directors had been forbidden to accept a meal or any other gift from anyone
doing business with the agency under a policy adopted last year by the
interim governing board. 

The permanent board voted unanimously yesterday to change the policy. It
imposes a gift limit of $170 a year from any single source for authority
board members and employees. 

That's the limit set for San Diego port commissioners and staff, and half
the maximum allowed under state law. 

San Diego City Councilman Ralph Inzunza Jr. and Lemon Grove Mayor Mary
Teresa Sessom, two of three elected officials on the nine-member board, said
the zero-tolerance rules - intended to prevent conflicts of interest on
airport issues - interfere with their work as city officials. 

The authority took over responsibility for San Diego International Airport
from the Port District on Jan. 1 and is leading the effort to identify a
site for a new regional or supplemental airport. 

Inzunza said the ethics policy meant he couldn't allow a San Diego Gas &
Electric Co. official to pay for his lunch last month even though not a word
of airport business was discussed between them. 

The two met at a downtown restaurant to talk about a possible city
commission appointment, Inzunza said. The Cobb salad and turtle soup he had
came to $18, well within the $340-a-year gift limit set by the state
Political Reform Act and the city's ethics policy. 

But because SDG&E also does business with the airport authority, Inzunza
couldn't be treated to the meal. Because no airport business was discussed,
he wasn't eligible to be reimbursed by the authority. 

Inzunza said the same thing happened in a breakfast with a longtime friend
who works for EDCO Waste and Recycling Services, a trash-hauling company
bidding on a contract for work at the airport. 

In both cases, Inzunza said he paid for his share of the bills. 

"I've been in San Diego for 33 years. I have a lot of friends here," Inzunza
said. "I just felt like I was being handcuffed." 

Sessom said, "We can get in trouble with this because of things we do with
our cities." 

The other elected official on the panel, Oceanside Mayor Terry Johnson,
wasn't at yesterday's meeting. 

Authority board member Paul A. Peterson, a lawyer who also served on the
interim panel last year, said the no-gifts policy came about because "we
were trying to set the highest possible standards." 

"It would appear that without knowing the permanent board we set the
standards too high," Peterson said. "There's got to be some measure of
reality to do, and (the original policy) was not realistic in view of the
kind of board we have." 

Three full-time executive members of the board are paid $139,500 a year for
their posts. The other six appointees, including Inzunza, Sessom and
Johnson, receive a $100 stipend for each authority board or committee
meeting they attend.


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