SACRAMENTO — After allowing his staff to accept tens of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts from business interests, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is now worried about the appearance of a conflict of interest and has barred them from taking even a free cup of coffee.
But the policy, stricter than state law, hasn't stopped the perks.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday November 01, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 44 words Type of Material: Correction
Conflicts of interest: An article in Tuesday's Section A about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's rules concerning his staff members' acceptance of gifts gave the wrong name for an environmental group. The group's name is the Natural Resources Defense Council, not the National Resources Defense Council.
Schwarzenegger aides over the last year have been given free tickets to Disneyland and San Francisco Giants baseball games; to Rolling Stones concerts and Sacramento Kings basketball games.
Schwarzenegger's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, sent a memo to the governor's aides in August explaining that by taking gifts, even if the law allows it, they could create a public perception that they have been compromised.
"When in doubt ... pay for the item yourself," Kennedy wrote.
In a separate letter to Schwarzenegger's staff, his legal counsel, Andrea Hoch, said aides could not attend any of the governor's campaign fundraising events unless they paid for their food and drink.
But the Spartan ethic comes with loopholes. Kennedy is scheduled to join lawmakers and state officials on a 12-day trip to South America next month that is sponsored by a tax-exempt group financed partly by energy companies and other businesses that lobby in Sacramento.
The visitors plan to stay at a hotel in Buenos Aires that is rated by one travel guide as "the most exclusive" in the city. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said the trip doesn't violate the gift policy because Kennedy will deliver a speech as the governor's representative.
"It is important that Susan, as chief of staff, work with members and important policy leaders to further the goals of the administration," said Adam Mendelsohn, Schwarzenegger's communications director.
The new rules are an about-face for the governor, who in past years has taken a permissive approach to freebies.
In 2004, after The Times reported that dozens of Schwarzenegger administration officials had accepted free meals and sports tickets, the governor said in an interview: "Those are things that I don't think anyone has to worry about. There's no one selling out in my administration."
Gifts continued to flow. State lobbying reports show that:
* Ameriquest Capital Corp., parent of the mortgage-lending company, spent more than $5,600 on Rolling Stones concert tickets over the last year for nearly two dozen members of the governor's staff and their spouses.
