WinterSports2002.com, Thursday, April 04, 2002

Beattie defends lawmakers' free Olympic tickets

By Jerry Spangler
Deseret News staff writer

Gov. Mike Leavitt's watchdog over the Games is defending the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's decision to give free Olympic tickets to state lawmakers.

And State Olympic Officer Lane Beattie is also publicly criticizing the Boston Globe newspaper, which accused SLOC of breaking lobbyist disclosure laws.

"They (SLOC) absolutely were not in violation," Beattie said. "The issue is the political spin the Globe put on the story."

Mitt Romney is running for governor of Massachusetts, and his record as SLOC president has come under increased scrutiny there.

Beattie says — and the lobbyist disclosure statements filed with the state Elections Office support it — that SLOC filed its lobbyist disclosure report on March 18 within the period allowed by law.

Two days later, Lt. Gov. Olene Walker sent a letter requesting that SLOC amend its report to show the names of the state lawmakers who accepted free tickets to closing ceremonies and to Paralympic opening and closing ceremonies. Those tickets were valued at more than $92,000.

"The organizing committee does not believe it was required to file a lobbyist report for the last legislative session, but the government requested it and so we complied," said SLOC spokeswoman Caroline Shaw. "If they believe additional information is necessary we will provide that as well."

But Beattie defends SLOC's failure to identify who received the tickets, saying they were given as a block to the social arms of the House and Senate, which then distributed to lawmakers who wanted them.

"SLOC has no idea who took the tickets," he said.

Beattie was scheduled to meet with the governor's office and Walker on Thursday to resolve the issue, which he said has been misconstrued by the media.

Shaw reiterated that the organizing committee broke no disclosure laws, and she maintains SLOC's long-held position that the tickets had no value because the seats would have gone empty. SLOC distributed nearly 8,000 free tickets to volunteers, employees, venue officials and others, including lawmakers.

"It was an effort to thank the community for their support of the games," Shaw said.

Beattie agreed, saying the intent of disclosure laws is to identify gifts that might influence lawmakers. But he said SLOC had no issues pending before the Legislature, had no lobbyists on Capitol Hill and had nothing to gain by giving the tickets.

E-mail: spang@desnews.com

© 2002 Deseret News Publishing Company