Copping tickets

In his latest annual financial disclosure statement, filed last month, San Diego police captain Bob Kanaski reported receiving four tickets to the Chargers-Colts game in November of last year worth a total of $900. Kanaski wrote on his disclosure form that the tickets were “provided by a fundraising event. I do not have details of the event as I received the tickets from [Assistant] Chief [William] Maheu.” Maheu was once in line to become chief of police but abruptly left the department in January of this year to go work for cell phone giant Qualcomm; he did not report getting any tickets on his own financial disclosure statement.

The rub for Kanaski is that state law places a $390 limit on gifts from a single source made to public officials during a calendar year — which would seemingly place the police captain’s $900 worth of football tickets seriously over the line. In years past, an exception to the $390 limit has been made for gifts of tickets from nonprofit organizations such as Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses, sponsor of the Rose Bowl. But now the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces the rules, is considering doing away with even that exemption.

Reached by phone this week, Maheu said he had obtained the tickets from Patti Roscoe, a convention and meeting planner with close ties to the local Republican Party and the chamber of commerce. She is also a major backer of the reelection bid of Mayor Jerry Sanders. Maheu said Roscoe had purchased the tickets at a charity fund-raiser and had given them to him to be distributed to police officers as a reward for their work during the autumn fires. Maheu, who said he was not aware of the state’s $390 per individual gift limitation, said Kanaski was picked because he had managed the Qualcomm Stadium evacuation center during the fires. Kanaski did not respond to messages, and Stacey Fulhorst, executive director of the City’s Ethics Commission, said she couldn’t comment on the matter.