Cashless ducats

San Diego city councilman Ben Hueso, running in the Democratic primaries for an assembly seat this year, has been busy handing out free tickets from the City’s big stash. The latest: two passes to the Farmers Insurance golf tournament, worth $400 each, to the nonprofit Border Transportation Council, which promotes “economic vitality in San Ysidro,” according to the disclosure. The charitable tax return of the group, which reported it raised about $9000 in 2008, says its purpose is “giving scholarship to the people in general.” The return, filed in May of last year, listed the group’s president as Richard Gomez. Last week, a Union-Tribune exposé revealed that the City would lose $200,000 in unrecovered greens fees and maintenance costs due to the Farmers tournament, held at City-owned Torrey Pines. … Jennifer LeSar, who married her longtime partner, ex–city councilwoman Toni Atkins, back in September 2008 when gay marriage was briefly legal in California, has been cleared by the City’s Ethics Commission to lobby the Centre City Development Corporation, where LeSar recently retired from the board. In a January 15 advice letter, Ethics Commission general counsel Alison Adema told LeSar, a development consultant, that since the CCDC post was not compensated, the City’s post-employment lobbying limits don’t apply to her. “Moreover, your past service on the CCDC Board does not preclude you from now offering your services to CCDC under a consulting contract, but only to the extent that you did not participate as a CCDC board member in the creation of that contract or in creating any needs that would be fulfilled through the execution of that contract.”