Last night WFAA 8 — and everyone else — ran a story about Dallas City Council members requesting and receiving free concert tickets. I understand the conflict of interest, as the company giving away the tickets is Live Nation, a city contractor. I’d be inclined to think this would have been no big deal had a couple members not taken advantage of the perk, requesting upwards of 50-60 free tickets.
My husband manages a Japanese restaurant, and while it’s okay to eat the food or even bring something home now and then, my family doesn’t eat free sushi for dinner every night (as much as I’d like to). Same thing — when you take advantage of (as in overuse) a good thing — it’s bound to irk somebody.
I’m as anxious to indict a city staffer as the next reporter (okay we might have a couple Back Talk bloggers more anxious than me…) but everything these guys did was pretty much on the up and up — until now, there was no rule against it. (Though I do concede the tickets/ethics matter has been brought up once before — remember when Mayor Leppert sent back the Cotton Bowl tickets?)
But what I found more interesting about the story was the council members’ concert choices. District 2 council member Pauline Medrano requested the most free tickets — Nickelback, Hoobastank, Brooks & Dunn, Def Leppard, Rush, Vicente Fernandez, Alan Jackson and John Mayer — eclectic taste, or just plain greed?
District 9’s Sheffie Kadane sought out tickets to Willie Nelson and Pat Green. I can totally see it. I wonder how close the seats were to the stage.
And Jerry Allen’s daughter asked for Radiohead tickets — can you bloody blame her — and daddy just couldn’t say no. Hey, the girl has good taste.
