If you're an elected official in the Tampa Bay area and attending a professional sporting event is something you actually find appealing, then free tickets to Bucs and Lightning games are probably one of those things — especially if you dig picking at crab cakes in Tampa Sports Authority's luxury suites.
There's a catch, though.
You have to disclose these gifts so that no one thinks you're secretly on the take… or, if you are, at least you're being honest about it.
Recently, WTSP investigative reporter Noah Pransky looked into "gifts" given to local officials, mostly at the city and county level, by the Tampa Sports Authority and local pro teams, among others, and found that a good chunk of them didn't properly disclose these items as is expected of them.
You can check that out here.
Also, East Hillsborough Commissioner Stacy White apparently really likes monster trucks. So much that in 2015 and 2016 White "received a total of 10 Monster Jam tickets to the TSA suite (value: $450)." He didn't initially disclose the gifts, but later amended his disclosure to include them.
Pransky found that State Sen. Tom Lee also enjoyed a pair of luxury box tickets to Monster Jam thanks to a lobbyist for the Sports Authority (kind of a no-no considering that gifts to state lawmakers are not allowed) but later paid him back for the value of the tickets. The value of the experience? Priceless, certainly.
There's a host of other instances of local officials attending sporting events and eschewing the cheap seats where we wretched commoners sit and slurp our $18 rum-and-diets for a luxury box in the sky where the drinks are free and the elbow-rubbing is top-notch. Some of the fun was reported, but much of it wasn't.
And it's not just sports.
Some local officials' travel expenses to Cuba for economic development missions were also covered, including those of St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman, Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long and Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, all of whom disclosed the "gifts."
Of course, gifts to local elected officials are totally legal, especially if you take the time to actually report them. But given who's giving them out — sports teams and other monied interests — it might appear as though they're trying to influence politicians in ways others can't.
If you don't want your dwelling to be bulldozed to make way for a billion-dollar stadium (or at least would like to have your hardship compensated for with more than a grand and a cardboard box to live in if all else fails), it's not as though you can wine and dine your mayor and city council the way monied interests can.
This article appears in Dec 8-15, 2016.