Which Supervisor Got $15,700 Worth of Free SF Opera Tix?

(Sup. Eric Mar at the podium speaking at a July presser. Credit: Paul Chinn, SF Chronicle.)

The current compensation package for each member of the Board of Supervisors comes to $154,719, giving them enough money to purchase tickets to cultural programs at any of the houses that comprise the City-owned War Memorial & Performing Arts Center.

Public disclosure records show that several Supervisors have received thousands of dollars in comp tickets to the City Arts and Lectures, SF Ballet, SFJazz, the SF Opera and the SF Symphony programs taking place at these City-funded institutions.

(Public document shows Mar and Campos received SF Opera tickets valued at either $296 or $306 in September.)

Here's the list of Supervisors who took advantage of the comps available to them, from 2012 through September 30, 2014, and total amount of comps they received:

Eric Mar:
$15,707

David Campos:
$3,192

Scott Wiener:
$1,335

Malia Cohen:
$530

Mark Farrell:
$256

David Chiu:
$144

The combined amount of freebies for these six Supervisors since 2012 is $21,164. The disclosure forms state the reasons for the comps include gaining awareness of the institutions or building appreciation for them.

We must ask the Supervisors to fully and voluntarily disclose all perks available them, eg: SF Giants tickets, Muni passes, free parking, on their official City-funded web sites and to explain which perks they've used and when.

Given their six-figure salaries, I believe they can well afford to purchase tickets to the cultural events and avoid the appearance of entitlement as elected officials, feeding at the public trough in all ways possible.

Which Supes Got Airbnb Executives' Donations?
By Todd Swindell and Michael Petrelis

Following the money of Airbnb executives for the current election season as listed at the San Francisco Ethics Commission web site led us to some unsurprising info. All of these contributions from the executives were made in 2014.

Varsha Rao gave Supervisor Mark Farrell $500; Stephen Conley donated $500 to Assessor Carmen Chu, $500 to Supervisor Katy Tang, $500 to Supervisor Malia Cohen; Jeffrey Nanney contributed $500 to Supervisor Scott Wiener; and David Owen gave $100 to Chu.

Airbnb Inc contributed $2,500 to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, which is the home club for Wiener.

All of the Supervisors who received donations from the Airbnb leaders voted in the majority last week legalizing short-term stays in private homes and apartments, and absolving Airbnb of having to pay about $25 million in back taxes.

The legislation was signed by Mayor Ed Lee yesterday, as affordable housing advocates built an alter honoring all the displaced and evicted renters and small businesses over the past few years of the tech boom disfiguring San Francisco.

We're just saying it's rather curious four of the Supervisors who voted for legislation with very favorable terms for this tech firm also received the maximum amount allowed by local law for donations from individuals.

Pissed off about this sort of stuff? Then #VotePetrelis!