Leaders’ perk is out of bounds

East Bay politicians have scored free Warriors, Raiders and A’s seats worth millions of dollars over the past two decades, making a mockery of their duty to oversee Oakland’s sports venues. Oakland Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan has rightly proposed doing away with the perk and the attendant appearance of corruption.

Rather than distribute often valuable Oakland Coliseum and Oracle Arena box seats to council members and other officials, Kaplan suggested this week that the city sell the tickets and use the money for services, figuring they would be worth about $400,000 a year. Alternatively, the city, Alameda County and the coliseum authority could give up their luxury suites for a price. While it would be a small sum in the context of their budgets, it would make a big difference in the perceived objectivity of these public officials.

Although the California Fair Political Practices Commission requires officials to disclose and explain the public purpose of such ticket giveaways, The Chronicle reported last year that three Oakland council members didn’t bother to do so. Others claimed they took the tickets to review the facilities — certainly not the marquee games and concerts within — sometimes taking this due diligence seriously enough to perform it dozens of times a year. The Bay Area News Group found that over a three-year span, seven officials each accepted tickets worth more than a quartermillion dollars.

Oakland’s ethics commission has said it’s investigating. That’s appropriate, but we already have enough information to conclude that this perk is not.