Don’t know if this was the plan all along, but County Manager Harry Jones has managed to trip himself up by attempting to dance around Commissioner Bill James’ questions surrounding the ethical implications of accepting thousands of dollars worth of “free” CIAA basketball tourney tickets.
By attempting to block James’ gambit of contributing his and fellow GOP tix to charity, Jones has effectively violated the county attorney’s ruling from last February which OKed the ticket give away precisely because the commissioners were receiving them via the CRVA with no strings attached.
Meanwhile, I am still waiting for definitive word on what the Charlotte city council does with its CIAA tickets and how that complies with its ethics rules regarding receiving gifts from parties with business before council.
But over and above all of that, I am still waiting for someone to explain to me the election law implications of, say, a $100 contributor to council person or commissioner’s campaign fund finding themselves in possession of a skybox ticket(s) worth much more than that. As ever, it is down to government lawyers making something up and then the courage — or lack thereof — displayed by the rest us in calling BS on that.
