Daily News Editorial: Ethics penalties against Villaraigosa, council members will have little effect

IT seems improper acceptance of tickets isn't just a mayoral transgression. Just days after Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa agreed to pay $42,000 as punishment for improper handling of dozens of ticket freebies, four members of the Los Angeles City Council last week were slapped with fines for the same thing.

Council President Eric Garcetti and council members Herb Wesson, Jose Huizar and Tony Cardenas all received fines from the Ethics Commission for accepting tickets to various entertainment awards shows. City ethics rules prohibit city officials from accepting gifts larger than $100 from people or organizations who do business with the city. And entertainment awards shows do big business in L.A., and organizers often ask city officials to have taxpayers pick up the tab for special event fees.

Compared with the mayor's hit, the fines for the councilmen are tiny, ranging from $2,100 to $4,800 - as were their breaches. Villaraigosa got popped for accepting dozens of free tickets for sporting events, concerts and other entertainment events in a mini scandal last year that the media took to calling "Ticketgate."

Amusing as the moniker is, it's not at all accurate. In the Watergate scandal, Presidential Richard Nixon's involvement in political dirty tricks became so apparent that he ultimately resigned from office.

No one will suffer from "Ticketgate."

The $55,000 in fines collectively owed by these five elected officials may as well

be $5.50 for all their effect on the offending parties.

Indeed, only Garcetti plans to pay the fine from his own pocket. Villaraigosa, Wesson, and Cardenas will pay the fine from "legal defense" funds which receive donations, often from the same moneyed interests from whence the inappropriate gifts came. Huizar will pay for it out of a campaign re-election fund.

In the end, the ethics fines are ultimately meaningless because the same cozy relationships with the moneyed interests - the developers, the businessmen, the unions - that got them in trouble, will get them out of trouble.

Padma Lakshmi Mena Suvari Drew Barrymore Grace Park Rachel Hunter