Free games of golf appear to be one of the perks of being Mayor of Burnaby, if city hall records are any indication.

Since May 2003, when the Community Charter first started requiring civic politicians to declare any gifts or personal benefits they’ve received while in office, statements for only 16 such gifts have been filed, all but one for Mayor Derek Corrigan.

Of those, 12 were for tickets to golf tournaments organized by: the Michael J. Fox Theatre fundraising arm, B.C. and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council, Burnaby Board of Trade, Community Savings and W.E. Group, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Shaw Cable Systems and Pacific Blue Cross.

The lone councillor to file a statement was Coun. Colleen Jordan, who accepted tickets to a UFCW golf tournament in 2006.

While only gifts of $250 or more need to be declared, most of those in the city’s records are for smaller amounts, with the most expensive the Shaw Cable golf tournament which was valued at $350.

Also declared by Corrigan were: a programmable thermostat ($150) from Honeywell, who were contracted to carry out a retrofit of civic buildings to increase energy efficiency; a pair of binoculars ($89) presented at the grand opening of Metropolis at Metrotown in 2005; a bomber jacket ($100) from organizers of the World Police and Fire Games; and a nylon jacket ($50) from the Burnaby Express hockey club.

The gifts are a far cry from the concert tickets, Canucks tickets and yacht rides reported by members of Vancouver city council in recent years.

Corrigan speculated that’s simply because Vancouver has more events held in that city and typically those events are more expensive than ones held in Burnaby. He noted that Burnaby has always interpreted the $250 rule as being a cumulative total for the year, which is why even the smaller gifts are declared.

Trinkets such as pins and plaques presented by delegations are not included in such statements because they’re deemed to not have monetary value.

From Corrigan’s experience, people in the private sector don’t generally try to influence council with gifts. “If there’s an event, it’s a lunch or something,” he said. “You’d have to be a pretty good eater to get over $250.”

As for the golf tournaments, he pointed out that as mayor, he’s almost always the one invited and the events are typically fundraisers. As such, organizers invariably get their money’s worth because he makes sure to buy all the raffle tickets and participate in the auctions to meet the “very high level of expectation” placed on elected officials in the community to support such events with their wallets.

“So I generally try to give back as much as the value of the entry fee by donations ... It’s not nearly as good as it looks,” Corrigan said with a laugh.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com