That is where Marv Hendrickson will be relegated after a preliminary 5-4 vote Tuesday by the Salt Lake County Council to eliminate all gift allowances for elected officials.

For weeks, the council has been debating tweaks to the county's ethics policy, including whether to reduce from $50 to $20 the value of gifts officials may accept.

Now, the number is zero, with the exception of "incidentals" such as bottled water, parking validations and commemorative pins.

Hendrickson, who often attends University of Utah football games with freebie tickets, voted "no" on the measure that would pluck the perk. But he also opposed the $20 limit, calling it "ludicrous."

"You don't do anything anymore for under that."

Precisely the point, countered Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, who led the charge for a stricter standard.

State lawmakers have a $50 limit, which regularly leads to lunches with lobbyists, free golf and especially game tickets.

County officials want to eliminate that prospect but concede the system is self-policed.

"It's all got to be on the honor system anyway," says Councilman Jim Bradley, explaining he would rather make the number zero and "save the reporting."

It could be difficult, for instance, to remember a lunch from January come December, Bradley argued about the $20 threshold, which would have been restricted to four times per year from a single party.

Council Chairman Michael Jensen prefers the all-out ban as well. "I work better if it's black and white," he said.

The change means lunches to discuss county business must be covered out-of-pocket or expensed from the official's discretionary fund. But Councilman Joe Hatch took exception to using taxpayer funds for food.

"I find that a bigger disgrace," he said.

Hatch and Hendrickson joined Randy Horiuchi and David Wilde in voting against the gift prohibition.

Under Tuesday's measure - the council will vote again in two weeks to make it binding - the only handouts allowed would include coffee mugs, pens, pins or what Mayor Peter Corroon called "the things you don't really want anyway."

Hours after Tuesday's vote, lobbyist Dave Nicponski camped outside the council chambers. When the meeting broke, he handed each elected official an invitation to an event - tucked in a sleek box containing a leather notebook and a silver key chain.

No council member refused the "small incidental."

djensen@sltrib.com

A Kearns special election scheduled for June 28 to elect a new community council has been rescheduled for August 9, following a unanimous vote Tuesday by the Salt Lake County Council.

The change comes with the condition that the old Town Council disband, but extends the filing deadline to July 7 to accommodate any on that council that care to run.

That body, criticized for sloppy accounting with federal grant funds and no longer recognized by the county, had refused to disband.

Jeff Silvestrini, vice president of the Association of Community Councils Together, said the move was basically an olive branch.

"It's better for credibility if there's just one council," he said.

* Arguing they have a responsibility to right the wrongs of the 1960s, the Salt Lake County Council Tuesday unanimously approved a resolution vowing to limit the impacts of the Salt Palace expansion on Japan Town.

The resolution was jointly signed by officials from the county and Salt Lake City, who acknowledge original construction of the convention center in 1969 decimated the historic Japanese community.

"They'll feel pretty betrayed if we don't do this," said Councilman Joe Hatch.