Politicians got spots in a VIP suite for Lionel Messi’s big unveiling. Was it official duty or a perk?

Among the thousands of fans who packed Fort Lauderdale’s professional soccer stadium on Sunday night were prominent elected officials, who were hosted in a secure VIP area, where some were able to chat with and get pictures with Inter Miami’s new superstar player, Lionel Messi, and team co-owner David Beckham.

And the presence of the elected officials raised questions about what all those public officials were doing at the event. One Fort Lauderdale commissioner said it was improper for his colleagues to attend.

• Was it a special perk, worth money that amounted to a gift that has to be publicly disclosed, can’t be accepted under some circumstances, or reimbursed by the recipient?
• Or was it more like an official chore, akin to a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and the welcoming of a major new attraction — the team has spent some $170 million developing the site — similar to the way many new or potential businesses are greeted?

Among those granted admission to the VIP suites, attendees said, were three of the five members of the Fort Lauderdale City Commission; Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination; U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and elected Miami-Dade County officials.

Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Warren Sturman brought his three children to the event and got invites for two other people. Commissioner Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman, who could not be reached for comment, attended with her husband, another commissioner said.

And Commissioner Steve Glassman, whose car was in the shop for service, hitched a ride with Inter Miami lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker.

Glassman posted 59 pictures from the event on Facebook, including some behind-the-scenes shots of Messi, Beckham and other team owners and executives, plus Beasley-Pittman, City Manager Greg Chavarria, and former Mayor Jack Seiler, who is currently serving as a mediator attempting to negotiate a resolution to disputes between the team and the city.

The event was part of a series in the carefully choreographed rollout of Messi’s arrival in South Florida: Messi signs with the team, Messi goes shopping at Publix, Messi is unveiled, Messi practices with the team for the first time. Fans hope he’ll boost the team’s performance; civic leaders hope the publicity will provide a boost for the region where he’s playing, and Fort Lauderdale in particular, and business owners hope for a burst of commerce.

Though the team’s home is currently DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Inter Miami’s long-term plan is to develop and settle into a planned new stadium in Miami.

In the meantime, tickets to Sunday night’s event were a hot commodity.

Even though there have been disputes between the city and the team over the extent to which it has lived up to its promises in developing the city-owned site into a soccer stadium and training facility, several Fort Lauderdale leaders said it was part of their responsibility to attend the Sunday night event that received worldwide publicity.

Glassman said part of his job is to be “as much of a goodwill ambassador for the city of Fort Lauderdale as possible. I think it’s important for elected officials to be welcoming, to be hospitable, and to show good manners.”

Glassman said he felt that even more acutely, after he learned Mayor Dean Trantalis would be out of town.

“I don’t understand what this dust-up is about,” Glassman said about questions over attending the event, adding he would “find it strange if this event happened and no one from the City Commission was there to welcome them to town.”

Trantalis said via text he would have been there to welcome Messi and present him with the key to the city. But Trantalis is among 40 local leaders in New York this week, where he’s part among a small group of mayors participating in an intensive leadership and management program sponsored by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.

Trantalis said he’ll deliver the welcome and present the key to the city to Messi on Friday, at his first Inter Miami game in Fort Lauderdale.

Commissioner John Herbst, whose district includes the stadium and has spearheaded efforts to push Inter Miami to do more to live up to its development agreement, said he wasn’t invited.

“And I would not have attended if invited,” Herbst said. “I don’t think it’s appropriate. You can’t accept gifts from lobbyists.”

Broward County has a strict ethics code that applies to county, city, town and village elected officials, and Herbst said accepting an invitation to the event is impermissible.

The code states that “no elected official” may accept any gift worth more than $5 from a lobbyist who lobbies that government, or from the lobbyist’s employer. The strict restriction was implemented in 2010 after a series of corruption arrests in the county, then slightly loosened in 2015 to allow people to accept things of minimal value, such as a bottle of water.

“We have a very clear Broward County ethics law. They (Inter Miami) are represented by a lobbyist. It is improper and in fact illegal to accept a gift. … Elected officials are not allowed to accept gifts from lobbyists because there’s the implied intent that the gift is intended to influence your behavior. Whether that is the case or not, it is the appearance of influence that leads to distrust in government.”

Toothaker said the team was not attempting to curry favor with city officials.

“I believe the team was looking at it from the perspective of the city of Fort Lauderdale as their partner in this venture, and I would venture to say that it would be inappropriate not to include their partner for an event welcoming Leo Messi to the city of Fort Lauderdale,” she said.

“Inter Miami is very proud of its positive relationship with the city of Fort Lauderdale and continues to enjoy a wonderful relationship with the city of Fort Lauderdale. I think the reports of a contentious relationship have been wildly blown up out of proportion, and that’s not the team’s feeling,” Toothaker said.

Clouding the question about whether there was value to the tickets was that admission to the event was granted to all season ticket holders without an extra charge.

“The event was free. It was free to all,” Toothaker said.

Glassman said he, like Herbst, takes ethics training. “I’m aware of those issues. And I was told it was a completely free event, there was no price on the ticket. Tickets were being issued to keep track of occupancy,” he said.

Herbst said providing tickets to season ticket holders does not make it a “free event.”

The team’s website, however, said that season ticket holders “received an opportunity to purchase additional tickets to the historic presentation for just $30, along with Deposit Holders and those who signed up earlier this week to receive more information.”

The food and beverages were modest, participants said: chicken wings, grapes, crackers and cheese, and cookies emblazoned with the team’s logo, plus soft drinks and beer.

“I think I had a cookie and a Coke,” Glassman said. Sturman said he wasn’t in the owners’ box and doesn’t know what was served there.

Glassman said he was told about the event by the city manager and Toothaker, and that he gained admittance via a QR code on his phone.

“I was just told that I would have admittance and the commission was invited. After all, we do own the facility, and we were welcoming probably the greatest soccer player in the world. So I said, ‘Sure. I’ll go.’”

Sturman said Toothaker called him about the event, on behalf of the team’s owners, and said he consulted with the city manager who he said “advised me that it wasn’t a game but a simple presentation and other elected officials were going to be there and I should attend to represent the city in an official capacity.”

He said he agreed, and asked if he could invite others, which included five other people (three of them his adult children in their 20s.)

“At the time of the invitation, I asked her (Toothaker) how much is it, how do I buy a ticket, and I was told that there’s no value to it,” Sturman said.

The day after, on Monday, he said he asked the city attorney how he could pay, and the city attorney said he would try to ascertain a value. “Whatever I’m advised, I’m more than willing to pay whatever the value of it.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, interim City Attorney D’Wayne Spence, had not responded to a Monday evening email asking if he’d received any requests for opinions or other inquiries from commissioners, including any after the fact, or what advice he gave them. Herbst said he’d also made inquiries of the city attorney.

Seiler declined to comment, citing his strict policy of never talking about cases in which he’s working as a mediator.

Chavarria said he viewed the event like many others. “I was invited by the owner to welcome their new player, and went to do that,” he said. “I do a lot of ribbon-cuttings. I do a lot of welcomings to new businesses  all the time. That is something that I do as my responsibility.”

He said he was told about the invitation by a representative of the security team for the owners, and specific instructions on how to get there came from Toothaker. “She just told me where to be, when to arrive.”

He said he, too, inquired about the value of the tickets, and was told there was none. Chavarria recalled it taking an hour to get from Interstate 95 to the stadium and getting soaked outside in drenching rain. “I didn’t pay any attention to any food.”

Ben Wilcox, research director of the watchdog group Integrity Florida, said accepting tickets to the event is murky under state law. “It’s not a clear-cut case.”

“It seems plausible to me that they could make a case that this is going to bring in a lot of tourism and people coming from other parts of the state to see him and that it’s going to have a big economic impact on the city,” Wilcox said.

“If these officials are receiving free food and free beverages … even though there was not really a price put on admission to that VIP area, I think you could argue that those are gifts and should be reported,” he said. “It’s hard to assign a value.”

Mary Fertig, a longtime city activist, board member and former Fort Lauderdale Citizen of the Year, said she was concerned more about the performance of the commission in its dealings with Inter Miami than in some attendance at the event.

“I see it closer to a ribbon-cutting” she said. “The more important issue to me is have they stood their ground on enforcing the contract, and I think they have.”

County Commissioner Steve Geller, a longtime former state legislator familiar with ins and outs of local and state ethics laws, said he believes it was permissible for the city commissioners to attend.

“If somebody is going there for the purpose of welcoming a new, high-profile person to the city, and it’s not to watch a game, I think that would be perfectly legal and within their governmental duties,” Geller said.

Other key elements, he said, is that the Fort Lauderdale commissioners were attending an event at a facility that’s owned by the city, and that it was “open to all season ticket holders free of charge.”

He said he’s gotten invitations to big events such as a Super Bowl, and declined. But attending a game and making a presentation at halftime is within an official’s purview. Inviting “the mayors of all the cities and all the county commissioners (to) come for free and watch the game because they’re elected officials, that would violate ethics rules and laws.”

“A lot depends if you’re actively a part of an official delegation versus, I think, that if somebody invites you to attend the Super Bowl and they’re inviting you because you’re an elected official and you’re not doing anything as an elected official, then it’s improper,” Geller said.

In one recent high-profile case, billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who is planning a $1 billion tower in Miami, provided Suarez and his wife tickets valued at $14,000 each to the Miami Grand Prix, the Miami Herald reported. They also attended a $3,000-per-person after party, the Herald reported.

A week after the newspaper raised questions about the mayor accepting the gift, a spokesperson for Griffin’s company said Suarez had covered the cost.

Charles Zelden, a professor of history and legal studies at Nova Southeastern University, said the presence of politicians at a high-profile event is “just the way things generally are.”

“It’s a big thing that Messi is coming to South Florida. He’s one of the most significant athletes in the world, if not the (most). And he’s coming here. So that the politicians are invited to celebrate this coup for South Florida is not surprising,” Zelden said. “It’s like the president comes down to give a speech and the politicians are invited to participate and be there. The rest of us don’t have access to go in and see it live,” Zelden said. “Now if they start getting tickets to the matches, that’s another matter.”

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com, on Twitter @browardpolitics and on Post.news/@browardpolitics.