OAKLAND — Calling it a “bankrupt” policy, the Public Ethics Commission at a hearing Wednesday offered strong criticism of the city’s use of free tickets to Golden State Warriors games and other events at Oracle Arena and the Coliseum.

“I don’t think there’s another (group) that benefits from the use of any product or service provided,” Commissioner Dana King said. “We have a marijuana commission, they aren’t getting free pot. It just from the jump seems grossly unfair to the people of the city of Oakland. They are not benefiting from these tickets in any large way.”

The special hearing Wednesday is the start of the ethics commission’s investigation into the ticket policy. The city has free use of a luxury suite at the arena through its lease with the Warriors. Alameda County and the city-county authority that runs the Coliseum complex also each have their own suite. The city and the county own the complex.

Under the policy, politicians or city staff must list a purpose for attending the events. Most often, the stated purpose is reviewing or inspecting the facilities, but some ethics commissioners said there is little proof that work is being done during games.

“These people certified on their behalf that they were going to oversee the facility when in fact they were going to enjoy the game,” said ethics Commissioner Stephen Shefler, who called the policy “bankrupt.”

On Wednesday, the ethics commission heard testimony from Scott McKibben, executive director of the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Authority; Sukhi Brar, senior commission counsel for the California Fair Political Practices Commission; and JoAnne Speers, professor of ethics and public policy at the University of San Francisco.

As part of its investigation, the commission is reviewing the city’s ticket distribution policies and problems with it, and also how other cities distribute tickets, said its executive director, Whitney Barazoto.

For instance, Santa Clara officials do not take any free tickets to events at Levi’s Stadium. In Sacramento, the city has hired a person to oversee who gets tickets to the new Golden 1 Center, home of the Sacramento Kings.

Speers recommended Oakland designate someone to oversee who gets the free tickets.

“From an ethics standpoint the end goal of any policy is avoiding the perception that decision making is influenced by the availability of the tickets,” Speers told the commission.

An investigation by this newspaper last month found City Council members and top officials hoarded tickets for themselves and sometimes doled them out to cronies and campaign contributors.

Under the state ethics law, the Fair Political Practices Act, officials may use the tickets themselves or give away tickets to games if there is a clearly stated public purpose to justify it. But it often does not work that way.

Council member Larry Reid took 356 tickets, always in pairs of two, over the Warriors’ past three seasons through the joint authority, which he chairs, almost always listing the public purpose as inspecting the arena’s operations. But when asked about those tickets, Reid said he rarely attends games and gives the tickets to his children and friends.

There is no public record of who actually used those tickets.

Council member Abel Guillen gave tickets to people who contributed to and volunteered for his campaign, calling them community volunteers who deserved rewards for their efforts.

Council member Noel Gallo said he and others are given an envelope “with a bunch of tickets” to do with as they wish. Like Reid, Gallo submitted disclosure forms to the city claiming his public purpose was to oversee the area, but said he really gave the tickets away.