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Bye, Bye Hollywood Sign... at Least Temporarily [Updated]
One Way to Take Care of Business
Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist
Just a week on the job and City Controller Wendy Greuel is kicking butt. The city's Emergency Management Department was charged with feeding some 3,200 officers that were deployed for the Michael Jackson memorial service in case the crowds outside the Staples Center grew, possibly to a million people.
That didn't happen as the city's stern message to stay home worked, leaving around 1,000 people in the streets hanging around. Because of that, 1,000 officers were sent home before 10 a.m. when the memorial began. Still, the city had to be prepared to feed all the men and women in blue and that came at a price. In a letter today, Greuel explains:
It came to my office's attention... that your department requested $48,826 for lunches from Jensen's Finest Foods in Wrightwood--nearly 80 miles from Los Angeles--for first responders to the Michael Jackson memorial...[snip]
Upon seeing this bill, my staff called a local Subway--in the City of Los Angeles--and was quoted a price of $17,491.25 for 3,500 box lunches. That's a potential savings to the taxpayers of more than $31,000.
Ouch. The full letter is embedded below:
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So, I also heard that they sent home a bunch of officers when it was noted that they were not needed. So what happened to all the food?
Good Question. I'll try to find out.
Dear Wendy,
I love you.
Wendy Greuel in 2012!
She rocks so much, a part of me wonder if she's like a magical hope robot or something.
This doesn't make sense at all. Jensen's Finest Foods is a GROCERY STORE in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.
I was just there last weekend while camping in the Angeles National Forest. They make a good bbq sandwich, but really...? It takes 1.5hrs to drive there, and is in San Bernardino County!
I smell a BBQ scandal
They should've gone to Cosco... You can find much cheaper pig food there...
Nice to finally have someone paying attention! But doesn't any other event organized by a private party get charged for police services during the event? The family chose to hold the event at the Staples Center. Why aren't they responsible to pay the bill?
The whole thing is totally ridiculous. We can't afford $1.5 million when we are in a deficit. The city should of said "sorry we can't dedicate 1/3rd of our firefighters and police for your event" .
It's pretty amazing the city let the Jackson family essentially run the city for the day.
Closing down two freeways,etc.
I am a fan of MJ's music..but I think it was ridiculous.
Agreed! I'm going to send Los Angeles an IOU when they ask me to pay for this event.
I'm 100% positive there's some kind of legal requirement to have law enforcement officers at a situation where there's likely to be a mob. Families, however, are usually charged for police escorts at funerals. I think AEG should pay for the police overtime.
I want to know why the city is required to provide lunch in the first place. Do officers not get breaks? I sure as hell have to provide my own lunch at work, whether by brown-bagging it or walking my ass to Subway on my lunch break.
And yes, "importing" lunch from 80 miles away is absolutely ridiculous. Who thought that was a good idea? Fire him and save the 50k he just wasted on that lunch by not having to pay his salary!
No different than the money the state is handing out to the Octomom. We all scrunch our brows and shake our heads in little mimes of concern, but because we don't individually actually write out checks for these rackets/racketeers, it's all just a hazy Roofie experience. If somebody told me I had to pay $50/month this year to support Octomom and pay for the Michael Jackson memorial I would tell them to stick it in an angry beehive, yet because we don't actually write out the checks (it's done "invisibly" through withholding, etc.), we don't get as indignant. What an ingenious system, and you bet leeches will suck it dry.
I'm with Wendy Gruel so far, keep at it. I'm also a fan of Laura Chick so I am biased, but but run down taxpayer fraudtastic ripoffs and I am a happy citizen ..:)
I'm with you on this but these shitz still going to happen again.
People, next time you vote, plz make sure you vote these baboons out of the office.
I'm with you! I'm excited that Wendy Gruel seems to be picking up Laura Chick's mantel. Let's keep it going!
Why are the Jacksons not picking up the tab? There is a related post at iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
That works out to $15.26 per officer. They could have all walked up to The Pantry and each had a steak dinner for that.
*I posted this comment on another article, but it seems to fit well here as well.**
I find it funny that only the negative seems to be spotlighted with anything related to MJ.
I am one of the thousands and thousands of fans that came to the city of LA for this event.
All I hear is how fans should help pay for the police(which I am happy to donate) and how much money this costs the city.
But no spotlight is shown to the businesses that profited from this event, and who should also be asked to donate.
Michael Jackson fans brought MILLIONS of dollars to the LA economy this week as we patronized your restaurants, hotels, rental car companies, airlines, and other general travel shopping.
I think sometimes people just need something to complain about.
MJ's memorial was not just 'some private event'.
Maybe he meant little to some of you, but he meant something to millions of people all over the world and to me.
As much as Michael Jackson fantasized he was royalty during his life (the oil painting of him as a king, the royalty references he bequeathed to his children in their legal names, etc.) he was not royalty, and this country not being a monarchy, our government should not pay for his memorial. As much as he meant to the fans, he is still not my sovereign and tax burden. Wendy Gruel is making a clear case for "The 'Emperor' Has No Clothes" on this one.
In my opinion, if any one of us wanted to pay tribute to a dead loved one, faster than you could say boo....we would be getting the bill. The Jackson family should be responsible for the whole thing, food, police and anything connected to that tribute. The city of Los Angeles and it's taxpayers should not be footing the bill for anything; it's the family's responsibility not anyone else's.
1. Could subway have prepared 3,200 box lunches in that time frame?
2. Did the subway have the supplies on hand to fill that size order?
Of the dozen or so Subways in the downtown area I'm sure they could have pooled their resources and pulled it off. I would like to know what our $15.26 per officer paid for. Better be more than a BBQ sandwich and a scoop of potato salad.
Last night, I got pulled over at 10:30 at night for taking a right turn at a red light. Yeah, there was a sign that said "No right turn on red" but I didn't see it. After he ticketed me $160, he took off immediately after another guy and pulled him/her over for the same. Who sets traps at 10:30 at night on a Wednesday? I think the cops have been told to generate as much revenue as possible to cover their lunches. Everybody, watch your driving for the next few months. Especially since the "Donate to LA to cover MJ's security" site only generated a measily $17,000 yesterday.
They totally overestimated the turnout and thusly wasted a whole bunch of the public's money in the process.
The thing is, they made such a big deal about telling people *not* to show up without a ticket - so they didn't. Plus, I think the hype kinda peaked with the sidewalk memorials of last week.
As for all the "it generated so many dollars" mirage. Despite the syllogistic folly within that reasoning, I also think that, considering the measly turnout, the income generated was likely totally underwhelming.
This is an economic depression people, the city has to be very *careful* with it's money at the moment, not allow errant and misguided avoidable waste.
Spending $48K of taxpayer money to feed cops while working a dead celebrity's funeral is completely unacceptable. Why hasn't the Jackson family come forward and offered to pay a dime of the expenses the city incurred during this freakshow?
As to a ticket for a "right on red" violation. We all need to watch our arses on the roads these days. Every conceivable potential violation is being milked for funds these days. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the police departments are back on a ticket quota. Hell, I was pulled over for exceeding the West Hollywood speed limit by four miles an hour last week. FOUR MILES PER HOUR!!! I've never ever been cited for exceeding the speed limit under five MPH before...ever!!!
This just tells me that various cities and municipalities are so strapped for cash that traffic violations are now being utilized to fill the gap.
seriously you used to see like one cop a day and now i see like 15. they hired those extra cops and the crime rate hasn't improved drastically...probably b/c most of them are confiscating hot dog carts and pulling people over for going a few miles over the speed limit.
A few issues I have:
1. What is the connection between Emergency Management Dept and Jensen's? Also, the response of 'this is how we've always done things.' Such a typical bureaucratic response and no concern that the $50,000 went OUTSIDE the City of LA.
2. This wasn't exactly last-minute as the officials have been saying. Sure--they only had a few days to plan this event but it wasn't like a wildfire or TRULY last minute event. Therefore, they had time to ensure the food bill wasn't so high.
3. If Subway was able to cut the cost by $31,000--with just a phone call, it is likely that ANY local company would have been able to even cut Subway's cost. Quizno's would have been so thrilled with the business that they could have done it for less. When I buy big ticket items, I shop around. Why doesn't the city?
4. AEG made a lot of money on the event--not only selling positions to the media, but I read that some of the tables or locations inside were sold as sponsorships. Additionally, think about how much money they likely made in parking, food and drinks, etc, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if they release a dvd of the event too, and are cut into that financially somehow as well. As an act of goodwill, they should just write a check...it really will not hurt them.
5. The city should have offered up its Convention Center as the location for this memorial and provided the police as part of the deal...that way, the revenue that AEG brought in would have instead gone to the City. Also, the Convention Center has the capacity to make thousands of meals...it would have just been a lot cleaner, smarter and more financially beneficial.
6. There was no incredible bump in revenue. The hotels were up a teeny bit but a lot of downtown restaurants actually CLOSED because they didn't want to deal with what they thought would be hundreds of thousands of people.
7. Between Councilmember Zine not letting go of this, Controller Greuel coming out really strong out of the gate and City Attorney Trutanich calling for a top to bottom investigation of how this happened, I think we're finally going to get some answers.....
How is "first responder" even relevant here?