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LA Olympics organizers are supposed to disclose contracts. City leaders say they haven’t
Matt Szabo (L), the City Administrative Officer who negotiated the agreement with LA28 alongside the city's Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso (R), speak at an L.A. City Council meeting.
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Courtesy of L.A. City Council
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YouTube
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Los Angeles city officials are asking LA28 to hand over a list of its contracts, saying the Olympics organizing committee could be in violation of its agreement with the city.
LA28’s annual financial report released last week included a broad review of the organization’s deals with contractors hired to help put on the event, but no names or detailed breakdowns of spending.
The Games Agreement between the city and LA28 requires the committee to submit the name, type, amount, term and purpose of each contract it has entered into worth more than $1 million.
No such list was provided in LA28’s report.
“It's inadequate, what we've been provided, and that's not acceptable,” City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said at a committee meeting on the 2028 Olympics Wednesday afternoon.
Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso said she has requested a full list from LA28 and is waiting to hear back.
Jacie Prieto Lopez, a spokesperson for LA28, said in an emailed statement to LAist that LA28 had received the request.
“We are working through those requests now and remain committed to meeting our obligations," she said.
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Tso told the council committee she had seen a more detailed list of LA28’s contracts, but only when it was “flashed on the screen very quickly” at a meeting with her, Olympics organizers, the city administrative officer and the mayor’s office.
“So we don't have a list,” Tso said. “We don't have the names of the folks. We don't have the dollar amounts.”
Tso told the council that Olympics organizers were wary about making contracts public, due to concerns that public disclosure could harm negotiations over competitive event sponsor deals.
City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez said that did not satisfy LA28’s obligations to the city.
“They can just be like, ‘Flash it, we're done, and we did our requirement,’” Soto-Martinez said.
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