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Your Tax Dollars at Work: $20K Spent on Villaraigosa's Vacations
At the Golden Dragon Parade in Chinatown | Photo by Huro Kitty via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
Remember how Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took two vacations over the summer? First there was one to Iceland and then another to Africa. That bugged KTLA's Eric Spillman enough to go digging for costs, if any, to taxpayers.
At first he was given the run around, being denied access from public records about the Mayor's security detail. "The LAPD stated, in its denial of our request, that releasing records relating to the cost of the mayor's security for his trips abroad might somehow compromise his safety," Spillman wrote.
Nevertheless, the City Controller's Office released the information. $20,736 was spent to send officers with the Mayor on the two trips. That, Spillman finds, "would cover the cost of a rookie LAPD officer's salary (to help fight crime here in Los Angeles) for more than 4 months."
Yesterday
- Your Tax Dollars at Work: How Some Confidential LAPD Records are Stored
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