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≡ L.A. CITY-LA28 AGREEMENT ≡
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto rang the alarm bell over City costs for security for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Tuesday, in a memorandum made public Wednesday night. It included:
“The City has no control over LA28’s expenses, which are paid first, including the salaries, bonuses, and vendor amounts LA28 may choose to expend. Neither party has any control over what the City’s extraordinary expenses ultimately will be even if there are no weather-related issues, security incidents, emergencies or other unanticipated contingencies.
“Nor does either party have any control over the timing or actualization of federal reimbursement to the City. The last LA28 budget was $7.15 billion, but LA28 acknowledges that the latest budget does not include the City’s estimated $1 billion of security funding.
“Although the City’s security cost could potentially be reimbursed by federal funding set aside for law enforcement agencies dedicating services related to the 2028 Games, the City will be competing with multiple agencies for those funds, and, as a result, may not receive sufficient funding to fully reimburse the City for its own use of law enforcement resources.
“Thus, there are two remaining issues in the ECRMA [Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement] that must be resolved in the City’s favor for LA28 to fulfill their promised ‘no cost to taxpayers’ foundational principle – (1) what happens if the federal government does not pay the assumed $1 billion and (2) what happens if the City’s extraordinary expenses exceed $1 billion?
“In either situation, the Office believes that all surplus funds must reimburse the City and its taxpayers first as promised before any surplus funds are available for a legacy or tribute fund.”
The memorandum explained that the LA28 organizers submitted a proposed Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement on 26 February for review by multiple City offices, including the City Attorney. Feldstein Soto noted that the 2021 “Games Agreement” between the City and LA28 is specific in stating that “any Surplus resulting from the planning, organizing and financing and staging of the 2028 Games” will be divided with 20% going to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and 80% to a new entity to be formed by LA28, governed by a board of directors comprised of an equal number of LA28 and City designees.
Feldstein Soto stated that as to the Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement proposed by LA28:
“The ECRMA as drafted by LA28 limits the obligation to reimburse City costs before LA28 is permitted to create its own legacy fund with the surplus.”
She writes further:
“The City requires unambiguous language in the ECRMA to foreclose any scenario in which funds might go back to the wealthy backers and investors of the LA28 organization without reimbursing taxpayer-funded extraordinary costs.”
The memo also demands that the Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement includes “transparent audit rights and procedures in response to the heightened risk exposure to the City and LA28 especially given the recent claims against LA28’s chairman, Casey Wasserman.”
This is an angry memorandum and has gone to the unusual step of publicly demanding LA28 “[u]phold the zero-cost principle and promise to the Council and the public.” The Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement was due to be completed, according to the 2021 Games Agreement, by 1 October 2025 and the Feldstein Soto memo notes that what may have been a first draft from LA28 was submitted on 26 February 2026.
The City Attorney report has been initially referred to the Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, chaired by Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson; it may end up being referred to others as well.
What is true is that LA28, especially chief executive Reynold Hoover, has been lobbying the Trump Administration for security funding and $1 billion was included in the budget passed in summer 2025, for the Federal fiscal year of 2025-26. More is expected in the next budget, due to be released in draft form in the coming weeks. LA28 is also lobbying for Federal support of transportation funding for the Games, but has been much less successful so far.
This is another new element of drama in what appears to be a receding level of trust between the City and the LA28 organizers, but also one that once worked through, can rebuild relations as well.
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