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≡ AN ANGRY CITY COUNCIL ≡
For the Los Angeles City Council, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games have nothing to do with athletes, excitement or joy. It’s about money.
And that was the near-sole focus of Tuesday morning’s near-two-hour meeting of the Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Games. The agenda had only three items, dealing with procurement, the new LA28 human rights strategy – both made available publicly last week – and a City allocation of funds for sidewalk and infrastructure repairs around Olympic and Paralympic venues in the City.
The flash point of the meeting was over spending by LA28 for the Games, starting with a report by the City’s Director of the Bureau of Contract Administration, John Reamer Jr. He explained:
“I am looking at the procurement plan. I did not find specifics in this plan, related to the items that were identified in the Impact and Sustainability Plan … what needs to happen and how it’s going to happen. That’s what I was looking for.”
He was cheered by the commitment to update the plan as the Games gets closer. He said that the LA28 plan needs to include a priority for contracting with business physically within the City of Los Angeles, and monthly reports on contracting amounts and types.
City Council member Monica Rodriguez demanded to know what the amount of “local spend” will be, and focused on the LA28 definition of “addressable spend,” meaning the amount of money that LA28 will actually spend locally to put on the Games: “75/25 doesn’t mean jack, if you don’t associate with actual spend … 75% of what and 25% of what?”
LA28 has said it will 75% of the “addressable spend” in the Southern California area and 25% with small businesses.
She also seized on the carve-out for “value in-kind” goods and services provided by International Olympic Committee or LA28 sponsors, proposing that this could eliminate LA28 spending on an entire venue: “our sponsors are going to be providing these build-outs or whatever fulfillment in-kind, so we have no control over that. That to me just sounds like a game of end-running. This is a whole new level of Olympics … around trying to end-run our own procedures in the City of Los Angeles.”
LA28 chief executive Reynold Hoover told the committee that “value-in-kind” from sponsors will not decrease the spending on the Games by LA28. Moreover:
“When we talk about 75% of addressable spend, that is direct spending, not V-I-K, direct spending that we are doing for local and small businesses here in L.A. I will say that we are estimating that number is close to $4 billion. That number is going to probably fluctuate as we go and as we get more fidelity in our planning and programming.
“That means that at 25% for small businesses, it has the potential to be around a billion dollars in economic benefit to our local and small businesses.”
Undaunted, the committee members continued to press for commitments to favor in-City businesses first and foremost – even if the prices were a little higher – but Hoover was clear that LA28 wants to obtain the best opportunities to contract through competitive bidding. Hoover was also not ready to commit on reporting any more than the existing annual report specified in the 2021 Games Agreement with the City.
There was also a fight over certification of businesses, with Rodriguez insisting that – essentially – LA28 adopt the City’s process for qualifying contractors. And she simply doesn’t believe in the organizing committee plan:
“What is materializing in this plan is, it feels like a lack of honest commitment with measurable goals, with dollars, to say this is a firm commitment that we have. This is how we are going to stand true to that.”
Still concerned about what she sees as an “end-around” using value-in-kind from sponsors, Rodriguez railed against LA28 sponsor AECOM “and others,” complaining “at this point, I almost feel like, why should we host any more business events to promote RAMP [Regional Alliance Marketplace for Procurement], what we need to do is just force them to engage with the small, local businesses and do it so we can hold their feet to the fire. Because that’s going to be another bypass from going through RAMP; they’re going to go their own way.”
She also raised the question of verifying LA28’s financial situation, that despite Hoover’s assurance of strong sponsorship and ticket sales, “How the hell would we know? … This ‘trust us’ isn’t working.”
Of the hearing, she said, “This just feels like a waste of time.” Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, noting the meeting time was running short, broke in, “I think we’re going to hold this item on the desk and come back to it. This is entirely unresolved from our point of view.” So there will be another hearing, also on the human rights strategy document, which was not discussed at all.
The committee passed by 7-0 a motion for the City to spend $5.28 million, mostly to “repair sidewalks near 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues, fan zones and key access routes” with youth training programs (ages 18-26) to provide some of the labor. That measure still requires Council approval to move forward.
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Hoover spoke briefly about the first session of ticket sales, which is still ongoing, noting that “the L.A. and Oklahoma City local pre-sale has seen first-week sales significantly exceed those of any previous Olympic Games. … In this drop, the average ticket price was under $200, fees included. $28 tickets were made available for every sport and are still available today on our Web site.” Acknowledging some sell-outs of currently-available tickets, he explained that additional ticket sale sessions will be added for later this year.
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