The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday reversed a decision to spend $250,000 in city funds to support the Special Olympics, after the council’s budget committee chair called for more study of the contribution.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, who leads the Budget and Finance Committee, asked for the reconsideration a day after the council voted to appropriate the funds to help support the organizers of the 2015 Special Olympics World Games for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
The use of the funds had not been reviewed by a council committee, and will now be studied by the Budget and Finance Committee, Krekorian spokesman Ian Thompson said.
The funds from the Department of Recreation and Parks would be on top of staffing support the city provided during the planning stages.
The funding was proposed by Tom LaBonge, who termed out of office Tuesday. He told City News Service that “there are certain costs related to the use of our facilities, and I wanted to make sure Recreation and Parks had the funding to be able to absorb that use.”
The Special Olympics, set for July 25-Aug. 2, is billed as the biggest single event to be held in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games.
In addition to the athletes, the 10-day event will involve 30,000 volunteers, 3,000 coaches and 500,000 spectators.
— City News Service