The committee seeking to bring the 2024 Olympics to Los Angeles would pay for the city to hire an outside expert to study the financial impacts of hosting the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024, under a proposed agreement expected to be taken up by the Los Angeles City Council Friday.
If approved, the proposed agreement with LA24 would set ground rules for the city’s role in the formal bidding process.
The agreement terms will first be reviewed in the Ad Hoc Committee on the 2024 Summer Olympics, and if approved, they head to a vote by the full City Council later in the morning.
City officials say the agreement — which would cover the bid period and expire either when the International Olympic Committee chooses a host city or on Dec. 15, 2017 — is aimed at protecting city funds, giving city leaders more control of any issues affecting the city, and increasing transparency during the bidding process.
While the city has already signed a “joinder” contract to express support for efforts to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles, this latest agreement was necessary to make clear the city’s involvement in LA24’s bid efforts, city officials said.
This includes setting ground rules for how the city and LA24 would work together in preparing “candidature files and guarantees required by the IOC,” according to Cielo Castro, an aide to City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana.
The mayor and the City Council would have a say in whether city funds will be used on the bidding process, under the proposed terms, which state that LA24, also known as the Los Angeles 2024 Exploratory Committee, “may not legally obligate the city to expend funds related to the IOC Candidature without first obtaining approval of both the mayor and the council.”
The agreement also notes that LA24 does not expect the city will be asked to expend funds on the bid process.
Also under the proposed terms, LA24 would be required to pay for the city’s cost in retaining an “academic institution or a nationally-recognized accounting firm” to do a study for the city of the revenue and expenditure projections in LA24’s operating budget for the Games.
Castro said the city intends to take advantage of this provision, with city officials anticipating that financial study would be completed by September.
The proposed agreement also calls for LA24 and the city to work together to “seek assurances from the U.S. Government” that security for the 2024 Games would handled by the federal government. Specifically, security operations would be planned, coordinated and implemented by the U.S. Secret Service, and overseen by the Homeland Security secretary, according to the terms.
–City News Service