Council Halts City Funding Of Special Olympics For Budget Study
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A decision to spend $250,000 of the city's funds in support of the Special Olympics was reversed Wednesday by the City Council.
The reversal comes after the council's budget committee chair called for further study of the contribution.
Councilman Paul Krekorian, who heads the Budget and Finance Committee, requested the reconsideration just one day after the council had voted to appropriate the funds in order to help support the organizers of the 2015 Special Olympics World Games for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
The use of the funds, which had not been reviewed by a council committee, is now set to 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.
Tom LaBonge, who termed out of office on Tuesday, proposed the funding, and 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 are set to run from July 25 to August 2, and is billed as the largest single event to be held in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games.
The event will also include 30,000 volunteers, 3,000 coaches and 500,000 expected spectators, in addition to the athletes.
