The City of Los Angeles Spent $1.4 Million for Michael Jackson Memorial

According to city officials, Los Angeles spent that giant numbers to provide security, traffic control and other services for the King of Pop’s memorial service. And now they are looking for ways to have others help the financially troubled city to pay the bill.

In a detailed statement from the Police Department, the giant numbers were reportedly used about $1.1 million in overtime pay for the 4,173 officers who worked to secure Staples Center, Forest Lawn cemetery and other areas that attracted fans and members of the media. Beside to pay the overtime cost of those police officers, the remaining amount covered traffic control, cleanup and other costs related to Tuesday’s public memorial service.

Although the numbers were already sky-rocketed, but according to a spokesman for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Matt Szabo, the tally was considered a success. Szabo said it was “far less” than the initial estimate of $4 million.

Among those efforts to pick up the bill, Los Angeles has also set up a Web site urging fans to make tax-deductible donations through credit cards, PayPal or check to help defray costs. Fans have thus far donated $17,000, but unfortunately, contributions have been hampered by technical problems. The site received so many hits that the servers crashed Tuesday night and several times Wednesday. But don’t worry too much, because the city’s information technology department is working to rectify the problems.

Anticipating about 250,000 people would crowded the downtown streets for the service, the Police Department deployed 3,240 officers starting at midnight. But then when only about 1,000 fans showed up, police brass let about 1,000 officers go early. The memorial itself was attended by a total of more than 17,000 fans and watched by tens of millions of people around the world.

With this ‘record’, the Jackson memorial was the second recent event that resulted in extraordinary costs at a time when the city is a half-billion dollars in debt and facing employee layoffs. Last month’s victory parade for the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers cost an estimated $2 million. Michael Jackson’s former concert sponsor, AEG Live gave $1 million to the city for that event and other private donors stepped in.

Yes, that’s an enormous amount of money for an outstanding memorial, but I think it’s all worth it!

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