No free lunch - L.A. pays $50,000 for cop lunches

[Valhalla Books]

Angry LA Taxpayer wrote:

<quoted text>
You're darn right - the City should send the Jackson family and AEG a bill for all the services rendered.
I had a small car accident in Benedict Canyon a few years back, and was slightly surprised when the City sent me a bill for the dented guard rail I accidentally hit. I had to pay it. No choice.
If the City can bill me for a guard rail, the Jackson family and AEG should certainly be held accountable for whatever expenses were incurred for Michael Jackson's funeral.
I don't want my tax dollars paying for this private expense. And I would like to know who approved all of it. I was shocked that they closed down entire freeways for this funeral. This was certainly not L.A.'s proudest moment. Shame on whomever was responsible for taking this on.
Bill 'em, Bratton!

What funeral. They didn't even bury or cremate him. Stay tuned for the more of a circus-like activities with this and settling the estate and child custody.

[Outaged Too]

I too would like to know how come we have millions of dollars to spend on this when the City has to furlough some of its employees this Friday. Yes, some employees are still being furloughed. Don't tell me the LAPD has budgeted funds for this kind of thing when it hasn't budgeted money to pay it's own staff. My next question is, will the City close down the freeway and close off streets for the funeral of someone who isn't famous ?

I didn't think so, you have to pay for motor officers, etc and get permits for everything else. Who rammed all of this through at no cost to anyone but taxpayers? As one of these taxpayers, I want to know why there isn't enough money to pay existing City employees and the Mayor is crying poor? If there is money for this, there MUST be money for salaries.

[josh - Los Angeles]

what about all of Micheal's rich showbiz friends paying for it? it's a drop in the bucket for them!

[Comment]

Just think, our Troops get MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat) while on patrol and our police get croissants and Hoagies. No wonder the City and State are going broke.

[redpandabear]

chick is mad that's because sub shop wanted cash and wouldn't take credit cards from the city

[Janet]

Once again this goes to shows how inept the people who are out of city hall and the Mayor's office runs this city. This has become a pr nightmare for Los Angeles because we have politicans who lack the basic skills of coordination and communication. You can't blame the officers for this screw up. I sure would like to know how much of my tax dollars have been spent in the past on this same store for lunches.

[the dude]

roach coach is good enough for them. the carts with the corn on a stick (with mayo...YUK!) is good enough for them. And the cops should be paying for their own meals!!!!!

[Norman Moore]

mrkds wrote:

It would appear that bratton thinks he is running this city. The mayor is on vacation, so he feels in charge. As for the lunches, they could have eaten sandwiches made in the county jail. It would have cost the city a fraction of what they paid, & the $$ would have gone to L.A county. They would have gotten the same nutritional value, & the inmates have nothing but time to prepare the meals. They do it every day!

Read what I posted, the numbers don't add up. Find an important issue, I don't like Bratton, I despise Villaraigosa but some things are as they are. I doubt the police chief made the purchase from his favorite purveyor, they picked a known source capable of supplying what they needed on short order. In my own experience from the figures I posted it was a little high but in line with getting it on time, like I said you pay for service and special orders always cost more.

This is just a case of an ambitious politician with limited ability trying to make a name and get herself in the news. File this one under political claptrap.

[Disgusted]

This is why our fine State is in such horrible shape...our officials need to get it right or get out of town!

[PETEHRRR]

i wonder who owns the shop a cop or a friend lapd always crooked it will never stop!!!!!!!!!!

[Happyhound]

Since it was a private event. Why not just let the Jackson Trust pay for the funeral expenses. That is what everyone else does. We pay for our family funeral expenses. Why should the city pay.

[redpandabear]

well most those cops would rather be at home,,, some of them was evenly double shifted and they need to be doing some else like putting gang members, in jail,

[surfchickMB]

Half of the cops need to be put on a diet anyway. They are so fat and out of shape! Have you ever seen a fat cop on a motorcycle? It's really ugly!!!

[Happyhound]

josh - Los Angeles wrote:

what about all of Micheal's rich showbiz friends paying for it? it's a drop in the bucket for them!

The JACKSON ESTATE IS WORTH MILLIONS. LET THEM FOOT THE BILL.

[Happyhound]

Norman Moore wrote:

I think Wendy had better get a new calculator. I ran the numbers on mine and while the box lunches apparently cost about $14.00 each which seems a bit high, I don't believe that Subway cold have done it at the figure cited. It comes about to $5.00 a lunch which is the base price for their five dollar footlong but that doesn't include chips or drink. And to some a subway lunch is not a real meal.
Based on my own Subway experience if they had
ordered from Subway it would have cost $27,895 but it would have taken a lot of Subway stores as they are not set up to handle such a volume in any one location. In my own experience at other restaurants it could have cost around 38 to 39 thousand for real gut filling meals. But there are not too many locations that could have produced so many meals on such short notice so probably they did the right thing in going to where they did. After all in some instances you have to pay for service and merchandise.
Wendy wants to get in the news straight out of the chute but she picked the wrong issue and was not on top of it to boot. Looks like she is going to be as good of a controller as she was a council member.

What a load. Any caterer could of put together 3,500 sandwiches in 12 hours. I could of done it with a crew of 5 and a trip to Smart and Final. I would of billed them less. The Jackson estate should pay the bills.

[mrkds]

Norman Moore wrote:

<quoted text>
Read what I posted, the numbers don't add up. Find an important issue, I don't like Bratton, I despise Villaraigosa but some things are as they are. I doubt the police chief made the purchase from his favorite purveyor, they picked a known source capable of supplying what they needed on short order. In my own experience from the figures I posted it was a little high but in line with getting it on time, like I said you pay for service and special orders always cost more.
This is just a case of an ambitious politician with limited ability trying to make a name and get herself in the news. File this one under political claptrap.

I didn't say bratton ordered the meals, my reference to bratton in charge was about the freeway being shut down & the police escorts. Again, read my comment! They [police] could have gotten a sack lunch from the men's central jail for pennies. But then again, when has the lapd ever given a damn about the taxpayers? Brutality cases have cost the city [taxpayers]untold millions!

[One Bad Mood]

The officers on the street did an excellent job of keeping the city flowing and free from potential criminal flare up. Reward people for doing good work. They at very least deserve a nice meal. They protect your stupid asses every day and night

You gretty bastards.

[Herman Hoggleboggle]

Although the $31,000 difference between some kinda box lunch from Subway vs a 2 meal boxed meal from Jensen's sounds like a lot of money, there is no comparison between Jensen's and Subway. Just ask anyone who lives anywhere near a Jensen's. Or ask the CalFire folks who get Jensen's when there is a fire on Gorgonio or Jacinto.
For the Public Safety folks who were called into this FIASCO, I certainly would not begrudge them a quality boxed meal(s) for their inconvenience. It is a small price to pay for the crap or the outhouses they had to put up with.
Compared to either $2M or $5M in overall City costs,$31K isn't even worth 1 person's breath let alone either printer's ink or electrons.
It sounds like the bureaucrats ruled for certainly the elected officials did not.
Both the trip to Forest Lawn and the 'celebration of life' at Staple's Center were most obviously private for-profit ventures. The City should not "charge" either the Jackson family (i.e., first generation, NOT MJ's kids or estate) or AEG, but rather charge each a percentage of profits received. It appears obvious to me that AEG is planning on substituting in a tape-replay of the "event" for the profits it expected to reap from the "live" MJ concert tour in Great Britain. And, that might be good ultimately for MJ's children. However, AEG and the 1st Gen Jacksons made the City and it's Taxpayers un-willing partners in their 'for-profit' enterprise. The Taxpayers should expect a percentage!!

[One Bad Mood]

Greedy B.

[Hornet]

Wait a minute, the new controller doesn't know about city contracting and the purchasing process? This is going to be fun!!!