Connie Rice started getting the calls from Los Angeles city employees earlier this year. The civil rights attorney has a reputation for getting big institutions to pay for civic injustices; in a landmark consent-decree settlement she wrangled $2 billion in improvements for LA’s bus riders, successfully arguing they had been discriminated against in favor of wealthier rail riders. So when city workers across departments began sounding alarms to her that LA's leaders were about to strike a bad deal with LA28 that could potentially put taxpayers on the hook for $1.5 billion or more, Rice snapped into action.
"You can’t ignore city employees who are just trying to do their jobs but every time they raise a problem are told it’s above their pay grade or not to rock the boat," Rice — who is now retired, by the way — told me. "That’s the message these employees are getting, and that’s why they’re coming to people like me. These are whistleblowers."
The red flags are laid out one-by-one in a letter Rice addressed to LA Mayor Karen Bass, who Rice fully acknowledges inherited this problem. "This was a deal that was set up badly in the first place," Rice says. "That's not the fault of the politicians that weren’t there. But they do have a responsibility to taxpayers now not to be left holding the bag with costs they did not have to pay."
The letter begins by referencing Santa Monica's beach volleyball negotiations, which is a useful way to background the growing concerns of LA city employees. As Torched readers will remember, after Santa Monica officials repeatedly raised questions about the costs to taxpayers, LA28 eventually walked away, taking beach volleyball to Long Beach. Part of what informed Santa Monica's stance was an independent economic impact report that showed the city would actually lose money hosting beach volleyball. But even though LA is the host city and on the hook for any overages, Rice writes, we have zero critical analysis of LA28’s impact, despite the fact that we're hosting a majority of the events — and during such an uncharted historical moment.
Keep in mind we’ve already spent plenty as a city, and not just to display a few flags at City Hall; just think of the already-sunk costs of staff hours planning for this across what will be eleven total years
And there you have it: Trump confirms he will use military force "if we have to" to secure LA's Olympics.
"We'll do anything necessary to keep our Olympics safe, including using our National Guard or military."
"Because obviously we have a mayor who is not very competent"
During the press conference, Wasserman nodded, laughed, and even clapped on demand when Trump thanked U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee chair Gene Sykes — and former LA28 chair — for banning trans athletes from competition (and, potentially, the country). The spectacle was perhaps the starkest reminder yet that this administration is now in lockstep with LA28, an aspiring "civic organization" which refuses to condemn two months of ICE raids that have devastated the city. At the presidential podium, Wasserman spoke glowingly about how Trump championed the bid from the very beginning, thanking "the entire administration for their support and their partnership as we work to bring these games home." The very next day the same officials standing next to Wasserman directed federal agents to raid an LA Home Depot in flagrant violation of a temporary restraining order.
Especially with such an unreliable partner in the White House, Rice’s letter focuses heavily on security costs. Yes, Trump's budget reconciliation bill includes $1 billion in dedicated 2028 security grants, supposedly meant to be divvied up between the city, county, and state. In previous games that's meant helping local law enforcement staff up or buy new equipment — like the tanks LAPD got in 1984 — and it could also, hypothetically, go to stuff we actually do need, like transportation grants to help move people around inside the car-free security perimeters. But our ideas of "safety" are so clearly not the same. With the Secret Service already in charge, who’s to say those checkpoints won’t be managed by an army of grant-funded teen ICE recruits. And MTV has-been Sean Duffy has already said Metro wouldn’t get any grants if LA had more protests. I mean, the Trump administration is currently taking $584 million in federal grantsaway from UCLA, home of the Olympic village!
Also worrying Rice, as well as many city employees I spoke to during budget negotiations earlier this year, is something called the Enhanced City Resources Master Agreement. The deal LA signed with LA28 in 2021 says that the city must provide basic services for a typical LA summer day, with anything beyond that baseline the financial responsibility of LA28. But in a city with a billion-dollar budget hole unable to provide basic services now, there’s a widening gap to be filled asTrump’s siege places additional financial strain on our resources. Just thinking about the trash alone is stressing me out. We can't even keep streets clean on a typical LA summer day, so how are we going to do this with millions more people here? (And don't say we'll use volunteers.) My personal favorite query is about who's paying for the heat injury prevention plans — something you can think about as you walk around LA in triple digits this week.
Earlier this year, LA28 raised its total budget estimate to just over $7 billion — but does it include all of these things?
Rice’s questions come at a moment when public opinion around the games seems to be shifting. A proposed ballot measure from Unite Here would require a citywide vote to use properties for major events, and several 2028 venues would be affected, including the convention center, where the city is trying to bankroll a misguided expansion. New polling out this week from NOlympics LA claims that overall support for the games has declined over time, and particularly among younger Angelenos. The pundits are also coming around. Zocalo's Joe Mathews wrote an compelling column arguing that LA should no longer host the games when the federal government is at war with the city. And just today, over at the LA Times, Gustavo Arellano argues "with Trump wanting in, it’s time to pull out," although Torched readers will note that these were always Trump’s games, and, come on, Wasserman’s lap-dog pandering has been on full display since the deal was made. Tuesday’s event was chillingly similar to the 2020 press conference where Trump sat next to a grinning Wasserman and said LA needed to "clean it up" or "the federal government is going to take it over."
And it's not like local officials haven't brought up the concerns surfaced by Rice before. I've written about how Metro, still looking for billions in federal funding, has been discussing the need to enter into a separate games agreement with LA28 to sort out who is responsible for what when it comes to moving both athletes and spectators around. (PLEASE SEND MORE BUSES.) And Councilmember Tim McOsker, to his credit, asked very pointed questions about whether or not LA will be responsible for the cost overruns of other venue cities in his tirade accusing LA28 of making deals with "some backroom and a couple of bros." Although, after his rampage, LA28 sited half the sailing events in McOsker's district, so he may not be as outspoken going forward.
Several city employees I spoke to agreed with the issues in Rice's letter, yet didn't want to go on the record, for obvious reasons. (Aside from issuing statements that everything is fine, the Bass administration didn’t respond directly to the concerns; I’ve been told the focus has been on finding the whistleblowers.) But one newly departed city employee was more than happy to chime in. When former chief deputy controller Rick Cole delivered his retirement speech on the council floor in June, he eloquently summarized the situation: "If we can't pave our streets, repair our sidewalks, trim our trees, house our homeless, light our bridges, and fix our firetrucks, how can LA host an Olympics in just three years?"
Of course, LA officials love to point to how the Olympics have helped the city overcome adversity. The stock market crashed just three years before we hosted the 1932 games — in the midst of the Depression! LA was hit by the "Reagan recession" in the years before 1984 and went on to host the most profitable games ever!
But Cole says 2028 is not like 1984. "Mayor Bradley's firm commitment to making the Olympics pay for themselves was the cornerstone of the most successful Olympics in history," he says. "LA28’s opaque finances and vague reassurances are not enough to protect the city from fiscal disaster."
And on top of the vague reassurances, we also have the more overt ones.
Just two besties who may or may not bankrupt Los Angeles
LA28 and President Donald J. Trump are now officially on the same team. And, together, they're going to make history. 🔥
📻 I was on LAist's AirTalk on Monday discussing all of this with guest host Jacob Margolis. You can listen here. One thing I noted is that NOlympics LA mentions something extremely important in its polling report: compared to Boston, where WBUR conducted monthly polls as the city was bidding for — and eventually kicked out — the 2024 Olympics, there have been very few public opinion polls about LA's games, even as our hosting situation has dramatically changed over the last few months. One would think a local publication might get on that
🪑 Most of the headlines you’ll read are focused on how Trump has named himself the chair of the LA28 task force, but he also named himself chair of the World Cup task force. What’s more interesting to me is that there was not an executive director named to manage the LA28 task force in the same way the World Cup task force is being directed by highly qualified professional golfer Andrew Giuliani (yes, son of Rudy). Wasserman says LA28’s visa process differs from the World Cup so he doesn't "anticipate any problems." Okay, so who is overseeing that at the federal level?
🎨 Not mentioned at all during the event or even referenced in the executive order was the Cultural Olympiad, LA’s third 2028 megaevent, which Trump will now be overseeing as well. I’ll let you take a moment to think about what that will be like after recent decisions made at the Kennedy Center, where, funnily enough, he also named himself chair
"We're trying to change the way that we as Angelenos think about our neighborhoods, so that we actually look around and say, where can there be more shade — in the same way that many of us have thought about trees"
