Jackson memorial: L.A. controller blasts city agency for ordering out ... way out [Updated]

Los Angeles officials are still struggling to get a handle on how much the Michael Jackson memorial cost the city’s treasury, but newly elected City Controller Wendy Greuel had sticker shock when one relatively small bill crossed her desk. 

The Emergency Management Department spent $48,826 for 3,500 lunches from Jensen’s Finest Foods in Wrightwood in San Bernardino County for first responders during the memorial.

The controller didn’t know about the request until after it was approved, because expenditures under $100,000 can be expedited when the city is “operating in an emergency,” according to a letter she sent to the department’s head, James Featherstone.

Greuel told Featherstone she would have rejected the expenditure, particularly after her staff called a nearby Subway and was given an estimate of $17,491.25 for 3,500 boxed lunches. “That’s a potential savings to the taxpayers of more than $31,000,” Greuel wrote.

“While it appears your office followed the rules for when an emergency is declared, it does not appear your office took steps to find the lowest possible price to provide lunch for the first responders,” Greuel wrote. “Additionally, in an effort to support local businesses during these difficult economic times, it would have been preferable to make this purchase from a business located in the city of Los Angeles, as opposed to nearly 80 miles away.”

Featherstone could not immediately be reached for comment.

On Monday, Greuel sent a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and the council's budget chairman calling for a new policy governing financial responsibly for extraordinary events to “protect our scarce resources during this budget crisis.”

[Updated 4:27 p.m.:Featherstone said late today that the lunches his department ordered for first responders were intended to keep them fed for what could have been an all-day deployment.

"We have to feed the 3,000-plus responders who are in a ready-response posture. They checked in before dawn and had potential to go for 12 or 15 hours. It wasn’t just a boxed lunch."

The boxed lunches that the department ordered from Jensen's -- a vendor that Featherstone said the city had used for years because of its ability to prepare several thousand lunches for first responders like firefighters within 24 hours -- included two sandwiches, two drinks, package desserts like cookies or brownies, a candy bar, trail mix, chips or crackers, a granola bar and a pack of gum.]

-- Maeve Reston at L.A. City Hall

Comments

[Janis Caravallo]

Mmm seriously? In a budget crunch time when city workers are facing layoffs? $31,000 is a salary.

Whatever happened to stewardship?

Good job Wendy catching that one. Keep them in line!

[John]

That's an unbelievable figure!! If you do the math, to provide lunches for all those (mostly overweight) officers, it would have been a lot cheaper to order out from Winchell's Donuts. I'm sure they would have been satisfied. And one wonders why the city is broke???

[Paula]

That's outrageious - in a city that just raiised sales taxes and city workesrs are being laiid off - Why don't they just bill the family? Let them pay for it - anyone else would have to. I'm sure Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon's families had to pay for the food at the memorial, etc.

[Marco]

The fans should pay for all these costs. It was because of the fans the cops were needed around. The family was kind enough to invite a large number of fans to the semi-private memorial, but they did not ask the loiters to come and hang around the other many areas. The Family cannot control this nosy people.

[Toby]

The thing I'm wondering about it...why isn't there a preexisting deal for box lunches for first responders during a foreseeable emergency?

I mean sure, they should have done better on the fly, when ordering food for their workers....

But in today's world, with a city as big as ours, shouldn't we have the foresight to have a...I don't know...a plan in place for stuff like this?

That way, we can have competitive bidding in a timely matter and have something lined up ahead of MOST emergencies...

Cause if you think about it, this doing it on the fly, and then complaining on how they did it, is wasting taxpayer's money also.

[AH]

Wow, that's right -- 3,500 $5 footlongs comes out to exactly $17,500!

[SMN]

I miss Michael and think it was a beautifully executed send off.

Having said that, I think this is singularly the most vulgar, stupid and impeachable act a Mayor of the 2nd largest city in America could make.

They said his estate was worth $500 Million. YOU eat the bill Jacksons. You sure don't act like a city that's in financial trouble.

Obscene.

[no sanctuary]

Wendy,
How about checking with Villaraigosa's Office on $19 Million in unaccounted for 'gang reduction' funds?
How about that $500,000 Villaraigosa sends to a Guadalajara 'book fair' every year.
Oh wait, that's right, he's your buddy. Better to raise some red herring dumb expenditure so people think you're doing your job.

[Bubba]

Mr. Featherstone must have relatives in Wrightwood. Lets keep the sales tax revenue and business in the city.

[Eleanor Ruby Moon]

Who declared this an EMERGENCY? What emergency? It was just a funeral for a child rapist/molester whose face fell off, in spite of the face's wearer believing it to be "a work of art", according to the August 09 edition of Vanity Fair.

Let his estate pay for his funeral. Seriously. It's unconscionable that the City or any government agency pay. Unless, of course, it wants to pay for my funeral when the times comes. I have a lot of friends. They'll need to wave goodbye to me. I haven't raped or molested anybody and I'm still wearing the face I was born with. If you pay for his, pay for mine.

[dan]

Unbelievable. The stupidity and selfishness of public employees is shocking. Lets fire half of them - the same amount of work will still get done. These people have no standards or work ethic.

[DonJMac]

Wendy, You stay on their asses and look at the books hard because you will find a lot more things like this Remember,
MOST PEOPLE THAT WORK FOR THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, DON'T LIVE THERE, AND DON'T SPEND MONEY THERE, THEY PERSONALLY KNOW THE PEOPLE OUTSIDE OF L.A. THAT OWN THESE BUSINESSES AND CATER TO THEM
BUT I KNOW YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS ,,,,YOU, YOU DUMMIES. IN LA. (ya'll deserve who you voted for)

[Lake Arrowhead Jensen's Fan]

Right or wrong, Jensens does produce a much tastier lunch than anything you can get at Subway.

[jp]

How come they GET a free lunch? Nobody pays for my lunch when I work Saturdays or 'off the clock'. Tell them to go to McDonallds and pay for it themselves. And half those fat A#% 'first responders" could skip a lunch or 2 seeing the size of them on TV. NO MORE FREE LUNCHES!!!!!

[Gail]

amazing.... AEG, prompted the memorial, AEG, revitalized downtown LA, and brought revenue to a down turned economy in, did I mention, downtown LA, for the last few years when everyone had writen it off... AEG made the city 4 mil in revenue with hotel, restaurants, parking, rent-a-cars, airport fees, world news agencies....etc. The Jackson's did not expect their son to drop dead... but he was a "world-wide" icon,celebrity, philanthrapist who paid his taxable income to the LA area since 1968. Seems the City made over 4 mil back in tourist revenue... WTF? riot police for a memorial? seems Brantton got a little ahead of himself from being negative, after all he dismissed 1000 of the officers when there was no trouble. what trouble.

[Chris]

LOL @ DonJMacl... no, not all people in L.A. are dumb; could say the same about people who don't live here and throw stones, but we won't go there....

@ no sanctuary... exactly. No one seems to give a flying f about those funds! Did we ever find out WHO paid for his S. Africa vacation...?

Re the Jackson thing, I am sure more than not who are complaining watched some, if not all, of the service. The bottom line is, the city over reacted and now they have to deal with it. I have only had lunch catered to me when working over time and that was because my boss went in his pocket personally to buy it in order to keep me on the clock. I respect the law and everyone else who 'protects' our city, but in all reality, most can get FREE food from food joints all day long ANYWAY...

LOL @ Gruel's 'sticker shock'! Come on Wendy, surely you have seen worse! Pay for the d#$m funeral and stop worrying about spending someone's bonus check!

People need to get more aware about what it is that they pay for with their tax dollars.... I mean, only a handful are up in arms about cutting our education costs?! Shows what people like to bitch about and what they get to scary to fight about...

[David C.]

I don't understand either why anyone is paying for these "civil servants" free lunch while they are already well into our dime with their 24 Kt gold pensions and benefits and excellent pay. If these were volunteers I could see it. Who in this country gets a free lunch for doing their job?

[tij]

Los Angeles and the LAPD was shown to the WORLD, I mean the entire world that day. That was worldwide marketing of Los Angeles, CA and that part of LA looked very beautiful and safe on camera. How much marketing of Los Angeles does that cost? MILLIONS OF DOLLARS of FREE WORLDWIDE MARKETING. What did the people think of LAPD and the city of LA during that day? Congratulations, JOB WELL DONE LAPD and City of LOS ANGELES. Now the bicker and they are willing to throw that all away. The entire world LOVED LOS ANGELES and LAPD that day!!!

They did not see any gang members, they did not see violence. They saw a VERY CLASSY CITY.

City of LA, don't reverse all the hard work that you did. Having a LOT of people come to your city is part of being a BIG POPULAR City. Figure out how the city can get money from those people coming to the CITY. We know you can.

[Ruby Jackson]

"Who in this country gets a free lunch for doing their job?"

Just off the top of my head:

Crews on film shoots and

Corporate CEOs whose companies have executive dining rooms.

[DRE DAWG]

Next time order Subway you idiots!!!! I love the police, don't love the price of those hoity-toity sandwiches.

Crack some skulls Wendy, we're counting on you girl!

[Ridiculous]

So, so many problems with this!! I'm embarrased to be a City employee. There is simply no justification for this: nobody else gets catered meals when they work overtime! Plus, why would you contract with ANY agency so far away? They're saying that nobody within City limits can pull off a huge order in 24 hours? In the land of movie premiers, corporate functions, etc? Disgusting. And finally, this is food you can pick up at any deli counter at the corner store. To be tied to this vendor for such pedestrian fare is stupidity at its finest. This guy should stop trying to defend this and just take his mea culpas. The hole gets deeper every time he opens his mouth.

[dclarks]

Brother...what a waste of cash...AEG should pay for it all...they are making the money off of MJ death. Also....they are the ones that hired the Dr. that injected Michael....just outrageous.