Michael Jackson memorial: AEG, entertainer's estate to pay $1.3 million to help cover cost of Staples Center service

Anschutz Entertainment Group and the estate of Michael Jackson have agreed to provide $1.3 million to the city of Los Angeles to help cover the cost of last year’s memorial for the entertainer at Staples Center, Councilwoman Jan Perry said Friday.

Under the agreement, the city’s general fund – which pays for basic services such as public safety and parks – would receive $1 million. Another $300,000 would be provided in the form of a contribution to the Los Angeles Police Foundation to pay for equipment at the Police Department, she said.

Perry, who represents much of downtown Los Angeles, said the agreement showed that AEG and the Jackson family are “conscientious corporate citizens.”

The memorial was staged at the Nokia Theater and Staples Center, both of which are owned by AEG. The cost of the event was viewed as controversial at a time when the city is scaling back services and laying off employees. A city report last year put the total cost of the event at $3.2 million.

Last year, AEG President and CEO Tim Leiweke accused City Atty. Carmen Trutanich of demanding $6 million to pay for the cost of the event. Trutanich said he asked for $2 million to $3 million at the time.

-- David Zahniser at Los Angeles City Hall

Photo: L.A. Times file

Comments

[legalchick]

"help" pay for the cost? they should pay the whole damn thing.

[thegraffixgirl]

awesome rip king of pop man in the mirror that was the #1 hit

the mirror the only place to look for the truth

now this is respect paying for the tribute

L8TER
thegraffixgirl

[EastHollywood]

And it took them 12 months to come to this agreement, why? They couldn't have announced this last June/July in the midst of all the arguing over who paid for a child-molesting pop star's funeral so soon after a Lakers championship parade?

[Robert Lamb]

The tickets shouldn't have been free. They should've simply charged admission to cover the City's costs. Seems simple enough to me.

[Bill Taylor]

Kets have them pay for all the riots their looser Laker fans cost last night

[Duke]

Why did this take so long? The city should never be footing the bill for anything that takes place at Staples. It's a private business.

[kgoddess]

They only announced it NOW because the Lakers have just announced that the team will pay for the costs asociated with Monday's victory parade.

[Chuy]

Why couldnt the Jackson's just have a regular funeral like normal people, maybe they should pick up some of the bill too!

[jack]

I'm just curious, should the Lakers pay for all the extra cops that had to be on hand last night?

[Lakersfan]

About time they decided to pay. However with that said Trutanich is a thug who tried to get more money from them than he is claiming. I remember at the time that this all happened he did claim to want 6 million from them but when everyone started complaining he backed down.

[Susy]

Cannot get enough from Michael!!!!!!!!
When everyone gossip, they forget who Michael Jackson is, when comes to money, they run to Michale Jackson's feet!!!
Miserable slaves of MONEY!!!!!

[Tan]

LA City made over $2 million in revenue from the memorial service for legendary King of Pop, Mr. Michael Jackson. But being the idiots they are, they got carried away with spending. All of the permits, LAPD, and sanitation was unnecessary. Nonetheless, LA City, still came out ahead but is ungrateful. The Jackson family should have buried Michael Jackson overseas so California and the United States cannot profit off of the tourism that they will receive because he is buried there.
Michael Jackson is a national treasure, too bad the nation is not deserving of him.

[INNOCENT]

This response is for EastHollywood. Michael jackson is found not guilty in a court of law,but what is more important is the fact that he was innocent. R.I.P. our king. We love you more. There will always be enough love moving around on EARTH.

[Susy]

Cannot get enough from Michael!!!!!!!!
When everyone gossip, they forget who Michael Jackson is, when comes to money, they run to Michale Jackson's feet!!!
Miserable slaves of MONEY!!!!!

[Marcel]

As I recall, part of the police tab was $40,000+ in catered lunches for the cops. Why couldn't they brown bag it? Of course there's a lot of city waste, but it's embarrassing that they couldn't cover this expense. What is the city going to do when there's a visiting head of state? Bill them for security? It just doesn't happen anywhere else.

[Mark]

Commendable.

[debbi]

Glad to hear a fellow Angeleno's family and estate will be paying the bill for his funeral. It was wrong of the LA Mayor/city council/et al, to simply assume the exhorbitant costs of a funeral and acoompanying processions. We regular guys have to foot the bill for our own/family funeral expenses. Mr. Jackson is no different. I said this almost a year ago.

[vincent]

Michael Jackson is the only artist in history to bring so many countries together, than any other event ,concert ,movie,charity,president,dictator,etc.Himself along with his family sold over billion records.thats a fourth of the world population.He made these big time corperate personal who they are today.So paying for the funeral should been done with no back talk as my mother use to tell me.Its just the right thing to do.

[PRJ]

I do not know if he was guilty of the charges of the past. But by now I'm sure he has been judged by the only one who really matters. What I do believe is that it's ashamed that an entertainer no matter who it is gets a better send off than our veterans all together from the last three wars and the one police action in Vietnam. With villaragooselips getting all these tickets and vip treatment from staples center and nokia. I can see why he wouldn't want his friends to pay the tab. And I feel sorry for the people of LA for having a mayor like him.

[4everchanged]

Hmmm should the NBA pay for the LA police we had last night after the game??

[ItWasAllForLOVE]

It was all for LOVE guys, you know, love of...MONEY! The media tells us that he died as if it is factual. I have yet to see rock hard solid proof that he, in fact, did. What I have found, instead, is a lot of fake death certificates, contradictory coroner and autopsy reports, conflicting and suspicious statements by family and friends as well as faked photo and video footage that don't match up and that's just for starters. Too long to list all here. So until someone in the media shows us rock solid proof that he's dead, I will continue to assume it's all just more of the same false and non-factual based reporting of sensationalized gossip that is nothing more than pure hearsay!!! You are all being played BIG TIME!

[commonman13]

LA could have paid for this if only they stop paying overtime pay to most of its inefficent employees and contractors. It only makes sense because MJ funeral has generated so much revenue for hotels,restaruants,etc...Not counting all the concerts he had held there.

[Thomas]

This entire mess was triggered by the incompetent Jan Perry. She was "acting Mayor" when both Villaraigosa and Garcetti were out of town when the Jackson funeral occurred. She is the one who quickly gave AEG/Staples a pass on having to pay for the cost of police services at the funeral. And why was Jan Perry so quick to do that? Ummm, because she is the Councilmember "bought and paid for" by AEG/Staples.

Ms. Perry is so clueless, she actually thinks that AEG/Staples will bankroll her campaign for Mayor. We all suffered the day that Jan Perry was "Queen for the Day." Let's not make that mistake again.

[Jane Heider]

Dear Editor,

I would like to submit a topic suggestion for one of your up and coming shows. On behalf of the memory & legacy of Michael Jackson, I would respectfully request that you consider interviewing British journalist Charles Thomson, who is courageously working to raise awareness about the outrageous treatment endured by Michael while he lived.

Charles Thomson is an award-winning journalist who is well respected throughout Michael's global family & by others who value his efforts to help restore truth and justicet to Mr. Jackson's legacy. We believe those who cannot be reached through perception alone, can be reached by hard facts. We hope you will consider interviewing Mr. Thomson (http://www.charles-thomson.net/).

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. We would deeply appreciate your consideration of this idea.

Respectfully,

Jane Heider

Charles Thomson - Freelance Writer/Reporter
www.charles-thomson.net