City Attorney Seeks Funds for Michael Jackson Memorial

Los Angeles - City Councilman Dennis Zine today demanded an audit of the city's spending on the Michael Jackson memorial tribute.

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He said he plans to ask Controller Wendy Greuel to examine the books, determine how much taxpayer money was used to secure the streets around Staples Center, and who signed off on it.

"Who made the approval? Who authorized all this?" Zine said.

Greuel herself had expressed concerns about the cost even before the memorial began.

In a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council President Eric Garcetti and Councilman Bernard Parks, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee -- dated the eve of the memorial -- she said "we need to avoid spending any taxpayer funds without reimbursement."

Greuel urged the officials to "move quickly to create a clear, coherent city policy that dictates who is financially responsible when an extraordinary event such as the Michael Jackson memorial takes place ... to protect our scarce resources during this budget crisis."

Meanwhile, the mayor's Twitter page contains a posting saying that so many Jackson fans have offered to help the city recoup its costs for the memorial that the Web site for donations couldn't cope.

"#MJ link back up! Sorry, overwhelming response from fans brought down our city servers. Donate to Michael's memorial at http://bit.ly/ABdlp," tweeted the mayor's spokesman Matt Szabo.

Tax-deductible donations may be made through the mayor's official Web site, which accepts all major credit cards and PayPal, and gives instructions for sending a check payable to the "city of Los Angeles."

It was unclear at midday how much money had been donated.