LA Spends $1.4M on Jackson Memorial

Los Angeles - A City Council member took issue with the mayor's office's contention that the total cost to the city resulting from the Michael Jackson memorial would be $1.4 million, saying it could be more than twice that amount.

Hal Eisner has the story in the video report.

Mayoral spokesman Matt Szabo wrote in a post on the mayor's Twitter page Wednesday that the total cost to the city was "far less than expected" at $1.4 million.

But Councilman Dennis Zine said in a telephone interview aired on Fox 11's "Good Day LA" this morning that the sum cited by the mayor's office pertained only to the extra costs incurred by the Los Angeles Police Department.

He said the amount did not include the costs resulting from the activities of the Department of Transportation, Bureau of Street Services and the Fire Department. Nor does it reflect the costs attached to the weekend deployment of city employees who helped with pre-memorial planning and to the installation of portable toilets near Staples Center.

You can watch Hal Eisner's report in the video player.

Zine said the city's Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that the final cost to taxpayers could be more than $3 million.

The Analyst's Office had previously projected the possible cost to the city at $3.8 million.

That projection was based on the expectation that 750,000 fans would flock to Staples Center, even though they would have had no tickets to get inside for the memorial. In the end, only a fraction of that number turned up. Los Angeles police Chief William Bratton said the general calm enabled him to release about 1,000 officers during the event and another 800 after it was over.

Zine again called on AEG Live, which owns Staples Center, to pay the city's costs associated with the memorial. He said the company was charging media companies up to $50,000 for the use of risers near Staples Center. AEG did not immediately comment on the statement.

AEG is "making a lot of money out of this," Zine said, while the city's taxpayers "are getting ripped off."