Rams to Cover Cost of Police, City Services for Home Games

0
Rams to Cover Cost of Police, City Services for Home Games
Fielding Offers: Rams QB Jared Goff

The Los Angeles Rams reached an agreement with Los Angeles city officials to pay for the cost of police and other city services for home games, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Tuesday.

The agreement is aimed at settling a lawsuit filed by former Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine that alleged the city’s assigning of police officers to work Rams home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum amounts to an illegal gift of public funds.

Under the agreement, the Rams have agreed to cover the cost of police and related city services for all home games, including retroactively paying for the two preseason games last month at the Coliseum. The total cost to provide police and traffic control services for a season is estimated at around $2 million.

“Stan Kroenke and the Rams organization made it clear to me from the start that they intended to be partners with the City and good neighbors to the people of Los Angeles and the region,” Garcetti said in a statement. “The commitment they made today, to cover the cost of game-day impacts to the city – including police, fire, and sanitation support at and around the Coliseum – is a win for all Angelenos. This partnership ensures that fans will continue to enjoy a secure and family-friendly experience at the venue, with no impact on our ability to provide public safety to all of our communities.”

For the two preseason games held at the Coliseum, Zine’s lawsuit filed on Aug. 31 stated the city deployed more than 200 on-duty LAPD officers to provide security, traffic control and other city services. The lawsuit claimed that those officers were pulled from other assignments, endangering public safety in other portions of the city. Zine noted that the Los Angeles Dodgers have long paid for city police and traffic control services for games at Dodgers Stadium.

The Rams’ first home game is this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

Public policy and energy reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @howardafine.

No posts to display