Lagos – Los Angeles City Council on Thursday set up an Ad Hoc Committee on the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games.
According to “Insidethegames’’, an online portal the committee was put in place to scrutinise matters and contract related issue on whether the city should bid to host the Games.
The committee was to be chair by the council president, Herb Wesson, who had proposed setting it up. The committee was also expected to study Olympic documents and contracts.
The statement said that in its first meeting, on Aug.28, the committee would discuss the proposed Joinder Agreement between the City of Los Angeles and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).
It said as a follow up to the expected discussion with USOC, the committee would advise the city council on whether or not to agree to sign the agreement.
It said it was the first step toward Los Angeles bidding to bring an event back to the city that previously hosted in 1932 and 1984.
The statement said the city council members would be expected to vote on the agreement next week as it would also provide additional forum for public comment.
It added that Casey Wasserman, chairman of the LA2024 Exploratory Committee, revealed new details of the campaign in a twitter message linked to the new bid book.
The statement noted that the financial details contained in the documents claimed that if Los Angeles were to host the Games in 2024 it would have a budget of 4.1 billion dollars and make a surplus of 161 million dollars.
“The city council desires to present the most fiscally-responsible and competitive Olympic bid on behalf of Los Angeles, a two-time host city of the Summer Games.
“We cannot let our excitement trump our responsibility to the taxpayers and must ensure all documents have been thoroughly vetted by the newly-created Ad Hoc Committee on the 2024 Olympics,’’ Wesson was quoted as saying.
It added that among the documents the committee would review include the Host City Contract and Joint Marketing Programme Agreement at subsequent meetings once both documents were submitted for review.
Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti had already guaranteed that he would sign the controversial contract which his counterpart in Boston, Marty Walsh, refused to do – leading to the collapse of that city’s bid.
The online portal said that if city council would vote to rubber stamp the bid, “which they are still expected to do, then the USOC are expected to formally submit it to the International Olympic Committee by the deadline of Sept. 15’’ .
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It noted that Los Angeles would join other contenders, which include, Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome with Baku and Toronto.
The IOC is due to choose the host city at its 130th session in Lima in 2017. (NAN)