The two-day Made in America music festival held at Grand Park over the Labor Day weekend resulted in $475,570 in police overtime costs, according to a recently released report on police overtime presented to the Los Angeles Police Commission November 5. (Troy Tieuel photo)
The two-day Made in America music festival held at Grand Park over the Labor Day weekend resulted in $475,570 in police overtime costs, according to a recently released report on police overtime presented to the Los Angeles Police Commission November 5. The report, which was also delivered to the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee, examines overtime expenses racked up by the department. The amount generally ranges between $3.6 million and $3.8 million every two weeks when there are no unusual events.
During the two-week period in which the Aug. 30-31 Budweiser Made in America event and Labor Day holiday occurred, the department had overtime costs of $4.7 million. The overtime pay associated with the Labor Day holiday alone was $459,550. An earlier pay period saw an additional bump in overtime pay of $542,290 associated with the July 4th holiday.
The report is the first of a series of biweekly reports that will be given to the commission and the Budget and Finance committee. Future sworn overtime expense reports will be presented to the Police Commission’s executive director in spreadsheet format, and to the council committee verbally. The reports were requested by council members Mitch Englander and Paul Krekorian.
Made in America’s promoter, Live Nation, agreed to pay the city a flat fee of $500,000 to reimburse services, which also included the public works and transportation departments, during the festival. The paid event attract an estimated 70,000 attendees, most of whom paid at least $99 for tickets. Mayor Eric Garcetti, who pushed to get the event held in the downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, touted prior Made in America festivals in Philadelphia that generated $10 million in local spending.
