By a somewhat surprising 15-0 vote this morning, the Los Angeles City Council leaped over the last hurdle before officially bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
At an early afternoon press conference in Santa Monica, the Los Angeles bid as America’s representative in the international choosing process was to be made official.
Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest are the city’s rival for the Summer Games.
Criticism of the bid has been at least as fierce as advocacy for the Games on the alleged grounds that winning the Olympics will spark an eternal financial boondoggle.
Several of the 15 Council members declared grave doubts about Mayor Garcetti’s guarantee that the city will pay for likely Olympic budget overrun that the gilded International Olympic Committee requires of hosting cities.
Few Council members envision Mr. Garcetti as a financial wizard or even a sub-wizard.
Mr. Garcetti boldly plans to guarantee the extra money to land the Games.
Councilman Mitch Englander says he does not want taxpayers to be stuck with that or any other bill, but voted affirmatively anyway.
Los Angeles last hosted the Summer Olympics in 1984, and the last American host was Atlanta in 1996.
