Assembly Standing Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism

Good afternoon. I would like to call this joint informational hearing of the assembly select committee on the twenty twenty eight Olympics and Paralympic games and the assembly arts, entertainment, sports, and tourism committee to order. My name is assembly member Tina McKenna, and I would like to welcome everyone to the second hearing of this select committee. The second of many as we prepare to welcome the world to the greater Los Angeles region in 2028 to host its third summer Olympic and first summer Paralympic games in history.

I would also like to recognize chair Chris Ward and members of the assembly arts, entertainment, sports, and tourism committee to today's hearing.

It has been over four decades since Los Angeles has hosted an Olympic game. Four decades since Carl Lewis matched Jesse Owens' nineteen thirty six feet with four track and field gold medals. Four decades since Mary Lou Retton's historic gymnastics all around title. I remember that. Four decades since Michael Jordan led the USA basketball team to go four four decades since the game's debut of rhythmic rhythmic?

rhythmic. Excuse me. Gymnastics, synchronized swimming, and women's cycling road race. For a game since Norell Farhell of New Zealand became the first paraplegic athlete to compete in the Olympics. The question is often raised.

How can Los Angeles top the widely successful nineteen eighty four games? Well, if you know Los Angeles, you know we love a sequel.

Today's hearing is the first opportunity for the state assembly and the public to hear directly from LA twenty eight leadership, city of Los Angeles leadership, and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority leadership on the work ahead of us to make the Olympic and Paralympic games a fun, safe, inclusive, and diverse celebration of Los Angeles, of California, and the international youth unifying power of sports.

I also wanna thank all the panelists that have joined us and look forward to learning more about your work to bring Angelenos and all Californians together through this once in a generation event. Welcome.

For members of the public observing today's hearing, the assembly has experienced a number of disruptions to committee and floor proceedings in the last few years. Because we seek to protect the rights of all who participate in the legislative process and can effectively deliberate on critical issues facing California so that everyone is absolutely clear conduct that disrupts, disturbs, or impedes the orderly conduct of this hearing is prohibited. We will not accept such behavior or behavior that excites or threatens violence.

To address any such conduct, I'll direct the individual to stop and warn them that if they continue, they'll be removed from participating in this hearing or from the capital. And we'll temporarily recess the hearing if necessary so the sergeants can restore order.

Thank you to the public in advance for your corporation. I would now like to invite chair Ward to make any opening comments.

Well, thank you, madam chair. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being with us here today. My name is Chris Ward, Assemblymember and proud chair of the Assembly's Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, and Tourism. I wanna thank Chairwoman McKinnor and her staff for all of their hard work and focus on coordinating these hearings and bringing additional attention to the ways that the legislature and the state can be supportive of efforts to successfully host the Olympic and Paralympic games.

So, of course, was sad to miss last month's hearing hosted by the LA eighty four Foundation, but I have been informed about many of the key takeaways, including the massive impact that those games have on the city of Los Angeles and throughout all of Southern California, as well as the incredible work foundation continues to do to support things such as the play play equity fund.

The Olympics, we believe, are a massive culturally significant event, and they have aspects that are relevant to each policy area within our committee's jurisdiction. The obvious are the games themselves with sports and athletic competitions featuring talent from across the globe, coming to California and competing

at our stadiums and venues, including soccer matches in my home city of San Diego. Tourism will, of course, be hugely impacted by the Olympics and Paralympics, especially to our hospitality industry, our hotels and restaurants,

as well as to parks and attractions throughout the state that may get an influx of visitors. So I'm looking forward to the spectacle and entertainment that is comes with the opening and closing ceremonies, with which the event will be held in the entertainment capital of the world. They're guaranteed to be truly breathtaking. And lastly, I wanna be able to mention the arts for which I have particular interest in the context of the Olympic games and specifically on the cultural Olympiad.

LA twenty eight is a tremendous opportunity to highlight the cultural diversity that gives identity to our state and is so important within the Los Angeles area as one of the most iconic cities in the world for artists and creators.

I was told there was a lot of focus last month on the benefits of the arts and cultural festivals organized as part of the eighty four games and the lasting impacts that they bring to the opera, and lasting impacts such as bringing the opera, to Los Angeles. So as chair of our arts committee, and I work close with the, with, I work close with my, myself and my staff, with the California Arts Council.

And I would love to hear more information about how communities in Los Angeles as well as throughout California can be involved. So I see these games as an amazing choice to be able to highlight California's creative community in front of a global audience. The competitions and athletes are, of course, the primary focus, and there is clearly a lot of prep work still needing, as the time is starting to feel like it's running low.

But I like to get a better sense of the plans for the cultural Olympiad and how opportunities for artists and communities might materialize. I'm excited to hear from our panelists and learn more about the exciting work they're doing, to be able to put on the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2028. I wanna thank you again, madam chairwoman, for collaborating with us, and I'm looking forward to today's hearing.

Thank you, chair chair Ward. Would any other commit committee members like to make a statement? Assembly member?

Thank you, madam chair. Thank you, mister Assemblymember Ward. Thank you both for putting this hearing, on together. As representative of the Downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities and and other cities, we're looking forward to welcoming the games Los Angeles. I just wanted to thank you all for being here, and representing, looking forward to participating in this informational hearing, especially as, the world is watching to miss McKinnor's point, and thank you again for for coming to Sacramento.

Thank you. Assemblymember Fong?

Thank you so much, madam chair, and, thank you so much to you and mister Ward and to the entire committee. Looking forward to a robust presentation here today, and thank you, madam chair, for organizing a robust hearing a few weeks ago at the LA eighty four Foundation as well. We look forward to the conversation here today and really looking forward to the opportunity to host Olympics in Assembly District 49 as well in Arcadia, and I look forward to all the work ahead. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, assembly members. Eight hundred and thirty days be until the games, and I am so excited like most of you are. If you're like me, I was just getting out of the of high school. It was my I was my first year out of high school, and I had the opportunity to go to a couple of the games. I had the opportunity to go see people swim and gymnastics.

And so those are the first two things I wanna do this time. But with that, I would like I would now like to welcome our first panel that includes, Reynold Hoover, CEO of LA twenty eight, and Janet Evans, chief athletic officer, LA twenty eight. This panel will provide an overview of LA twenty eight, LA twenty eight venues, competition, and event delivery, and LA eight twenty eight athletic engagement. Welcome. You may begin.

I have to figure this out first, madam chair. I gotta turn that on button. Don't worry. I was a bomb technician in the army, so I know what I'm doing here. So okay.

I think I got it. Well, good afternoon, and thank you for being here. It's a pleasure to meet with all of you and be in front of the committee today. I wanna express my great support, and thank you for, an appreciation to chairman, chairwoman McKinnon and, chairman Ward, for your leadership and your partnership in in really delivering what will be an amazing games to the world.

And and, you know, the partnership that we've had with the state, you know, with the county officials, with local officials, and at the federal level has been just incredible.

And so I really appreciate the opportunity. My name is Reynold Hoover, and I have the privilege of serving as the CEO for LA twenty eight, the organizing committee for the twenty twenty eight Olympic and Paralympic games. And beside me is Janet Evans, our chief athlete officer, and, I know Janet has, a a you may recognize her. She was just inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame. So congratulations.

Thank you, Ronald. Thank you. And I think Janet has a a presentation before we get started.

I do. Thank you, Reynold, and thank you to all of you. It's it's wonderful to be here with you today, but I am not the only Olympian in the house. So behind me is Arnie Sowell senior. His 90 birthday is today.

Already ran the 800 meter in 1956 in Melbourne. And so we just wanted to recognize him here today because we are excited to welcome him to LA eight hundred and thirty days to watch the Olympic games in Los Angeles. But just super quick, I wanna tell you about Arnie. Arnie has received numerous accolades. He served two tours in Vietnam, representing our country and then represented our country at the games as well.

He was inducted in the University of Pitt Pittsburgh's Athletic Hall Of Fame, as well as the Western Pennsylvania Athletic Hall of Fame, but he now calls Sacramento home. And he is here with his oldest son and family, but Arnie junior was a longtime California state assembly staffer. So he has children and grandchildren, and everyone's in the audience today. So we just wanted to recognize our nineteen fifty six Olympian in the house. Arnie.

It's an honor, Arnie.

Okay. We'll see if I get this right.

So, by the way, madam chair, I just wanna point out that the new look and feel here of the games are new colors. This is the first time that we I think we've had an official meeting with our official new colors, and we're glad that it's here in the state capital. I couldn't think of a better place to do it. So we're really happy, and I'll talk more about our our, little look and feel. So my name is Ronald Hoover, as I mentioned.

And, as you know, madam chair, you know, I was a retired three star general. I was home on the couch. I wasn't looking for a job. You know, I thought as the deputy commander at US Northern Command, tracking Santa was the coolest job ever.

But I can tell you without a doubt that leading the great team at LA twenty eight is by far the greatest job ever, and it motivated me enough to get off the couch and to help unite the world around sport and unite the nation and unite LA and this and the cal the state of California at a time that we need it the most.

And having gone to Paris and saw the Paris the summer games and now just back from Milan and Italy, and seeing the winter games, I was reminded again how it really gets in your heart. And when you see the athletes and the Paralympic athletes on the field of play, you realize this is really something special. And in LA, we will deliver the world's biggest Olympics and the world's biggest sporting event ever.

And I'm so proud and humbled to be a part of that and to have Janet Evans as a part of our as our team and all the great things that she'll talk about here in just a minute, on what we're doing on the athlete side. Because at the end of the day, it really is about the athletes.

And so this this afternoon, I'll just go through and hit some high points for you on in terms of where we are in our planning, where we are in the overall, scope of putting this really incredible, moment together, and I welcome any of your questions. And you can stop for questions along the way, or or you can wait till the end. Either way, ma'am, it's up to you. Yep. So let's see.

There we I was given the safety briefing on the pause, but I didn't do it very well. So it so as you know, we are a a five zero one c. We're a private organization. We get no federal funding, direct federal funding. We get really no other, means of funding other than through commercial sponsorship, through ticket revenue, through hospitality sales, and merchandise sales are really our primary and broadcast, revenue is our real our primary, source of of revenue.

We, have a private, volunteer board of directors that manages or oversees what we're doing and and meets on a very regular basis to do that. We work hand in hand with our government partners at every level. And, you know, interesting enough, The United States is the only country that doesn't fund its athletes, also doesn't fund its organizing committees.

And so all of the money that we work with at the federal level goes directly to our state and local partners who are planning to help us deliver a fiscally responsible games, but also a safe and secure games. In a sense, you know, we are really the central convener of all the different partners and stakeholders that are involved in the games.

The city of Los Angeles serves as our host city, and our partnership is formalized through a games agreement that outlines key milestones as well as shared commitments. We're proud to partner closely with our venue cities, Inglewood, Long Beach, Carson, Pasadena, Anaheim, Pomona, Arcadia, Oklahoma City, as well as the LA County, and the state of California in delivering these games because none of this happens alone. This is really a team effort.

We all have to work together really to deliver what is gonna be an amazing games in eight hundred and thirty days when the world is watching us. And the world is watching the athletes that it will be here.

The world is watching the competition. They're watching incredible venues. We expect about 5,000,000,000 people worldwide to watch these games. At the state level, as a partner, as you know in the last session, the the assembly passed assembly bill one forty nine, which provided for exemptions for temporary development from the California Environmental Quality Act and the California Coastal Act, while continuing to protect natural resources.

And assembly Bill one forty four, which ensures that medical professionals traveling with their teams from abroad can care for their own nation's teams while in the state.

And on the Senate side, Senate bill one twenty eight implemented the games route network, which is a dedicated route of about 300 miles of express lanes for athletes and, Olympic officials to move between the Olympic Village and all of and all of our venues. At the international level, we partner closely with the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee to ensure that the games really uphold the highest standards in athletic competition.

And we wanna make sure that all of our fields of play allow our athletes to perform at the highest possible level. And then at the national level, you know, we work with, like, the administration as well as Congress, as I said on, ensuring that the games are safe and secure and that there is funding available for our state and local partners, and I'll I'll talk a little bit more about that. And then let me just look over here.

The ecosystem is pretty broad. We are on the one hand, there's the International Olympic Committee and all of the the, the 90 national governing bodies of all of the various sports that will be, participating in the games. And on the other side, there's a a mirror image with the, International Paralympic with Paralympic Committee. And we work both, with all of those stakeholders to really deliver the games to them.

If you think of us as really the, kind of the franchisee, and they're the franchisor, we are responsible for creating the infrastructure and providing the field of play, The I the, International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee and all of the international federations, they bring the, they bring the officials to the games. They tell us what the field of play has to look like. They set the conditions and qualifications for all of their athletes and then all of the national Olympic committees as well.

The governing bodies from each of the nations of the 206 nations as part of the IOC also have a role in bringing their team. So if you think about US OPC, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee in Colorado Springs, they bring team USA to the table.

Multiply that times 206, and that's where all of the various teams come from. We deal with all of those people on a daily basis as we we find accommodations for them, and we make sure that we've got the right equipment that all of the international federations are, you know, require for their, you know, for their particular sport. It is a it is a game it is a I don't wanna say a game. It is a it is I'll just say it this way. Relationships are the coin of the realm.

And it is really critical, and that's why, you know, we're I have Janet Evans who really is our tie to the Olympic committee and and the Olympic community and all of the Olympic, athletes, and she'll talk a little bit. I'll steal some of her thunder, but we had over 200 Olympic athletes here for for the first ever athlete summit. It was probably the biggest, gathering in of Olympic athletes in one place outside of competition because they are the center and the heart of what we do.

If you put it all in context, I think there's a couple of things to point out here. This is about seven Super Bowls a day for thirty days.

We will start on the July 14, and we will end with the closing ceremonies of Paralympics on the August 27. And over the course of that time, there'll be over 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes in attendance. 11 a little over 11,000 athletes and a little over 4,000 Paralympic athletes. There'll be 800 competition events. Those are medal events.

We'll give out more medals than any other Olympics in the history of the Olympic movement and more than 50 venues, our iconic venues all around LA and across the region. It will, as I said, be the largest games in Olympic history. We expect about a 150 heads of state to be in attendance, another complexity that we need to deal with as we think about the security and transportation requirements and and the accommodations required of heads of state.

We expect about 23,000 accredited media who will be in attendance as part of the games to cover the games, both broadcast media as well as print media. And as I mentioned, earlier, I think, in some conversations, we have about 13,000,000 tickets, to sell, and there'll be about 5,000,000,000 people watching worldwide.

It is clearly the largest event in history. Last month, last month, we were we unveiled the look and feel of our games, and we're really excited about it. Every Olympic and Paralympic games has a unique visual identity. And the foundation of our look and feel is the core graphic, which has been inspired by Southern California's legendary Superbloom, which coincidentally was this year as well, and we're really excited about that.

But the heart of our look and feel are the colors taken from the LA flower, which is the bird of paradise, and you see it here.

So all of our color patterns and all of our colors will come to life, both in motion and in, and instill across the games. No matter where you are, you will see these colors and you'll see these to bring the games to life. We're really looking forward to it, and, their their response to it has been just amazing. We did a Fast Company, did a a piece on our games and how we how we actually came up with it.

They interviewed our designers who are in house.

They're on our staff who put all of it together and how how they brought that to life and the thinking behind all of that, which was, really amazing. And then, the we were able to bring it to life all throughout, Los Angeles, both at downtown at the convention center and across across the region. So we're really, really excited about it. And as I said, today is our first day to really do it in public, and thank you for the opportunity for that.

In terms of impact and sustainability, our momentum is only growing as we get closer to 2028.

And recently, we've announced some really exciting progress. In August 2025, we released our impact and sustainability plan, outlining really a comprehensive framework to expanding access to economic empowerment, youth sports, and healthy environment. Our commitment, to things like prioritizing local and small business participation, investing in workforce pathways, and delivering a transit first games anchored around radical reuse of existing venues.

In addition, LA twenty eight's commitment of a $160,000,000 to expand access to youth sports in in Los Angeles helps ensure that our communities will benefit in the lead up to the games and following in the conclusion. Our play LA program so far, we've given over $70,000,000 to the city of LA as part of that commitment to a 160.

Last July, on the July 14, mayor Bass and I announced and celebrated the one millionth enrollment in the program. And to talk about the impact of it, we had a young woman who was part of the play LA program who went to Paris and silver medaled in Paris shot put. Her name is Ariel Middleton, and I think she's 17 years old. She is the future, and she is an incredible Paralympic athlete, and we look forward to her coming back in 2028 in the Paralympics, in LA.

Just some recent updates, on our ticket sales on our ticket sales.

In the first twenty four hours, we had 1,500,000 people sign up for our tickets once we opened the portal, which was on the January 13. We are over 5,000,000, and, we just went on sale this past week. I will say, in this room that we, have exceeded all expectations in our in our revenue projections and our ticket sale projections. We have, exceeded what Paris sold in their first days, in terms of Olympics, and and I think, we've actually outpaced all all recent, Olympics.

And I think what that tells you is it's the power of the games.

We have over people have bought tickets, and registered for tickets from, just about 200 countries around the world. And I think that, again, speaks volumes to people want to come to LA and be a part of history. We have, in November, we launched our volunteer program, and and I I think, you know, madam chair, we've talked about this before and the and how important the volunteer program is to us at LA twenty eight, especially after the fires in LA.

But we announced our volunteer program early in November, about eighteen months early from the IOC's kind of planning calendar. We had 70,000 people sign up in the first twenty four hours.

Today, we have over 250,000 people, again, from around the world who have signed up to be volunteers. About 50,000 of them are Angelenos, and we've activated them already. In December, we had our first volunteer event. We did a program at Venice Beach with we partnered with Heal the Bay to go and clean up a portion of Venice Beach. And why was that important?

It was important because Venice Beach will be the site of our first metal event on the July 15. In the morning, we'll be women's triathlon. And so it was really important for us to do that. We did an event with the the mayor's Shine LA program. We did an event with the the the Southern California Food Bank.

We did one for Martin Luther King Day, and we've got another event coming up here where we'll be doing cleanup of along the the LA River in April, later in later in the month. And we are really excited about activating these people. And, again, I think it speaks to people want to come to LA, and they wanna be part of something special, and they wanna be a part of something really historic.

And and, you know, that's why I say that the world is watching, and we need all hands on deck to make it happen. On the commercial side, in December, we announced that we crossed the $2,000,000,000 in in commercial contract sponsorship revenue, reaching a milestone faster than any other Olympic organizing committee to date.

This year alone, we've secured two additional commercial partners. We brought on Korn Ferry as a founding partner, and we secured Aura Aura partnership within thirty days while we were in Milan. Aura, we signed that deal, and they gave that actually aura rings to every single US Olympic athlete, in Milan for the winter games and Paralympic athlete as well. I can say with confidence that we continue to build momentum, adding talent, sport experience, and voices across the Olympic movement to a team that's rising to the moment.

Let me change slides. I think I have a picture of that. Oops. Sorry.

It's okay.

We're today, we're about 650 people in our headquarters in Downtown LA. We've got eight floors there. By the end of the year, we'll have a thousand people on the staff, and we expect 5,000 people full time working for us by the time the games come. In terms of our volunteer numbers, we expect somewhere around 60,000 volunteers. I will say as well on the volunteer program, we're hoping to have about 500,000 people in the database.

We've already talked to the city, and we've talked to the county about at the end of the day, we can leave that as a lasting legacy as well because these are people who wanna give back to their community, and we're really excited about that. We're finalizing looking ahead, we're finalizing our our, our transit first games plan in close coordination and cooperation with LA Metro and the games, executive mobility, committee that, takes in all the transit agencies around as well as the state agencies.

And we're designing our torch relay. Our torch relay will hit all 50 states that's never been done before, and it will be a hundred days. And so another milestone in the I think in the in the history of Olympics and firsts for the Olympics here in in LA.

We're honored to work alongside you all, and I really appreciate all of the support that you've given. And this time, I'll pass it over to Janet.

Thank you, Ronald. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about my athlete journey and my athlete story first to get everyone kind of thinking of the Olympic and Paralympic games through the athlete's eyes. So for me wait. We lost that picture.

Thank you, Reynold. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about my athlete journey and my athlete story first to get everyone kind of thinking of the Olympic and Paralympic games through the athlete's eyes. So for me wait. We lost that picture.

There was a picture of Ollie.

What do we want? Is it Yeah.

I don't know. It's not on the deck.

Okay. Alright. Well, I'll tell you my athlete story without that. I was 12 years old when the Olympics came to Los Angeles. I know you had just graduated.

So a few years behind you, And I was just a little swimmer from Orange County and watched Carl Lewis run and and watched Tracy Calkins and the great Rowdy Gaines swim and watched Rayford Johnson light the Olympic cauldron at the incredible LA Memorial Coliseum and decided in that moment that this was something I wanted to do, I could do. How hard was I gonna have to work to do it? Very, very hard. But, you know, that's what the Olympics are all about. You know, Arnie Sr.

Could tell you this. They they bring out the best in people, and they might bring out the best in the 12 year old who wants to be an Olympic swimmer, but they also bring out the best in the 14 year old who wants to be a scientist or a teacher or a public servant or a a doctor or an astronaut. And so that's why we love the Olympics and the Paralympics is because they bring out the best in us.

The athletes inspire us, and that's why it's such a pleasure to work along such an incredible team with such an incredible leader to bring this hope and joy to our great state and to to the city of Los Angeles once again. We do love a sequel, madam chair.

We really do. So, what is a chief athlete officer? My role as chief athlete officer is to make sure when the athletes come to Los Angeles, we like to say from touchdown to take off. So from wherever they land at, LAX or Burbank or Ontario or even John Wayne, what what happens the day they land until the day they leave? So what does their food look like?

What do their beds feel like? What does their transportation happen with them? Because as Reynolds said, the athletes are our greatest stakeholder, and we also know the athletes have a strong voice. And if we don't get that right, we really get nothing right. So I have a very small team, mostly athletes, and we sit in a lot of different functional areas within LA twenty eight to ensure that as we plan this very large undertaking that athletes are always put first and foremost.

To be fair, we do have more Olympians and Paralympians working at LA twenty eight than the International Olympic Committee does in Switzerland, and that's a testament to our leadership as well as to our commitment to athletes for, putting athletes first in everything that we do. One reason and one way we bring athletes into LA twenty eight to help us plan and deliver our Olympic and Paralympic games is through our Olympic fellowship program.

We, every year, we hire about 12 Olympians or Paralympians to come in full time into our organization. Most of these athletes have never had jobs before, have just come fresh out of the Olympic or Paralympic games, and we were seeing this kind of lack of opportunity for these athletes who have so much institutional knowledge, to really help our organization because they just didn't have the work experience. So our fellowship program, brings these athletes in, puts them into functional areas within the organization.

They are paid full time employees. We started this in a 2021. Since then, we have hired about 20 of them to be full time athletes. They are representative of 23 different sports disciplines, 27 Olympic and Paralympic medals, and nearly 20 different countries. So I've an we have an incredible opportunity with these athletes who sit at the table.

They sit with our executives. They sit at mid management. They sit in everything, and they talk to us about what they see from their experiences. So it's been an incredible opportunity for these for these athletes, and I think it it's a legacy that will continue in future organizing committees. As Reynold mentioned, another ish initiative we kicked off in 2026, actually, at the beginning of the year, was our athlete collective summit.

My team and I realized we needed to tell the athletes what were going on, so we invited every Olympian and Paralympian we knew to come to our office to have a meeting. We thought about 50 would show up. We had about 300 RSBP, so we moved that to the LA Memorial Coliseum.

There's a little bit of attrition, so we had just over 200, but we spent a day with these Olympians and Paralympians and let them know what our venues look like, a little bit what we're doing here today. And then we had an an incredible moment in front of the coliseum in the peristyle where we lit the Olympic cauldron and kicked off, our Olympic ticket sales.

And I think as Reynold mentioned, what it showed was that our athletes just want to know what's going on. Our athletes wanna be a part of this. They want to, you know look at Arnie here, you know, remembering his time in 1956. The Olympics touches so much of us, and hosting our first Paralympics also touches so many. So we we had an incredible opportunity with these athletes, and it was an incredible moment.

Assembly Minh Phong just left the room, but he is authored our assembly bill twenty four thirty six. So a few years ago, there was a bill that was passed, Thank you for that. That allows athletes that are training in the state of California on the Olympic or Paralympic path. They can be Pan American athletes. They just have to be identified by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee as hopefuls.

We passed a bill that allows them to have in state tuition even if they're not residents of the state of California when they move to California to train. About every year, we have a dozen athletes take advantage of this opportunity. Some go to the UC system and some go to the Cal State system. So assembly member Fong is working hard to have that bills not sunset.

Right now, it's, planning to be sunsetted in, 2032, but we're hoping that we can leave it as a legacy of our Olympic and Paralympic games in the state of California.

The state of Utah has a similar, opportunity for athletes to train in Utah, mostly on the Winter Olympic, side of the house as well as New York, And those are both legacies of their Winter Olympic games both in Lake Placid and in Salt Lake.

So we really feel like this is an opportunity for the state of California to be a place not only to host the Olympic games and Paralympic games, but once we leave and we're back on our couches, we can have athletes training here in California and be proud, proud members of that. Right?

The support for these athletes to train for the French Alps in 2030 and the Brisbane Olympics in 2032 and Paralympics as well as the Salt Lake Games in 2034 will be an incredible legacy for our state as well as an opportunity for these athletes to train in what I feel to be the best state in the in the union to to be able to train in.

So I think that this is an opportunity for us to give back to athletes and to give back to our community and give back to, the global Olympic and Paralympic movement.

And I didn't go through I got so excited talking. I didn't go through there's the bill right there if you need to see it. Yes. So that is it, and I will turn it back over to Ronald.

Thanks, Janet. Just a word about the athlete fellowship program. Janet started that program. We're the only organizing committee that has done it, and it really is another one of those lasting legacies that thinks about our athletes. And as she said, they're just not team USA athletes.

We have, you know, athletes and Paralympic athletes, former, formers from all over the world. And, you know, as the program builds, and I think you'll see other OCOGs emulating what we did here because, you know, as I said at the top, the athletes are really at the heart of all that we do. And so let me just run through some of our, sport program for you. As you can see, this is you know, and I've said already, this is the biggest games in Olympic history.

We'll have more sports, more events, more days of competition, more athletes, and, yes, more medals than ever before.

We have 51 Olympic sports, including five news, sports, baseball, softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash. This provides LA 28 exciting opportunities to collaborate with professional leagues like the NFL for the first time. And in addition to our core sports that fans know and love, we are continuing to build on tradition while progressing the movement forward. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, there will be more women competing than men in the in the Olympics, and we're proud about that.

And I will say the first time as well that all team sports will have a equal number of women's teams as well as men's teams.

And some sports like soccer, football, they're actually gonna have will have more women's teams than men's teams competing. And we're really excited about LA twenty eight paving the way and advancing the movement in gender and sports equity. On the Paralympic side, know, many people don't really realize that the Paralympics is actually the third largest sporting event, in the world. And in 2028, we will host the first Paralympic games, ever in in LA.

And I will say we're also making history in the Paralympic side as well because we're the first organizing committee to add a new Paris sport.

So in 2024, we added para climbing to the Paralympic, which will debut in in our games in 2028. And we will also award the most medals in Paralympic competition in history, making it also the most gender balanced in Paralympics as well. So together, we're creating unprecedented opportunity to really reshape the conversation around individuals with disabilities within sport and beyond. You've probably seen this map before.

This kinda shows you our our games plan, and we're you know, our guiding principle here was making the most of what already exists.

So we are no build games. We are doing some temporary builds, but no permanent building build, builds. We're using world class venues. We're collocating sports and minimizing unnecessary comp, construction while never compromising the athlete or the competition field of play. And these next two maps will show you that, you know, our games, footprint stretches from the San Fernando Valley all the way down to the Trestle State Beach and all the municipalities in between.

It will be, you know, again, the largest games using world class venues, as I mentioned, with only some temporary builds. In the call out box, you'll see Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City will host softball and canoe slalom. And there's also you'll see some other states highlighted. I'll talk about those in just a minute.

Those are our those will be for the football qualifying rounds. And this map will show you the Paralympic game the games footprint. The key piece here is that all of the Paralympic games will be hosted within a 35 mile radius of the facilities that are already in use. And it we'll do a quick turnaround about two about two week turnaround between the Olympics to the start of the Paralympics will be on the August 15.

And then closing ceremonies for the Paralympics will be on the twenty seventh.

It will be in the Coliseum. As I mentioned, we have, new sports. Baseball will be in Dodger Stadium. Softball will be in Oklahoma City. Cricket will be in Pomona, at the Fairgrounds.

Flag football and lacrosse will be at Expo Park. Squash will be at Universal Studios on the set of Back to the Future with the with the clock tower in the background, and paraclimbing will be at in in Long Beach. So we're really excited, and I think there's something new for everyone. And we talked about earlier, I was talking about, cricket.

And I'm really excited about it because I know nothing about cricket, and I'm looking forward to learning about the game because it really is it really is amazing.

Earlier this year, in fact, at the, winter games, I announced, our six additional cities to the program, where we'll bring the nation, to, brings, the Olympic games to the nation, through a number of states that will be the preliminary rounds for Olympic football. As I mentioned to you, earlier that the our torch relay will be a hundred days. It will stretch across all 50 states.

The same is true, not all 50 states, but we will move football across The United States starting in, in New York City, Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, Saint Louis, Missouri, San Diego, and San Jose. And then the final rounds will be in the Rose Bowl in the iconic Rose Bowl Stadium where history and future will will meet again.

For the first time, as I mentioned in Olympic history, we will have more women teams competing in in football, 16 women's teams, and 12 men's team. And we're really excited about it. As I said, I think this is really an opportunity for us to lead the movement, and take it to the next level of, again, sports parity, gender parity, and advancing the sport. And I think, madam chair, that Kinda concludes my presentation.

Well, you blew me away. I did not think about Universal Studios. Universal Studios, we're gonna go watch something at Universal Studios. That's amazing. And I I had a little a little conversation with my dad yesterday, and I said, all the games are in California, dad.

He's like, I don't think so, miss chair. I said, no. They are. Yeah. He knows everything.

So I had to take a picture and send him this map and say I was wrong. So that's something you always tell your parents when you're wrong. Are there any questions from any of the committee members? Any questions? I have some questions.

The first question is who designs all of the Olympic fashion? Is that in house, or is that a Ralph Lauren?

Or you're talking about the merch and all the

Yes.

Those things. So, really, that's our our partners, our sponsorship partners. So Ralph Lauren, Nike, Fanatics, Chubbs. You can go down the list of of oh, of course, Nike

SKIMS. SKIMS.

Oh, SKIMS. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. There's some some, like, capsules, madam chair, if you will. The companies that kinda come in and do a capsule. What was the name of that sportswear company that

did the cool

jackets? Anyway, there's, like, little Mitchell and Ness. Mitchell and Ness. Right? So little capsules that come in as well.

And design. Well, I I love fashion, so I'll be looking out for all of that Olympic fashion. What is the total cost of the Olympic to put on the Olympics?

Yes, ma'am.

The Olympics and then the total cost of the Paralympics.

Sure. Well, we have one budget, and we just released our annual report to the city of LA, which we're required to do. We did that in March. Our budget is now $7,200,000,000, and that includes both Olympics and Paralympics.

And do you what do you have a forecast of what how much profit you think you may make off of the Olympics maybe?

Not at this time.

Not yet.

But I can tell you that, you know what, it is my goal that we leave a legacy and that we do have some, you know, funds at the end of the day to leave a lasting legacy just like LA eighty four did. I think they had about 240 or $45,000,000. You know, to us, they they are the pole star for us and the and the and the metric to guide by. So

Absolutely. We love a sequel. I had a question from the faith based community. They just wanna know how could they participate. They they know that people are coming from all over the country, all over the world rather, and they wanna know, like, how could they help?

How could they participate with making sure that their synagogues and their mosques and their places are open for them?

Madam Chair, that's a great question. And the answer is I don't know. Okay. But what I will say is we have a a community impact team. Eric Aldrich leads that.

I will follow-up with him, and we will, and we'll come back to you with how we might be able to engage the faith based community.

and madam chair, as we spoke about, earlier today, the village will also have a multi faith center, because the athletes also have have those needs, and that's something our team is discussing as well. And we'll discuss with Eric also.

And

Thank you. And I think

we I don't know if we mentioned, but, you know, the Olympic Village will be at UCLA. Shout out to the women's Bruins for national championship. That was a great game. Yes. But we are really excited to partner with UCLA for the Olympic Village.

And for the first time ever in the history of the Olympics, all of the Paralympic athletes will actually be housed there as well.

Fantastic. So what kind of challenges have you guys had leading up to to to housing the athletes, and what happens with their families?

Well, you know, UCLA is an incredible opportunity for us because it's a no build Olympic and Paralympic games. So I'm a I'm a Trojan. So I go over to UCLA, and I think it is the most fantastic place. The food is incredible, first of all, most importantly.

But it is an incredible opportunity for these athletes and and to you know, a part of being an athlete is showing up to the village, and if things don't work, it's it's scary because you're there to compete on the biggest day of your life.

Well, UCLA works. Right? There's more there's more students there at this very moment than there will be for our Olympic and Paralympic games. So everything there works. And I think that's really the the blessing about having UCLA, this incredible opportunity for these athletes to live there.

Everything works. We know where it is. They can go over there and they can walk it. They can see where they think their room is going to be. They can see the distance to their venues.

The athletic facilities are are incredible. You know, as a swimmer, there's two fifty meter pools. So when I speak to, you know, artistic swimmers and water polo players and swimmers, they say, well, I just can walk from my dorm room down to the 50 meter pool to train. So UCLA prints presents us an incredible opportunity. And as Reynold mentioned, they are an incredible partner.

And I will say it provides us with not only incredible cuisine because that's one of the things that athletes are really concerned about, But it also is a really safe and very secure environment, and that's critical to us.

Fantastic. How is LA twenty eight ensuring that existed venues are adequately upgraded to meet Olympic standards without triggering cost overruns?

Well, a number of things. So we have a venue use agreements with the owners of the venues, and we look to them actually to make improvements that that need to be made in order to, again, provide, you know, the the best opportunity for our athletes to perform on the field of play. And and it's really a partnership with the venue owners because we don't own the venues. Right. You know, we can't do that.

I will say that, you know, the in the governor's budget, there's $94,000,000, I think, that went to Expo Park Yes. For improvements to Expo Park, and we're appreciative of that. And so it's through opportunities like that.

Thank you. What steps are being taken to minimize displacement, protect small businesses, and avoid negative impacts on vulnerable populations during the Olympics?

Well, I think on the on the small business side, the economic impact piece, you know, we just released on our website our procurement strategy, and we've been working on it for quite some time. We've had some experts help us. We are committed to 75% local spend and 25% small business spend. And that 25% includes hyper local small businesses and micro micro small business as well. So that's one piece.

And we just, this week actually are gonna host our first round table with various organizations to talk about procurement and how we can make sure that small and local businesses are are given every opportunity to participate in the games. Our prime contractors as well have requirements for using local and small businesses, and they have to report on that to us as well. So I think from that perspective, we are taking every step that we can.

And we're asking and as I think I've mentioned to you before, you know, I'm happy to come out and talk to your small businesses and bring my team so that we can make sure that, those opportunities are available. All of our competitive bids for those things that are direct spend for us are on we announce on ramp.

I think right now, the ramp LA program, we've got 10 opportunities that are on the website right on the on the ramp website. I think fencing is on there, flags, sports equipment. I can't remember all the others, but, you know, so there's a number of opportunities that are already out there, and we use ramp. And so the first thing is we would tell small businesses to make sure that they're on ramp and they're registered with the city. That will that's really a big help for us.

But it is really about the outreach. And because we're a no build games, we believe that we will not be displacing, you know, many people who are unhoused and will certainly work with the city and the county, as we move forward in those areas.

Thank you. What specific environmental sustainability goals has LA eight twenty eight committed to, and how will success be measured and reported publicly?

Sure. So, one thing we decided not to do, madam chair, is not to come up with a carbon offset, goals for LA Twenty Eight. Instead, we have a a resilient champions fund.

Right now, we've got $2,000,000 committed to it of our own money, where we're actually partnering with local organizations that are experts in in environmental resiliency and and and and we've just opened up our grant process to be able to help seed other organizations and partner with us to make sure that we are have are using both radical reuse, but we're also reinforcing sustainability within the community.

One last question for our Olympian. What measures are in place to support athlete athletes mental health?

Yes.

Yes. A particular particularly, given the increased awareness of psychological pressures in elite competition?

Yes. And we have partnered with the International Olympic Committee on this, madam chair, and there will be space in the village for exactly this. And it's interesting because, you know, my generation, we didn't talk about it. And one of the things I lean into my athletes commission and our athletes fellows about is talking about it. So we are currently working on coming up with a plan to help our athletes not only at the games.

It's actually more of after the games, if you will, because the games is only sixteen days. And the International Olympic Committee hasn't been an incredible partner on this to help these athletes. And and to be fair, one of the reasons our fellowship program exists is because I believe that the athlete transition out out of sport, also deals with their their employment. Right? Is find is finding a job really affects that mental health as well.

So, we are partnering with the IOC. We will have space in the village, to work on that, but are also looking at mentorship, opportunities above and beyond, past our games time for our athletes.

Thank you. Well, I'll come back to the dais. Yes. Assembly member Carrillo.

Thank you, madam chair. Just a couple of comments on, things that I've been looking at since this process started. I've been in contact with your office about getting venues throughout LA County about the process to see how the allegations coming to LA would be able to use existing facilities.

Obviously, I'm interested in having those facilities that exist in my district in Lancaster about having those being presented to those delegations so that they can use existing facilities so that they know it will be something that is attainable. Thank you for the opportunity, and we have been in contact having explained what the process is.

But for those that don't know and that are interested in seeing how existing facilities can be provided to the delegations coming in to participate, what the process is. I know what the process is, but, again, just to let others know that there is a process where if they're interested in providing existing facilities to those delegations, they can do that. The other thing is on small businesses opportunities.

I've also been in contact with the Chamber of Commerce to see how small businesses throughout LA County and throughout California potentially can take advantage of those economic opportunities coming to LA being such an international event in '28. We do have a lot of small businesses that want to be able to take advantage of this economic growth opportunity for them.

So if you can explain that too. And and lastly, I I I see a missed opportunity for LA to build more housing, and this is the reason I say that. Few years ago, the Pan American games were held in Guadalajara. I went there a couple of years ago, and they they build housing for the athletes coming in to participate in enormous buildings with so many units, any housing units.

And with the housing crisis that we have in California, I think that we are taking advantage of building housing for the athletes, for them to participate in the events.

And then those housing units built would have been used for homeless shelters or many other, lack of housing that we have, and I don't need to explain that to to anybody here. Those are just my comments. Again, just wanna take an opportunity to do that. Again, thank you for for being here, the opportunity to express my inquiries. And with that, I thank you, manager.

Thank you for allowing me to ask those questions.

Let me I can just let me take on the first one on the facilities. So last summer no. Last spring, we sent out a a an invite to all 88 cities in the in the county and asked them to identify what facilities they had available, and we collected all of those.

I think what's missing is and we've had so I've met with all the county supervisors and and talked to them about this as well, is really what's missing is a central repository where as the city cities can come in and say, you know, where are these places and and where the national Olympic committees and the governing bodies and the sports can come in and say what opportunities are out there.

We don't have necessarily, a database other than what we have within LA twenty eight where we've collected that information because, you know, there's another economic opportunity where we talk about direct spend from LA Twenty Eight.

All of these, sports facilities and existing facilities, that get activated by whatever countries because we don't control any of that, as well as the National Olympic houses, that are out there. So for example, New Zealand has announced that they're gonna be, in Culver City, and Denmark has announced they're gonna be in Long Beach. You know, Croatia will be in San Pedro.

So all of these National Olympic Committee houses are also gonna have requirements to buy, and that's another opportunity that we don't control that is opportunities for small businesses. And we wanna be able to help capture that as well.

But so we're working with the city and and the county of Paul Kocorian's team to think about ways that we could make that data available to the, to these, other countries that come in that's outside of our control.

On the small business side, you know, as I said, I think what we can do to help you and and help the chambers is to come out now that we've got our our procurement plan out, and talk to them and talk to your small businesses and convene a meeting and bring some resources. You know, I just did one, with councilwoman Rodriguez, in her district at Mission College, that she organized, which had all of the resource.

So LA Metro was there, LA Ramp was there, the business contracting, office was there, and a number of other, opportunities was there to talk to small businesses about how they can get ready today because we are eight hundred and thirty days away, and we, you know, we cannot buy another day. No matter how much money we can raise, you know, in to do these games, we can't buy another minute.

And on the at 5PM on the 07/14/2028, the games will start, and they're gonna be incredible. Yeah? And so that's why we need to start today, and so I welcome to partner with you to do that.

No. Thank you for that. Again, I've been in touch with your office, and I I been informed what the process is, but I just wanted to have you explain that to so that others know that there is a process in place. And I'm sure that even local Chamber of Commerce would be interested in providing that to their members. So thank you for the explanation.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair.

A Sydney woman, any comments or questions?

I just had a question about transportation Yeah. And how you envision that working for people attending the the games. I think in '84, it worked pretty well because I heard everybody left town.

Right.

But I don't know that we can hope. So I envision that you're already pretty far along in your thinking on how

Yes, ma'am. That's a a great question. So, you know, in '84, when at closing ceremonies, I think mayor Bradley famously said, let the traffic begin. So we hope to do that and more, actually. So we've been very closely partnering, and I I don't think Stephanie Wiggins will be here this afternoon.

I don't think she was able to make it, but oh, okay. Great. But we've been great partners with them. We've just signed we just closed our our memorandum of understanding with LA Metro. There is a games mobility executive group that meets on a regular basis to help plan.

As I mentioned in my opening comments, my presentation, we now have a games route network, which they didn't have in '84. We plan to, require deliveries. I think the mayor is gonna require deliveries after hours. So during '84, they had deliveries commercial deliveries at from 11:00 at night until, like, four or 05:00 in the morning. So that will take big trucks and delivery trucks off of the roads.

We didn't have remote work capability in '84, and we have that now. Mayor Bass has already said she will ask people to remote work to those that are able to do that. We also didn't have a metro system like we do today in '84. Right? And so that's gonna help us because this will be a transit first games.

And we're that is really the direction that we're taking. I really believe that we're in a great spot. I will say as well, we didn't have AI and, you know, the the power of of data technology to plan and actually manage transportation routes. So we're not responsible. We're not managing traffic flow, but we're definitely involved in the planning of it.

And I feel very confident that both our athletes and the spectators and all of the officials, the Olympic family will be able to move around LA.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Very exciting. I can remember in '84. Don't you remember assembly member called around that the streets were so empty, and we didn't have as many people. So people did leave or we just stayed home and we watched them.

I remember seeing Moham and Ali run down the street with the torch. So exciting. So I can't wait to see all of this. I thank you guys so much for coming out and speaking with us and and and give bringing us up to date. I look forward to working with you guys in the next eight hundred and thirty days.

How exciting. Can't wait to see who gets the medal swimming in '28. And so thank you, guys. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it.

We'll see you back in LA. Thank you.

See you in LA. So Do we move to

Do you want Wiggins? Yes. Let's can we move to Stephanie Wiggins? We're gonna take a a a five minute break, and then we'll come right back. We're gonna do get some technical stuff taken care of.

Thank you.

I'm good. I can roll. Thank you. Good afternoon, members. And I so apologize, but canceled flights and accident on the freeway led to this.

So my apologies for arriving a bit late. But if I could just start by saying how much the city of Los Angeles appreciates the extraordinary partnership that we've had throughout this time with the state of California. And so, madam chair, thank you very much for all that you've done to help us work together to prepare for the world's greatest and biggest event

and all that. I'd like to give you a proper introduction. I would now like to welcome our second panel that includes a former assembly colleague, Paul Kerkorian, executive director, office of the of major events, city of Los Angeles. Welcome back to the assembly.

Thank you so much. And, you know, they say that it takes you your first term to learn your way around this building. So just when I had it, you changed everything around. So this construction was so thank you, madam chair. I spent four years here and then spent fifteen years as a member of the Los Angeles City Council.

And as my term was coming to an end thank you. Mayor Bass saw that there would be important to have one focal point for preparation for the city of Los Angeles, and so she created the office of major events and asked me to lead it.

Well, there's a on off button. Well, that I'll help you. I know what I'm doing.

I'll have to do that. That's your point.

It's not every day when you get a general to, you know, be your assistant. So thank you.

Thank you very much. Okay. And this is the reason, because well, we talk a lot about, the challenge of preparing for the Olympic games, in the last three years leading up to them, Los Angeles has had an unprecedented concentration of major events, including the World Cup, which happens just sixty six days from today, as well as, of course, the Olympic and Paralympic games in eight hundred and three days, and we need every single one of them.

My office's purpose is to ensure the success of those major events to organize all of the city functions to ensure that we're all rowing in the same direction, to manage fiscal oversight both internally and with our stakeholders and partners. And importantly for today's discussion, maximize the economic benefit to our communities and the long term sustainable legacy of of these events.

I'm sure general Hoover has already talked about some of these, statistics, but, this truly will be the world's biggest event. That number 13,000,000 should really be 15,000,000 ticket holders, 5,000,000,000 viewers around the world. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, not just for Los Angeles as the host city, but for the state of California and the entire country to, really put their best foot forward. The games the Olympic games will result in $18,000,000,000 in economic output and $700,000,000 in state and local taxes.

We wanna make sure that we maximize the benefit of that expenditure locally in support of our small businesses and our workforce in Los Angeles.

And I should note that in doing that, it's not just LA twenty eight's expenditure of their $7,000,000,000 budget. With the multiplier effect that comes from that, with adds up to that $18,000,000,000, it's everything that they're spending, everything that will be built, all of the hospitality houses, the presence of corporations and national organizing committees and hospitality houses. It's the full measure of activity we wanna make sure is focused in support of LA businesses.

So mayor Bass has developed a a vision plan, games for all vision plan, which includes these nine primary components. Accessibility, human rights, and youth sports.

When it comes to youth sports, we've already received or are in the process of receiving a $160,000,000 from LA twenty eight in support of youth sports programming in Los Angeles. And I'm pleased to say that we've had over a million subscriptions of youth in those subsidized programs as a result of that investment already, including, by the way, a silver medal winner in Paris in the Paris Paralympics. For today's discussion, the thriving city for all column there is very important.

Mayor Bass has has emphasized the need to ensure that our expenditures support local businesses, that we create a legacy of sustainability, and that in the process of making these expenditures to the greatest degree we can, we develop the next generation's workforce and focus on local hire for those small businesses. And then a vibrant city for all, that includes the arts and culture festival.

LA Twenty Eight is responsible as in every Olympic and Paralympic games for producing the cultural Olympiad. But in addition to that, in Los Angeles, we are committed to creating an arts and culture festival that will be much more community based than that and will be as encompassing of all parts of Los Angeles as we possibly can.

Similarly, the community engagement celebrations component of that is focused on trying to keep Angelenos at home during the games, making sure that people who can't maybe afford a ticket to actually attend, an event can still fully participate in the joy and the unity that comes from the games. All of the Olympic and Paralympic magic that's coming to our town, we wanna make sure that people are able to enjoy that in community celebrations even if not in events.

And then finally, streets and and and by last but by no means least, streets and transit.

We're making tremendous investments in Southern California and in Los Angeles, specifically in improving the physical infrastructure, the transportation infrastructure, our rights of way, accessibility improvements through MeasureM. We're making the largest investment in transportation anywhere in The United States Of America right now, and many of those projects will are designed to be completed in time for the '28 games. But locally, in Los Angeles, we're making substantial investments in street improvements, sidewalk repairs, and other things, that will need to be done.

These are not being done for the games. They need to be done regardless for the, success of our city and for accessibility, of those who live there.

But the games give us an impetus to get things done that might otherwise get bogged down and and not, get finished as in as timely or efficient way as we would like.

But the games give us an impetus to get things done that might otherwise get bogged down and and not, get finished as in as timely or efficient way as we would like.

So, with two and a half years to go now, this just gives you a little bit of a sense of of some of those things. And you have before you a list of some of the specific expenditures that we'll be making in these areas and specific projects that they relate to. As I said, all of these are things that we need to do with or without the games.

And many of them are projects that we've wanted to achieve in Los Angeles for years or even decades, like the transit connection to LAX being one of them.

Completion of the bike paths along the Los Angeles River to create a unified bike path throughout it. These are projects that have long been part of Los Angeles' vision and this gives us the impetus to to get it done. So now when it comes to business, as I mentioned, $18,000,000,000 in economic activity. LA twenty eight has made an unprecedented commitment for its own expenditure, to be, focused on Los Angeles businesses.

Of their addressable spend, they, have, envisioned spending 75% in local businesses and 25% of that small business.

That's never been done in any previous Olympic games. So I applied LA twenty eight for the commitment that they've already made made in that.

But what beyond their expenditures, there are so many other things that we want our businesses to be ready to participate in that Mayor Bass has created a number of programs to make sure that our businesses are ready to participate in those procurement processes, to make sure that they're contract ready, that they have their certifications in place, that that's done in an efficient way across government entities, that they have opportunities to be mentored and to network, and very importantly, that they have access to the necessary capital to participate in in these sorts of contracting opportunities.

So the Regional Alliance Marketplace for Procurement or RAMP was created by the city of Los Angeles to create a one stop opportunity for businesses to participate, not just in LA twenty eight's procurement, but the city's own procurement and the procurement of other government entities as well in a united way. Compete for LA is a searchable database of businesses in Los Angeles that Los Angeles created in partnership with the University of Southern California.

It creates it has map ability and search ability so that prime contractors can locate local small businesses to use as their subs. Any entity involved in procurement can search for exactly the kinds of businesses that they need through that. And then through our business source centers, through Get in the Game LA, which is being done by the County Chamber of Commerce and other opportunities like that, we are preparing businesses and giving them the resources that they need to participate.

I just I I've gone on a bit long, so I wanna just close with this thought. And this is similar to how I started in thanking you for your partnership.

There have been a lot of negative voices of late about Los Angeles. And this happens especially when politics get involved. And there have been some that have said, well, Los Angeles faces so many challenges right now. Are we really up to the task of taking on the hosting of the world's biggest event? And when I hear that, I remind people that, we've done this before.

And in 1932, many people in the rest of the world didn't know where Los Angeles was. The head of the IOC, very famously during LA's bid for the thirty two Olympics, said, where is this Los Angeles? Is it anywhere near Hollywood?

And we obviously were successful in that bid, put on a financially successful Olympic games in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression at a time when people were lining up at soup kitchens and in bread lines on Broadway, we put on we welcomed the world and and hosted the nineteen thirty two Olympics, and it transformed Los Angeles. It put us on the map as a major city of the world.

Then fast forward to 1984, and we heard many of the same sorts of questions. We had 10% unemployment in Los Angeles, mired in the deepest recession that we had since World War two. At this point in the preparation for the eighty four games, it was in the aftermath of the boycott of the nineteen eighty Moscow games, and the Olympic movement itself was teetering on the edge of collapse. And Los Angeles rode to the rescue, and we put on the most successful Olympic games in history.

We produced a surplus in that games that was so great by today's standards, $670,000,000 in today's dollars.

A surplus so great that we're still spending it today on youth sports programs in Los Angeles parks. And it wasn't just the financial success. It also uplifted Los Angeles as a global cultural capital. The reason that we have a Los Angeles opera right now is because of international attention that came to the city of Los Angeles. It became, the the sort it allowed us to, give a jump start to changing the way people get around Los Angeles as well.

And, you know, we had we had no transit system then, and we have a very robust investment in transit right now. So in many ways, those two games have created the Los Angeles that we know today, and they were successes that inspired the entire world and the entire Olympic movement.

So there's no question in my mind that whatever challenges that we face today in partnership with the state government and with the Federal Government, we will be able to have our third extraordinarily successful Olympic games, our first successful Paralympic games, and this will be a moment that will really allow Los Angeles and California to shine with your support.

Well, thank you so much. I am so proud of Los Angeles, and I'm proud to be a Angelino. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I have no doubt that we're going to have a beautiful, successful game. I wanna bring it back to the dais. I see that it's assembly member Calderon and myself.

Would you like do you have any questions?

Yeah. No. Just a comment. It's so nice to see you back here. I don't know what to call you.

Assemblyman, councilman.

No one does. You know? Is it Paul is fine.

Paul. Paul. But I too I just wanna echo what madam chair said. I think LA and California will rise to the occasion. So I'm not worried about that at all.

And I wanna thank you for your leadership and because

I know that with you there, we're gonna be okay.

Thank you so much.

And then also, thank you for working with the small businesses. We've been working with you now for a couple of years, and you've been out doing a lot of outreach to our small businesses. Send the mayor my regards. I'd like to thank her for her leadership as well. You mentioned the company Ramp that's helping with with small businesses and financing.

Is that only in LA proper, LA City proper, or are that or can also the business chambers and the businesses around LA also use these resources?

So there's a number of tools, and allow me to talk about, the different functions that they serve. Ramp is primarily a procurement awareness tool. So if small businesses in your district register with RAMP, they'll be notified of all the procurement opportunities that LA twenty eight has that we have within the city and so forth. So this really is the central hub that connects business to businesses to those opportunities.

But in addition to ramp LA, we have our business source centers, which are helping businesses to get prepared.

We have the LApreneur program, which mayor Bass created, which is, includes an online learning platform for small businesses to utilize. It streamlines preparation and education for our entrepreneurs, And it's a partnership with our economic and workforce development department, Loyola Marymount University, the business source centers, and so forth. Procure LA is another opportunity that Mayor Bass created that provides free services and resources to allow our small businesses to to be ready.

And, Get in the Game LA is another one that I I didn't mention that was created by, the LA the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. And it's a terrific online program, online and, in real in the real world.

But the online part of it has, on demand training modules. It has, networking and mentorship opportunities so that a small business can connect with with a mentor and and get prepared that way. So among all of these tools, there's really a robust opportunity for our businesses to to be ready to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

And these are businesses outside of LA. I have to say that because

Oh, yes.

A lot of my cities like Gardena and Inglewood and those

Yes. Anybody can register on ramp, for example. Anybody, at least in the county, and I imagine they don't particularly limit it that way, can participate and get in the game LA. If you walk into a business source center in the city of Los Angeles, I don't know how much people are gonna really, you know, ask about that, but those are those are primarily city programs. Yeah.

But the others are open to anyone.

How is the city identifying and reaching small businesses, especially those in historically underserved communities? Like, what is your outreach to them?

Well, the business tour centers are engaged in that twenty four seven Okay. All the time. They you know, with or without the games, they're engaged in outreach to to their neighborhoods. We have, 10, business source centers throughout the city. They're one stop shops.

They know their neighborhoods. They know their communities. They know the needs of of those businesses. But in addition to that, around the games, Mayor Bass has conduct has a small business cabinet, which is focused very much on that kind of outreach. We've done a number of workshops within the mayor's office, reaching out primarily to diverse businesses to give them the opportunity to learn about these opportunities and connect with LA twenty eight and others.

We have Procure LA, which is a contract financing program that Mayor Bass was able to secure a million dollars in funding from Bank of California to provide capital opportunities to them. And I mentioned the LApreneur program. And there's also been the the economic and workforce development department working with the mayor's office of business and economic development have conducted a number of outreach events inviting small and diverse businesses throughout Los Angeles and beyond, to come and learn more about these opportunities.

We had an annual we had a sports and entertainment procurement summit, which we hope to make into an annual event. Because with all of the major events that we have coming up, especially, the games, of course, in '28, this presents a unique opportunity not just to participate in those, but to build a business that will be able to take advantage of future sports and entertainment and tourism related investments as well. Amazing.

Are there finance tools, grants, and or loan programs available to help small business scale up to meet the Olympic demands?

There are indeed. And I mentioned one of them that was funded by Bank of California. The business source centers always engage in kind of a matchmaking process. They identify what the needs are of a particular small business that comes in and then identify whether it's in the philanthropic community or in government where they can find those opportunities. So, we're doing that on an active basis regularly.

And, our off the city's office of finance, which is the tax collecting arm of the city, is also the the department that most directly communicates with our small business community. And through that vehicle, we're on a on a regular basis informing our business community, not just of the city programs around financing and and and other programs like that, but state, federal, county programs as well.

Thank you. Last question for me. What metrics will the city use to track small business participation, and how frequently will this data be reported publicly?

So that is an excellent question that I don't have a complete answer to. But LA twenty eight creates annual reports to the City Council of Los Angeles in areas around their own budget finance and and, also around the areas that they've made commitments to us to where we have working groups around, small business, workforce development, and sustainability. So they they have already developed very thorough reports in each of those areas, and the council will ask that those reports be updated to them as well.

But that only captures part of the picture because their procurement is is really a minority of the opportunity that's going to be available through the expenditures related to the game. So it's going to be incumbent upon the city, at least within our boundaries, to see where the benefits have come through business source centers, economic workforce development department, and the mayor's office of business and economic development.

Thank you. I'll come back to the dais. I know you guys are just catching your breath, and our members had to go to other committees. Welcome, Assemblymember Lackey. We had they have we had all kind of hearings today.

I know they wanted to be here. That's right. We are here. We we have Paul Kerkorian here. He's talking about business opportunities for our small businesses and how the city of LA is working with us.

And so I'm would you do you have any comments, Assemblymember?

Yeah. Thank you, mister Kerkorian. Welcome back to the capital. I I did wanna mention in my opening comments that I did have to run and cast some votes as well.

So sorry to miss the presentation, but, was curious to see if you had any thoughts about, engaging, the arts and, culture community in Los Angeles and, with, the Olympiad trying to make sure that we are sort of, leveraging this moment and this opportunity as well to really show the vibrancy and the the the the arts and culture community that we have here in in the region and what progress has been made towards that end.

Well, thank you so much for the question, Assemblymember. And that's, it's central to Mayor Bass' vision, for the benefits that will come from the games. There is and and just to clarify, because sometimes people, conflate these these things. LA twenty eight, as the organizing committee, will be responsible for conducting, implementing the cultural Olympiad. And that will be, you know, a very large investment in production of of cultural events throughout Los Angeles associated with the games.

It will be, I'm sure, terrific. But in addition to that, the city of Los Angeles is committed to creating an arts and culture festival that interfaces with the cultural Olympiad in order to ensure that we engage all parts of the city, artists at a community level in every neighborhood in Los Angeles. And very importantly, that will include a mural program, will include mural restoration and preservation. It will include, actually, business engagement of small artists through our procurement processes as well.

Because, you know, the part that people miss a lot is that artists are small businesses.

And so we need to make sure that we're engaging them and bringing them into this process so that they benefit from these expenditures as well. The Department of Cultural Affairs of the city has, has a plan in place for supportive local artists and for the mural program, which is entirely dependent upon how much we're able to fund it within the city. And, you know, as as you know, we have budget challenges now.

And as you in this committee very well know, sometimes arts and culture are sort of the last on the list when it comes to government funding. And and that's an unfortunate reality that we have to deal with at the local and at the state level.

But I'm confident that we'll have, significant city support for those programs, but it won't be enough. And and I can tell you that right now. It will not be enough. So one of the things that we've asked you to consider is supporting some of those programs, through with state funding. But in addition to that, we've already engaged the philanthropic community to come together in support of the Arts and Culture Festival as as well.

And in addition, by the way sorry. But in addition, we've engaged the philanthropic community around workforce development and youth development and some of the other things that are closely associated with activating our our arts community as well.

Thank you. Assembly member Fung and then assembly member Lackey.

Thank you so much, madam chair, and good to see you again. And thank you so much for your leadership, for your presentation as well. I have to jump from another committee as well, but you might have touched upon this in your presentation. I already mentioned the workforce centers and the economic and workforce development department and the number of entities there.

In your presentation as well, you might have mentioned this as well, but definitely wanna make sure we're reaching out to the different ethnic chambers of commerce, ethnic business associations, and then entities across the city and county as well.

I know that my purview is really with the city, but as we look at partnerships across the county as well, I just wanna to get your thoughts on that.

It it's extremely important and centrally important to mayor Bass's outreach effort with regard to all of the support programs that we have for the business community. I when I was a member of the council, I was the author of a local preference ordinance that that gave local businesses a a procurement

advantage. And that program had been in place for a few years when I was sitting in a hearing, and the hearing room was filled with members of the with leaders of the ethnic chambers. And this came up in conversation, and none of them had heard about it. And and the fact that this program that we had that benefited them directly was not something that they Harabedian informed about was a lesson that I took about the need for outreach and engagement and education about these.

So before you came in, assembly member, I mentioned that our office of finance sends out regular notifications to every business in Los Angeles that describes some of the programs that are available, which would include all of the procurement opportunities and business support programs that I mentioned.

Thank you so much. Thank you, madam chair.

Assemblymember Lackey?

Yeah. Welcome. Thank you. Good to see you. Of conclusion inclusion, I just wanted to give a suggestion that you don't forget Republicans. That's it.

Oh, Assembly member, now more than ever, Republicans are our friends when it comes to the 2028 games and all that comes with it. And and I'm sure general Hoover probably mentioned this, but the engagement that we've collectively had in Washington, the organizing committee, the city of Los Angeles, Metro, we've been working very closely with as many allies as we can, find in Washington.

It was a great pleasure for me to work closely with mayor Holt in Oklahoma City in in because they are also a venue city, and now we're gonna have quite a few other venue cities throughout the country because of football preliminary matches.

So we're we're really actively looking at how we develop those kinds of relationships because because it's when we're asking for support from the Federal Government and from the state government, and from other venue cities that are having to make their own investments in these games, we have to remind people this Los Angeles has the honor of being the host city, but we're not the only game in town. This is America's games, and this is California's games.

And it's to the benefit of our federal, government and our state government in terms of new revenues that'll be realized, but also in terms of putting our best foot forward to the world. So this is this should never be seen as a red or blue issue. It's it this is one of the one of the things about the games that are so magic is the ability to bring people together across differences.

You know, when people from countries that are divided, you know, by deep divisions and even war in other times, they come together for the games. And if they can do that, then certainly, we can do that here in the state capital and

Well, I would subscribe to you right now that our country really needs a healing effort in trying to unite people, and this is such a I hope it's not a missed opportunity to continue to move in a counter position to the all this division that seems to be so prominent.

I I hope I'm not looking through rose colored glasses, but that's how I see the twenty eight days. Sure we don't.

I yeah. I see this as being the the one of the great opportunities we will have for restoration of unity, common purpose, a a sense that we are The United States and not red and blue states.

Appreciate that. Thank you.

That's right. That's why I will always have assembly member Lackey on my committees whenever I have an opportunity to appoint. I always have him here because he always has sign bound a sound mind in judgment. I'd love to see when you brought up the cultural events in that, we probably won't have you know, we don't know how much money we're gonna actually have for that.

I'd love to see, like, a meta cultural center, a meta a Apple festival, a Microsoft big festival, cultural festival for the Olympics, like Microsoft LA twenty eight.

We have some very big industries right here in California, so I'd love to see them participating, especially in the stuff that that's gonna bring our communities in for people who can't afford to actually go to the games and giving them a a good experience, giving Californians California's first. Right? Giving them a good experience in these games. And so I'll I'll leave you with that.

Well, I will say, madam chair, that in addition to the Office of Major Events, mayor Bass has created a new office of strategic partnerships with a deputy mayor, Amanda Daflos, whose purpose is to do exactly the sort of thing you just described, building the relationships with philanthropy, but also with corporate potential donors as well who can support this incredible once in a lifetime investment in, not just in the games, but in the future Southern California.

And so so we are engaging the corporate world in exactly that kind of request as well.

Well, I'm gonna call you assembly member. Thank you, assembly member, for coming and speaking with us today. We appreciate you, and I look forward to working with you in the next couple years.

Thank you so much for having me. So we have one more panel, and I guess we're gonna queue up. having me. So we have one more panel, and I guess we're gonna queue up.

I would now like to welcome our third panel that includes Stephanie Wiggins, CEO, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and I think she's, joining us by satellite.

Madam chair, can you hear me?

I can. It was very loud. That's okay. Welcome. I could see you.

Wonderful. Thank you. I I feel weird that I'm a transportation person and I'm not there today because I had to travel to you.

That's okay. That's okay. We know what happens, you know, with transportation and flying. We fly every week, so flying gets difficult. But thank you for joining us. I appreciate you.

Sure. I just have a brief presentation for you. I'm well aware I'm between you and the rest of your evening, So I'll be brief. It's great. I have been able to listen to Reynold, Janet, and Paul, and so they've talked a lot.

So I'll endeavor not to repeat what they have shared, but I do wanna formally thank you, Chair McKinnor, and Chair Ward for inviting me to speak today. Our agency's partnership with the state is critical as we prepare for these major events. Next slide. Here's the one who's gonna run the slide for me. So you've heard Reynold talk about how significant these games are.

I just wanna reiterate that these games will put the spotlight, not just on Southern California, but the entire state of California. All of our cultures that are being represented in our neighborhood, and the diverse and inventive people who live here. It surely is an opportunity to create community from both Angelina and Zinner around this celebration of personal achievement, national pride, and the things that bring us closer together. And Metro is planning to contribute to that.

Now you heard Paul say that in 1932 and 1984, for those Olympic games, we only have buses to help move Olympic fans around the Los Angeles area.

But for the 2028 games, Metro will have buses and rail lines, thanks to the partnership with the state to help fans from around the world access our Olympic and Paralympic venues. So these games are transit first with little or no park parking available for spectators at the competition venues. Next slide, please. I wanna use this opportunity to highlight where we anticipate visitors to be coming from and where they will be visiting.

Here, you can see on the slide that 40% alone are anticipated to be visiting from within the state, while we call these California's games.

And 40% another 40% from around the country, while we call these America's games, and 20% internationally for these global games. And for our colleagues here from around the state, I wanna emphasize that we want your constituents to have the best possible experience traveling at the game. Next slide. So here's a map of where they will be going and how they can use Metro. As you know, there are many venues, open events going on at multiple times during the same day.

Next slide. We are projecting that quite as many people who use our system today would use it during the two days of the 28, which means we will need to add an athlete to our system through the use of all bus fleets from around the country because existing public transit service does not meet significant demand that's generated by the games at most of the venues. And some venues are remote of existing service.

So we have developed this games enhanced transit service concept or GESTS, which will provide the capacity required to ensure that spectators and games workforce can travel to and from the venues. Next slide.

So one of the gaming essential projects during the Olympic and Paralympic games are these GES, which, you know, allows us to move people to these multiple events and multiple venues. Well, a best practice in The United States for former games, whether they whether they were summer games or winter games, is to borrow buses from transit agencies across the country.

And Metro has been able to optimize the fleet requirement in partnership with LA twenty eight, and we've determined that we need about 1,700 buses, additional buses to borrow. We have, through pledges from across the country, already secured over half of those required buses. And this slide and the next one show which agencies so far have partnered with us on this.

Next slide. You can note that many of the defense agencies are right here in the state of California. It's really important to demonstrate how California is showing up to ensure that these games are the most successful game ever. Next slide. So we are grateful to the transit agencies from around the state for partnering with us.

This slide illustrates the districts where these agencies reside. Next slide. And I wanna acknowledge the members on your committees who represent the areas where the additional buses are coming from, including vice mayor Lackey and assembly members, Sabir, Valencia, and Gonzales. Next slide. So the games are on report happening on top of Metro's existing service and in the existing central climate.

So I wanna share some context for our budget app to the legislature. Now Metro is facing a $429,000,000 operational funding gap this fiscal year, and this gap is expected to widen reaching to 1,300,000,000.0 by fiscal year twenty thirty one. And so while Metro faces an uncertain financial future with our board contemplating serious policy solutions in the coming years, we have invested significantly in build out of our region over the past decade to help create a legacy for Los Angeles and the state.

And we will need to secure additional funding to deliver transit for the game. We simply do not have the ability to fund these operators ourselves.

And I wanna emphasize that we cannot use our current funding to to subsidize these things because we must maintain our commitments to providing essential service to the more than a million people who we serve every day today. And the million people that we serve today are some of the most vulnerable in terms of lowest income populations that ride our service. Next slide. So our mobility concept plan and our which includes our 28 by 28 projects, They're about far more than just building transit. They're about creating opportunities for those who want it.

We wanna build thriving, healthier, and more connected communities, which I know is is that it was a base priority. It's also about making it easier for people moving around with healthier methods, including transit as well as biking and walking. Now Metro and our train mobility partner will need to make key investments to our system to be ready for the surge in users of our systems, and we are asking for the state's help in finding some key legacy improvements.

These projects address regional needs with a focus on trends and solutions that would provide additional connectivity in the game venue. These projects include key rail stations, wide rail transit improvement, mobility hubs, integrated transportation management, first last mile improvement, and transportation demand management for a total of $379,000,000.

I wanna close by emphasizing why state investment in the game is so crucial. As I mentioned earlier, not only are 40% of the current tickets being sold to Californians by the way, Reynold, I didn't get in the first round, so I'm looking for it.

So not only on the current table, the banks of the Californians, we are also depending on the state transit agencies, buses, and workforce to make these gains a success. The opportunity we have together with state investment is to lead a mobility focused infrastructure legacy by investing in high quality multimodal transportation options that lift up the state's goal for affordability, accessibility, and general access.

And finally, we know from the past experience that visitors from across the world will not just visit the Los Angeles region for the games, but I think, as Cher Woods mentioned it earlier, they will visit the entire state from the beaches of San Diego and Orange County. They will go to one country, the mat Temecula, all the way up to Napa, and explore everything that the area has to offer.

These visitors will not only enjoy exploring our wonderful state, they will be generating a large amount of tax revenue for the state, which is why we should invest in the infrastructure they need now.

And lastly, every dollar invested in Metro generates $3.50 in economic output. There's no better way for the state to leave their imprint on legacy as part of these historic things than to invest in the transportation infrastructure. And with that, that completes my present presentation. I wanna thank you again, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, miss Wiggins. I'm gonna bring it back to the dais, assembly member Lackey.

As a former highway patrolman, I'm very worried about traffic. I and I worked in the Central Los Angeles area for three years, and I know I came on right after the Olympics. But the spirit of our culture was different in the eighties than it is now.

So I I know that the mayor has actually asked for people to do the stay at home and do not but if they could if she could use a little stronger language, like, direct them to stay home or give some kind of incentive to stay home, that's the only thing that's going to work in large scale, in my opinion.

It's a different time, and it's a it's a different set of circumstances, and I hope that that's the only way this is going to work, is if people will cooperate with us.

And I think some will automatically, but we get more if we ask for more. And I hope that that she'll take that into consideration.

Thank you, sir. Assemblymember Ward?

Thank you, Chair McKinnor. I appreciate, miss Wiggins, your participation here today. I know you represent LA Metro, and I certainly know, you know, coming from San Diego, our MTS system, all of our systems across the state, you know, are really facing fiscal challenges right now, and you're you're dealing with a lot. And I'm very, very sympathetic, and we're trying to as we're having that budget conversation right now, be sensitive to what all of our local systems need for transit improvements.

I'm curious on your on your major matrix here. It is getting late in the afternoon. You know, were some of these to be, funded through the state, you know, for those that are in planning or planning and design, you know, what assurances will we have that they would even be operational and provide value for the LA twenty eight games in in, like, less than two years' time?

Yes, chair. Well, fortunately, the $379,000,000 that we're asking from the state is really matching funding. We are making the investment now to make sure these projects can be shovel ready and completed in time for the game. So the $379,000,000 ask from the state is the last amount of money we're asking for to make this list of projects a success.

We've been fortunate by whether it has been local CMAQ, CMAQ, and also CTC funding that that we've been able to leverage to begin to design and plan these projects.

But the $379,000,000 pass from the state is kind of the last, tranche of funding that we're looking for for the project to be delivered.

I guess I guess we're kind of restating my question, you know, one of the I know how long these projects take, and it is unacceptable how long it does take us to deliver on some of this public infrastructure. Not you specifically, but just generally, as I see, it takes way too long to get anything done. So we're coming up to crunch time with, you know, two years to go.

And if this is something that makes it past the post in the state budget with less than twenty four months to go, can these projects actually got get done to be able to benefit the game? Like, what are do you have you been thinking administratively about other ways to make sure that we're expediting construction and this is actually gonna be functional infrastructure?

Or are we using the games as an opportunity to be able to help, you know, create a long standing improvement for the LA system, but not necessarily serve the games?

Well, let me be clear. The app before the legislature is to serve the games. It has legacy benefits for some of these improvements for being completed before all of them waited before the game, but they'll be in service before the game. I do wanna be clear that our app is only for construction dollars. We have taken the risk again by securing external dollars as well as our own wealth of local dollars due to the planning, the environmental environmental clearance, all these projects that are environmentally cleared, and we're invested in preliminary engineering and final design. The $3.79 is essentially the match. Construction only.

That's why we're confident. We're constantly reviewing our schedules. But to your point about how do you know this investment will Yeah. Benefit the gains, we know right now this legislative cycle, this is our last opportunity. If we're not careful in this legislative cycle, these projects cannot move forward and they will not be ready in time for the game.

And the last question I had was, you know, you mentioned too about sort of the multimodal nature, which we're gonna have to think about all transportation options as well to get around the area. I know you're LA Metro, but how how is everything coordinated?

And this might have been covered a little bit in the first presentation I was sorry to miss about, you know, sort of that that regional view if you're thinking about your MetroLink, your Losan Corridor, and non non train related, I guess, you know, modes of transportation as well. You know, how are the games sort of thinking about, you know, sort of transportation holistically, and LA Metro is a big part of that. What what what are your

very important that LA28 is the lead and has formed what we call the game mobility executive

Uh-huh.

Where LA Metro is represented on the GME group, but also Caltrans, SCAD, other transportation agencies, MetroLink. My team has reminded me. What what so we are all at the table, including the state agencies, AlTrans, Telstra. And we will really have an opportunity to to see a small mecca possum of this ecosystem in action in just sixty six days as we are working together with the World Cup. Vice Chair Lackey talked about who's pee.

We're working with CHP, Caltrans, Los Angeles, all a number of transit agencies. Orange County, San Diego County, RTS has one system buses that will help them for the World Cup. So we get to show how this ecosystem can work together for the benefit of the state and all of the visitors and residents in our area right now for World Cup, and we're planning it for the World Cup so that we can learn from it because this is what we're planning to do for the Olympics.

Good point. Okay. Thank you.

I have one question. How will LA Metro ensure that international visitors, many unfamiliar with the system, can easily navigate the transit? Multilingual signage, apps, ambassadors.

Absolutely. So we will have all that in the work. California. That's really important. And if that international visitor plan for far ahead, then they want that information ahead of time.

Our our fare media will be digital. They can they can download it now. For social media, we'll be pushing out to that. It was a best practice that we got Paris used, and so we learned from the third summer case. We'll be doing that sooner here as well.

Well, thank you, CEO Wiggins. I appreciate you for coming and speaking with us today. It's been a joy working with you. We're pushing for those dollars, and and I appreciate you very much. And and, again, look forward to working with you in the next couple of years.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, we just have a few minutes. If there's any public comment, if anyone has any public comment, please come up to the mic. Yes. And each person will have one minute. One minute.

Thanks. Is this on? Can you hear me okay? Yes. Good afternoon, Chair McKenner, chair Ward, members of the committee, and LA twenty eight leadership, city of Los Angeles, and LA Metro virtually. Thank you for today's hearing and your continued oversight. I also appreciated being at last month's LA eighty four session on the legacy of the games.

My name is John Loker. I served on the 1984 LAOOC staff, and I've personally experienced 11 Olympic games. And some of the greatest moments in life are shared Olympic moments. Togetherness, journey, struggle, sport, and celebration of humanity. So I've been part of Olympism from the stands, from staff, from the village, and most powerfully in the streets and celebrations across communities and cultures.

And what I care deeply about is that Olympism for LA twenty eight must live in many more places outside the venues, in the communities, and the districts, and venue cities as much as possible. Some 13 to 14,000,000 people will attend as ticket holders, but not everyone who wants to get a ticket can get one or be a part will be able to be a part.

So the real opportunity is how many more people can experience alumnism together across many more communities and places, bringing locals, visitors, and the world into l a twenty eight. Mayor Bass, has called these games for all. That is Olympism at its best.

So the wonderful Superbloom vision should bring the games to life across the city and venue cities in as many inclusive community experiences as possible. And and as we've heard, much of that is already underway and being planned. But now is the time to connect it, coordinate it, and expand it across the shared ecosystems. So let's reach more people where Olympism truly comes to life and blooms shared across the connected and cooperated communities and agencies. Let's strengthen the shared value, the impact, the surplus, and enduring legacy.

Let's bring LA twenty eight Olympicism everywhere we can. To everyone we can together. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Well, madam chair, Andy Levenbaum on behalf of County of LA and I just share your enthusiasm like you have no idea. Los Angeles County, we are only operating and owning three of the venues, but we have broadened significant role in the twenty twenty eight games for public safety, transportation, and public health. The sheriff provides services for over 40 of this the county's 88 cities in addition to unincorporated LA County.

Our LA County consolidated fire district provides services for over 20 of the county cities in addition to the unincorporated LA County area. Our Department of Public Health provides services to the entire county except for Pasadena and Long Beach.

Our LA County Department of Public Works provides road management and maintenance services in all unincorporated area, and that's gonna include stretches of the proposed game route. So I'm I'm here today to remind you that the County Of LA stands as a partner. We're gonna need some funding. We're gonna need support as well. We're working with our local partners.

We're working with our federal partners. We care about these games. We have the the enthusiasm that you exude is infiltrating everything we do, so we thank you. But we just want you to know that LA County is there, and and we're hoping you're there for us too.

Absolutely. X.

Chloe King with political solutions on behalf of the California Orthotic and Prosthetic Association or COPPA. They represent a number of businesses throughout California that provide orthotic and prosthetic care to patients. COPPA is very eager for the upcoming twenty twenty eight games as several of their patients will be participating in the Olympics as Paralympians. And we would like to highlight that the devices that they will be wearing, are highly customized by a professional and qualified health care provider. They're also extremely expensive.

Access to these devices that allow an an individual, to engage in physical activity outside of their normal, you know, activities, of daily living is currently limited and in most cases, nonexistent because these devices are so expensive. Insurances, often deem these, physical activity devices as medically unnecessary, which is something that COPPA, continues to advocate for, here in California.

COPPA is very proud to be working hand in hand with the so everybody can move initiative, which plans to fully, or, to introduce legislation or sponsor legislation in the future that will increase access, to prosthetic and orthotic devices for physical activity and the private insurance coverage of those devices. So thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. Well, it looks like we're at the closing of our hearing. Chair, would you do you have any closing comments? Well, thank you guys for coming.

Thank thank I thank all the panelists. I thank the members of the committee, both committees for sticking it out with us today. We heard a lot of stuff about the Olympics. I cannot wait for three hundred and eighty days. What about you, chair?

It's coming. And so I think we're gonna be a success, and I can't wait. And I'll see you all at the Olympics. Thank you. This meeting is adjourned. =