Outgoing L.A. Mayor Gives Budget Boost
to Library Namesake
Two days before he left office July 1 as mayor of Los Angeles, Richard Riordan gave the Library Foundation of Los Angeles $350,000 in unspent mayoral-office funds to renovate portions of LAPL’s central library, which was named after Riordan just two months earlier.
“When I heard, I thought, ‘Isn’t that a wonderful thing for him to do?’” foundation Director Evelyn Hoffman said in the September 4 Los Angeles Times of Riordan’s “absolutely and totally unexpected” June 29 allocation. The funds were designated to spruce up the rotunda gallery, information kiosk, and children’s computer and discovery-center areas.
Altogether, Riordan made a $1.7-million cash outlay to city projects that benefit children, such as the L.A. Literacy Corps and the city’s BEST after-school program, which received an extra $250,000 and $400,000 respectively, as well as bonuses to office staff. Municipal watchdog Bob Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies denounced the administrative code that allows the mayor and city council members to disperse unspent office funds to “favorite causes.”
Posted September 10, 2001.
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