Paul's boutique

Everyone in City Hall has been talking about it for months, but now it's official. Outgoing LA councilmember Paul Krekorian will serve as what has been described to me as an "Olympics czar" in the newly created Office of Major Events, LA Mayor Karen Bass announced today. As executive director of that office, Krekorian will "coordinate city departments and engage external stakeholders" for all major events coming to the region, with a heavy focus on the 2028 games. And with less than 3.5 years until the opening ceremonies, the termed-out council president emeritus is taking on a lot: a new department, a new role, and a whole lot of city baggage. No wonder he was cramming at "Olympics school" last summer.

Krekorian's new job began to take shape during those early trips to Paris when city leaders felt a growing sense of urgency, Bass said during today's Metro meeting, as the board bid a sappy farewell to Krekorian. "We need a point person. We have to get ready. And I feel like we're running a little bit behind," she said. "It's on us now, and I'm just very proud and excited to know that leading that effort from inside the city will be councilmember emeritus president Paul Krekorian."

While it will indeed be refreshing to have a single contact for everything megaevent-related — and probably a great relief to Bass's overloaded mayoral staff — Krekorian is, in many ways, the only person who can do this job. He's been on the council throughout this entire convoluted process of transforming LA into Megaevent Central™, including during the Olympic bid. He's served on the Metro board. And he was voted in as council president to guide a governing body riddled with corruption through the catastrophic fallout of the Fed Tapes. This part is most important as Krekorian's appointment arrives at a similar inflection point for LA and its 2028 plans. Despite LA28's supreme confidence that the organizing committee can work with a megalomaniac who has a history of attempting to overthrow the federal government, the election has flung an already tenuous situation into a whole new realm of uncertainty. In addition to being the "primary liaison between the mayor's office and LA28" — which seems like a full-time job in itself — our new czar will have to make nice with a federal administration that hates us, create a genuine culture of collaboration with other LA County cities, and stage the world's biggest events in a fiscally responsible manner without further bankrupting the city. No pressure!

The venue negotiations are probably the biggest reason Krekorian was brought on in the first place. Remember in June when LA28 made its first venue plan update — Oklahoma City??? — and the extremely cringe "mom-and-dad-are-fighting" vibes that ensued? Councilmembers yelled at LA28 for announcing events were going to other cities. LA28 deployed Olympic gold medalists to publicly insist that the city of LA still has more events than anyone else. Per the games agreement, which Krekorian himself approved in 2021, LA's governing body must vote to release the events elsewhere. And on November 18, the city's legislative analyst and administrative officer recommended that the city demand detailed economic analysis from LA28 for all their venue-shifting decisions to inform this vote. There are major questions to sort through here. Should we let softball be played three states away? Should we try to claw equestrian dressage back from Temecula? Should LA, technically, be guaranteed even more events? That's now on our czar to figure out. (Don't worry, he's a lawyer.)

Krekorian will also have to quell our various regional squabbles. For example, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn has been saying she wants to have the opening ceremonies at the Coliseum. "I'm negotiating with Casey Wasserman right now," Hahn told City News Service at her swearing-in this week. "He wants to have the opening ceremonies in SoFi Stadium." While I could see Hahn running that torch to Expo Park herself, she might want to have a word with her fellow Metro board member, Inglewood Mayor James Butts, who also seems to believe LA28 has settled on SoFi. As I've reported before, Wasserman has hedged on this, saying the opening ceremonies will straddle both venues, somehow: "the torch will go through the Coliseum, and the parade of nations will be in SoFi." Krekorian has a reputation as a go-between; I always think of him having that heart-to-heart with disgraced soon-to-be-former councilmember Kevin de León. Krekorian can work behind the scenes on all these issues to finally get everyone on the same page.

And while I'm not holding my breath, maybe, just maybe, the fact that LA has a single point person focused on regional megaevent collaboration will help resolve some of the general opacity issues and get a comprehensive long-range strategy in place. It's obvious that LA's current government is not equipped to plan a megaevent; we can't even plan more than one year in advance. Of course, the funny thing about Krekorian assuming this role after all his years in council is that he's been in a position to prepare us for what's been coming this whole time. It's comical to watch these councilmembers dispatch their flurry of motions for the games when they've had the chance to prioritize sidewalks and parks and bike lanes and shade trees for years. The czar will need to provide much better answers for why these things aren't getting done now.

As I listened to the effusive praise for Krekorian's leadership oozing out of this morning's Metro meeting, the whole thing felt more than a little like wholesome Mitt Romney's takeover of Salt Lake City's organizing committee after an epic bribery scandal imploded the IOC in 1999. Like Romney, Krekorian is the non-threatening steady hand the authority figures can entrust to right the ship. But Krekorian has also demonstrated he isn't afraid to challenge the status quo. After the Fed Tapes, it was Krekorian who pushed for the most sweeping changes to the city's charter. So far they haven't been quite sweeping enough, but through the governance reform process he definitely tried to leverage all his institutional goodwill into tangible changes for LA. This role presents yet another mic-drop opportunity. He has a lot of power and absolutely nothing to lose. He starts on Monday. 🔥