Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) – Acting Mayor Jan Perry said donors were coming forward to help the cash-strapped city cover its expenses for Michael Jackson’s memorial service today at Staples Center.

“I’ve received e-mails that are really kind of touching because they’re obviously coming from fans,” she said. “They’re very sweet, saying things like `I can give $10, $25 and I can organize my friends.’ But I think there will be a significant announcement that we’ll be able to make in the next day or so.”

Those wanting to make donations were being asked to do so through the official Web site of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, which accepts all major credit cards and gives instructions for sending a check payable to the “City of Los Angeles.”

Office spokesman Matt Szabo said the city was launching a Web site with a link to a “paypal” account into which fans could make only contributions using major credit cards. Fans will have access to the site through the mayor’s facebook page, facebook.com/villaraigosa , and twitter page,twitter.com/villaraigosa .
The Web site includes this appeal: “Help the City of Angels provide the extraordinary public safety resources required to give Michael the safe, orderly and respectful memorial he deserves. If you’re a Michael fan, consider giving a small donation to help us celebrate his extraordinary life and music.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine told the Los Angeles Times the city may have to pay $3.8 million in security and logistical costs related to the memorial, based on calculations by the city’s chief legislative analyst’s office.

He called on AEG, which owns Staples Center and which was to have promoted Jackson’s comeback tour, to cover the cost.

This is ridiculous.

The Mayor is soliciting donations to cover the memorial through his paypal account?  What the hell – is he hawking a used IPOD on Ebay?

This memorial needed to happen.  People needed to celebrate and to grieve.  I get that.  I’m a little more hardened about it than some, I think – but even I understand what he meant to music and the world.  That’s worth celebrating and remembering,

But for the mayor to come out with hat in hand, and the digital equivalent of a tin cup – man, that’s just gross, especially today.

This is what cities do.  They hold parades for their teams when they celebrate.  They grieve when they lose someone important.  And they don’t make regular people feel like they have to fork it up for something that they probably paid their taxes for, just in case.

By the way – bang up job on controlling the Lakers riots.  Foresight called, and wants to know why you don’t use him anymore for anything.

Just give the man , and his family, and the world, the service that’s needed.

It’s 3.8 million dollars.   Either get the family to pay for it, like any other family would have to do, or realize… this is what you have to deal with, being the mayor of a world class city.

Try to have a little class in the process.