When City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto decided she needed help in a high-profile federal lawsuit around providing shelter for unhoused people back in May, she asked the L.A. City Council to approve an initial two-year contract with an outside law firm “not to exceed” $900,000.

The contract was notable for its size — 15 attorneys, each at $1,295 an hour, for a multi-day mini-trial, a follow up brief to the court and a likely appeal of the judge’s ultimate ruling — at a time when the city was facing a nearly $1 billion budget deficit.

But the $900,000 authorized by the council was blown massively in just the first few days — with no sign of the council being informed or giving its authorization, despite the council’s instruction to keep them in the loop.