As the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, meets today to weigh two possible rescue plans for its institution — a $30 million bailout offer from collector and philanthropist Eli Broad and a merger proposal from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) — the New York Times reports that a temporary relief measure was also thrown into the mix this week: a partial bailout by the city of L.A.

Eric Garcetti, the Los Angeles city council president and a nonvoting member of MOCA's board, introduced a motion on Tuesday to allocate up to $2.8 million in city money to help the museum cover operating costs. The offer comes with a number of requirements, namely that "new leadership" be installed at MOCA "at all critical levels," that the institution remain downtown, and that it accept additional outside financial help.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that Broad criticized LACMA's merger offer yesterday, just after announcing a $25 million grant by the Broad Foundation for stem cell research. "The answer is like in the movie: 'Show us the money,'" he quipped.

Broad said that the question is which bailout can better guarantee secure funding; he stressed that his foundation, despite losing 16 percent of its funding since the beginning of the year, still has more than $2 billion in the bank. LACMA Director Michael Govan has not yet said how much money would be needed to carry out the LACMA/MOCA merger.