What do you know about the Los Angeles Fire Department budget? Climate crisis news

like forest fires After it swept through Los Angeles, devastating Pacific Palisades and surrounding neighborhoods, many people took to the Internet to blame the devastation on the mayor and budget cuts.

Among the critics was Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. “The fires in Los Angeles are unfortunately not surprising,” Soon-Shiong wrote on January 8 on Channel

Mayor Karen Bass in April proposed cutting the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget by $23 million, as the city saw tax revenues decline and costs rise, city records show. The City Council in May amended and approved the budget, cutting the department’s budget by $17.6 million. Bass signed the city budget in June, giving the fire department about $819.6 million, down 2 percent from its 2023-2024 budget.

City officials, including Bass, maintain that the cuts have not affected the administration’s response to the crisis Fires. They pointed to unprecedented winds that fueled the flames, making it nearly impossible to fight the fires.

Local fire officials also say high winds have made the situation insurmountable for firefighters, but they also contend that systemic underfunding and recent budget cuts have hampered the department’s ability to respond to emergencies like wildfires.

The June budget eliminated 73 vacant civilian positions and reduced available overtime funds by $7.9 million. Fire Chief Christine Crowley says these cuts have affected “essential operations,” including payroll and community education programs.

Fire department salary negotiations

Bass signed the budget while the city separately negotiated a new contract with the Los Angeles Firefighters Association, the city’s firefighters’ union, on pay raises. After negotiations ended in November, the city provided an additional $76 million for fire department salaries, City Hall officials told PolitiFact, a fact-checking website.

Thus, the ministry’s total budget for 2024-2025 ultimately amounted to $895.6 million.

The budget increase was for salaries and did not address areas of budget cuts or resources local fire officials said they needed to adequately serve the community.

The council also approved $58 million for new fire trucks and other department purchases, the Los Angeles Times reports.

What the fire chief said about department funding

In December, Crowley wrote a memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners, a five-person civilian board that oversees the department, is appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the City Council. Crowley warned that civilian job cuts and overtime hours reduce the department’s ability to complete essential missions and prepare for large-scale emergencies.

In a January 10 interview, CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Crowley about the $17.6 million cut and whether it made a difference in the department’s response to the fires, which began on January 7. Crowley said the administration has reduced “non-essential” responsibilities. After further questioning, Crowley said the cuts limited the department’s response to fires “to a certain factor.”

Crowley told O’Donnell that the administration used all available resources, however High winds Complexity of response.

“I would say in winds like that, … if I had 1,000 engines to put out this fire, I honestly don’t think 1,000 engines at that particular moment could have put out this fire.”

But in an interview Friday with Fox 11 TV in Los Angeles, Crowley was more blunt about how the cuts would impact the response, saying the department was not “adequately” funded.

“Yes, it was cut, and it affected our ability to provide service,” she said. “Any budget cuts will impact our ability to provide service.”

Freddy Escobar, president of the local firefighters union, told the New York Times that the eliminated jobs meant there were fewer mechanics available to maintain the department’s trucks and engines, and the fire chief could also have used overtime pay for crews.

Fire Chief and City Defense Warnings

Crowley’s Dec. 4 memo wasn’t the first letter she sent expressing her budget concerns.

Crowley told the Fire Commission in a separate memo in November that the size of the department has not grown much since the 1960s despite the city’s rising population, The New York Times reports. Despite spikes in call volume, the city has not allocated enough staff or new fire stations to effectively respond to emergencies, she wrote.

Meanwhile, at a news conference on Jan. 8, Bass said she was “confident” that the fire department’s budget had not impacted its ability to respond to wildfires. She noted that the fire department’s spending would exceed the amount budgeted for this year.

Jacob Roby, the fire department’s public information officer, said at the same news conference that the fires were “completely unprecedented” and no fire department could have prepared for them. He did not respond to questions about the department’s budget or training, and referred those questions to Crowley, who left the press conference.

In a news conference a day later, Bass said the severity of the fires, not the department’s budget, was to blame for the devastation, and pointed to additional salary funds negotiated in November.

“If you go back and look at the cuts that were made, there weren’t any cuts that were made that would impact the situation that we’ve been dealing with over the last couple of days,” Bass said. “There was a little bit of confusion because the money was set aside for later distribution, which was actually going to support salaries and other parts of the fire department that were distributed a little later.”

Matt Szabo, the city’s chief administrative officer, told the Los Angeles Times that overall overtime for the Fire Department increased in this year’s budget by about $18 million. He said the budget cuts did not limit the number of firefighters who responded to the Palisades Fire or how long they worked.