Mayor Karen Bass, who was requested just weeks before dangerous fires erupted and devastated large areas of Los Angeles, “demanded her Fire Department make an additional$ 49 million of budget cuts” in addition to the already determined$ 17.6 million of funds cuts.
A leaked letter revealed Bass made the request, which would have shut along 16 fire facilities and crippled the agency’s ability to respond to emergencies, options said, according to the , Daily Mail.
The LA Fire Department LAFD journalist, Daily Mail.com, who interviewed numerous current and former senior LAFD officials in order to provide information on the proposed cuts, was the exclusive source of the letter.
Options claim that it was sent from LAFD’top brass’ at City Hall to department chiefs and captains on January 6 only one day before the devastating Palisades Fire started following a contentious conference between Chief Kristin Crowley and Mayor Bass on Friday.
‘ The LAFD is also going through a FY]financial time ] 2024/2025$ 48.8million expenditure reduction training with the CAO]City Attorney’s Office],’ the report said.
‘ The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations ( not resources, fire stations ), this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District.
‘ The particulars of this program have not yet been developed. This is a worst-case situation and is NOT happening still.’
‘ They did not want this up. It’s an inside note not to be distributed,’ one currently-serving 25-year senior of the Fire Department told Daily Mail.com.’ It comes from top brass city, City Hall.
According to sources with knowledge of the letter, Bass initially demanded tens of millions from the department’s tight budget at a conference with Chief Crowley on Friday.
‘ They’re trying to manage more money for the unemployed, and they need to begin taking from everyone.’ However, our resources has already been exhausted. It’s now tapped. That’s why they cut the flames club in half, so they could save more money. That’s why we’re never testing if sprinklers work again. We’re doing everything we can to save money.
‘ We have fireplace vehicles we didn’t get parts for. We deplete one of the elements we need to replace it because we are unable to purchase any more pieces when one breaks down.
‘ If you shut down 16 facilities, that’s about 750 staff. Therefore, they anticipate that we will receive the same phone level. And yesterday, we received 3,800 names, nearly twice the volume of calls we typically receive each day.
‘ We’re presently shy 200 doctors, and we’re on the cusp of another 200 leaving because we didn’t do this again.
‘ If we don’t work work, they halt and threaten to discontinue us. It’s unworkable.’
