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The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP) The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP)

The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP)

Samantha Putterman
By Samantha Putterman January 14, 2025

As wildfires swept through Los Angeles, devastating the Pacific Palisades and surrounding neighborhoods, many took to the internet to blame the destruction on the mayor and budget cuts.

The critics included the Los Angeles Times owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. "Fires in LA are sadly no surprise," Soon-Shiong wrote Jan. 8 on X, "yet the Mayor cut LA Fire Department’s budget by $23M."

City records show that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass proposed in April 2024 to cut the fire department’s budget by $23 million as the city experienced lower tax revenues and higher costs. The City Council in May modified 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, a 2% decrease from its 2023-24 budget. 

City officials, including Bass, maintain that the cuts did not affect the department’s response to the January fires. They pointed to the unprecedented winds that supercharged the flames, making the fires nearly impossible to fight.

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

The June budget eliminated 73 vacant civilian positions and reduced available overtime money by $7.9 million. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley has said those cuts affected "core operations," including in payroll and community education programs.

Fire department salary negotiations, aside from the budget

Bass signed the budget as the city separately negotiated a new contract with the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the city’s firefighters' union, over a pay increase for firefighters. After negotiations ended in November 2024, the city gave an additional $76 million for the fire department salaries, city council officials told PolitiFact.

So, the department’s total 2024-25 budget eventually summed up to about $895.6 million.

The budget increase was specific to salaries after the negotiations and didn’t address areas that were cut in the budget or resources that local fire officials said they need to adequately serve the community. 

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The council had also approved $58 million for new fire trucks and other department purchases, according to reporting by the Los Angeles Times.

What the fire chief has said about the department’s funding

In December 2024, Crowley wrote a memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners, a five-person civilian board that oversees the department, appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the city council. Crowley warned that cutting the civilian positions and more than $7 million in overtime hours diminished the department’s ability to complete core functions and prepare for large-scale emergencies.

In a Jan. 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 that began Jan. 7. Crowley said the department reduced "nonessential" responsibilities. After more questioning, Crowley said the cuts limited the department’s response to the fires "to a certain factor."

Crowley told O’Donnell the department used all available resources, but the high winds complicated the response. 

"I would say in a wind event like this. … So, if I had 1,000 engines to throw at this fire, I honestly don't think 1,000 engines at that very moment could have tapped this fire down."

In a Jan. 10 interview with Fox 11 Los Angeles, however, Crowley was more blunt about how the cut affected the response, saying the department was not "properly" funded. 

"Yes, it was cut and it did impact our ability to provide service," she said. "Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service."

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

Fire chief’s warnings, city’s defense

Crowley’s Dec. 4, 2024, memo wasn’t the first letter she sent expressing budgetary concerns.

Crowley told the fire commission in a separate memo in November 2024 that the department’s size hasn’t grown much since the 1960s, despite the city’s surging population, according to reporting by The New York Times. She wrote that, despite steep rises in its call volume, the city had not allocated enough staffing or new fire stations to respond to emergencies effectively.

In a Jan. 8 news conference, meanwhile, Bass said she was "confident" that the fire department’s budget didn’t affect the department’s ability to respond to the wildfires. She implied that fire department spending would exceed the budgeted amount for the year.

Jacob Robbie, the fire department’s public information officer, at the same news conference said the fires were "absolutely unprecedented" and that no fire department could be prepared for it. He did not respond to questions about the department’s budget or training, deferring those questions to Crowley (who had left the press conference).

In another Jan. 9 news conference, Bass said the fires’ severity, not the department’s budget, was to blame for the destruction and referred to the additional salary money that was negotiated in November.

"If you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days," Bass said. "There was a little bit of confusion because money was allocated to be distributed later on, which was actually going to support salaries and other parts of the fire department that were distributed a little later."

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo told the Los Angeles Times that overall fire department overtime increased in this year’s budget by nearly $18 million. He said budget reductions did not limit the number of firefighters who responded to the Palisades fire, or how long they worked. 

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Our Sources

X, Pat Soon Shiong post, Jan. 8, 2025

X post, Jan. 9, 2025 

City of Los Angeles, FY 2024-2025 PROPOSED BUDGET, Accessed Jan. 8, 2025

City of Los Angeles, 2024-2025 BUDGET SUMMARY, Accessed Jan. 8, 2025

City of Los Angeles, Mayor Bass Signs City Budget To Bring More Angelenos Inside And Implement Responsible Budgeting, June 5, 2024

City of Los Angeles, 2023-24 BUDGET SUMMARY, Accessed Jan. 8, 2025

Los Angeles Times, Did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget? The answer gets tricky, Jan. 10, 2025

Fox 11 Los Angeles, LAFD chief says budget cuts hindered response to California fires, Jan. 10, 2025

NBC 4 Los Angeles, LA Fire Chief warned last month that budget cuts would affect response to large-scale emergencies, Jan. 8, 2024

VerifyThis, Yes, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the fire department’s budget, Jan. 8, 2025

Politico, Wildfire response threatens to end Karen Bass’ extended honeymoon, Jan. 8, 2025

The New York Times, Budget Cuts to Fire Department Are a Point of Contention, but the Full Picture Is Complicated, Jan. 9, 2025

ABC News, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass pushes back against criticism over management of wildfires, Jan. 9, 2025

YouTube, LIVE: Los Angeles mayor holds press conference on California wildfires, Jan. 8, 2025

YouTube,  LA Mayor Karen Bass holds press briefing on California wildfires, Jan. 9, 2025

CBS News, A month before fires, L.A. fire chief warned budget cuts were hampering emergency response, Jan. 10, 2025

Email interview, Jake Flynn spokesperson for Los Angeles Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, Jan. 8, 2025

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