NEW: LA Mayor Demanded Steep Fire Department Budget Cuts Just Days Before Palisades Fire

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, was planning steep cuts to the Los Angeles Fire Department budget just one week before the Pacific Palisades fire ignited on Tuesday morning. Los Angeles had already slashed its firefighting budget by roughly two percent before the planned cuts, which would have shuttered multiple fire stations and significantly hampered emergency response capabilities, multiple LAFD sources told the Daily Mail.

According to a leaked memo obtained by the Daily Mail, Mayor Bass ordered on the LA Fire Department to make an extra $49 million in budget cuts. The extra cuts, which were demanded just days before the first of several devastating wildfires erupted in Los Angeles County, would have shut down 16 fire stations and significantly hampered the department’s ability to respond to wildfires, multiple current and senior LAFD officers told the outlet. The memo, which was dated January 6,  was obtained from an LAFD whistleblower who has been posting on social media under the “LAFD Watchdog” moniker.

Sources told The Mail that the document was sent from LAFD “top brass” at City Hall to division chiefs and captains after a tense meeting between Mayor Bass and LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley. “The LAFD is still going through a FY [financial year] 2024/2025 $48.8million budget reduction exercise with the CAO [City Attorney’s Office],” the document reads. “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 memo continued, noting that the extent of the cuts had not been finalized.

A seemingly irate Bass refuses to answer questions from a Sky News reporter upon returning from a trip to the African nation of Ghana

The memo generated anger across several LAFD decisions even before the wildfire crisis — which has burned more than 4,000 buildings and killed at least 16 as of this report — began last Tuesday. “They did not want this out. It’s an internal memo not to be distributed,” one 25-year LAFD veteran told the Daily Mail on the condition of anonymity. “It comes from top brass downtown, City Hall. They’re trying to allocate more money for the homeless, and they need to start taking from everybody,” the source added. “But we already exhausted our budget. It’s already tapped. That’s why they cut the fire academy in half, so they could save more money. That’s why we’re not testing if hydrants work any more. We’re doing everything we can to save money.”

According to the LAFD veteran, the department was struggling to meet basic needs in the weeks leading up to the crisis. Thanks to the budget cuts, firefighters have been unable to get replacement parts for aging fire engines, which has forced them to strip older engines already in service in order to save money. Bass’ proposed cuts would further cripple the department’s ability to respond to wildfires and additional emergencies, according to the report.

“If you shut down 16 stations, that’s about 750 personnel. Then they expect us to take the same call volume. And yesterday we did 3,800 calls, almost twice of what our daily call volume usually is,” the source told the Daily Mail. “We’re already shy 200 paramedics, and we’re on the verge of another 200 quitting because we can’t do this any more. If we don’t work overtime, they suspend and threaten to terminate us. It’s untenable.”

According to senior LAFD officers who were briefed on the memo prior to the leak, Bass was adamant about additional cuts in her meeting with Chief Crowley. “Bass wanted to cut even more,” one source briefed on the meeting said. “They asked for $49million more on Friday last week. The Chief said ‘We don’t have it.’ The mayor said, ‘find it.'”

Bass had previously steered roughly $17.6 million in LA Fire Department budget cuts — amounting to roughly two percent of the department’s budget — through a City Council vote on the city’s budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. These cuts had already “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires,” Crowley reportedly told the mayor. Chief Crowley first warned the mayor about the department’s diminishing ability to successfully respond to fires in a December 4 memo, which was obtained by NBC Los Angeles. The chief stated that budget cuts had hampered the department’s adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations, such as […] training, fire prevention, and community education.”

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley holds a press conference on the Pacific Palisades fire

As of Sunday morning, the Palisades fire is at just 11 percent containment, while the massive Eaton Fire is at just three percent. The Eaton Fire has already been responsible for at least seven deaths and has burned out entire neighborhoods in Pasadena and Altadena. Los Angeles officials have confirmed at least 16 fatalities, though the death toll is expected to rise as cadaver dogs comb affected neighborhoods.