LA’s shameful scrimping on fire safety

LA firefighters continue to rage against Karen Bass and City Hall, and with valid reason.

Not only did the mayor try to shift blame from herself to the LA Fire Department in the wake of last year’s devastating Palisades Fire, but for years, she and the City Council have scrimped on fire safety.

Today, LA firefighters lament heavy workloads –– with some shifts stretching up to 48 hours –– along with delayed and missed paychecks, busted equipment and declining emergency response times.

They’re so exasperated that fire crews have gathered signatures for a sales-tax-hike initiative geared to make the November ballot.

Longer response times? Marathon shifts? Missed paychecks? What exactly has been going on here?

For years, the mayor and 15-member council have deprioritized public safety, directing money instead to social programs. 

Last year, LA spent more on homeless programs than on fire protection (though the city did cut homeless spending this year). 

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Much of that money feeds a homeless industrial complex; nonprofits dine on tax dollars while dispensing temporary services that enable the homeless and entrench the problem –– all to keep the gravy train rolling.

Meanwhile, firefighters are missing paychecks?

The city’s priorities are askew.

Its competence is poor.

Public safety is any city’s most fundamental responsibility. 

Yet Bass and council members have cut or let atrophy the city’s key public safety departments. 

The value of fire crews’ training, expertise and courage was on full display this Memorial Day weekend in Garden Grove, about 30 miles from LA.

Firefighters there risked their lives to defuse a compromised chemical-storage tank that threatened to explore or spring a leak at any moment. The first responders did great work to spare nearby neighborhoods, and the broader environment, from calamity.

Back in LA, however, the mayor and council treat readiness as optional.

On May 21, a city budget that scrimps (again) on public safety sailed through the council on a 12-1 vote.

“Here we are a year and a half after the worst disaster in our city’s history, and our fire department investments are being deferred,” said the lone dissenter, Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents thousands of fire victims in Pacific Palisades.

She’s right. 

The city’s habit of scrimping on public safety is dangerous, shortsighted –– and shameful.