At a news conference on Saturday regarding the terrible wildfires that are still raging, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley presented a united front, one day after rumors circulated that the chief had been sacked.
Both the fire department and the mayor’s office issued statements Friday night denying the rumors, stating that Crowley remains the agency’s chief. During a press appearance that night, she and Bass did not appear together, which fueled rumors of alleged problems. It was disclosed earlier in the week that Crowley had warned that recent budget cuts of $17 million might make it more difficult for LAFD to respond to crises.
The reduction of $7 million in overtime funds, according to a memo sent by Crowley to the Board of Fire Commissioners on December 4, “severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies.”
However, both leaders told reporters Saturday morning that fighting the wildfires, which have damaged hundreds of buildings, including houses, schools, shops, and churches, and killed at least 11 people in various parts of the Los Angeles area, is their “No. 1 priority.” Bass stated that despite their differences, the two would stick together during the current situation.
“To be clear, the fire chief and I are committed to putting out these flames and preserving lives. Bass stated on Saturday that she and the chief are “in lockstep” in their leadership and that any disagreements they may have will be resolved in private.
A reporter asked the mayor if she had any plans to fire Crowley, and she replied, “No.” She did not, however, answer a reporter’s inquiry about whether LAFD’s emergency response capabilities have been harmed by the budget reduction for this fiscal year.
A analysis of city data revealed that between the fiscal years 2023–24 and 2024–25, LAFD funding decreased by $17.6 million, or 2% of the overall budget. In an interview with Norah O’Donnell of CBS News, Crowley stated that the department had to reduce non-essential duties, but that this did restrict the department’s ability to respond to the fires “to a certain factor.”
According to Crowley, “We did exactly what we could with what we had,” “Something that is as significant as this particular fire, I would say we threw exactly what we could with what we had.”
Bass, meanwhile, denied on Thursday that any of the cut funds had a negative impact on firefighting operations.
“There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” she stated. “The unprecedented wind storm, wind at such ferocity that we haven’t seen in years, is the context in which we were dealing with this.”
A four-year, $203 million contract with the firefighter’s union was passed by the Los Angeles City Council in November. The money was taken from the general fund of the budget and was meant to pay staff members’ salaries and provide health benefits.
Genethia Hudley-Hayes, the president of the LA Fire Commission, stated at a commission hearing on December 17, three weeks prior to the deadly wildfires, that the city’s fire service had reached a “crisis point.”
“It is not unfair to say that we are in crisis mode within the Los Angeles Fire Department,” Hudley-Hayes stated. “Anybody who knows a council person really and truly needs to be either going to city council, talking to their council person, talking in their neighborhood councils, doing whatever they need to do because we really are at a crisis point.”