LA Fire Chief Blames Budget Cuts

You just knew it was only a matter of time before the Democrats in California started to turn on each other.  

With a lot of fingers pointing at the LA Fire Chief, who has been more focused on diversity than her department’s readiness, Chief Kristin Crowley is now pointing the finger at Mayor Karen Bass for having cut nearly $18 million from the department’s annual budget.  

Where is the Mayor? 

As the wildfires started to burn, Mayor Karen Bass was nowhere to be found.  

This was because Bass was in Ghana for the presidential inauguration. And you are probably thinking the same thing I am... why does a local mayor in an American city need to go to Ghana to see its president inaugurated?  

Bass took considerable heat when she arrived back in LA as her city burned, stating, "We have to save lives and we have to save homes. Rest assured that when that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn't work, and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etc.. But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.” 

She added, "I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us to do right now, and that is going to continue to be my focus. Thank you.” 

No Apologies 

Bass tried to get out of that press conference not addressing her absence, and she did, sort of.  

The media pummeled her with questions, asking, "Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning? And do you regret cutting the fire department budget by millions of dollars, madam mayor?" 

Bass just started at the journalists, not saying a word. The reporter fired back, "Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today? No apology for them [Los Angeles residents]? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?" 

Councilmember Traci Park was not so kind, stating, "Los Angeles is not yet ready," citing budget cuts and a lack of investment in the city’s infrastructure.  

Chief Crowley Pushes Back 

Chief Crowley has also been under fire for pushing diversity in her department rather than qualified candidates. Crowley, who is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community, has been taking her fair number of shots for this debacle.  

Well, she just fired back, also citing the cuts. Crowley stated, "Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service. That is a ground truth in regard to our ability. If there's a budget cut, we had to pull from somewhere else. What does that mean? That doesn't get done or that there are delays." 

She also noted that she warned the mayor that the cuts would hurt large-scale responses, such as what is needed during these wildfires. Crowley added, "Since day one, we've identified huge gaps in regard to our service delivery and our ability of our firefighters' boots on the ground to do their jobs since day one. This is my third budget as we're going into 2025-2026, and what I can tell you is we are still understaffed, we're still under-resourced and we're still underfunded." 

Crowley does not get off scot-free here, as firefighters who did not want to take the vaccine were removed from duty, and the department seems more interested in checking boxes, with minorities and women, allegedly putting white male candidates to the back of the pack, allegedly telling them it would take years before they came up to the list for testing. What is happening in California is horrific, but as I stated before, elections have consequences, and while it may sound cold, the people who voted all of these people into office are now facing those consequences.