Even earlier than the Palisades fireplace had been extinguished, the town’s fireplace division funds had turn out to be a subject of nice scrutiny.
Some accused Mayor Karen Bass of lowering fireplace division operations amid a funds crunch. Bass and her workforce mentioned raises for firefighters elevated the division’s funds.
Now, practically a yr after the firestorm decimated the coastal group, L.A.‘s firefighter union has proposed a poll measure that would depart no query concerning the progress of the division’s funds: a devoted half-cent gross sales tax that may elevate a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} every year for the hearth division.
The United Firefighters of Los Angeles Metropolis Native 112 plans to submit language for the poll measure within the coming days.
“That is a very powerful factor for the LAFD actually ever,” mentioned Doug Coates, the performing president of UFLAC. “We’d like the help of the residents to push this by as a result of that is what’s going to assist save the LAFD.”
By 2050, the gross sales tax would elevate at the least $9.8 billion, UFLAC mentioned, permitting the division to construct at the least 30 new fireplace stations, purchase new fireplace vehicles, and enhance the scale of the division by about 1,400 individuals, in keeping with Coates and Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades.
Park, showing earlier than the Sherman Oaks Householders Assn. on Wednesday, mentioned the town doesn’t have the cash to construct new fireplace stations, restore present ones and increase division operations.
“The truth although concerning the fireplace division is that we’re not going to unravel this contained in the 4 partitions of this metropolis funds,” Park mentioned throughout a Sherman Oaks Householders Affiliation assembly Wednesday.
Park mentioned she was “all in” on the poll measure.
The gross sales tax would symbolize the greatest funding within the metropolis’s fireplace division since 2000, when voters authorised Proposition F, a poll measure that licensed the issuance of a $532 million bond — greater than half of which was allotted to construct 19 neighborhood fireplace stations and a helicopter upkeep facility.
If supporters collect sufficient signatures, the measure would seem on the November 2026 poll. That mid-term election may also characteristic contests for mayor, metropolis lawyer, and quite a few council seats.
Whereas Bass didn’t instantly verify help for the particular poll measure, she mentioned she was “supportive” of “new income sources” for the LAFD.
“For greater than 30 years, LAFD has wanted extra fireplace stations and extra assets,” she mentioned in a press release to The Occasions.
The mayor mentioned she had dedicated extra assets to the division yearly she has been in workplace, noting that this yr’s funds included 17 extra fleet upkeep positions, which might carry the division to its highest fleet upkeep staffing since 1995.
The division did face cuts throughout this yr’s budgeting course of, although it’s funds went up general. Town lower the division’s Bureau of Variety, Fairness & Inclusion and likewise nixed the LAFD’s emergency incident technicians, who assist coordinate responses to fires. The emergency incident technicians had been reassigned to different positions within the division.
The firefighter’s union has persistently argued that the LAFD is severely underfunded, saying the division’s progress has not matched inhabitants progress during the last 60 years.
The union has referred to as for the development of greater than 60 new fireplace stations, primarily based on an LAFD report written at the side of the Worldwide Assn. of Hearth Fighters, the mother or father group of the UFLAC.
“If you would like the Dodgers success, it’s important to fund it. If you would like success within the fireplace division, it’s important to fund it,” mentioned Frank Lima, the overall secretary-treasurer of the IAFF.
The push for a gross sales tax enhance follows a interval of union turmoil.
In Might, the native’spresident, Freddy Escobar, was suspended from his place after an investigation by IAFF discovered that he, Coates and one other prime officer had not correctly documented $800,000 in bank card purchases.
Individually, an investigation by The Occasions discovered that Escobar was paid greater than $500,000 in 2022 whereas working about 78 hours per week for the union and the hearth division. The LAFD responded on the time that it was conducting a evaluate of its procedures for monitoring the hours and reimbursement for individuals on union depart.
The IAFF appointed a conservator, John Bagala, to “restore accountable monetary stewardship and assure the success of UFLAC’s official targets,” on the native union.
The conservatorship ended Nov. 1. Escobar stays suspended as the costs towards him are investigated.
Coates, who had additionally been suspended, grew to become the performing president.
“The costs [against Coates] had been resolved,” mentioned Ryan Heffernan, a spokesman for IAFF.
Occasions workers author David Zahniser contributed to this report.
