What Really Happened With the L.A. Fire Department Budgets?

A white picket fence stands with untouched roses. Six feet away, a home is gone. The decimation caused by the Palisades and Eaton fires is catastrophic and abnormal, and Los Angeles is grieving loss unlike ever before.

As several wildfires erupted across the city on Jan. 7, with fierce Santa Ana winds making it impossible for fire crews to stop the ensuing destruction, some residents — and online spectators — began to criticize Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles Fire Department Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, particularly because the LAFD’s 2024-25 budget received $17 million less than the previous year. Though the city maintains that the LAFD actually received $80 million more than 2023-24 — thanks to money allocated outside the department budget — a narrative began to take shape: Budget cuts made these fires worse, and these two women leading the response should take the blame. Part of the outrage was that the Los Angeles Police Department got a 6.8 percent funding bump while LAFD funding was cut. Part of it was the perception that the women only received the jobs because of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies, rather than their extensive experience. Across the political spectrum, people were pissed. 

According to CAL FIRE’s active incident reports, at the time of publication, the Palisades fire burned over 23,000 acres, resulting in 10 deaths, and the Eaton fire burned over 14,000 acres in eastern L.A. County, resulting in 17 deaths. Together, the fires destroyed more than 13,000 structures, from single-family homes and apartment buildings to schools and local landmarks. Though an untold number of firefighters were injured, Los Angeles County Fire Department Fire Chief Anthony Marrone confirmed that none were killed. 

“People want answers. When your house burns down or your loved one is killed, you want answers as to who was responsible for this,” Marrone says. “We have people hurting, people that need to bury their loved ones, and that’s pretty heavy — 27 people in a brush fire.”

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‘Cherry picking without looking at the full picture’

Although the department received 7.4 percent more money than the previous year, there were still cuts to some operations. Crowley had previously raised concerns about the department facing budget cuts in a Dec. 4 memo. The document said that a $7 million reduction in certain overtime hours had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.” According to the memo, budget cuts had affected core operations including “technology and communication infrastructure, payroll processing, training, fire prevention and community education.”

Last year, Mayor Karen Bass’ 2024-2025 budget plan proposed $23 million reductions in fire department spending. When the city council approved the budget in May, the proposed cuts were reduced to $17 million. Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez says she helped to restore wildland hand crews and secured $1.2 million for 26 positions, and Councilwoman Traci Park, whose district includes the Pacific Palisades, was able to restore four mechanics who perform maintenance, securing $440,000 for the positions. “Within this fiscal year, LAFD actually would go above what was allocated,” the Mayor said at a news conference, when asked about the memo. When asked for comment by Rolling Stone, her office provided a statement from her spokesperson, saying that she has “secured the federal, state and local resources we need to continue fighting these fires.”

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo expresses frustration that most news reports misrepresented the budget situation by “cherry-picking one account without looking at the full picture.” He says the budgeting is done with multiple accounts and money is allocated for the department with several agreements being worked out in parallel. 

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The firefighters were still negotiating adjustments to compensation several months after the budget was approved by the council, so salaries were not included in it. In contrast, the union contract for the LAPD was approved a year earlier, according to Szabo.

The council approved the salary deal in November with a 23 percent pay increase across five years, adding about $76 million for salary increases, pensions and indirect costs. Another appropriation made outside the budget was $58 million for apparatus and vehicle replacement. In total, the LAFD was budgeted $963 million during the 2024-25 cycle.

“When you actually look at the documents as it relates to the sworn fire suppression personnel, they’ve been funded at the level that they’ve been requested,” says Szabo, who prepares the budget and provides financial analysis to the city.

Szabo says that during the budgeting process, the city only reduced vacant civilian positions and did not cut any sworn firefighters. He adds that in case of an emergency, both the fire chief and the police chief have complete authority to deploy as they see fit. As the fires began, there were funds available for any type of emergency deployment activities. “Part of my job is to figure out how to pay for [emergencies] after the fact, if necessary. But in this case, there was plenty of funding,” Szabo says. Crowley’s critics also asserted that the chief should have paid the outgoing shift overtime to stay at work to increase the number of firefighters deployed that first day, as some other fire departments had done. 

‘We are spending more on labor costs.’

Rodriguez, the councilwoman, tells Rolling Stone that the LAFD has not grown commensurate with the population growth. And while the department got more money for the 2024-2025 budget cycle, it was primarily to cover cost-of-living salary increases. “A year ago, it was a lot less to pay for a gallon of milk,” she says. “We are spending more on our labor costs. It doesn’t mean that there’s any new positions being funded to the department.”

Rodriguez, who is the daughter of a firefighter, says that the department has not been funded to the greatest need possible. The community of Sylmar in her district, for example, has endured numerous wildfires, yet has been denied a much-needed second fire station for more than 20 years. In 2023, Rodriguez got approval for it and is in the process of acquiring a property but is still working on getting funding for design, construction, and staffing. 

There were significant reductions to the fire department’s staffing and apparatus after the 2008 financial collapse. “The city has never recovered its fire personnel and apparatus to those pre-recession levels,” Rodriguez says.

The LAFD Fire Chief’s office declined an interview, saying Crowley is focused on “mitigating the fires and ensuring public safety.” LAFD Public Information Director Karla Tovar tells Rolling Stone in an email that the department is focused on getting the proposed budget for 2025-2026 approved. The proposal requests over $1.1 billion for the LAFD, including $882 million for the operating budget and $244 million for non-departmental requests. 

‘Are there politics at play? Absolutely.’

Online attacks on Mayor Bass and Chief Crowley’s handling of the wildfires have ramped up, as more than 8,600 firefighters have been working to contain the fires and dealing with the aftermath. Many on the right are blaming the fires on diversity and pitting the two women against each other. 

Last week, a five-page letter signed by unnamed “Retired and Active LAFD Chief Officers” called for Crowley to resign, saying she went along with the budget cuts and leveling other serious allegations of failure against her. Three days later, the United Firefighters of Los Angeles Local 112 wrote a letter supporting Crowley. “Disgruntled and anonymous individuals are now mounting a campaign against you … you’ve been the only fire chief in decades to repeatedly demand adequate resources,” the letter said.

Others from the fire service have spoken out in support of Crowley as well. “At the end of the day, there has not been one comment made about the myriad of male fire chiefs,” Stacy Barneveld-Taylor, a retired battalion chief, tells Rolling Stone. “So the L.A. County Fire Chief, Orange County Fire Authority Chief, the male fire chiefs of Pasadena and the surrounding areas, CAL FIRE. Nobody’s making any commentary about those leadership individuals,” she says. She believes that the anonymous letter against Crowley isn’t from a collection of chiefs, but one individual with “an axe to grind with her.”

Barneveld-Taylor is a 26-year veteran of the LAFD and has known and supported Crowley for two decades, although they were never assigned at the same fire station. They also worked together through the Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service group, of which Barneveld-Taylor is a founding member, helping women and people of color get hired — and fairly promoted — in the fire service. 

“The reality is that the fire department has been underfunded, under-resourced, and understaffed for many, many years,” Barneveld-Taylor says. 

Rodriguez has the utmost respect for Crowley. “I’ve watched people come for her but it’s all counterproductive,” she says. “And are there politics at play? Absolutely. There are plenty of people who still don’t believe a woman belongs in any other role than being at home.”

Lauren Andrade is the president of Equity on Fire, a nonprofit advocating for an inclusive fire service, and a Fire Captain with the Orange County Fire Authority. Through her work with the nonprofit, Andrade has spoken out against harassment and discrimination within the fire service. She says that during former Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas’ era, there were a lot of complaints that were not being investigated, and Crowley has brought in an era of accountability. 

“Nobody is going to stop [an] 100-mph flaming firefront. And then you couple that with the fact that there was a lack of water, an infrastructure mishap, that’s what has caused this devastation. Has nothing to do with [Crowley] as a fire chief, and her tactics or strategies,” Andrade says.

County Fire Chief Marrone calls Crowley a valued and trusted colleague and says unsigned complaints are inappropriate. “I don’t think attacking who people are personally is appropriate. You do not attack who they are, what their gender is, what their sexual preference is, what pronouns they use — that is off limits.”

Marrone has been working with Crowley and other leaders to coordinate the response. He says that the chiefs don’t yet know the cause of the fires. Marrone says it’s neither normal for that many fires to start over a four-day period nor two very destructive fires to start on opposite ends of the county, eight hours apart. So, the fire chiefs have asked the federal government and arson experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to come in and help local investigators.

Fire Weather Watch will remain in effect though the evening of Jan. 23. Expecting possible rain, the Mayor issued an Emergency Executive Order today to shore up burn areas and to “mitigate the health and environmental impacts of fire-related pollutants on the stormwater system, beaches and ocean.” The LAFD has also pre-deployed resources around the city ahead of the dangerous forecasted conditions with powerful and damaging winds and an increased risk for fire.

“Budget cuts happen,” Barneveld-Taylor says. “I get that mayors need to do that. But when you look at the size of Los Angeles…you’ve just got this exponential risk of something catastrophic happening.