After a meeting so long that Mayor Karen Bass missed her Friday night media briefing on the crisis, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley emerged still in the job despite blaming the administration's budget cuts for the failure to contain the raging wildfires. Bass said this week that the reductions had not affected the response to the fires; on Friday, Crowley contradicted that in interviews, the Los Angeles Times reports. Asked on CNN if the cuts, which she put at $17 million, hurt the firefighting effort, the chief said: "I want to be very, very clear. Yes."
Crowley told aides that she expected to be fired during the meeting with Bass, and the Daily Mail's website reported that she was dismissed. A mayoral spokesman said afterward that wasn't true, and the department posted on X that Crowley remains "in full command of the LAFD." The two officials' priority is stopping the fires, the statement said. Crowley had criticized the cuts before, writing in a memo on Dec. 4 that they "have adversely affected the Department's ability to maintain core operations." This week, she told Fox 11 that the department is understaffed and underfunded, calling the situation "no longer sustainable."
The city reduced fire department funding by $17.6 million—2%—for the current fiscal year, documents show. But the city council tapped the general fund in approving a four-year $203 million contract with the firefighters union in November to improve pay and health benefits, per CBS News. A city official who worked on the budget said funding wasn't cut overall, per the Times. When the raises and vehicle purchases are included, the department's budget will increase by more than 7% this year, said Matt Szabo. (More California wildfires stories.)
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