Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Karen Bass reportedly tried to cut nearly $49 million from the Los Angeles County Fire Department budget shortly before deadly wildfires broke out in the area.
The budget cuts, as discussed in a memo leaked to the U.K. Daily Mail by a whistleblower, would have shuttered 16 fire stations across the city.
The memo said that the LAFD was “still going through” a $48.8 million “budget reduction exercise” with the City Attorney’s Office for the 2024 and 2025 fiscal year.
“The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations,” the document said.
That would have represented “at least one fire station per City Council District,” significantly impacting the ability of firefighters to
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