Where else but in a city as badly run as LA would the proposed closure of a fire station in one of the city’s wealthiest communities stir the passions of residents and threaten to unhinge efforts to erase a $457 million budget deficit, at least on paper.
The battle over Fire Station 69 in Pacific Palisades played out at length Tuesday as the Bernard Parks’ Budget and Finance Committee finalized the mayor’s spending plan for 2011-12 for presentation to the full Council on Friday.
A mixture of borrowing to pay current bills, juggling accounts and one-time savings, the budget plan includes very few actual reductions in the permanent structural deficit. 
The largest savings, generating $200 million in cost reductions over the next three years, is the one proposed by Fire Chief Millage Peaks who eloquently defended his plan (cao_budget_fire.PDF) before the Budget Committee even as Councilman Bill Rosendahl kept wringing his hands in anguish over his constituents’ fears for their safety.
Fire Station 69 has become the poster child for City Hall’s follies and why the city’s leadership continues chasing revenue numbers downhill even as expenses keep rising.
It is the face of LA’s failure, its hopeless political contradictions, its inability to resolve its budget problems and define policies that move the city forward.
About 150 Palisades residents rallied Sunday at the station and will confront Fire Chief Peaks Thursday night at a community meeting arranged by Rosendahl with the mayor’s budget aide Georgia Mattera and United Firefighters union leader Pat McOsker also participating.
Friday morning, McOsker has called for a massive outpouring of firefighters at the Council meeting to protest what he calls a “crude attempt to silence by intimidation” objections to Peaks’ cost-cutting plan, referring to the threatened alternative cuts if it is rejected.
The Police Protective League has thrown its ample clout behind the firefighters, posting an article “Closing ranks for public safety” on its website that suggests Peaks plan to close 18 fire stations and four ambulance teams is a “matter of life and death.”
“When a brush fire threatens Malibu residents, LAFD Engine Company 69 is the primary first aid the county receives from the city because of its location on Sunset Boulevard near PCH and Temescal Canyon. Closure of this Company will result in 10-minute response time delays, assuming the next truck is not already out on a call – an unacceptable risk for Southland residents,” the union claims.
Rosendahl may be fearful of the wrath of the well-organized community groups in the Palisades but most of the rest of the Council knows their elections depended heavily on the police and fire unions.
They are political heavyweights at City Hall and usually get their way, which in part is why city government is such a mess.
What Peaks is proposing, based on a sophisticated computer analysis of an enormous amount of data, is to permanently restructure the Fire Department based on actual workloads instead of continuing the system of “rolling brownouts” that closed 22 stations and shut down six ambulance teams every day in a confusing rotation that achieved only temporary savings.
What the unions don’t like is more than 300 firefighter jobs will be eliminated through attrition over three years. That’s why the savings are real and permanent. The cops have formed a united front with them to protect the more than $80 million in extra money being thrown their way despite the budget crisis.
In the case of Fire Station 69, one of two serving the Palisades 25,000 residents, it averages less than one call per day, one that can be handled by the other Palisades station or the one in neighboring Brentwood.
The fact is that citywide 83 percent of all Fire Department calls are for ambulances, not firefighters, and most of those are in the city’s poorest areas, not the richest.
Peaks stood his ground before the Council but behind the scenes you can be sure that Janice Hahn and Jose Huizar and Paul Koretz were heeding the warnings of the unions.
So the discussion isn’t about eliminating the structural deficit and the details of Peaks’ plan to protect the public. It’s simply about who has the power to get what they want for themselves.
It’s the story of LA and why things have gone so wrong.
The LAFD and their union is a major fiscal menace who is extremely adept at preying upon the fears of the public with the media’s enthusiastic assistance.
If I had the time, I get a video camera and a scanner and respond to as many LAFD calls as possible. My sole purpose would be to video how many LAFD personnel and equipment is on site but doing absolutely nothing of importance or are simply not needed for the size/type of call. It would be a shocking revelation.
LA may have one of the best trained and equipped fire depts in the nation, but we also have one of the most bloated. Cities and counties across this country do equally as well with far far less full-timers on the pension system and utilizing professionally-trained volunteers.
Could not agree more wholeheartedly with the first post. The LAFD and the LAPD personnel sit around most days dreaming up new ways to enhance their pension. It’s a sad situation that is bankrupting the City and killing the taxpayers.
Most of them have no work other than to sue the city or go to long lunches in city cars. In busy departments, staff would not have the time to discriminate, throw racial or gender slurs, retaliate or do other dumb things that result in lawsuits. All city departments are bloated and used to a good life. Lose them.
Could not disagree more and my name is right up there for anyone to respond to. I will not lay this at the feet of the men and women that keep me safe, be they police or fire. Where the blame belongs is with the Mayor that has not done a damn thing to correct the problems of this City. He parties and the City gives away hundreds of millions to developers that funnel it right back to him and the other politicians that vote for every CRA project that comes down the pike.
Someone is going to die due to these cuts. The horror is that those sworn to protect us will give their all to save us including their lives. When we hear of someone dying in a fire or a robbery we note it and most move on but not the men and women of the LAFD AND LAPD. They live with it.
Let’s give them everything they need to protect us including equipment that is broken and tell City Hall, not one more penny for any developer.
Could not disagree more and my name is right up there for anyone to respond to. I will not lay this at the feet of the men and women that keep me safe, be they police or fire. Where the blame belongs is with the Mayor that has not done a damn thing to correct the problems of this City. He parties and the City gives away hundreds of millions to developers that funnel it right back to him and the other politicians that vote for every CRA project that comes down the pike.
Someone is going to die due to these cuts. The horror is that those sworn to protect us will give their all to save us including their lives. When we hear of someone dying in a fire or a robbery we note it and most move on but not the men and women of the LAFD AND LAPD. They live with it.
Let’s give them everything they need to protect us including equipment that is broken and tell City Hall, not one more penny for any developer.
CORRECTION
Give them equipment that isn’t broken.
What does giving monies to developers have to do with fraud, waste and inefficiencies in the city system. We need to correct both and not one in lieu of the other.
“Someone is going to die due to these cuts.”
Can you say “fear-monger”? I knew you could.
How does Detroit spell relief?
Emergency Financial Manager! Governor Brown should fire Mayor V.
Are there volunteer fire fighters that can operate this station?
Of course I can.
Fear mongering (or scaremongering) is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. The feared object or subject is sometimes exaggerated, and the pattern of fear mongering is usually one of repetition, in order to continuously reinforce the intended effects of this tactic, sometimes in the form of a vicious circle.
I don’t think that is what I did but we all have an opinion. As for volunteer fire fighters, I grew up with that system. It was a different time when people didn’t sue each other at the drop of a hat. The liability issue alone wouldn’t allow that today.
11:13, I disagree with you on the volunteer point made. Any liability that exists is more so from civil service employees who can sue for a multitude of reasons and usually guaranteed a settlement. Volunteers do not have that luxury. As for liability from the outside (member of the public), their training and certification/credentials would equal that of a paid employee.
Ron, thank you. I was tuned in to KRLA (870AM)
last night and heard your words and the tone of your voice, and realizedd that you care about our city and all of us who live here.
Yes, even the Mayor and the City Counci, even the unions. They are now in a position where they do not know how to save us from bankruptcy or they would. You see, they are boxed in by their own poor decisions.
We must be ruthless. When the city bankrupts,
what good to 25,000 residents in Pacific
Palisades to have 24-hour a day protection
against fires? EVERYTHING IS SHUT DOWN.
Did I read 4,000,000 residents in our city?
Yes, everyone, including the Mayor, City Council, West Hills where I live in the San Fernando Valley. Can you imagine the riots, crime, destruction? Sorry, I am not prepared
for that, are you? We are all involved, yes,
you, you, you and me. Let us join Ron Kaye
in this battle. All for one and one for all.
Don’t you just love how people will criticize our Public Safety 1st responders yet they are the ones who run towards the most violent criminals when everyone else runs away. The rank and file of both LAPD and LA Fire are stuck in the middle. They aren’t the ones who make the deals with the gangster Mayor on contracts. They are the ones who suffer the consequences as they are now. Firefighters’ work is just as dangerous. There are knuckleheads in every ogranization. The difference with LA Fire and LAPD is they risk their lives every day with gangsters, thugs, robbers, and go after the bad guys. They are just as fed up as we are at the failure of our politicians lack of leadership and management of this City. Its their Union leaders who made the deals with the Devil not them.
Let’s us not play any blame games anymore. Noone is perfect and maybe some belong in jail.
Have any of you any productive solutions? I will help you if I agree. That is what we need now-positive suggestions for changes that will make the major difference we need to put LA back
in businsss.
Ron Kaye has made us aware that we
are in trouble. He has written a million words!
No one individual can make change – it will take
all of us public employees, unions, small business owners who are near bankruptcy, gardeners, bank tellers,reporters,policemen, firemen, doctors, lawyers, merchants, everyone of
us – it is a big job. This site is a perfect
meeting place since it reaches many who cannot go
to meetings. Please share it with your family, neighbors and friends.
I have a suggestion noone will enjoy. Stop all city payments for a week. No paychecks for anyone. No expensive meetings with rich donors. No elections after the one already arranged for
May 17. We all make it with what we have in the
bank. I am talking about all elected officials,
public employees, bus drivers, streeet repairs,
if you get paid by the city, you have a week of no pay, no makeup pay either. That way everybody
pays acccording to their means. Not easy.
I told you all. It ain’t goin’ to be easy.
No sireee. This is one game where we all can
win with equal risk for each of us. The more
pay you get, the more you will pay to play. But
in the end, we can be on the road to recovery starting with good rules, not convenient ones
that enable cheating. I challenge you.
Its time for LAPD to be cut and share in the budget cuts. We don’t need that many police. In fact we have less police on the streets now than we have in the past, even with the increase in police hiring.
Time to cut the Mayor and Council Staffs. They serve no purpose but to push politics. I rather have my fire staff maintained than have more police which really don’t do anything! If the the Council and Mayor want to fix the budget than do what should have been done years ago, Cut staff and cut spending!
11:13/O’Sullivan – you parroted the exact scare tactic the rest of the department is using, and the press is airing: “SOMEONE WILL DIE!” The facts of the reduction plan as exemplified by the firehouse in this very article say otherwise.
That would be fear mongering, genius.
And you are wrong about liability – the bureaucratic version of this group’s fear-monger cry. Most of the rest of the country manages volunteer FFs and liability. So LA is alone in the US in being able to manage this? Really?
What a load of shit. LA is alone in having the will over unions and campaign donations to manage this – that’s the truth of the matter.
WENDY GRUEL is talking about cell phone use and abuse by city employees, good. How about no more take home of city vehicles?? To much B.S. about police and fire, how about abuse of city vehicles by other departments, D.W.P.,Sanitation etc. How much is the city paying for fuel, maintenance etc. How many millions can be saved here. Some employees live in San Diego County, the out skirts of L.A. County. Come on give up your city issued vehicles if you really care. Do your small part it all adds up. Some say they need them for recall. Come on I call B.S. on this, we have so many resources on hand the city would survive if they had to wait for you to return to work in your private vehicle. Your a legend in your on mind, step up to the plate.
From LA Times “A former Los Angeles Police Department officer has been arrested on suspicion of securities fraud, authorities said”.
Too much free time to sell securites rather than do policing. Unless LAPD is cut to size, there will be no budget balancing. Just because our idiot Mayor says 10,000 are needed, all intelligent residents should crically question this number. Anything coming from the dumb mind of our Mayor should be suspect and open to questions.
$100 MILLION that’s the cut LAPD got. I agree more can be cut like all those idiot staffers at the top Beck has inside PAB. Get all those uniform assistants all his assistant chief’s, Gerald Chaleff and the rest of the goons have and put them back out in the field and cut their salaries. Why doesn’t the media list all the top command staff Beck has and how much they cost. The rank and file have been complaining about the waste at the top. The dumb jerks on PPL are a bunch of ineffective as well.