The Pacific Palisades fire served as a catalyst for the Los Angeles Fire Department to confront its longstanding staffing and funding deficiencies. Union leaders expressed frustration over budget cuts that hindered and underfunded their operations, still negotiating salary raises for firefighters. Investigative reports revealed union officers, like Freddy Escobar, earn substantial pay through overtime and additional union stipends. This contradiction underscores the issues within the department, prompting a review of its financial practices and operational procedures to ensure better management.
It's a damn shame, and excuse my language, that it took this incident, the Pacific Palisades, to finally bring attention to our grossly understaffed, underfunded Fire Department.
Even as they denounced those reductions, the union leaders secured four years of pay raises for the city's 3,300 firefighters through negotiations with Mayor Karen Bass.
Escobar made about $540,000 in 2022... He more than doubled his base salary... with overtime payouts that year.
After inquiries from The Times, the LAFD said this week that it has launched a 'comprehensive review and overhaul' of its procedures for tracking the ...
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