StringerBell said:

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ThaManMythLegnd said:

The Governor of this state isn't a random twitter bot. The LAFD fire chief isn't a random twitter bot. You're the one speaking on shit you don't know. You must be a politico using terms like "fact check". Newsom literally said there were issues and here you are trying to spin things.

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Black_Samson said:

Hey…

Y’all need to chill with the “slave labor” angle.

These are guys that sign up to trade their life for time off their sentences and a job placement upon their release.

This also ain’t easy to get into. You still need to pass the tests and have schooling.

This particular program is a good faith one, they ain’t digging shallow ditches in Mississippi or Arkansas. They ain’t working cotton fields or pomegranate plantations.

They are firefighters thru and thru.

So change your thinking on this one.

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SneakDZA said:

It's slave labor bro. Indentured servitude at best.

If they could become paid firefighters after they get out there could be an argument but nah... this is local governments and privately owned prisons colluding with each other to use black and hispanic men to do life endangering work for little to no pay and when they get out... FELON. not hero... felon.

And not that president of the USA type of felon... just the regular degular cant even get a job as a firefighter type of felon. It's either back to crime or digging ditches.

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Black_Samson said:

I understand why you feel the way you do.

That being said. They are learning a skill and receiving job placement for a career that is almost 6 figures.

There also is the choice element. They can choose to just sit and rot.

Honestly… I’d rather them do this because it literally is working to break the cycle of recidivism. Thereby harming for profit prisons.

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SneakDZA said:

I get why they choose to do it... but I would feel a lot differently about it if they could actually qualify for a job as a firefighter after they get out. The fact is they can't in any town or city so it's 100% exploitation.

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Black_Samson said:

I think you may be receiving bad information.

Based on what I have read and heard these guys get job offers to continue firefighting upon their release.

Granted they may never run their own station but they still have an opportunity at a career in their craft upon their release.

They also don’t take any old body. You gotta meet a qualifying criteria to even be considered for the program.

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SneakDZA said:

I'll admit I might have been receiving bad information. I'm gonna look into this shit because it's all new to me and I got triggered and it's either a decent program or fucking terrible.

But yeah... you got me... I was spouting off from the school of retweets. I'm better than this.

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SneakDZA said:

What is that more competent leadership to you?

I only ask because I see politically based undermining as the cause for the lack of the ability for the government to effectively prevent or respond to these issues but the issues themselves are based on the fact that the underlying causes have been politicized in the first place.

*we still don't even know much about the new orleans attacker or their motives or background so I'm making assumptions there.

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SneakDZA said:

Can you explain how you're using a guy as a reference but at the same time denouncing him? It sounds like you guys want the same answers.

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SneakDZA said:

Can you explain how you're using a guy as a reference but at the same time denouncing him? It sounds like you guys want the same answers.

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Newsom Misled The Public About Wildfire Prevention Efforts Ahead Of Worst Fire Season On Record

Gov. Gavin Newsom dramatically overstated the amount of fire prevention work performed on “priority projects” he touted and cut Cal Fire’s mitigation budget by $150 million last year, an investigation by CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found.

www.capradio.org

Did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget? The answer gets tricky

Employee raises and other expenses are expanding the Los Angeles Fire Department's budget. At the same time, the agency has had to scale back operations in recent months.

www.latimes.com

When Mayor Karen Bass unveiled her budget plan for 2024-25, she called for a 2.7% reduction in spending at the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Her proposal, unveiled in April, sought $23 million in cuts to the department, with much of it focused on reduced equipment purchases.

But while her citywide spending proposal was being reviewed, Bass was also in closed-door negotiations over a major boost in pay for the city’s 3,300 firefighters. Those pay hikes — four years of raises and an array of other financial incentives — were not finalized until several months after her budget went into effect.

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The City Council approved the firefighter raises in November, adding more than $53 million in additional salary costs. By then, the council had also signed off on $58 million for new firetrucks and other department purchases.

Once those two line items were added, the fire department’s operating budget actually grew by more than 7% compared to the prior fiscal year, according to the city’s financial analysts.

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After the blaze broke out on Tuesday, critics of the Los Angeles Police Department seized on the numbers in Bass’ 2024-25 budget document, arguing that funds allocated for police came at the expense of firefighters. Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, shared a post that bemoaned “LAFD underfunding.” Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the Los Angeles Times, has also criticized the city’s handling of the fire department budget on social media and elsewhere.

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Bass, who was in Africa when the fire broke out, has sought to counter the budget cut narrative, saying that spending at the department has grown during the current year. She said funding for firefighter raises was part of her budget from the beginning — but was included in an account separate from the fire department budget.

“Money was allocated to be distributed later on, which actually went to support salaries and other parts of the fire department,” Bass told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.

Last year, faced with a serious budget crunch, Bass and the council eliminated dozens of civilian positions in the department, all of them already vacant.

Crowley, appearing Friday on Fox11, was asked whether the city of Los Angeles failed her and her department. After the question was posed multiple times, she said, “Yes.”

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City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, whose office helps prepare the city budget, said that overall fire department overtime, counting all categories, actually increased in this year’s budget by nearly $18 million. In addition, he said the budget reductions did not limit the number of firefighters who responded to the Palisades fire, or how long they worked.

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That four-year agreement, which included annual pay hikes of 3% and improved healthcare benefits, provided the same types of increases that Los Angeles police officers received a year earlier, according to a city analysis. The starting salary for a firefighter is $85,315, Szabo said, and is expected to reach $90,514 in the coming months, not including overtime and bonuses.

Szabo said he will ask the council in the coming weeks to move the $53 million for firefighter raises out of the unappropriated balance and into the fire department budget. The salary deal will consume an additional $23 million in increased pension and healthcare costs, he said.

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Those changes, planned last year, would push the fire department’s operating budget to $963 million — a 9% increase over the previous year, Szabo said.

Tracking spending at the city’s public safety agencies is a difficult task. Both the police and fire departments routinely overspend their budgets, particularly after emergencies or unexpected public safety needs.

Bass’ first budget as mayor, covering the 2023-24 fiscal year, allocated $837 million to the fire department. By the time she released the 2024-25 budget, her office was expecting fire department spending for that first year to exceed $900 million.

Last month, Szabo informed the council that the fire department had already begun to overspend its budget for the new budget year, due to expenditures such as overtime pay.

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A month before fires, L.A. fire chief warned budget cuts were hampering emergency response

The Los Angeles Fire Department's budget was cut by $17.6 million, about 2%, this fiscal year. The fire chief warned last month it would make it harder to respond to emergencies.

www.cbsnews.com

LurkerSix said:

I happened to find more info on the Fire departments budget. The Chief been doing some interviews saying budget cuts slowed their response, but when you dig deeper, there were slight cuts to things deemed not necessary , but the overall budget got increased & they all were getting raises and more benefits. And every year they seem to go over budget.

Now it makes me wonder if the reason shes saying this is she politically motivated.

Did Mayor Karen Bass really cut the fire department budget? The answer gets tricky

Employee raises and other expenses are expanding the Los Angeles Fire Department's budget. At the same time, the agency has had to scale back operations in recent months.

www.latimes.com

Almost a Billion spent on the fire department, but somehow they're underfunded? Thats crazy when you think about it

A month before fires, L.A. fire chief warned budget cuts were hampering emergency response

The Los Angeles Fire Department's budget was cut by $17.6 million, about 2%, this fiscal year. The fire chief warned last month it would make it harder to respond to emergencies.

www.cbsnews.com

But the LAPD got an additional $125.9mill, but somehow they're defunded.

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Last year, faced with a serious budget crunch, Bass and the council eliminated dozens of civilian positions in the department, all of them already vacant.

Those cuts have hampered “core functions” in the department, including payroll, community education programs and the equity and human resources bureau, which addresses personnel grievances and workplace equity, according to a Dec. 4 memo

In her memo, Crowley said a $7-million reduction in overtime variable staffing hours, or “v-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, the loss of the overtime funding has hindered the department’s ability to test radio equipment, complete pilot training and carry out brush clearance inspections, which are “crucial for mitigating fire risks in high-hazard areas.”

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Disanthrope said:

Does containment mean put out?

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Infamous114 said:

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AP3.0 said:

What in tf were the Kardashians using all that water for?

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