Just when one might assume that the depth of incompetence and mismanagement could not possibly go any lower, the whistleblowers have begun to speak out. An anonymous Instagram whistleblower who regularly reports on the Los Angeles Fire Department leaked an internal memo this morning that Mayor Karen Bass will wish had never come to light. 

The internal LAFD memo briefed fire chiefs in the jurisdiction that Bass wanted cuts of close to $50 million in this budget cycle. That would be in addition to the $17 million that Bass had already cut out of their resources this cycle, and would have forced the closure of more than a dozen fire stations. And Bass demanded that just days before devastating wildfires began breaking out in Los Angeles, and before the water ran out:

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass demanded her Fire Department make an extra $49million of budget cuts last week, a leaked memo revealed. ...

The extra cuts, requested just days before fires broke out and devastated swathes of Los Angeles, would have shut down 16 fire stations and crippled the department's ability to respond to emergencies, sources said. ... 

The memo is dated January 6, only a day before the devastating Palisades Fire started.

According to the sources, it was sent from LAFD 'top brass' at City Hall to division chiefs and captains - after a fraught meeting the previous Friday between Chief Kristin Crowley and Mayor Bass.

The Daily Mail has pictures of the memo at the above link. (The Instagram account is private, but that link is above as well.) The text of the first bullet point in the memo reads as follows:

The LAFD is still going through a FY2024/2025 $48.8 million budget reduction exercise with the CAO. The Fire Chief, Board of Fire Commissioners, COA, and UFLAC are steadfast in their message of defending what resources we currently have in place. The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations (not resources, fire stations); this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District. The details of this plan have not yet been developed. This is a worst-case scenario and is NOT happening yet. The Fire Chief will have a "Chat with the Chief" webinar next week to clarify the situation and the budget.

I'll just assume that the webinar was postponed ... indefinitely.

The LAFD has already had its budget slashed enough that it can't conduct necessary maintenance tasks, on its own equipment and on infrastructure for fighting fires. One LAFD veteran told the Daily Mail that they don't even have the budget to test hydrants any longer, and that Bass has been draining those resources to fund homeless programs:

'They're trying to allocate more money for the homeless, and they need to start taking from everybody.

'But we already exhausted our budget. It's already tapped. That's why they cut the fire academy in half, so they could save more money. That's why we're not testing if hydrants work any more. We're doing everything we can to save money.

And just because Bass keeps draining their budget doesn't mean that the LAFD's workload has gone down. It just means that firefighters are less able to respond:

'We have fire engines we can't get parts for. When one breaks down we strip it of parts to put on other fire engines because we can't buy any more parts.

'If you shut down 16 stations, that's about 750 personnel. Then they expect us to take the same call volume. And yesterday we did 3,800 calls, almost twice of what our daily call volume usually is.

Now, bear in mind that the state of California has one of the highest tax burdens in the country, ranking fifth (13.5% effective tax rate) in 2022, even without considering the extensive fees the state levies for additional income. In the same year, Los Angeles ranked 12th-highest for metropolitan tax burdens in the US, with another 10.9%. With all of that revenue, Los Angeles should be able to robustly fund critical services and infrastructure, especially police and fire departments as well as water management. 

Instead, Bass is draining those resources to pay for her social-justice priorities. So is the state of California, which hasn't used the $7.5 billion that voters approved specifically for water reservoirs to allow for proper firefighting in the state, especially in Los Angeles. And when the effluvium hits the fan, both Bass and Gavin Newsom are off doing anything but showing real leadership. 

California and Los Angeles voters chose this leadership. They chose to promote social engineering and virtue signaling at the expense of competence and safety. Perhaps they will realize that it's time to start making some dramatically different choices. 

Update: Speaking of choices, Bass chose to leave the country on a Ghana junket even after being warned about high risks of wildfires. But that's okay, because she left the city in the hands of a competent -- wut:

LA deputy mayor placed on leave after FBI raids home for allegedly making bomb threat. This happened in December. His portfolio included the fire department and public safety in general. https://t.co/FHpM21Ey6r

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) January 10, 2025

FOX 11 in Los Angeles reported that LA Deputy Mayor Brian Williams’ Pasadena, California home was raided by the FBI on Tuesday in connection with an investigation into a bomb threat against City Hall back in September. The FBI did not make any arrests at the time of the search.

On Wednesday, LA Mayor Karen Bass’s office released a statement on Williams’ being placed on leave.

"The Mayor's Office was notified that the FBI searched the home of Deputy Mayor Brian Williams yesterday as part of an investigation into a bomb threat he allegedly made against City Hall earlier this year," LA deputy mayor of communications Zach Seidl said in the statement provided to Fox News Digital. "He was immediately placed on administrative leave. The Mayor takes this matter very seriously."

No, clearly the Mayor does not take this seriously.