This post was updated Jan. 15 at 12:18 a.m.

Community members and public officials criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ approach to recent fires.

Bass signed off on the city’s nearly $13 billion 2024-2025 budget in June. Funding for the LA Fire Department is $17.6 million lower than last year, with respect to a nearly $820 million total budget, according to the City of LA website.

[Related: LIVE: JANUARY 2025 FIRES] 

Though the budget was released over six months ago, it has had heightened attention since the onset of fires across the county. The Palisades fire, which burns within city limits, has burned over 23,700 acres and destroyed nearly 1,300 structures as of 11:10 a.m. Monday, according to the Cal Fire website. As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, there are no evacuation orders or warnings covering the UCLA campus. 

In a December report, LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said the budget cut and elimination of civilian positions could impact the department’s ability to “maintain its core operations,” including technology, communications, training and fire prevention. The report was sent to Bass for consideration in December. 

Crowley said in the report that a reduction in staffing hours limited the department’s capacity to train, prepare for and respond to large-scale emergencies.

“The LAFD remains steadfast in its mission to protect the residents of Los Angeles,” Crowley said in the report. “However, these reductions have compromised the Department’s ability to maintain essential 911 systems, fire and emergency medical communications systems, respond to emergencies, and provide specialized services.”

Bass, who was in Ghana as part of a presidential delegation when the fire broke out, challenged the criticism of her budget decisions in a Thursday press conference, maintaining that the budget cuts to the fire department did not pose a direct hindrance to the LAFD’s ability to fight the fires. 

She said at the conference that the main contributing factor to the fire spreading was the “unprecedented windstorm.” 

“It’s most important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times – everybody knew that – but that the impact of our budget really did not impact what we’ve been going through over the last few days,” Bass said in the conference. 

A long-duration red flag warning is in place until noon Wednesday for much of LA County, with wind gusts likely to be between 55 and 70 miles per hour, according to a Monday morning advisory from the National Weather Service. While the warning suggests dangerous fire conditions, it is not likely to be as destructive as last week’s windstorm, the advisory said.

Crowley said in a Friday interview with Fox 11 that since she was elevated to chief in 2022, the department has been understaffed, underresourced and underfunded. 

“Since the three years that I’ve been in the seat, I’ve sounded the alarm to say, ‘We need more – this is no longer sustainable,’” she said in the interview. “We are screaming to be properly funded to make sure that our firefighters can do their jobs so that we can serve the community.”

Noticeable changes in the city’s budget combined with Crowley’s public criticism triggered rumors, including posts on the social media platform X and an article from the Daily Mail, that Bass would fire Crowley.

However, Bass said Crowley remains in the post during a Saturday press conference. 

“Let me be clear about something,” Bass said. “The fire chief and I are focused on fighting these fires and saving lives, and any differences that we might have will be worked out in private.”

LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia, the auditor and chief accounting officer for the city, said in a social media post that he was disappointed in the city’s decision to make budget cuts. 

“Seeing City officials in the press ignore the severe impacts of these budget cuts, especially the ones covering for their poor budget decisions to cut a majority of departments’ budgets & even AFTER Chief Crowley told them about the impacts these cuts have had, is DISGRACEFUL,” Mejia said in an X post Friday. 

Despite cutting LAFD’s budget, the City Council also entered into a separate contract Nov. 4 with the United Firefighters of LA City to fund annual 3% base wage increases for firefighting personnel across the next four fiscal years. 

However, the controller’s office found in a budget inquiry that none of the around $100 million approved to cover citywide pay increases has been transferred to the LAFD or paid to union workers. 

“Our City’s accounting system shows no indication that funds have been transferred to cover the raises in the agreement, so far at least,” a representative from Mejia’s office said in an emailed statement. 

Although some Angelenos have expressed disappointment toward Bass, others are more hesitant to blame her for the disaster. 

President of the Venice Stakeholders Association and UCLA alumnus Mark Ryavec said in a letter to the L.A. Times that previous city administrations should have heeded the warnings of climate change more and installed better-equipped firefighting water systems for the current city to work with.

“It appears that decades of city leaders — both elected and appointed — were asleep at the switch,” he said in the letter. “It then is difficult to assign blame to Bass, as she was elected only two years ago.”