(Editor’s note: At the Palisades Democratic Club’s Annual Meeting, Councilmember Traci Park was among the speakers. She urged everyone to sign a petition to get a half cent sales tax on the ballot for the fire department, with that money going towards equipment and staffing. In response Palisadian Krishna Thangavelu, who lost her home in Tahitian Terrance wrote the following letter.)
The Palisades Fire destroyed nearly 7,000 buildings.
Photo: CAL FIRE
A little detail to help you understand why I cannot support yet another measure asking money from the public.
I think the issue is putting the pressure where the pressure belongs. And it is most certainly NOT on the public and their pocketbook. The City must simply do a better job at fire response management.
This measure to raise money for Fire department/firefighters? If only money would actually solve the real issues:
- A reactive and casual culture at LAFD — poor 911 response. Why was Station 23 at the beach during a windstorm? Why was the 911 call not responded to? It took 30 minutes for a station further away to fight traffic to get to the Palisades Fire. I did bring this up with LAFD Chief Jamie Moore at the last PPCC meeting. And he heard all points. And promised to change culture.
- Failure to study earlier fires like Lahaina and prepare accordingly … why did no one know about rekindle risk, burn scar patrol, and appropriate predeployment? What sort of shabby Fire department is this? Is there no learning… are we to recreate fire response from scratch each time around?
- Failure to use current technology like drones and imaging. Chief assured us he does have drones now. But they will only be used reactively to put eyes on fire. I want them to be used proactively. There is exactly zero reason why drones cannot patrol the Santa Monica mountains and at a fraction of the cost of a human.
- The morons at LADWP. Will money make them smarter? They are once again going to do repairs during peak fire season? Yeah… can’t support this sort of casual behavior from city departments that will once again put us at risk. Six miles of untested BS pipes from District 12. This is from the same geniuses that drained our reservoirs. Count me a skeptic. I am not convinced this patchwork will keep the Palisades safe.
- Failure to employ innovation to staff better, fix engines better, using zero to low-cost global talent. I’ve submitted proposals before to Chief Crowley and now to Chief Moore. Too bad LA City is too dumb to learn from corporate America. Why are firefighters making CEO level salaries on overtime? Bring in hundreds of free trainees using the best talent the world has to offer … offer them dormitory housing and feed them. A good spin might even have them paying to learn from LAFD.
- Get a handle on the permissive mismanagement of homeless encampments throughout the city. This is where most of LAFD’s work appears to be going. Use some of the previous homelessness measure money to fund LAFD. Oh wait.,, you don’t know where that money went. What makes me think you’ll manage money any better now?
EVERY SINGLE operation of LAFD and LADWP needs to be studied by outside experts in their fields. Every bad outdated policy needs to be kicked to the curb. Every bad actor needs to be fired.
This is not business as usual where more money will solve problems. More money will simply bring us MORE bad services. The system is broken. We don’t need a BIGGER broken system.
Our biggest exposure to fire risk is our poorly managed city services. Get these houses in order before daring to ask the public for more money.
FINALLY… when our judgements lawsuits from the Palisades Fire hit the State and City will be broker than they are now. We will need a federal bailout. Maybe ask the FEDS for money for all the issues detailed above. Stop wasting the public’s money and betraying their trust, one burned town at a time.
Krishna Thangavelu
P.S. The Palisades community has for YEARS complained about teenagers using explosives and setting off fires. The lack of response addressing this issue by LAPD and the Council Office has not gone unnoticed. Y’all need a tune up as well.
Kids scramble to avoid being hit by embers a year ago. These fireworks were lit at the Rec Center and no one was ever held accoutable.
Part TWO on the same conversation about higher taxes to fund LAFD:
Look… I get it that LAFD and LAPD need to be properly funded and staffed. I’m a fan of public safety.
How about we have a discussion in City Council to stop public spaces … parks, beaches, libraries, sidewalks, lakes… from being appropriated by private individuals for housing. Miraculously we will find that LAPD and LAFD are perfectly sized for the city. With excess capacity. Requiring no extra funding.
Don’t trash the city with encampments and then ask the public to pay more taxes, in PERPETUITY, for a BAD and FAILED strategy dealing with the population with the highest demand for services…. the encampment homeless ( a mix of criminals, the mentally ill and addicted). City leaders allow these souls to live miserable lives and die terrible deaths on the streets, thinking this is sound POLICY. For shame.
10 percent of the City’s budget goes towards 1 percent of the City’s population … homeless encampments.
From government performance auditor Tim Campbell:
“The last time I checked, at least 50% of fire calls were related to homelessness, and that percentage shot up to 95% in Skid Row. A good chunk of those costs aren’t part of the city’s “official” homelessness budget. “
I’m pretty confident the Army Corps of Engineers could solve this homelessness services issue in six months … tops. Why not be creative and ask THEM to help manage the crisis that increases demand on city services? Have them sort out institutional care for the homeless, deploy drone patrols over the Santa Monica mountains, make sure LAPD and LAFD are held to their core mission, and that trash gets picked up.
Local leaders, who have clearly failed, year upon year, seem not to be able to build consensus and manage this city and county around the core priorities detailed above. . And in case it needs to be spelled out … that’s their JOB: Manage budgets, manage problems like homelessness, and get a grip on the crisis we find ourselves in.
When was the last time we even heard about Los Angeles being a thriving, clean and safe metropolis. There’s a vision to work towards instead of nickel and dime-ing the public with another soon to be missing money scam.
We might need Federal oversight in managing Los Angeles before it becomes a complete post apocalyptic wasteland … full of dangerous zombies in public spaces and public transportation . We might have needed it years ago. Before entire towns began to burn down. This current game plan of budget and staffing and crisis management is just not working and no one locally seems to know how to fix it.
Trainees? I’m against slave labor or asking anyone to work for free, especially when it’s dealing with fire.
How about putting people on government assistance who are able bodied to work, How about using non violent criminals to thin our brush, I have seen this done in the Palisades on the trails. How about getting rid of every government official how had a hand in our fire’s magnitude and continue to perpetuate our demise!!!
The reality is that fire departments don’t fight many fires, and LAFD was clearly unprepared for this one, particularly at the command level.
Could this fire have been contained or prevented? Maybe not. However, it could clearly have been handled better, and a department that is focused on avoiding blame, editing down after action reports and spinning the story is not prioritizing self improvement and does not deserve a raise.
With the exception of Chief Moore, one has the impression that the players that mismanaged this fiasco are still in place across all city departments. There has been no self examination or organizational change. The only bright ideas are to raise taxes and tell homeowners to build more fire resistant homes.
These are all symptoms of a organizational decline. It is all very depressing.
Money is wasted on LA City. Essentially every tax increase has become permanent without anything to show for it.
First make the city cut funding to some of their most egregious mistakes and reroute that money to a fire department that is accountable to the public, not the city managers.
Same for the police. They were great in the immediate aftermath of the fire. Where are they now. Why are homes still being stripped of copper and other things?
Thank you to everyone who commented.
Michael: it is a practice in many professions to send the world’s best talent to countries like the USA for “fellowship” training. We would be bringing in the best and vetted paramedics, mechanics, firefighters for a one or two year fellowship. At the fraction of the cost of our own. And retaining the best by offering them a path to citizenship in my proposal. The pipeline is always to be full of the world’s best talent. We are in a budget crunch. We need to find ways to grow the staff without paying half a million a year for each staff member in overtime.
Mitch, Don, Martin.. excellent points.
Please come continue the conversation at my Facebook group watercooler: search for Protecting Parks and Beaches. It is a bipartisan public safety group with over 850 members from Malibu down to the Beach Cities. We are concerned about public safety in our parks, beaches, neighborhoods and we are committed to making a difference.
“Maybe ask the FEDS for money for all the issues detailed above.
I’m sorry Krishna, but as a non-resident of California I refuse to have my federal taxes raised in order to fix the abundant and obvious problems with your local and state governments.
Here’s a few ideas for you:
* Start electing competent leaders instead of virtue signaling “celebrities” and grifters.
* Stop paying civil service employees ridiculous CEO level salaries.
* Start DEMANDING competence and accountability from current government officials.
* Stop the corruption perpetrated by politically connected NGO’s and NPO’s.