A City Council committee Friday weighed-in on potential funding measures to support the Los Angeles Fire Department, which could lead to a potential bond or sales tax.
In a 4-0 vote, the Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee advanced a motion calling for a report on proposed funding mechanisms. During January’s wildfires, the LAFD raised awareness of the dilapidated conditions of its fire stations, broken-down fire vehicles and troubles with staffing.
Councilman John Lee. a member of the committee, was absent during the vote.
Yolanda Chavez, who leads the municipal facilities team of the city administrative office, noted they will determine the priority needs for the department. They expect to run estimates on facility needs and explore potential taxes or bonds for a ballot measure — which requires voter approval for implementation.
According to Chavez, general obligation bonds are for public facilities to either “rehab or build,” and can only be used for capital and acquisition, not for operations. She added, “We’d have to look at other types of measures that could fund operations, staffing and just ongoing operations for those new stations.”
Chavez noted part of the discussions will be to determine where stations are needed, the response time and potential service areas. It could be that discussions show other measures are needed rather than new stations in certain areas.
“I encourage us to take on the hard questions in those discussions because we do have limited funds and we absolutely must keep people safe,” Councilwoman Nithya Raman said. “How we can deploy those dollars to do that work is important.”
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky raised questions about how the city will use experts, political consultants and polling to inform decisions. As the city explores potential revenue generating initiatives, some of them will require a two-thirds vote by registered voters, while others are simple majority.
“We just need to be mindful of how a bond might impact the general fund, especially given the current fiscal situation we’re in, and then there’s fees,” Yaroslavsky added.
Freddy Escobar, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the union representing LAFD sworn personnel, reiterated that the department is “underfunded and understaffed.”
“LAFD, with the size of Los Angeles, should have double the funding and double the firefighters, period,” he added. “We’re asking our elected leaders to support a ballot measure if we’re serious about making public safety a priority for Los Angeles.”