Leaked Memo: Karen Bass Demanded Fire Department Slash Budget by an Additional $49 Million... One Week Before the Wildfires Blazed

Guys, I'm starting to think the left has a bunch of very misplaced priorities.

Leaked memo reveals LA Mayor Karen Bass demanded her fire department cut an extra $49 million just ONE WEEK before wildfires broke out

By JOSH BOSWELL FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

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

This cut is already on top of $17.6million of cuts in her latest budget.

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.

DailyMail.com interviewed current and former senior LAFD officers briefed on the shocking proposed cuts, and exclusively obtained the memo from an LA Fire Department (LAFD) whistleblower who posts on social media under the moniker 'LAFD Watchdog'.

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

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'They did not want this out. It's an internal memo not to be distributed,' one currently-serving 25-year veteran of the Fire Department told DailyMail.com.

'It comes from top brass downtown, City Hall.

'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.

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'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.

'We're already shy 200 paramedics, and we're on the verge of another 200 quitting because we can't do this any more.

'If we don't work overtime, they suspend and threaten to terminate us. It's untenable.'

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Meanwhile, Bass, who was on a trip to Ghana to attend the West African country's presidential inauguration on Tuesday has been heavily criticized for the trip - as a warning was sent out about 'critical' weather conditions days prior.

Bass defended her leadership when asked at a press conference on Thursday and said: 'I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us to do right now. That's going to continued to be my focus.'

Even celebrities, who are not only the most gonzo-leftwing people in the country but who further will literally lose their careers if they upset the Progressive Blob, have had enough.

Now, to be honest, most of the celebrities making noise about Newsom and Bass resigning were already Suspected Conservatives. Sarah Michelle Gellar, for example, supports Israel, and I think Gillian Michaels supports keeping girls sports for, you'll never believe this, girls.

Still, they seem emboldened, which suggests to me that they're themselves receiving strong signals from their friends and colleagues that the Never-Criticize-the-Left rule is suspended, at least for now:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jillian Michaels and Sara Foster have joined Donald Trump in slamming local and state officials amid the devastating Southern California wildfires.

RadarOnline.com can reveal the fitness personality, 90210, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer stars took to social media to express their frustrations while slamming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

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Gellar, 47, took to Instagram to air her frustrations at Bass, 71, who has been slammed online for her response in the midst of the disaster as well as previous fire department budget cuts.

She tagged Bass in her story and wrote: "City of LA you want everyone to evacuate yet you have complete gridlock and not one traffic cop on the roads helping."

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Foster, 43, made her feelings clear on X, writing: "We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.

"Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish. Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits."

Like Trump, 82, Foster also called on Newsom and Bass to resign as she claimed their "far left policies have ruined our state. And also our party."

The Barely Famous actress is not the only celebrity to call out Newsom and Bass.

Former Biggest Loser trainer Michaels, 50, didn't hold back when expressing her "outrage" at state officials.

The fitness guru understands first-hand the trauma victims are experiencing as her Malibu home was burned in the 2018 Woolsey fire.

Although she consider her family "lucky" because they "didn't lose everything," she said the experience still greatly impacted herself and her children.

She told the Daily Mail: "People are dead, homes have burned, it is not your first rodeo. It is not.

"And when you know that you have a state that is prone to fire and -- I'm going to give it to you -- you've got global warning, you have literally have a tinderbox.

"Isn't this the part where you take the highest taxed, highest income tax, highest sales tax, highest gas tax and rebuild the infrastructure?"

Michaels further claimed Newsom did not take swift enough action and believed the National Guard should have been called in sooner to help with firefighting efforts.

The 50-year-old added: "I'm sorry, and the reason for me this is super serious is because this guy wants to be your president. This now goes from a California problem to a country-wide problem."

Obviously Joe Rogan and Mel Gibson are no longer afraid to be associated with the right. They called out Newsom and California's gonzo progressive circus.

Chuck star Zachary Levi was fulsome in demanding accountability and consequences:

I don't think these people are overly courageous. That's why I take their statements as not being reflective of just what they believe, but what they believe, based on conversations had with others, is now the acceptable and widely-accepted mode of thought.

posted by Ace at 03:36 PM

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