Lengthy earlier than the devastating hearth in Pacific Palisades, leaders of the Los Angeles Hearth Division’s labor union complained that the company didn’t find the money for to maintain the town secure.
“It’s a rattling disgrace, and excuse my language, that it took this incident, the Pacific Palisades, to lastly carry consideration to our grossly understaffed, underfunded Hearth Division,” Freddy Escobar, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles Metropolis, stated at a metropolis Hearth Fee assembly in February.
Union leaders, together with high LAFD commanders, stated price range cuts had resulted in a backlog of engines needing repairs and never sufficient mechanics to repair them. However whilst they denounced these reductions, the union leaders secured 4 years of pay raises for the town’s 3,300 firefighters by means of negotiations with Mayor Karen Bass. And firefighters typically make far more than their base pay, with about 30% of the LAFD’s payroll prices going to additional time.
That features Escobar and different high union officers, who’ve for years been padding their paychecks with additional time whereas additionally gathering a five- to six-figure union stipend, a Occasions investigation discovered.
Escobar made about $540,000 in 2022, the latest yr for which data of each his metropolis and union earnings can be found. He greater than doubled his base wage of $184,034 with additional time payouts that yr, incomes a complete of greater than $424,500 from the town in pay and advantages, payroll knowledge present.
He collected a further $115,962 stipend from the union, in keeping with its most up-to-date federal tax submitting. He reported working 48 hours every week on union and associated duties, whereas data offered by the town for that yr present he picked up a mean of roughly 30 hours of additional time every week — a complete of about 78 hours of labor every week.
After inquiries from The Occasions, the LAFD stated this week that it has launched a “complete evaluate and overhaul” of its procedures for monitoring the hours and reimbursement of these on go away for the union.
“The Division has acknowledged the necessity for vital enhancements to its accounting and timekeeping processes associated to union launch time,” the company stated.
Freddy Escobar, middle, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles Metropolis speaks at a press convention on Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. Escobar greater than doubled his base wage of $184,034 with additional time payouts that yr, in keeping with an LA Occasions investigation.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)
The additional time revelations come because the union, often known as UFLAC, is going through scrutiny from its mother or father group over its spending. The Washington D.C.-based Worldwide Assn. of Hearth Fighters, which oversees native firefighter unions throughout the nation, is conducting a wide-ranging audit of UFLAC’s funds, together with using union bank cards by officers.
Excessive additional time prices have lengthy been an issue for the LAFD, whose around-the-clock staffing mannequin relies upon closely on staff taking over further shifts. Many firefighters — who’re usually scheduled for about 10 24-hour shifts a month, not together with additional time — contemplate the choice to spice up their pay with further hours at an elevated price a sexy characteristic of the job. However through the years, the LAFD’s reliance on additional time has generated considerations about fatigue, burnout and whether or not taxpayer {dollars} are getting used successfully.
For a few years, union leaders have warned the town that it wants to rent extra firefighters to get additional time prices below management.
Zach Seidl, a spokesperson for Bass, stated that additional time deployment is on the hearth chief’s discretion and that the LAFD obtained $13.6 million this fiscal yr to coach three new courses of recruits. Seidl stated that the LAFD union made wage will increase one among its high priorities in contract negotiations however that Bass additionally secured $51 million for 10 hearth engines, 5 vehicles, 20 ambulances and different tools. Bass’ proposed price range for 2025-26 consists of 227 new LAFD positions, about half of them firefighters and together with emergency medical technicians and mechanics, whereas another metropolis departments are slated for layoffs amid a virtually $1-billion price range shortfall.
Firefighters and hearth captains final yr made a mean base wage of about $140,100, plus a mean of $73,500 in additional time, in keeping with the town’s payroll database.
Marc Bashoor, former chief of Prince George’s County Hearth/EMS Division in Maryland, who teaches management to firefighters throughout the nation, stated vacancies create extra vacancies, as a result of “everyone will get psychologically and bodily bored with working.”
“It turns into this deafening cycle. Individuals get bored with working and begin getting injured, calling in sick,” Bashoor stated. “Additional time begets additional time.”
Underneath its contract with the town, the union can place a number of of its 10 board members on full-time go away from their LAFD jobs whereas they nonetheless gather their common salaries. The LAFD stated the board members on go away are allowed to select up further shifts on nights, weekends or holidays exterior of their 40-hour union workweek, being paid additional time at 1.5 occasions their hourly price. That’s the association Escobar has as union president, a put up he has held since 2018.
Escobar, who had the very best union stipend among the many board members, additionally made essentially the most in additional time in 2022, metropolis and tax data present. The data present he made a complete of $738,439 in additional time from 2018 by means of 2024. The LAFD stated that additional time payouts embody trip time that’s cashed out.
Freddy Escobar, head of the LAFD’s firefighters union, visits Hearth Station 26.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
Escobar is in his remaining two-year time period as UFLAC president. He didn’t reply to questions from The Occasions, together with which main emergencies he handled throughout his shifts and the size of his typical additional time shifts. He not too long ago instructed a Occasions columnist that he picks up a number of shifts a month.
Information offered by the LAFD present that in 2022, Escobar took on a mean of about 9 additional time shifts a month. The shifts had been usually in a single day on weekdays, beginning within the late afternoon and starting from 12 to 16 hours. Some shifts, totally on weekends, started within the morning and ran for twenty-four hours. For instance, on one Sunday in January, he took a 24-hour shift beginning at 8 a.m. For the subsequent two days in a row, a Monday and a Tuesday, he took 14-hour in a single day shifts beginning at 6 p.m.
Together with Escobar, UFLAC board members collectively made almost $750,000 in additional time in 2022, whereas every collected a union stipend starting from $67,000 to Escobar’s $115,962. All board members obtained a stipend, no matter whether or not they had been on go away, the tax data present.
In 2022, LAFD staff, together with each firefighters and others, made $225 million in additional time. The Los Angeles Police Division, with greater than triple the variety of staff that yr, spent about $214 million on additional time, data present. Town may be reimbursed by the state or federal authorities for some additional time work.
Former LAFD union secretary Adam Walker, who made virtually $50,000 in additional time in 2022, stated the division was coping with a staffing scarcity that yr.
“The additional time was a mix of obligatory additional time … and voluntary so as to do my half in assuring that assets stayed open to serve the town,” he stated in an electronic mail. Regardless that Walker was on full-time go away from the LAFD in 2022, the union’s tax submitting reported that he labored solely 23 hours every week on union and associated duties. Walker stated that quantity gave the impression to be a typo.
“I haven’t labored lower than 60 hours every week since I used to be 18 years outdated. Accordingly, throughout 2022, I reported to obligation as scheduled, working 40 plus hours every week,” he stated, referring to his full-time union schedule.
A firefighter turns away from wind blown smoke whereas offering construction safety on Del Rey Avenue as a number of properties burn on Del Rey Avenue on January 8, 2025 in Altadena, California.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Occasions)
In an electronic mail final week, the LAFD attributed the excessive additional time prices to staffing hearth stations across the clock, even when individuals are out sick or on trip. Up to now, LAFD officers have additionally pointed to staffing shortages and large-scale emergencies, together with excessive climate and wildfires, as fueling the prices.
An audit in 2019 discovered that LAFD additional time prices climbed from almost $166 million in fiscal yr 2014-15 to virtually $193 million in 2018-19 as a consequence of wage will increase, despite the fact that additional time hours hovered round 3 million for every of these years. On the time, the town controller known as for higher oversight and regulation to enhance staffing and defend staff from burnout, in addition to to make sure that taxpayer {dollars} had been spent successfully.
With roughly 3,300 uniformed firefighters and 106 hearth stations, the LAFD responds to greater than 500,000 calls a yr, or a mean of greater than 1,300 a day. Based on the LAFD’s strategic plan, 81% of calls in 2022 concerned medical emergencies, and the remainder concerned fires or different unspecified incidents.
The division is staffed by three 24-hour shifts, often known as platoons, with about 1,000 firefighters on obligation at any given time. When firefighters name out sick or are on trip, their shifts are both backfilled by staff working additional time, or the division locations some engines, ambulances or different tools out of service for the day.
Oshea Orchid, an lawyer who represented greater than 1,100 LAFD firefighters in a federal lawsuit alleging they had been stiffed out of additional time for being anticipated to point out as much as their shifts early, stated the town isn’t hiring sufficient firefighters to maintain up with these retiring or leaving.
“As a result of they sleep and reside there, they’re keen to work additional time,” she stated. “When you’ve got much less employees, you simply have big additional time payments.”
She added: “There’s no query in my thoughts that with extra employees, extra price range, you’ve got extra engines working — you’d have higher service.”
An settlement to settle Orchid’s case for $9.5 million is pending, courtroom data present.
Final yr, LAFD staff obtained 23% of the town’s complete additional time payouts, which reached $1.1 billion, the town’s payroll database reveals. The Division of Water and Energy accrued essentially the most additional time pay: $426 million. About $262 million in additional time went to LAFD staff, whereas the LAPD paid out greater than $265 million in additional time.
Town’s highest-paid worker final yr was LAFD Battalion Chief Nicholas Ferrari, who racked up greater than $644,000 in additional time, with complete pay and advantages of greater than $928,000, in keeping with metropolis knowledge. A few dozen LAFD staff every made greater than $300,000 in additional time.
Ferrari didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Firefighters battle the Palisades hearth off Bollinger Drive in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Occasions)
In a December 2024 report, then-Hearth Chief Kristin Crowley stated a $7-million discount to the additional time price range “severely restricted the Division’s capability to organize for, practice for, and reply to large-scale emergencies, together with wildfires, earthquakes, hazardous materials incidents, and enormous public occasions.”
However Metropolis Administrative Officer Matt Szabo instructed The Occasions in January that Hearth Division additional time really elevated on this yr’s price range by almost $18 million.
The union’s mother or father group, IAFF, can be analyzing the funds of UFLAC’s Hearth Basis, a charity for injured firefighters. That evaluate resulted within the elimination of Walker, the previous UFLAC secretary, from his posts with each the labor union and the inspiration board. The IAFF accused Walker of improperly depositing greater than $75,000 of the charity’s funds into his private accounts from December 2022 to January 2024, in keeping with inner data reviewed by The Occasions.
Walker, who nonetheless works as a firefighter, disputed the allegations. He stated the account he drew from was not for the charity however was arrange for 2 golf tournaments to boost cash for a disabled former firefighter. All the deposits, he stated, had been reimbursements for his professional out-of-pocket bills for the tournaments.
Individually, The Occasions discovered that UFLAC’s former treasurer, Domingo Albarran Jr., purchased a union automotive at an alleged low cost — after which reported an excellent decrease sale worth to the state to keep away from paying taxes. Albarran, who has since retired, acknowledged that he underreported the sale worth to the DMV as a result of he didn’t wish to pay taxes. However he stated the value he paid was truthful as a result of the automotive was in poor situation.
As soon as the IAFF completes its monetary audit, it’s going to decide whether or not to put UFLAC below a conservatorship, which may consequence within the elimination of officers, in keeping with an individual with data of the investigation.
UFLAC has lengthy been thought of a political drive within the metropolis, with elected officers valuing its endorsements and monetary contributions, though it backed the shedding candidate within the final two mayoral elections with no incumbent working.
Union leaders even have fiercely backed Crowley, who was ousted by Bass over, partly, her dealing with of the Jan. 7 hearth that leveled a lot of the Palisades and killed 12 individuals. Crowley and members of her government employees blamed Metropolis Corridor price range cuts for his or her incapability to forestall or restrict the scope of the destruction.
They stated 40 hearth engines — 1 in 5 of the LAFD’s fleet — had been out of service when the blaze broke out as a result of the Hearth Division didn’t find the money for to repair or change them. In an interview with a Fox 11 reporter, Crowley stated the town of Los Angeles and its leaders had failed her and her division.
However The Occasions discovered that LAFD officers selected to not predeploy any engines within the Palisades amid extraordinary wind warnings, despite the fact that dozens had been accessible. Bass cited the LAFD’s failure to maintain 1,000 firefighters on obligation for a second shift as one purpose she ousted Crowley.
Bass and her workforce have additionally stated that, as soon as worker raises had been factored in, the Hearth Division price range really grew this yr.
“Chief Crowley had the heart and the braveness to talk out,” Escobar stated throughout a Metropolis Council listening to on whether or not to offer Crowley her job again. “However her honesty value her her job.”
Solely two of 15 council members voted for Crowley’s reinstatement.
