Ahead of the release of his much-anticipated spending plan for the city, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday, April 16, that despite huge dips in revenue, he still plans to hire firefighters in the coming year.
Garcetti last month ordered a hiring freeze, but he hinted that this may not last into the next year, at least not for the fire department.
“I can guarantee you we will still have some fire classes next year,” he said, during a daily briefing on the city’s response to the novel coronavirus crisis. “We need to continue doing some hiring.”
Garcetti is planning to release his budget proposal on Monday. In recent days, he has indicated that there will need to be cuts, and said Thursday that there will not be any room in his budget for new programs unrelated to the response to COVID-19.
The mayor was joined Thursday by Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas to discuss a testing-sites initiative that is expected to free up firefighters who had been assigned to work at such locations.
Terrazas said that the upcoming year’s budget for the fire department will include likely some sacrifices, with a slowdown in training and hiring sessions known as “drill tower classes” possible.
“The last thing we want to do is take any firefighters and paramedics from the field,” he said. “But we can conduct business with the people we have now.”
The fire department in recent years has been working to restore resources, and has added back several stations that had been cut during the recession era.
Terrazas said the department is “in a good place right now,” in that regard. They have made some progress with that, restoring trucks and helicopters, and improving their technological capabilities, he said.
Controller Ron Galperin also issued a report this week saying the city’s initial revenue projections in the coming year could be down by between $194 million and $598 million than previously expected, with the city’s tourism industry gutted and many businesses shut down.
Garcetti also said Thursday that the hit to that industry could be seen in the stoppage of travel at LAX, pointing to a statistic that 95% of plane travel has halted.
But he said workers and the area airports are getting some aid soon. The federal stimulus act, known as CARES, is expected to bring more than $323 million to LAX, as well as $157,000 to Van Nuys Airport, he said.
And jobs at the city’s airports could be getting some protections. The Los Angeles World Airports Commission also recently approved some relief, in the form of rent deferrals or reductions, for rental car providers, concessions and others companies dependent on activity at the city’s airports, Garcetti said.
“It’s a critical industry that’s been hard, hard hit by this pandemic, fueled by thousands of middle class workers that have seen paychecks and economic security hang in the balance,” he said.
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