Community Corner
Tell the City Your Concerns About LAFD's Cut Backs
Janet Turner, chairwoman of the Pacific Palisades Community Council, urges Palisadians to speak up.
On Wednesday, May 18, the city council will vote on the new Los Angeles Fire Department Plan for fiscal year 2011-2012.The mayor and the councilmembers need to hear from you immediately. Pour in your emails and phone calls on Monday and Tuesday.
This LAFD plan will permanently cut back on most days from 33-50 percent. A new computer system used by LAFD said that Station 69 doesn't get many calls but what it fails to evaluate is the threat we live under every day being in a known high-risk brush fire zone surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains that haven’t been cleared of brush in years and which are not in compliance with the Fire Marshall.
What it also fails to consider is the history of brush fires in our area. During the Malibu fire of '93, Chief Manning said before TV cameras that if we lose Pacific Palisades, we will lose Los Angeles.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
and Councilwoman Janis Hahn will both vote "no" while the others are very likely to vote “yes”. One reason is that most of them are not impacted by the plan and Councilman Smith, who has two affected fire stations, is going out of office.
Residents need to contact the mayor and tell him they won't stand for this. Palisadians need to contact City Council President Eric Garcetti, who is considering running for mayor, and tell him he must vote "no". In addition, Garcetti must encourage the rest of City Council to vote "no" and to live up to their promise to residents to put safety first. if runs for mayor; let's tell him he has to earn it now.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It's also important that to contact the other 11 members of city council and tell them to reshuffle the money in the budget, put public safety first and vote "no" on the LAFD Deployment Plan.
There's an old expression: for want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost and for want of the horse the whole village was lost. Not having the resources that we need to fight brush fires standing by on non-red flag days could seriously, Brentwood, Bel Air and Encino just to name a few.
As one fireman said, "Fire knows no day or time."
Contact information for the Los Angeles City Council and others involved are attached to the article.
Fore more information visit the Pacific Palisades Community Council Website by click here.
