LAFD report suggests adding more firefighters as overtime pay enriches scores

As the Los Angeles Police Department plans to expand its ranks in the coming fiscal year, a new report from the Los Angeles Fire Department suggests that it, too, may need more staffing.

The report, submitted May 31 to the Board of Fire Commissioners, says that some LAFD firefighters and paramedics are overworked in “high-incident-demand areas” and recommends a new deployment strategy for some 24-hour rescue ambulances.

In some high-density areas, “large numbers of fire crews are busy with only EMS calls, leaving the area underserved for an immediate need for fire or rescue response,” according to the report.

The fire unit travel time of seven minutes to 90% of fire and EMS incidents referenced in the report falls short of the recommendation by the National Fire Protection Assn. of four minutes, a shortcoming attributed to “difficult topography in some areas, traffic congestion, and simultaneous incidents.”

The Standards of Cover analysis suggests that the department add a Battalion Command Team, a new fire station in northern Los Angeles and several rescue ambulances.

These changes would come with a cost, and the LAFD has already requested $880 million for its 2023-24 budget, an increase over its budget of $824 million in 2022-23.

For years, the Los Angeles Fire Department has paid out overtime in the hundreds of thousands to employees.

By late 2021, the LAFD had spent $22.5 million on overtime related to COVID-19, much of it to backfill the shifts of employees who fell ill or had to quarantine after an exposure to the coronavirus, data reviewed by The Times showed.

A city audit found that in 2018, more than 90% of sworn police and fire employees received overtime, earning an average of $27,737, while 40% of the city’s general employees, defined as other sworn and civilian workers, received such pay. That group earned an average of $7,528.

According to Transparent California, a watchdog group, 86 LAFD employees made over $400,000 in 2022.

LAFD officials said their records indicate that 64 employees made over $400,000 in 2022. The numbers “reflect members’ salary earnings, OT, and other pay and not benefits,” said Cheryl Getuiza, a department spokesperson.

In an August 2021 tweet, Kenneth Mejia — now the city controller — shared data showing that the top 10 Los Angeles city employees with the most overtime pay in 2021 were all employed by the LAFD.

In all 10 cases, overtime pay dwarfed salary, bringing individual compensation above $400,000. Several of the captains made more than $500,000.

Times staff writers Kevin Rector and Dakota Smith contributed to this report.