After the Palisades fire broke out in January, the head of the powerful firefighters union, Freddy Escobar, quickly got on the news and continued to say what he always had: The Los Angeles Fire Department was underfunded.
With millions around the world paying attention to the dire situation in Los Angeles, Escobar had a much larger audience than the month before, when he made the same points at a meeting before the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.
“The fire chief does not have the money to staff the resources that are needed,” Escobar told The Times on Jan. 10, three days after the fires started burning. “Unfortunately, everything was lined up to have a disaster.”
But Escobar says now in an administrative claim against the city that his comments about the department — which he thought were protected speech from his position as the elected head of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City — led to retaliatory action from Mayor Karen Bass.
The city has 45 days to respond to the claim before Escobar can file a lawsuit. The LAFD declined to comment on “union-related matters.” The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Escobar, a 30-year-veteran of the fire department, has run UFLAC since 2018. Months after the fires he was suspended from his union position following an audit, which found that more than 70% of the transactions he made on his union credit card — worth $230,466 — had no supporting documentation.
He also came under scrutiny from the media and the fire department after it was revealed that he made more than $500,000 in 2022 in union pay along with overtime firefighting work — about 78 hours of work per week.
But Escobar said in his claim that the investigation into his overtime pay was calculated retaliation by the mayor’s office because of his criticism during the fires.
The mayor summoned Escobar to City Hall on Jan. 10 to discuss the fate of Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, Escobar wrote in the claim.
Crowley, like Escobar, had been critical of the mayor and of the level of funding the fire department received in the lead up to the Palisades fire. The chief said the city of Los Angeles had failed her and the department.
In the meeting, Bass asked the union leader if he supported Crowley and why he kept making complaints about the staffing levels of the fire department, according to Escobar.
The mayor “expressed displeasure with those statements,” Escobar said in the claim.
Crowley and other mayoral staff joined what Escobar called a “tense” meeting, where they were both questioned about their comments to the media.
“From their expressions and tone, Escobar understood that his statements had offended the mayor,” the claim said.
While he assumed Crowley would be ousted, Escobar still believed he was protected in his union position.
Crowley was ousted from the top position at the fire department, but Escobar continued to run the union.
Months later, The Times was working on a story about Escobar’s overtime hours and pay.
Escobar said in his claim that he “enjoys a reputation for a strong work ethic,” and that he often volunteered for overtime at some of the city’s busiest fire stations.
Escobar said that the fire department routinely responded to inquiries about overtime by saying that there were abundant overtime opportunities due to staffing shortages.
“However, the Mayor’s Office intervened,” Escobar said in the administrative claim.
Escobar said the mayor’s staff instructed the fire department to say that they were launching a “comprehensive review and overhaul” of procedures for tracking the hours of department staff on union leave.
Escobar said the review never occurred and that the statement was made to make him look corrupt. The fire department did not immediately say if a review was completed.
“These acts were part of a broader pattern of retaliation against Escobar by the Mayor and other officials… for exercising his constitutional and statutory rights and engaging in protected union activity,” he wrote in the claim.
About a week after the overtime story, Escobar was suspended from his position in the union over his credit card usage.
He did not mention the credit card issues in the claim against the city.
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