{"id":549258,"date":"2026-01-28T13:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549258\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T13:31:16","slug":"lafd-foundation-says-65000-went-to-celebrity-pr-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549258\/","title":{"rendered":"LAFD Foundation says $65,000 went to celebrity PR firm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation said it paid $65,000 to hire a celebrity public relations firm to help the LAFD shape its messaging after the deadly Palisades fire.<\/p>\n

The foundation addressed the controversy Tuesday in an email blast to supporters, about a week after The Times disclosed<\/a> that charitable donations were quietly used to pay the Lede Co. to help LAFD leaders communicate with the public as they faced heavy criticism for their preparations and response to the disaster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Foundation\u2019s role was straightforward \u2014 with the LAFD communications director role vacant, the previous administration requested funding to hire a consultant to fulfill those duties,\u201d said the email, which was signed by Liz Lin, the president of the foundation, and Mike Ahmar, chairman of the board of directors. \u201cThe Foundation provided $65,000 for this purpose. The LAFD selected the consultant (The Lede Company) and identified the scope of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is exactly how we always operate: fast, responsive, and in service to the Department\u2019s needs,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n

The email touted the foundation\u2019s commitment to transparency and high ratings on Charity Navigator, which evaluates the finances and impact of nonprofits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a clear policy wherein any donor can restrict a contribution to support a particular project or program. One hundred percent of all restricted contributions go directly to support whatever project, program, or item the donor identifies,\u201d the email said. \u201cWe are transparent because our supporters and Angelenos deserve nothing less \u2014 and because we are proud of the work you support.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Lin has not answered multiple queries from The Times, including how the firm was chosen, as well as whether she had spoken with the offices of the mayor or fire chief about the matter. The foundation also did not provide the contract with the firm or any documentation of the expense. <\/p>\n

The LAFD is under heightened scrutiny<\/a> for altering its after-action report to downplay the city\u2019s failures in preparing for and responding to the fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The LAFD has also declined to answer questions about the work of the PR firm, including whether any changes to the report were made at its direction.<\/p>\n

The after-action report was meant to spell out mistakes<\/a>, which included not fully pre-deploying engines to the Palisades amid forecasts of dangerously high winds, and to suggest measures to avoid repeating them. But before the report was even completed, LAFD officials worried about how it would be received, privately forming a \u201ccrisis management workgroup\u201d to \u201ccreate our own narrative\u201d about the fire and its aftermath, internal emails show.<\/p>\n

Fire Chief Jaime Moore said that he met with the Lede Co. in mid-November, on his first or second day at the helm, and thanked them for their work, but that he does not know what precisely the company did for the department, which was led by interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva when the report came out on Oct. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m assuming they had something to do with the after-action report, because they\u2019re a PR firm,\u201d Moore said in an interview. \u201cI would think a PR firm was going to give advice to the fire chief, because at the time, they didn\u2019t have a director of public information. So my assumption would be they were using a PR firm as the PR director.\u201d<\/p>\n

On its website, the Lede Co. says it represents \u201csome of the biggest names and brands in entertainment, fashion, beauty & wellness, … advocacy, media, nonprofit and related industries.\u201d In addition to performers Reese Witherspoon and Charlize Theron, the firm\u2019s client page includes photos of actors Kerry Washington and Rami Malek and singers Rihanna and Pharrell Williams. The firm represents brands such as Isabel Marant, Clinique and Hennessy Cognac and includes a strategic corporate communications division.<\/p>\n

The foundation bills itself as \u201cthe official nonprofit arm of the LAFD\u201d and lists net assets of $12.3 million on its tax return for fiscal 2023-24, the most recent available. According to its website, it \u201cprovides vital equipment and funds programs that help the LAFD save lives and build resilient communities.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to a report the foundation published this month about its work last year, it has allocated $42 million that was raised after the wildfires \u201ctoward critical priorities.\u201d It continued: \u201cOf that, $15 million has ensured that new tools, necessary equipment, and vital apparatus are already in the field and in the hands of the firefighters who serve our city daily.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pringle is a former Times staff writer. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation said it paid $65,000 to hire a celebrity public relations firm to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":549259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[135907,12062,1582,276,241291,2451,14071,3040,19728,241293,10861,2961,241290,241292,167324,224,5337,241294,4369,8066],"class_list":{"0":"post-549258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-after-action-report","9":"tag-brand","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-celebrity-pr-firm","13":"tag-city","14":"tag-contribution","15":"tag-department","16":"tag-director","17":"tag-email-blast","18":"tag-fire-chief","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-lafd-foundation","21":"tag-lede-company","22":"tag-liz-lin","23":"tag-los-angeles","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-particular-project","26":"tag-program","27":"tag-work"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115972976630504642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}