Brian Cummings became the man of the moment two years ago when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa needed more than $50 million slashed from the Fire Department.
A second-generation LAFD firefighter who quit college to follow in his father's footsteps, Cummings had risen steadily in the department over three decades. An assistant chief, he helped devise a cost-cutting plan to trim engines and ambulances.
Cummings, who is personable and energetic, campaigned across the city with a polished PowerPoint presentation showing that even with the cuts, the city could have 911 response times similar to those of pre-recession days, when stations were fully staffed.
The plan was approved, and when the fire chief retired soon after, Villaraigosa reached past a list of recommended candidates and picked Cummings to lead the LAFD, praising him as the "visionary architect" of the new staffing plan.
Now Cummings' leadership and the crowning achievement that helped elevate him are under harsh scrutiny, including from past allies. Lawmakers have summoned Cummings to appear before the City Council on Tuesday to explain why his department has been "unwilling or unable to develop a plan to reduce response times and improve public safety."
A wave of outside investigations have found major flaws in the department's performance data following an admission in March that fire officials for years had released flawed figures that overstated how fast rescuers arrived at emergencies. A department task force put the blame on unqualified staff and outdated computer systems, problems also cited in audits by the city controller and others.
The controller's report also found that overall response times under Cummings' new deployment model were longer than when stations were fully staffed. A series of Times investigations later found wide disparities in how quickly city rescuers reached different parts of the city, as well as delays in how long it took dispatchers to process 911 calls.
The chief argues he's done the best he can with limited funds and has recently pledged to reduce response times if he gets more resources.
City leaders say Cummings' varying explanations of response time data discrepancies added to concern and confusion at City Hall: He has both bristled at questions about the accuracy of department data and apologized for using inconsistent formulas to produce reports for decision-makers.
One sign of growing frustration with Cummings is the unusually pointed criticism from fire Commissioner Alan Skobin. After nine years as a police commissioner, Skobin was moved to the LAFD oversight panel by Villaraigosa after the response time controversy broke.
Skobin told The Times that Cummings has not been committed to ensuring that the department's performance reporting is accurate, which he says has undermined public confidence.
"I saw no evidence that he had the professional focus or tools to approach it," Skobin said. "I mean it was like a ship taking on more and more water and nobody was fixing the hole or bailing out the water."
Cummings is a nice person "who was probably a terrific firefighter," Skobin said. But he asserted the chief was a product of an agency that has had difficulty producing leaders of the caliber found at the Police Department.
"After working with problem-solvers, change agents and visionary leaders like [former LAPD chief] Bill Bratton and [current LAPD chief] Charlie Beck for a decade, it has been necessary to significantly lower my expectations when dealing with Chief Cummings and some on his senior administrative staff," Skobin said.
Villaraigosa did not respond to questions about Cummings. But he noted through a spokesman that response times for fires and some high-priority medical calls had improved after the adoption of Cummings' plan compared with an earlier period of cost-saving cutbacks ordered by the mayor and the City Council. Those cuts, made in 2009 after the economic collapse, shut down a number of rescue units on a rotating basis.
Cummings could not be reached for comment in recent days. But in an interview earlier this year, he said the focus on response times was a distraction. He complained that other measures of his force's superior emergency service had been ignored.
"This one little tiny piece of it has flashed up in the headlines," he said.
Cummings has been steeped in LAFD culture since childhood. His father, Lewis, was a city firefighter who invited firehouse friends to dinner at the family's View Park home. His brother, Lorenzo Armstead, is a captain in the Fire Department.
Cummings attended Loyola High School and enrolled at UCLA. His father, who began his career at a segregated firehouse, hoped his son would become a doctor, lawyer or join another profession. But Cummings said he was "an average and apathetic student" more drawn to the thrill of lights and sirens than to the classroom. He dropped out after less than a year to join the LAFD.
His supporters include Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley-Hayes, who says Cummings is the right person for the job. "This fire chief has provided the proper leadership and he's had a lot of courage in what he does," she said at a recent news conference.
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