Firefighters union criticizes Mayor Villaraigosa

Sim­mer­ing ten­sions between Los Angeles May­or Ant­o­nio Vil­larai­gosa and the head of the city’s fire­fight­er uni­on erup­ted Tues­day dur­ing a news con­fer­ence about Fire De­part­ment emer­gency re­sponse times and dis­patch sys­tems.

Pat McO­sker, pres­id­ent of United Fire­fight­ers of Los Angeles City, had passed out a let­ter to re­port­ers ac­cus­ing the de­part­ment and Vil­larai­gosa of know­ingly us­ing “false stat­ist­ics” to jus­ti­fy budget cuts that res­ul­ted in the pub­lic “be­ing put in per­il.”