Traci Park’s Firestorm: Firefighter Union Scandal Burns One of Her Closest Alliances

The financial scandal engulfing the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC) couldn’t come at a worse time for Councilmember Traci Park—and not just because she’s facing reelection. Park is deeply reliant on the union politically and financially: UFLAC and its affiliates poured over $400,000 into her 2022 City Council campaign, helping to power her election win. As one of the union’s most vocal champions on the City Council, Park has leaned heavily on her alliance with UFLAC to posture as a defender of “public safety” and court political capital on the Westside. But now, with top UFLAC officials suspended and the union under conservatorship for allegedly misappropriating over $800,000 in member dues and charitable funds, that alliance has become a liability.

According to a forensic audit released by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), UFLAC President Freddy Escobar—Park’s political ally—and other senior union officers racked up massive undocumented charges on union credit cards, including more than $230,000 in personal expenses by Escobar alone. Former UFLAC secretary Adam Walker allegedly transferred $83,000 from a firefighter foundation’s catastrophic fund into his personal bank account. The fallout has already led to suspensions and forced oversight from the IAFF, and could lead to criminal investigations.

That leaves Park in a precarious position.

Park has long traded on her connection to UFLAC. During the January 2025 Palisades wildfire, she elevated her ties to the fire union as political currency. She appeared in photo ops with firefighters and used their support to deflect criticism of the city’s weak disaster preparedness and her own refusal to prioritize climate resilience. She has accepted significant campaign donations from the union, and her talking points on public safety are often indistinguishable from theirs.

Now, the question becomes: how much did Park know about the misconduct inside UFLAC? And will she be forced to distance herself from the union as their brand becomes toxic?

If Park cuts ties, she loses a major fundraising machine. If she doesn’t, she risks appearing complicit. Either way, it’s bad news.

Even before this scandal, Park’s close alignment with UFLAC was raising eyebrows—especially during the 2024 campaign over Measure HLA, a ballot initiative to implement the city’s long-neglected “Mobility Plan 2035.” HLA aimed to make streets safer, reduce traffic deaths, and improve transit access—goals that enjoy overwhelming support among Angelenos. But less than a month before the vote, Park and UFLAC came out swinging against it.

Park introduced a motion designed to stoke fears about “losing parking spaces” and “traffic lanes,” echoing UFLAC’s misleading ads that falsely claimed the measure would slow emergency response times. Their argument didn’t just fall flat—it backfired. Voters approved HLA with nearly 65% of the vote. The Los Angeles Times editorial board called UFLAC’s ads “fear-mongering,” and mobility experts pointed out that protected bike lanes, dedicated bus lanes, and road diets actually improve emergency access by creating predictable lanes for fire trucks and ambulances to navigate gridlock.

Why did Park and UFLAC gamble so hard against a popular initiative? Some speculate that UFLAC’s leadership, already under fire internally, was trying to assert political dominance—and Park, ever eager to appease her car-centric, conservative base, played along. There’s also the uncomfortable theory that UFLAC was more interested in preserving budget space for firefighter raises than ensuring safer streets for Angelenos.

But now, as more evidence emerges that UFLAC’s top brass may have been siphoning funds for personal use while fighting against safer infrastructure for everyone else, Park’s alliance with them looks less like strategic politicking and more like willful enablement.

Traci Park has long cast herself as a “pragmatic moderate” focused on public safety. But her version of “safety” has meant aligning with corrupt union officials to oppose safe streets, sabotage climate infrastructure, and pad her campaign coffers. With the mask now slipping on UFLAC’s inner workings, it’s not just the union under scrutiny. Park’s political judgment—and her loyalties—are too.

Her credibility was already strained. This scandal may just light the match.