Well, you could see it coming.
After the Pacific Palisades were torched while the reservoir was empty and the hydrant was dry, the fire chief didn’t wait for his body count before denounced the mayor for lack of funds at the Los Angeles Fire Department. And now the mayor has stumbled through the worst two months of her political career and settled that score.
On Friday, LA Mayor Karen Bass fired LAFD chief Christine Crowley.
Was it a classic case where someone had to collapse in the aftermath of an epic disaster?
Some, but longtime political observers said Bass did the right thing. Fernando Guerra, founding director of Thomas and Dorothy Leper’s Center for Thomas’s Study, except for the apparently suspicious management and handling of crisis in Crawley’s department, she was “political disobedient.” .
Crowley headed publicly to Bass, claiming the fire had smoldered and LAFD’s budget had been cut. As reported by the LA Times, it wasn’t. Guerra said the message behind Crawley’s firing was, “If it wasn’t the time to issue those statements, we can’t trust them to understand anything else.”
I agree. But to me, firing seems as though it’s an act of political despair as a moment of bass take-away. And the town hall fire was caused by a blunt bass instrument, indicating that the doors were wide open to challengers in next year’s mayoral election.
Is businessman Rick Caruso going to give it another try after losing to the last bass? Is Councilman Monica Rodriguez increasingly critical of bass and ready to bring together a coalition of moderate business profits and tired taxpayers?
Jaime Regalado, former executive director of the Pat Brown Institute, says it is perceived as “blood is in the water.” “And there are a lot of sharks in politics. There was always. They smell some blood, they smell some fragility.”
And they began with a photo of the base at a Ghana cocktail party on January 7th, and the palisades began to burn.
The list of growing failures includes the base saga, which named political ally Steve Soborov when Pallisard rebuilds the emperor, answering questions by which nonprofit organizations how much he is being paid. I refused.
The fee was $500,000 over three months.
Shortly after everyone’s heads exploded, the mayor retreated. Under the new terms of the transaction, Soborov agreed to his role as a volunteer. After that, additional consultants hired at private fees, resulting in an increasing number of questions, including lack of transparency and one of the specific memos.
Who was in charge?
Now, the mayor said she was in charge, but she said she was “locking weapons” with other civil servants. However, the Times later dug this January 21 text from county supervisor Lindsey Horvas into base.
“You asked us to fire the daily presser. We did. We asked to join this announcement tomorrow. No response. Now, we will be at the request of your department. When you’re in a leading role, do you hear you do it without us, without us?”
From the lock on your arm to the fingers pointing.
I think it’s fair to note that buses have quite a few strengths. She has been demonstrated by combining her long and successful career first, in healthcare, then in the nonprofit world, and then as a representative of state legislators and legislators.
But being mayor of a huge city like Los Angeles is another beast, Legalad said. Part of this is because the challenges are immeasurable and the power is shared with the city council. Bass needed to quickly figure out how to lead, taking into account the diffusion structure, but Regarado said he’s beginning to agree with critics who think “she’s a study slower than necessary.” .
“It certainly seems like a political moment,” said Sarah Sadwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona University. Voters want clearer leadership and more progress than they see when it comes to issues of MacArthur Park fire, homelessness and public safety, she said.
Regarding the fire chief’s firing, Sadwani said: “We doubt this action will have the intended effect of rebound on the mayor, as firefighters are heroes at this moment despite everything in this moment.”
The allegations that Crowley was a goner were erased on Wednesday. Bass said through a spokesman that the bass, which is generally rather modest and non-traditional, had not warned her about the risk of fire until January 7th.
She told two local TV news outlets that would not have gone to Ghana on January 4th if she had known about the fire risks in Los Angeles. “If I had all the information I needed to have, the last thing I would have done was to leave town,” she told KABC.
She should have called me. I had all the information I needed, along with a ready garden hose, and everyone else did. After months of drought, Southern California was a crater and a spark away from rising above the flames.
On January 3, the National Weather Service warned that “severe fire conditions” that constitute a major risk. Perhaps it meant a goodbye and doing anything other than to head to a social gathering on another continent, as the mayor did on January 4th.
If the fire chief doesn’t call Base, OK, shame. However, calls are designed for both outgoing and incoming calls. Given the predictions and warnings that dominated the news, why didn’t the bus call the chief?
Bass’ criticism of Crowley this week came from failing to deploy the biggest resources ahead of time, as documented by The Times.
“There were warnings, but I don’t think our preparation was typical,” Bass told Fox 11 News.
Again, it cuts both ways.
Los Angeles and Wildfires are no strangers. During the fire season, the mayor and council members must not be on the sidelines either. They have to be involved in the preparation.
Or, voters have two jobs, so there are consequences.
They can be hired.
And they can fire.
steve.lopez@latimes.com
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