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Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Christine Crowley lost his appeal to the city council on Tuesday afternoon and revived it at the helm of the LAFD. After the 25-year veteran made her point in an 11-minute speech, two Los Angeles City Council members chose to speak out in support of rehiring her, including councillor Monica Rodriguez.
Crawley had to vote in favor of 10 of the 15 city council members. She received only two in the final 13-2 vote.
Rodriguez spoke with NBCLA on “Today in Louisiana today” Wednesday morning to discuss her motivations against Mayor Karen Bass’ decision. Quoting LA’s failures in leadership during the wildfires, Bass rejected Crowley on February 21st.
“One of the challenges we need to realize that we’re going to get into is the need for the mayor and the general manager to have a constructive working relationship, and that’s clearly broken,” Rodriguez said. “But I think it was really important that it was revealed. What I had a big problem was that it was cited for the rationale behind it, and for me it was really unfortunate for me as I didn’t believe the Chief didn’t deserve to have her career and all of her achievements.
Crowley and Mayor Karen Bass have publicly rebutted since January 10th, when the two met to discuss budget cuts during the fire. Just two days later, Crawley publicly criticized the cuts in funding. This is the first of several conflicts between the two.
Requests for additional funding from both Crowley and the IAFF Local-112 Union date back several months before the start of the fire.
In a speech Tuesday, Crowley again referred to the cut, saying he didn’t have enough money to repair the 100 fire engines and ambulances sitting in the maintenance yard.
She also rebutted the claim that she sent 1,000 firefighters home on the morning of the fire, saying, “We didn’t have enough equipment to put them on.”
Before Crawley’s removal, Rodriguez not only said she was in close contact with the Chief for the employment of the Wildland Hand Crew, but also said she was a mechanic and sheet metal worker who kept the broken equipment cited in turn.
Council members were recently appointed as chair of the Los Angeles government’s efficiency, innovation and audit committee, emphasizing a better understanding of what direct results, including fire response, are related to taxpayer dollars.
“All my colleagues have an obligation to dig very deeply. We are in these very important financial times, which are particularly difficult, and now they are exacerbated by fires. I think every individual on this council has the opportunity to be accountable for either their role is more transparent or not,” Rodriguez said.
Despite the outcome, Rodriguez said he would continue to “non-apology” himself.
“I’m extremely comfortable with my skin. This isn’t the first time I’ve ruffled my wings by opposing the crowd, but as you know, I’m focused on doing work for my constituents,” she said.
“If an individual tries to interfere with his ability to serve my members, I have a very loud voice and I have me silently to me, so if people are engaged in some kind of political retaliation, I am happy to communicate as loudly and widely as possible.”
District councillor Traci Park, which includes Pacific Palisade, was the only other vote of reinstatement.
Crawley exercised his right to keep LAFD at a low rank. Her new working title is the assistant chief of LAFD’s Operation Valley Bureau.
The mayor’s office issued a statement after the hearing.
“After testimony from the former chief who confirmed that he had sent the firefighters home on the morning of January 7th, her appeal that she did not advance the internal litigation report was denied 13-2 by city council members,” Zach Saidl, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said after the council vote. “This is a public safety issue and an issue for the operation of the Los Angeles Fire Department. The city of Los Angeles is moving forward.”
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