LA Mayor Karen Bass deflects blame, adds insult to injury for wildfire victims

The wildfires that swept through Los Angeles 13 months ago destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, with almost incalculable financial losses, and they killed at least 31 people.

Recovery has scarcely begun, but insult is being added to fire victims’ injuries as local officials –—especially Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — engage in a tawdry game of finger-pointing.

When former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley filed a lawsuit this week, claiming Bass fired her to shift blame for the city’s chaotic fire response, it was just the latest episode of a saga that began with Bass on a junket to Africa as flames engulfed her city.

When she was in Congress, Bass used her position as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee to travel widely on the taxpayers’ dime, particularly to Africa.

“I went to Africa every couple of months, all the time,” she told the New York Times in a 2021 interview, adding that giving up the travel would be a negative aspect of becoming mayor. She told the Times that if elected, “not only would I of course live here, but I also would not travel internationally — the only places I would go would be D.C., Sacramento, San Francisco and New York, in relation to L.A.”

However, she made a number of international sojourns after the election, including one to Ghana, just as Los Angeles residents were being warned that warm Santa Ana winds could spark wildfires. Thus, Bass was a half-globe away when the fires erupted.

It was what political professionals call “bad optics.” And they were about to get worse.

Crowley alleged that her department had been shorted money needed to improve fire responses. Bass denied the allegation and fired the chief.

Crowley’s lawsuit claiming Bass “orchestrated a campaign of retaliation” is the least of Bass’ fire-related concerns as she seeks re-election this year.

Beginning in December, the Los Angeles Times has published revelations about how politics has intruded on a supposedly dispassionate report on the fire department’s wildfire responses.

“For months after the Palisades fire, many who had lost their homes eagerly awaited the Los Angeles Fire Department’s after-action report, which was expected to provide a frank evaluation of the agency’s handling of the disaster,” the first Times article said.

“A first draft was completed by August, possibly earlier.

“And then the deletions and other changes began — behind closed doors — in what amounted to an effort to downplay the failures of city and LAFD leadership in preparing for and fighting the Jan. 7 fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes,” records obtained by The Times show.

In response to the Times revelation, Bass distanced herself from it and ordered another investigation of fire department responses, this time by the new fire chief, Jaime Moore.

But then the newspaper dropped another bombshell this month. It reported that “two sources with knowledge of Bass’ office said that after receiving an early draft, the mayor told then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva that the report could expose the city to legal liabilities for those failures. Bass wanted key findings about the LAFD’s actions removed or softened before the report was made public, the sources said — and that is what happened.”

The Times reporting is another confirmation that professional journalism is a vital check on political gaslighting.

It also demonstrates that Bass — who until Los Angeles had never managed anything of importance as she climbed the political ladder — is ill-equipped to run the nation’s second largest city.

Finally, it’s doubtful Bass will lose her job. While there will be dozens of names on the ballot, her only challenger of note is a left-leaning member of the city council, Nitthya Raman, who is even less qualified.