If Karen Bass Remains In Office, Democracy Is Wasted On L.A.

The brush was dry, the drought was high, Santa Ana winds made sparks fly, and Los Angeles officials lied about why residents have been killed and thousands of homes have been destroyed.

This fire is different, they insist, and for this lie alone, Los Angeles voters should do what it takes to remove incompetent leaders when they are done sweeping up the ashes.

“[T]his is an absolutely unprecedented event,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a press conference on Wednesday. “It has been many, many years since we’ve faced this strong [of] winds …The water pressure dropped as a result of the massive need to fight this unprecedented incident.”

Bass regurgitated similar claims in a press conference Thursday, repeatedly blaming “unprecedented” and “historic” winds.

Unprecedented? Many L.A. officials have been leaning on that lie. But if you trust science, the rules of fire have not changed since the beginning of time. Fire spreads quickly when fuel and winds are plentiful.

Who could have foreseen such a hellscape? Everyone. But especially Bass, who last year hacked more than $17.5 million from the fire department budget. She was warned.

Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley sounded the alarm just last month, in a Dec. 4 memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners, in which she cautioned that the mayor’s deep budget cuts compromised the department’s ability to maintain core operations. The funding slash included a $7 million reduction in overtime hours.

“These budgetary reductions have adversely affected the department’s ability to maintain core operations such as … training, fire prevention, and community education,” Crowley wrote. “In addition … the reduction [in overtime hours] has severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large scale emergencies, including wildfires, earthquakes, hazardous material incidents, and large public events.”

“Specialized programs and resources such as Air Operations, Tactical EMS Units, Disaster Response, and Community Emergency Response Teams … are now at risk of reduced effectiveness,” the memo added.

The Federalist obtained the report referenced in the memo via a records request. It says budget cuts have compromised the fire department’s ability to complete “required brush clearance inspections,” which it describes as “crucial for mitigating fire risks in high-hazard areas.” Budget and staff cuts have also caused a reduction in residential dwelling inspections, and training, according to the report.

Los Angeles residents deserve better. They are rightfully outraged at the Bass budget cuts, her absence and silence when the fires started, her focus on DEI and skin color diversity over safety, and her shoulder-shrugging attitude suggesting that, because the fires are “unprecedented” in their destruction, they were unpreventable.

“Unprecedented” is an insult to the intelligence of every newly homeless, property-tax-paying citizen.

“Unprecedented” means there was no way to prepare for such fires, and that means there is no way Bass, who earns $269,000 a year, can be called responsible, for what happened, O.K.?

No, not O.K. Bass should quit in disgrace, and if she does not, she is ripe for a recall election. Voters can embrace self-governance and replace her with a smarter, more qualified leader focused on providing basic government services like fire safety.

Bass is among the political breed who have taken their eyes off the mundane stuff of municipal leadership. Smooth roads, regular trash pick-up, and trained and well-staffed emergency responders are the boring basics that matter most. Too many leaders like Bass avert their attention and taxpayers’ money to pet issues. They end up cutting $17 million from the fire department but still have enough money to buy electric vehicles.

When the L.A. fires started, Bass was not even on the continent. She was in West Africa, attending the inauguration of Ghana President John Mahama. She was also reportedly scheduled to meet the country’s first female vice president, Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang.

This Africa trip was not what L.A. residents needed at this moment. It is not what they need, ever. Not one penny of that self-indulgent trip should come from the hurting people of Los Angeles.

After the smoke clears, will voters move to oust Bass, or forget her role in the destruction and let L.A. continue to ruin? If the latter, democracy is wasted in L.A.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.