Courtesy photo
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Contributing Columnist
I’m not going to get into the finger pointing blame game in the dust up between Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. The only thing I’m concerned about is did Bass do the right thing in ousting Crawley. She did.
Bass has the authority as the city’s chief executive to appoint and remove a city department head. That was almost certain when that department head publicly practically called her boss a liar when she explained the proactive measures she took in responding to the fire.
But let’s take the main gripe about Bass that drives the drumbeat call for her political head. How dare she not just leave town, but the country and supposedly enjoy festivities in Ghana while L.A. burned.
The blunt fact is that it would have made no difference if Bass was on the far side of the moon when the fires struck. This was a once in a millennial force of nature that no one could foresee let alone stop by executive fiat.
Further, if L.A. had had tens of thousands more firefighters it would not have prevented the fire. Still, the rage, hostility and frustration with Bass is driven largely by the question about her absence.
As for the complaint that Bass virtually decapitated the fire department by slashing its budget, that has been repeatedly debunked. The budget cut for the department was not only tiny but was targeted at excessive, unnecessary, administrative costs that had absolutely nothing to do with the provision of vital services.
The overall budget for the L.A. City Fire Department has steadily risen over the past three years. It now stands close to nearly $1 billion. That figure makes the city’s fire department budget one of the biggest among the nation’s big city fire departments.
Despite citing fact after fact about the L.A. Fire Department’s budget, services and operation, with Crowley’s firing Bass is even more squarely on the political hot seat.
It’s absurd, ridiculous and downright cockamamie. However, thousands have bought into the lies, distortions and blatant mis- and disinformation about Bass and the fire department.
They have penned their signatures on a petition demanding her immediate resignation. Mind you, the petition is not the usual pro forma recall of a public official launched when citizens are furious with an elected official about one or another alleged political sin. The petition leaps over that and simply demands she stand down with no opportunity to defend, explain or provide context for the budget issue with the fire department.
Point one of the petition boldly states: 1. The immediate resignation of Mayor Karen Bass due to her failure to lead during this unprecedented crisis.
But it’s point two in the petition that is not only puzzling but blatantly contradicts point one. It reads: 2. A full, transparent investigation into the failures in disaster preparedness, response and resource allocation that left our city vulnerable.
The whole thing smacks less of a move by concerned, enraged and truly informed citizens about an issue than the moldy taint of politics, dirty politics at that. It’s no secret that more than one influential, financially well-heeled individual has long chomped to grab the top spot at L.A. City Hall.
Bass has an even greater vulnerability that, though not stated publicly, lurks just underneath the surface of discontent. She is an African American and she is a woman. Some bloggers and dredged up the criticism that Bass some years back made of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for jumping ship in Texas when the floods hit.
One even dug even deeper into the slander pot and cited Bass’s alleged kowtowing to left radicals back in the day. And of course there was the inevitable blaming her for L.A.’s homeless crisis.
None of this has absolutely anything to do with the wildfire crisis. It is simply standard cheap shot smears.
Bass has repeatedly made clear that the city will continue to provide full funding and every conceivable resource available to ensure that the fire department can quickly and effectively meet any crisis including and beyond firefighting and emergency services.
L.A. experienced an unprecedented fire holocaust. A holocaust that had many causes. One of which was not the alleged incompetence and failure of one individual.
Bass was not merely covering her backside in removing Crowley. She made clear there was a failure and lapse in the department in both responding to and its failure to report on how it acted. In light of that, Bass’s aim was not to punish a chief or a department.
Rather, it was to study, review, revise, and — where needed — overhaul the department’s operations to ensure maximum department effectiveness in confronting any and all future disasters. And given the natural climatic threats from drought, heat and global warming that confront the city, there will be more to come. Scapegoating Bass won’t change that.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is “The Musk DOGE Fraud” (Middle Passage Press). He also is the host of the weekly The Hutchinson Report Facebook Livestreamed.
