Calls Grow for LA Mayor Karen Bass to Resign Over Wildfire Response

Criticism of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and her response to Los Angeles wildfires continued to grow over the weekend with a petition for her resignation garnering over 120,000 signatures and the discovery of a promise she made in 2021 in which she said that she would never travel abroad as Mayor.

Since January 7th, Los Angeles County has been devastated by several wildfires blazing in different areas of the county. This includes the Palisades Fire, which is currently at around 23,700 acres and has resulted in 8 deaths, over 105,000 to be evacuated, and 5,300 destroyed structures; and the Eaton Fire, which is currently over 14,100 acres and has caused 16 deaths, 100,000 to be evacuated, and roughly 7,000 destroyed structures. The Palisades fire is also currently at about 14% containment, with Eaton at about 33% containment.

Before the fires, Bass demonstrated that wildfires striking the city were not high on her list of priorities. Last year, Bass led the movement to slash Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) for the 2024-2025 city budget. Originally aiming to cut $23 million, she managed to cut $17.5 million instead. Then, in early January, Bass was warned that very high Santa Ana winds were coming and was advised to stay in the city for the potential emergency. However, she instead carried on with her plans to travel to Accra, Ghana, where she was part of the U.S. delegation attending the inauguration of Ghana President John Mahama.

When the fires struck last week, President Joe Biden, Governor Gavin Newsom, numerous local officials, and fire crews were quick to bring in relief on the ground. But Mayor Bass, in Ghana, had a much less limited response. While she did declare a state of emergency from Ghana, she stayed another day there despite the emergency. She eventually flew back to Los Angeles on January 8th. However, by the time she landed, the Mayor was the main target of criticism, with many saying she refused to go back to the city in its time of need, that her policies contributed to the chaos of the lack of water in fire hydrants to fight the blazes, and that her decision to cut LAFD funds removed vital resources from firefighters.

Residents angry at Bass

Upon landing, Bass was stone silent about her response to the fires and avoided or deflected all questions criticizing her for the next several days. When asked about her lack of preparation for the fires at a press conference on the 9th, Bass responded saying, “We have to save lives and we have to save homes. Rest assured that when that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etc. But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”

Shortly afterwards, Bass said that cuts to the LAFD had no impact whatsoever on the city’s response to the wildfires. “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days. And then there was a little bit of confusion because money was allocated to be distributed later on, which was actually going to support salaries and other parts of the fire department that were distributed a little later.”

This was proven to be false only hours later by both fire experts and LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley who responded that the cuts did indeed hurt their ability to provide service during the fires. “Yes, it was cut and it did impact our ability to provide service,” said Crowley on Friday.  “Any budget cut is going to impact our ability to provide service. This isn’t a new problem for us. The fire department needs to be funded appropriately so that I can look any community member in the eye and say your LAFD’s got your back.

“None of us on the fire department are politicians. We’re public servants first. We took an oath to serve the public before ourselves and even before our families. So with that, I want to focus on a path forward. I want to focus on what the LAFD needs, what I need as a fire chief and what our people need to do their jobs to make sure that we can save lives and that we can protect property to the greatest capacity. But we need to be funded appropriately. And that’s where my head is, My message is the fire department needs to be properly funded. It’s not.”

Following Crowley’s conversation with the press, a furious Bass then called Crowley into her office, likely to fire her. However, Crowley managed to stay on, telling others, “I’m not fired yet.”

With criticism mounting on Bass, things went from bad to worse for her over the weekend. A 2021 New York Times interview with her resurfaced, in which she said “If I win the election, 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.”

While she has broken that promise multiple times, going to Mexico once and to Paris three times for matters involving the Olympics, none of those trips occurred during major emergencies in Los Angeles.

A growing effort to get Bass to resign

Also hurting Bass over the weekend is a new change.org petition calling for her immediate resignation. The petition, which currently has over 124,000 signatures as of noon Monday, states that it not only wants “the immediate resignation of Mayor Karen Bass due to her failure to lead during this unprecedented crisis,” but also “a full, transparent investigation into the failures in disaster preparedness, response, and resource allocation that left our city vulnerable.”

A growing movement to follow LAFD Chief Crowley and other emergency service leaders instead of Bass during the crisis picked up significant steam over the weekend as well. Instagram posts by reality TV star Khloe Kardashian saying “I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!!” and “Mayor Bass you are a joke!!!!” brought forth more praise than backlash against Kardashian, further highlighting the anger against Bass.

As of Monday, Bass has not resigned.

“It’s not looking good for Bass,”  said LA County pollster Manny Rodriguez to the Globe on Monday. “Well, Newsom either for that matter. He has been pretty frantic during the fires and he knows that these wildfires could very well be the end of his 2028 Presidential aspirations if he doesn’t get a hold on them now. He’s been making promises of a huge rebuilding plan and has been trying desperately to deflect blame.

“But that isn’t anything compared to Bass. She directly cut funding to the LAFD. She wasn’t here when the city needed her even though she had promised she would be. She didn’t take charge. There is no way she is going to recover, or at least fully recover, from all this. She’s going to be remembered as the Mayor who let L.A. burn.

“Is it any wonder why recall efforts against both Newsom and Bass have been going around since last week?”