LA Mayor Karen Bass Faces Scrutiny Over Fire Response, Trip Abroad

LOS ANGELES, CA — As unprecedented fires ravaged Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass was thousands of miles away. Upon her return, she found herself under intense scrutiny from a city still engulfed in flames.

As fire crews struggled to access water and enough personnel to fight devastating wind-driven blazes, Mayor Bass was in Ghana, Africa. Meanwhile, questions arose over a decision to reduce the city's fire department by nearly $18 million last year.

When she arrived at a U.S. airport from Ghana on Thursday, she was questioned by a Sky News reporter. In a now-viral video confrontation, Bass is seen ignoring the reporter and avoiding eye contact.

"Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning," the reporter asked.

Bass reportedly left the city on Saturday as the National Weather Service began issuing warnings about dry conditions amid a record dry start to the rainy season and the risk of fire in a region that hasn't seen rain in nine months.

In her absence, reports came that fire hydrants weren't working in critical areas due to low water pressure and that fire crews were severely under-resourced.

Upon her return, Bass sought to deflect the criticism.

“I took the fastest route back, which included being on a military plane,” she told reporters in her first address since returning.

She urged Angelenos to remain united while lives and homes remained at stake.

“We have to resist any, any effort to pull us apart,” she said.

"What explains this lack of preparation and rapid response?" A CBS reporter asked at a Thursday morning briefing, where Bass addressed the LA public for just the second time since she returned from Ghana.

Bass initially refused to address any specific questions regarding budget cuts or her personal response to the fire.

"We have to protect lives, we have to save lives and we have to save homes. Rest assured, when that is done…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," she said sternly.

Then another question came about the decision to approve a large budget cut last year.

"I think it's most important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times. Everybody knew that, but that the impact of our budget really did not impact what we've been going through over the last few days," she said.

On Dec. 4 LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley reportedly wrote and shared a memo addressing issues with the reduction in funding. The contents of that memo have been widely reported.

Crowley said the funding "severely limited the department's capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires."

At Thursday's news conference, Bass insisted that budget cuts had no impact on the multiple fires devastating LA this week.

"There were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation over the last couple of days," she said. "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."

Minutes later, a New York Times reporter asked Bass if she was frustrated with the response to the fire.

"I'm getting texts right now from the Palisades Highlands community. We're almost 48 hours after this fire started. There's not resources up there. The hydrants aren't working. Where's the National Guard? Where[are] miles and miles of water tenders? How are we addressing this?" the reporter asked.

"You asked me, was I frustrated by this? Of course," she said. "Because we all know that this has been an unprecedented event. We also know that fire hydrants are not constructed to deal with this type of massive devastation.

"I am absolutely frustrated by that," she continued. "I am not sure that is correct that there are no resources up there. But rest assured, as soon as we are done here, I will follow up on that."

Los Angeles Water and Power officials said water tanks ran dry during the peak of the firefighting battle in Pacific Palisades because demand surged exponentially for 15 hours. According to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials, the city's system is not designed for that level of use, and there wasn't enough water pressure to pump water to the blufftop fire hydrants

Rick Caruso, her opponent in the 2022 election for mayor and the former commissioner of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, has been among the first to publicly blast her response to the disaster.

"We have a mayor who seems to be more concerned about being at some party, wherever the hell that is," Caruso told the Los Angeles Times. "We have terrible leadership resulting in billions of dollars in damage because she wasn’t here and didn’t know what she was doing."

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