LA mayor ousts fire chief, saying LAFD needs 'new leadership'

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass has fired Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley over the chief’s handling of the Palisades fire. The move comes after the embattled mayor gave a series of increasingly critical public comments about Crowley and adds to the upheaval at City Hall since the fires.

“Acting in the best interests of Los Angeles’ public safety, and for the operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department, I have removed Kristin Crowley as Fire Chief,” Bass said in a statement Friday. “We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley’s watch.”

Bass also alleged that the chief had “refused” to participate in an after-action report on the fires after being asked to do so by Fire Commission President Genethia Hudley Hayes.

These issues “require her removal,” Bass said.

The Times has reported that the LAFD decided not to assign for emergency deployment roughly 1,000 available firefighters and dozens of water-carrying engines in advance of the fire.

Fire officials chose not to order the firefighters to remain on duty for a second shift as the winds were building — which would have doubled the personnel on hand — and staffed just five of more than 40 engines that are available to aid in battling wildfires, The Times found.

Within an hour of Bass’ announcement, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez slammed Bass’ decision and said she would work to get the 10 votes from the City Council needed to overturn the dismissal. Successfully executing such a strategy would be an extremely steep challenge on the 15-member council, but not impossible.

“It’s absolutely unacceptable. The mayor clearly continues to change her posture,” Rodriguez said in an interview Friday. “On Jan. 7 she was praising the fire chief and her response, and then it appears, as the heat kicked up for her absence, she continued to try and attribute blame to someone else.”

The mayor was in Ghana on Jan. 7 when the firestorm broke out. She returned the following day but was criticized for being absent.

Crowley did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her dismissal. LAFD spokesperson Erik Scott said the department was “aware of the Mayor’s announcement” and had “no further comments or interviews on this matter at this time.”

LAFD veteran Ronnie Villanueva will serve as interim chief, Bass’ office said Friday. Villanueva retired seven months ago as chief deputy of emergency operations after 41 years with the department, according to the mayor’s office.

The tensions between Bass and Crowley date back to at least early January, in the days after the fire broke out.

On Jan. 10, while the Palisades blaze was still out of control, Crowley gave an extraordinary television interview, telling a Fox 11 reporter that the city of Los Angeles — and by implication her boss, Bass — had failed her and her department.

She went on to describe her agencies as understaffed and underfunded, calling the situation “no longer sustainable.”

Later that day, Crowley had equally strong words for CNN’s Jake Tapper, telling him the fire department lacks enough mechanics to repair broken-down emergency vehicles.

When Tapper asked whether the city’s budget cuts affected her agency’s ability to fight the wildfires, she responded: “I want to be very, very clear. Yes.”

Hours later, Crowley was summoned to the mayor’s office. The closed-door meeting went so long that Bass did not show up for her own late afternoon wildfire emergency news conference.

After that episode, Crowley and Bass continued to appear at news conferences together and said they were focused on the fire and the recovery.

Then, the mayor and her team gave a series of statements to reporters this week that suggested Crowley didn’t tell Bass about the seriousness of the fire risk, amid increasingly severe warnings about high winds, before Bass traveled overseas to Africa.

Bass spokesperson Zach Seidl told The Times that Crowley routinely called the mayor or her team ahead of severe weather events, but did not do so before Jan. 7.

Bass also told reporters in two television interviews this week that she didn’t receive enough information about the weather. If she had, she said, she would have canceled her trip.

Mayor Eric Garcetti picked Crowley in 2022 to lead the department, and she was the first female chief in its history. She was elevated at a time when female firefighters were speaking out about patterns of sexual harassment and hazing at the department.

The ouster of Crowley, coming six weeks after the Palisades fire, only added to the sense of disarray that has enveloped City Hall, and the mayor’s office in particular. Bass has been facing questions around not just the city’s preparation for the hurricane-force winds and accompanying wildfires, but also the management of the crisis since then.

In recent weeks, Bass has had a tumultuous relationship with Steve Soboroff, her recovery czar, and with county Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes Pacific Palisades. Bass reversed course on a plan to reopen Pacific Palisades, following opposition from Councilmember Traci Park, who also represents the Palisades. Bass also backtracked on a plan to pay Soboroff $500,000 for 90 days of work, using funding from philanthropy.

It’s unclear whether other council members will rally behind Rodriguez’s push to overturn the mayor’s decision.

The city charter gives the mayor the power to remove most department heads, such as the fire chief, without the approval of the City Council. However, the charter also gives Crowley the right to appeal the decision to the council within 10 days of being removed. Crowley would need the support of two-thirds of the council — or 10 votes — to override the mayor’s firing.