LA Mayor Karen Bass Recall Movement Moves Haltingly Forward

Via KTLA:

A movement is underway to recall Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass over her handling of January’s deadly and destructive Palisades Fire.

The Los Angeles Times reported Monday that paperwork had been filed with the Los Angeles Ethics Commission after it was initially filed with the state of California last week. The filing allows opponents of Mayor Bass to raise money so they can put a recall on the ballot.

. . . Critics blasted Bass for not being in the city -or country- when the Palisades Fire erupted on Jan. 7. The massive blaze burned out of control for several days, scorching roughly 24,000 acres and destroying nearly 7,000 homes, businesses and other structures. The wildfire also claimed the lives of 12 people.

The mayor previously said she had not been told about the severity of the fire weather conditions before she left for a diplomatic mission to Ghana. She cited that as one of the reasons for firing L.A. Fire Chief Kristen Crowley.

However, the issues surrounding the Pacific Palisades Fire and the Bass recall aren't simple. The biggest inflection point up to now has been Bass's firing of Kristin Crowley, the LGBT Los Angeles fire chief, on February 21.

[Bass's] decision comes after reported turmoil between the mayor and fire chief following the Palisades Fire that broke out on Jan. 7. The two put on a united front after speculation of the chief's firing days after it erupted.

Bass made it clear she was not going to make a decision to remove Crowley while the city was experiencing an emergency with the fires and the rainstorms that followed.

About a month before the Palisades Fire broke out, Crowley sent a memo to the Board of Fire Commissioners that budget cuts "have adversely affected the Department's ability to maintain core operations." Budget cuts and the department's ability to fight the fires were points of contention while the fires were burning.

In the wake of the fire, there was an initial wave of opinion that called Crowley a "DEI hire":

On Monday [January 13], Crowley received an unsigned letter, purportedly from her own current and former chief officers, echoing claims that had filtered from right-wing commentators and social media as her interviews made the rounds through the national news over the weekend. The letter excoriated her for taking TV interviews while the city burned.

But that was quickly overtaken by other voices, including the public employee unions, that supported Crowley's insistence that budget cuts hampered the fire department's ability to respond. The fact that Crowley is a lesbian almost certainly drove Bass's initial reluctance to remove her immediately after the January fire; gays are part of the uneasy coalition of Latins, blacks, and Hollywood-Westside elites that voted Bass in as mayor.

But cracks within the coalition emerged when Crowley told the media in almost as many words that Bass had betrayed her:

“Three years I’ve been in this seat, I’ve sounded the alarm — we need more,” Crowley told Fox LA’s Gigi Graciette during an extended live spot. “We are screaming to be properly funded so our firefighters can do our jobs. My job as chief is to make sure my voice is heard.”

“Did the City of Los Angeles fail you?” Graciette pressed her until almost 13 minutes into the interview, when Crowley drew a deep breath, flashed a bemused smile to the camera and finally said it: “Yes.”

Opposition to Crowley within the department quickly evaporated:

[T]o the firefighters with boots on the ground in the Palisades, her “outburst” cemented Crowley as a folk hero.

“In the LAFD it went viral,” said Freddy Escobar, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the union representing the department’s rank and file. “Everyone was very shocked, but very happy and excited. They support her 110%.”

“This is the only fire chief that has spoken up against the people who appointed her,” said Capt. Chuong Ho, another union leader. “If that doesn’t show courage, I don’t know what does.”

The Palisades Fire hasn't disappeared as an issue, and over more than a month since the fire, Bass has faced continued criticism for being on a junket to Ghana when the fire started. A change.org petition demanding that Bass resign was started by mid-January, and by January 17, it had reached 152,000 signatures. Although this has no legal effect, continuing talk of a Bass recall must have been behind Bass's eventual firing of Crowley on February 21.

The now-formal recall effort that began this week has begun to attract serious funding:

Nicole Shanahan, the Silicon Valley philanthropist who helped fund Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign and served as his running mate, has a new cause: recalling Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Shanahan is listed as a major funder of the effort in a disclosure on the campaign’s new website and had previously met with proponents of Bass’ ouster. Opponents of the mayor see her as more vulnerable than ever due to her handling of the January wildfires in Los Angeles, which ignited when she was on a diplomatic trip to Ghana.

. . . It will take a flood of funding to take out Bass, even as she has taken flak for the Ghana trip and for sacking the fire chief who was in charge during the response effort. Her opponents would have to collect around 330,000 signatures, representing 15 percent of Los Angeles’ registered voters, in four months to initiate a recall. Her term ends in 2026.

They will also have to overcome associations with the Republican party in a heavily Democratic city.

Paperwork filed with the city on Monday indicated that several backers with ties to the GOP are involved in the attempt, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Bass's supporters are already taking the line that the recall is a right-wing effort, but even there, the political factions aren't conventional -- the public statements from recall supporters tend to stress their support for Crowley, the lesbian fire chief. But as of now, this isn't a winning issue -- last week, Crowley appealed her firing to the LA City Council and lost in an overwhelming vote:

After a lengthy and at times heated discussion, the panel voted, 13-2, to deny the appeal. The two council members who supported reinstating the former chief were Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park. Park's district includes Pacific Palisades, the area within the city where the fires that ignited in early January were most devastating and deadly.

Crowley needed votes from 10 of 15 council members to overturn Mayor Karen Bass' decision to fire her.

Of the two council members who voted to reinstate Crowley, Traci Park was elected to her seat representing Pacific Palisades and nearby areas in 2022 on a platform opposing the city's homeless policies. However, other affluent parts of the city continue to elect council memhers with progressive policies on crime, homelessness, and migration, and their continued support for Bass is reflected in the reinstatement vote. The other council member who supported Crowley, Monica Rodriguez, represents a working-class Latin area and appears to have based her support on an alliance with public employee unions. At the link,

Leaders of the firefighters union urged the council to reinstate her, saying she was the only chief in recent years to speak about the need for more resources at the Fire Department.

“The men and women of our great Fire Department support Chief Crowley because she stood up, she spoke out, and she had our backs,” said Chung Ho, a director with United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.

Union President Freddy Escobar said “her honesty cost her her job.”

Rodriguez, a supporter of Crowley whose council District 7 includes Pacoima and Shadow Hills, said the mayor has promoted “falsehoods” around the ex-chief’s failure to perform.

“It's sending the wrong message to every city employee and general manager that it's safer to stay silent than to call out what’s wrong,” Rodriguez said.

While the recall Bass movement reflects to some degree the much more visible tendency across the country for the previous Democrat coalition to break apart, with wealthy elites, labor, Latins, and gays beginning to have second thoughts, the LA City Council vote on reinstating Crowley suggests much more will have to happen in California to bring about real electoral change.