L.A. Mayor Axes Fire Chief Weeks After Wildfires in Palisades and Altadena
The mayor said the firing is 'in the best interest of Los Angeles' public safety.'
More from Rolling Stone
'You Got Fucking Lucky': One Family's Improbable L.A. Fire Story
Why Los Angeles Burned
'It's All Gone': Devastation, Survival, and Hope From the California Fires
'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 said in a statement on Friday. 'Furthermore, a necessary step to an investigation was the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to do an after action report on the fires. The Chief refused. These require her removal. The heroism of our firefighters — during the Palisades fire and every single day — is without question. Bringing new leadership to the fire department is what our city needs.'
The fires unearthed a flurry of critiques toward city leadership over L.A.'s preparedness for fires of this magnitude. Aside from Crowley, who faced calls for her resignation amid the blazes, Bass herself has faced heavy criticism over her response to the fires as well, as the mayor was in Ghana when the Palisades fire first erupted on Jan. 7 despite the warnings days prior of dry high wind conditions. Monica Rodriguez, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, told the Los Angeles Times that she would attempt to get the council to vote to overturn the firing.
'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,' Rodriguez told the Times on Friday.
Bass said that former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, who has been with LAFD for over 40 years, would serve as fire chief on an interim basis. 'While the Department is in the experienced and expert hands of Chief Villanueva, my office will lead a national search and I will speak directly with firefighters and Angelenos about what they want to see in their next permanent chief,' Bass said.
Best of Rolling Stone
Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best
The United States of Weed
Gaming Levels Up
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
L.A.'s bid to rewrite its City Charter starts off with a spicy leadership battle
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It's David Zahniser, with an assist from Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government. Here you thought charter reform would be boring. A 13-member citizens commission is just getting started on the painstaking, generally unsexy work of poring through the Los Angeles City Charter, the city's governing document, and coming up with strategies for improving it. Yet already, the commission has had a leadership battle, heard allegations of shady dealings and fielded questions about whether it's been set up to fail. But first, let's back up. Mayor Karen Bass, City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson and former Council President Paul Krekorian chose a collection of volunteers to serve on the Charter Reform Commission, which is charged with exploring big and small changes to the City Charter. The commission is part of a much larger push for reform sparked by the city's 2022 audio leak scandal and a string of corruption cases involving L.A. officials. The list of potential policy challenges the commission faces is significant. Good government types want the new commission to endorse ranked-choice voting, with Angelenos selecting their elected officials by ranking candidates in numerical order. Advocacy groups want to see a much larger City Council. Some at City Hall want clarity on what to do with elected officials who are accused of wrongdoing but have not been convicted. 'You are not one of those commissions that shows up every few years to fix a few things here or there,' said Raphael Sonenshein, who served nearly 30 years ago as executive director of the city's appointed Charter Reform Commission, while addressing the new commission last week. 'You actually have a bigger responsibility than that.' The real work began on July 16, when the commission took up the question of who should be in charge. Many thought the leadership post would immediately go to Raymond Meza, who had already been serving as the interim chair. Instead, the panel found itself deadlocked. Meza is a high-level staffer at Service Employees International Union Local 721, the powerful public employee union that represents thousands of city workers and has been a big-money spender in support of Bass and many other elected city officials. Meza, who was appointed by Bass earlier this year, picked up five votes. But so did Ted Stein, a real estate developer who has served on an array of city commissions — planning, airport, harbor — but hadn't been on a volunteer city panel in nearly 15 years. Faced with a stalemate, charter commissioners decided to try again a few days later, when they were joined by two additional members. By then, some reform advocates were up in arms over Stein, arguing that he was bringing a record of scandal to the commission. They sent the commissioners news articles pointing out that Stein had, among other things, resigned from the airport commission in 2004 amid two grand jury investigations into whether city officials had tied the awarding of airport contracts to campaign contributions. Stein denied those allegations in 2004, calling them 'false, defamatory and unsubstantiated.' Last week, before the second leadership vote, he shot back at his critics, noting that two law enforcement agencies — the U.S. attorney's office and the L.A. County district attorney's office — declined to pursue charges against him. The Ethics Commission also did not bring a case over his airport commission activities. 'I was forced to protect my good name by having to hire an attorney and having to spend over $200,000 in legal fees [over] something where I had done nothing wrong,' he told his fellow commissioners. The city reimbursed Stein for the vast majority of those legal costs. Stein accused Meza of orchestrating some of the outside criticism — which Meza later denied. And Stein spent so much time defending his record that he had little time to say why he should be elected. Still, the vote was close, with Meza securing seven votes and Stein picking up five. Meza called the showdown 'unfortunate.' L.A. voters, he said, 'want to see the baton passed to a new generation of people.' The 40-year-old Montecito Heights resident made clear that he supports an array of City Charter changes. In an interview, Meza said he's 'definitely in favor' of ranked-choice voting, arguing that it would increase voter turnout. He also supports an increase in the number of City Council members but wouldn't say how many. And he wants to ensure that vacant positions are filled more quickly at City Hall, calling it an issue that 'absolutely needs to be addressed.' That last item has long been a concern for SEIU Local 721, where Meza works as deputy chief of staff. Nevertheless, Meza said he would, to an extent, set aside the wishes of his union during the commission's deliberations. 'On the commission, I am an individual resident of the city,' he said. Stein, for his part, told The Times that he only ran for the leadership post out of concern over the commission's tight timeline. The commission must submit its proposal to the council next spring — a much more aggressive schedule than the one required of two charter reform commissions nearly 30 years ago. Getting through so many complex issues in such a brief period calls for an experienced hand, said Stein, who is 76 and lives in Encino. Stein declined to say where he stands on council expansion and ranked-choice voting. He said he's already moved on from the leadership vote and is ready to dig into the commission's work. Meza, for his part, said he has heard the concerns about the aggressive schedule. But he remains confident the commission will be successful. 'I don't think we have the best conditions,' he said. 'But I do not believe we've been set up to fail. I'm very confident the commissioners will do what's needed to turn in a good product.' — STRICTLY BUSINESS: A group of L.A. business leaders launched a ballot proposal to repeal the city's much-maligned gross receipts tax, saying it would boost the city's economy and lower prices for Angelenos. The mayor and several other officials immediately panned the idea, saying it would deprive the city's yearly budget of $800 million, forcing cuts to police, firefighters and other services. — INCHING FORWARD: Meanwhile, another ballot proposal from the business community — this one backed by airlines and the hotel industry — nudged closer to reality. Interim City Clerk Petty Santos announced that the proposed referendum on the $30-per-hour tourism minimum wage had 'proceeded to the next step,' with officials now examining and verifying petition signatures to determine their validity. — GRIM GPS: The Los Angeles County Fire Department had only one truck stationed west of Lake Avenue in Altadena at a critical moment during the hugely destructive Eaton fire, according to vehicle tracking data analyzed by The Times. By contrast, the agency had dozens of trucks positioned east of Lake. All but one of the deaths attributed to the Eaton fire took place west of Lake. — CHANGE OF PLANS: On Monday, Bass nominated consultant and Community Coalition board member Mary Lee to serve on the five-member Board of Police Commissioners. Two days later, in a brief email, Lee withdrew from consideration. Reached by The Times, Lee cited 'personal reasons' for her decision but did not elaborate. (The mayor's office had nothing to add.) Lee would have replaced former commissioner Maria 'Lou' Calanche, who is running against Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez in the June 2026 election. — SEMPER GOODBYE: The Pentagon announced Monday that the roughly 700 Marines who have been deployed to the city since early June would be withdrawing, a move cheered by Bass and other local leaders who have criticized the military deployment that followed protests over federal immigration raids. About 2,000 National Guard troops remain in the region. — HALTING HEALTHCARE: L.A. County's public health system, which provides care to the region's neediest residents, could soon face brutal budget cuts. The 'Big Beautiful Bill,' enacted by President Trump and the Republican-led Congress, is on track to carve $750 million per year out of the Department of Health Services, which oversees four public hospitals and roughly two dozen clinics. At the Department of Public Health, which is facing its own $200-million cut, top executive Barbara Ferrer said: 'I've never actually seen this much disdain for public health.' — HOMELESS HIRE: The commission that oversees the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority selected Gita O'Neill, a career lawyer in the city attorney's office, to serve as the agency's interim CEO. O'Neill will replace Va Lecia Adams Kellum, who stepped down Friday after more than two years in her post. — THE JURY SPEAKS: The city has been ordered by a jury to pay $48.8 million to a man who has been in a coma since he was hit by a sanitation truck while crossing a street in Encino. The verdict comes as the city struggles with escalating legal payouts — and was larger than any single payout by the city in the last two fiscal years, according to data provided by the city attorney's office. — LOOKING FOR A LIAISON: Back in May, while signing an executive directive to support local film and TV production, L.A.'s mayor was asked whether she planned to appoint a film liaison as the City Hall point person for productions. 'Absolutely,' Bass said during the news conference, adding that she planned to do so within a few days. That was two months ago. Asked this week about the status of that position, Bass spokesperson Clara Karger touted the executive directive and said the position was 'being hired in conjunction with industry leaders.' She did not provide a timeline. That's it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to LAontheRecord@ Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez enters 2026 governor's race, calls Trump a ‘maniac'
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Democratic Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez entered the battleground state's open race for governor Friday by calling President Donald Trump a 'maniac,' as she attempts to differentiate herself in what is expected to be a crowded primary. A second Democrat, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, said in a statement Friday that in the weeks ahead he 'will be taking steps toward entering the race.' Wisconsin's 2026 governor's race is open with no incumbent running for the first time since 2010. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced Thursday that he will not seek a third term. Both Rodriguez and Crowley would make history if elected. Rodriguez, a former emergency room nurse, would be Wisconsin's first woman governor and Crowley would be the first Black governor. Several other Democrats are expected to join the race. 'We've got a maniac in the White House,' Rodriguez said in a campaign launch video. 'His tariffs are killing our farmers and his policies are hurting our kids.' Evers has not endorsed anyone in the race. His spokesperson had no immediate comment Friday. Rodriguez has been lieutenant governor since 2023, after previously serving one two-year term in the state Assembly representing suburban Milwaukee, where she lives. She won a seat that had been under Republican control for years. Rodriguez emphasized her background working previously as a nurse in a Baltimore emergency room, saying she wanted to continue Evers' emphasis on fighting to protect reproductive freedom, invest in public schools and rebuild the economy. She noted that the state Legislature is within reach of Democratic control, meaning that with a Democratic governor, they could finally enact policies Republicans have blocked for years like expanding Medicaid. A registered nurse, Rodriguez previously worked as a health care executive and an epidemic intelligence service officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has a master's degree in public health. Rodriguez emphasized the importance of health care, including protecting abortion rights, in a brief speech she delivered on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last year. Rodriguez, who is married with two children, launched her candidacy on her 50th birthday. In her first run for office in 2020, when she was elected to the Legislature, Rodriguez said she was motivated to get into politics because of how Republicans handled the COVID-19 pandemic. Rodriguez won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in 2022 after then-Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who held the office in Evers' first term, decided to run for the Senate. Barnes, who lost that race to Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, is among several Democrats considering a run for governor next year. Others include Attorney General Josh Kaul, state Sen. Kelda Roys, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. On the Republican side, Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and suburban Milwaukee businessman Bill Berrien are the only announced candidates. Others, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and state Senate President Mary Felzkowski, are considering it. Berrien called Rodriguez 'the very embodiment of Tony Evers' and the Madison Democrats' failed record over the last six years.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
Criminalization or support? President Trump's executive order on homelessness gets mixed reaction
An executive order signed by President Trump purporting to protect Americans from 'endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks' attributed to homelessness has left local officials and homeless advocates outraged over its harsh tone while also grasping for a hopeful message in its fine print. The order Trump signed Thursday would require federal agencies to reverse precedents or consent decrees that impede U.S. policy 'encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.' It ordered those agencies to 'ensure the availability of funds to support encampment removal efforts.' Depending on how that edict is carried out, it could extend a lifeline for Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program, which has eliminated dozens of the city's most notable encampments but faces budget challenges to maintain the hotel and motel beds that allow people to move indoors. Responding to the order Friday, Bass said she was troubled that it called for ending street homelessness and moving people into rehabilitation facilities at the same time as the administration's cuts to Medicaid have affected funding 'streams for facilities for people to stay in, especially people who are disabled.' 'Of course I'm concerned about any punitive measures,' Bass said. 'But first and foremost, if you want to end street homelessness, then you have got to have housing and services for people who are on the street.' Kevin Murray, president and chief executive of the Weingart Center homeless services and housing agency, saw ambiguity in the language. 'I couldn't tell whether he is offering money for people who want to do it his way or taking money away from people who don't do it his way,' Murray said. Others took their cue from the order's provocative tone set in a preamble declaring that the overwhelming majority of the 274,224 people reported living on the street in 2024 'are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.' The order contradicted a growing body of research finding that substance use and mental illness, while significant, are not overriding factors in homelessness. 'Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes. An equally large share of homeless individuals reported suffering from mental health conditions.' A February study by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that only about 37% of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed in California were using illicit drugs regularly, but just over 65% reported having regularly used at some point in their lives. More than a third said their drug use had decreased after they became homeless and one in five interviewed in depth said they were seeking treatment but couldn't get it. 'As with most executive orders, it doesn't have much effect on its own,' said Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 'It tells the federal agencies to do different things. Depending on how the federal agencies do those things, that's what will have the impact.' In concrete terms, the order seeks to divert funding from two pillars of mainstream homelessness practice, 'housing first,' the prioritization of permanent housing over temporary shelter, and 'harm reduction,' the rejection of abstinence as a condition of receiving services and housing. According to the order, grants issued under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration should 'not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.' And the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should, to the extent permitted by law, end support for 'housing first' policies that 'deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.' To some extent, those themes reflect shifts that have been underway in the state and local response to homelessness. Under pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California legislature established rules allowing relatives and service providers to refer people to court for treatment and expanded the definition of gravely disabled to include substance use. Locally, Bass' Inside Safe program and the county's counterpart, Pathway Home, have prioritized expanding interim housing to get people off the streets immediately. Trump's order goes farther, though, wading into the controversial issue of how much coercion is justified in eliminating encampments. The Attorney General and the other federal agencies, it said, should take steps to ensure that grants go to states and cities that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering and squatting. Homeless advocacy organizations saw those edicts as a push for criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. 'We'll be back to the days of 'One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest,' 'Berg said, referring to the 1962 novel and subsequent movie dramatizing oppressive conditions in mental health institutions. Defending Housing First as a proven strategy that is the most cost-effective way to get people off the street, Berg said the order encourages agencies to use the money in less cost-effective ways. 'What we want to do is reduce homelessness,' he said. 'I'm not sure that is the goal of the Trump administration.' The National Homelessness Law Center said in a statement saying, 'This Executive Order is rooted in outdated, racist myths about homelessness and will undoubtedly make homelessness worse.... Trump's actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness.' Murray, who describes himself as not a fan of Housing First, noted that key policies pressed in the order—civil commitment, encampment removal and substance use treatment—are already gaining prominence in the state and local response to homelessness. 'We all think if it came from Trump it is horrible,' Murray said. 'It is certainly overbearing. It certainly misses some nuances of what real people with mental illness and substance use are like. But we've started down the path of most of this stuff.' His main concern was that the order might be interpreted to apply to Section 8, the primary federal financial tool for getting homeless people into housing. What would happen, he asked, if someone with a voucher refused treatment? 'It might encourage more people to stay on the streets,' he said. 'Getting people into treatment isn't easy.'
