The Brief

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday denied an appeal by Kristin Crowley to reinstate her as the city's fire chief.

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.

At the hearing, the former LAFD chief disputed many of Bass' stated reasons for her firing. Crowley talked about her actions on Jan. 7, the day the Palisades Fire began, comments she made publicly at that time about department needs and budgetary problems, and her thoughts about an after-action report expected after the fires were contained.

"It is never the wrong time to do the right thing and to speak the truth," Crowley said. "And the truth is that the fire chief should not be prevented from or punished for speaking openly and honestly about the needs and capabilities of the LAFD, or for doing her best to protect firefighters and our communities."

Bass’ reasons for firing Crowley

When announcing Crowley's firing on Feb. 21, Bass cited the former chief’s response to the Palisades Fire, which burned more than 23,000 acres, destroyed 6,837 homes and killed 12 people.

The mayor said Crowley failed to activate more firefighters amid forecasts of gale force winds and extremely dry brush. She also said Crowley failed to warn her ahead of time about the dangerous conditions and that the former fire chief refused to cooperate with the Fire Commission’s evaluation of how the department responded to the fire.

After she was fired, Crowley issued a statement saying she “based her actions and decisions on taking care of our firefighters so that they could take care of our communities.”

Crowley’s testimony

Tuesday was the first time Crowley had responded specifically to Bass’ comments. She disputed the mayor’s claim that the ex-chief should have kept 1,000 extra firefighters on the job in the hours before the Palisades Fire started.

“As for the thousand firefighters who allegedly were sent home prior to the fire, we did not have enough apparatus to put them on,” Crowley told the council. “Because of the budget cuts and lack of investments in our fleet maintenance, over 100 of our fire engines, fire trucks and ambulances sat broken down in our maintenance yard.”

She said the department pre-deployed 128 firefighters the day of the fire.

As for the mayor’s claim that Crowley refused to participate in an “after action” report on the department’s response, the ex-chief said she merely told the Fire Commission that the department didn’t have the resources to conduct such an in-depth analysis and that she supported a state investigation already under way.

Finally, she addressed Bass’s claim that Crowley failed to inform the mayor of the extremely dangerous fire conditions ahead of time.

“The LAFD engaged in all of its standard communications,” said Crowley, who added that included notifying city officials of the predicted fire danger.

A spokesperson for Bass has told media representatives that Crowley did not personally call her or her chief of staff.

Members of the Los Angeles Fire Dept. fill L.A. City Hall to show support for former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.

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Allen J. Schaben

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Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

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Comments from the council meeting

Dozens of firefighters who showed up to support Crowley erupted in applause after she spoke.

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.

Several people who attended the meeting expressed their support for the mayor. Some said the ones second-guessing Bass’ decision were doing so because the mayor is Black. One Bass supporter who addressed the council said the attacks on the mayor were “rooted in anti-Blackness.”

Some of the council members said the mayor should have the right to choose the fire chief of her choice.

District 6 Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who represents Van Nuys and other San Fernando Valley neighborhoods, faulted Crowley for complaining about budget cuts as the fire raged out of control in the Pacific Palisades.

“The chief chose the wrong time and the wrong place to raise the issue,” Padilla said.

What now?

Crowley’s firing from her job as fire chief doesn’t mean she’s leaving the department where she’s worked for more than 25 years. She will remain on as an assistant chief.

Former Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva, a more-than-40-year veteran of the department, has been named interim fire chief.

Anyone will tell you that these are tumultuous, borderline-apocalyptic times for the film industry. Box office is down. The threat of AI looms. Billionaires and tech giants are laying waste to what remains of the major Hollywood studios. I'm not entirely sure how to square all this bad news with my own good news, which is that I saw more terrific new movies this year than I have any year since before the pandemic. True, most of those movies weren't from here, but all of them played in U.S. theaters in 2025, and all of them are well worth seeking out in the weeks and months to come.

1. Sirāt

The best new movie I saw this year is a breakthrough work from a gifted Spanish filmmaker named Oliver Laxe. It's a nail-biting survival thriller, set in the desert of southern Morocco during what feels like the end-times. It's a little Mad Max, a little Wages of Fear, and all in all, the most exhilarating and devastating two hours I experienced in a theater this year. Sirāt also features the year's best original score, composed by the electronic musician Kangding Ray.

2. One Battle After Another

Paul Thomas Anderson's much-loved, much-debated reimagining of Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland is an exuberant mash-up of action-thriller and political satire. One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio in one of his best and funniest performances as an aging revolutionary drawn back into the field. He leads an ensemble that includes Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Regina Hall and the terrific discovery, Chase Infiniti.

3. Caught by the Tides

Caught by the Tides is an unclassifiable hybrid of fiction and nonfiction from the Chinese director Jia Zhangke. Drawn from a mix of archival footage and newly shot material, it's a one-of-a-kind portrait of the myriad transformations that China has gone through over the past two decades.

4. Resurrection

Resurrection, another structurally bold Chinese title, is a bit like an Avatar movie for film buffs. Placing us in the head of a shapeshifting protagonist, the director, Bi Gan, takes us on a gorgeous, dreamlike odyssey through various cinema genres, from historical spy drama to vampire thriller.

5. My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow

My No. 5 movie is the year's best documentary: My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow, from the director Julia Loktev. It's a sprawling yet intimate portrait of several Russian independent journalists in the harrowing months leading up to President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As a portrait of anti-authoritarian resistance, it pairs nicely with my No. 6 movie.

6. The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent is an emotionally rich, sneakily funny and continually surprising drama from the director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Set in 1977, it lays bare the personal cost of dissidence during Brazil's military dictatorship.

7. Sound of Falling

Although not a horror film, exactly, this German drama qualifies as the best and spookiest haunted-house movie I've seen this year. Directed by Mascha Schilinski, Sound of Falling teases out the connections among four generations of girls and young women who have passed through the same remote farmhouse.

8. April

April, from the director Dea Kulumbegashvili, is a tough, bleak, but utterly hypnotic portrait of a skilled OB-GYN trying to provide health care for women in a conservative East Georgian village. It may be set far from the U.S., but the difficulties these women face would resonate in any setting.

9. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl

Directed by Rungano Nyoni, this Zambian film is a subtly mesmerizing drama about a death that takes place in a middle-class household, setting off a chain of dark revelations that threaten to tear a family apart.

10. It Was Just an Accident

It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is a shattering moral thriller from the Iranian director Jafar Panahi. It centers on a group of former political prisoners who are given a rare chance at retribution. In the past, Panahi has been a prisoner in Iran himself, and earlier this month, the government sentenced the director in absentia to a year in prison. I hope that Panahi never sees the inside of a jail cell again, and that his movie is seen as far and wide as possible.
Copyright 2025 NPR

In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena and Pasadena’s music community have really shown up to support fire survivors, especially fellow musicians who lost instruments and record collections.

That effort continues this weekend with a special donation concert at a Pasadena record store, with the aim of getting vinyl records back in the hands of survivors who lost their collections.

“You know, our name is Healing Force of the Universe, and I think that gives me a pretty clear direction… especially after the fires,” said Austin Manuel, founder of Pasadena record store, where Sunday’s show will be held.

The record donation effort is the brainchild of musician Brandon Jay, who founded the nonprofit Altadena Musicians after losing his home and almost all of his family’s instruments in the Eaton Fire. Through Altadena Musicians’s donation and registry platform, Jay said he and his partners have helped some 1,200 fire survivors get their music instruments back.

Brandon Jay.

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Robert Garrova

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LAist

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Now, that effort has fanned out to restoring vinyl record collections.

“All of that stuff evaporated for thousands of people,” Jay said. “Look at your own record collection and be like, ‘Wow, what if that whole thing disappeared?’”

You might know Jay from several bands over the years, including Lutefisk, a 1990s alt-rock band based in Los Angeles. He and his wife, Gwendolyn Sanford, composed music for TV shows, including Orange is the New Black and Weeds.

Jay plans to play some holiday tunes at Sunday's record donation show (which LAist is the media sponsor), along with fellow musician Daniel Brummel of Sanglorians. Brummel, who was also a founding member of Pasadena’s indie-rock sensation Ozma, said he was grateful to Jay for his fire recovery work and to Manuel for making Healing Force available for shows like this.

Brummel, who came close to losing his own home in the Eaton Fire, recalled a show he played at Healing Force back in March.

Ryen Slegr (left) and Daniel Brummel perform with their band, Ozma, on the 2014 Weezer Cruise.

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Even Keel Imagery

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“The trauma of the fires was still really fresh,” Brummel said. After playing a cover of Rufus Wainwright’s “Going to a Town,” that night — which includes the lyrics “I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down” — Brummel said his neighbors in the audience told him the rendition hit them hard. “It felt really powerful. And without that space, it just wouldn’t have occurred.”

Details

Healing Force of the Universe Record Donation Show
Featuring: Quasar (aka Brandon Jay), Sanglorians (Daniel Brummel) and The Acrylic.
Sunday, Dec. 14; 2 to 5 p.m.
1200 E. Walnut St., Pasadena
Tickets are $15 or you can donate 5 or more records at the door. More info here.

Topline:

The case: In September, the city settled a lawsuit brought forward by two brothers in their 70s who said they suffered serious injuries after an LAPD officer crashed into their car. Days before the $18 million settlement was reached, lawyers for the brothers said Feldstein Soto called an expert witness testifying for the plaintiffs and “attempted to ingratiate herself with him and asked him to make a contribution to her political campaign,” according to a sworn declaration to the court by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Robert Glassman.

The response: Feldstein Soto did not respond to an interview request. Her spokesperson said the settlement “had nothing to do” with the expert witness. Her campaign manager told LAist the city attorney had been making a routine fundraising call and did not know the person had a role in the case, nor that there were pending requests for her office to pay him fees.

What Jurado says: In a statement to LAist, Jurado said she wants to “make sure that the city’s legal leadership is guided by integrity and accountability, especially when their choices affect public trust, civic rights and the city’s limited resources."

What’s next: The motion needs to go through a few committees before reaching the full City Council. If it passes, the motion calls for the city attorney to “report to council in closed session within 45 days regarding the ethics breach violation and give updates to the City Council."