Fire chief ousted by LA Mayor Bass loses City Council appeal to get her job back

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.