Former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley loses bid to get jobs

The Los Angeles City Council rejected a bid from former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, asking her job to lead one of the largest fire departments in the United States due to strong opposition from the Firefighters League.

The committee voted 13-to-2 on Crowley’s recovery on Tuesday, handing over the embattled mayor Karen Bass to a much-needed political victory and supported by the city’s legislative branch. Bass had Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as acting mayor when the fire broke out in Ghana and performed well within the days after her return.

Crowley’s hearing on Tuesday publicly opposed Bass for the first time to end her argument. She also sat before the council, and she also argued that she was facing retaliation that publicly stressed the lack of resources from her department.

“The fact is that the Fire Chief should not be publicly, honestly spoken out of the Fire Chief or punished the Fire Chief to speak openly and honestly about the needs and capabilities of the LAFD, or to do its best to protect our firefighters and our communities.”

Imelda Padilla, a MP representing the central San Fernando Valley, expressed appreciation for the firing and criticized Crowley for his decision to discuss the fire department’s budget with the news media, while Palisades Fire is still raging.

“The Chief chose the wrong time and the wrong place to ask questions,” she said.

Given the fact that she needs a 10 vote or a two-thirds majority, Crowley’s bid for a return to the state will almost certainly fail. The only votes to support her recovery came from Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park, both of whom were supporters of Crowley.

Still, Tuesday’s proceedings caused headaches for Bass, who ousted Crowley about two weeks ago. The complaints broadcast repeatedly by firefighters that the fire department has been underfunded for too long.

Chuong Ho, who serves on the board of joint firefighters in Los Angeles’ local 112, urges council members to restore Crowley and says she was fired for “talking the truth” and lacks resources.

“The men and women of our great fire department support Chief Crowley because she stood up and said she had our support,” he said. “I have never seen the fire chief in my career talk about constant people and lack of funds for the fire department.”

Her appeal in her appeal filed Thursday only added to the volatility that had swallowed up City Hall since the fire broke out on January 7, destroying thousands of homes and killing 12 people. For more than a week, Crowley’s supporters accused the bass of taking responsibility by termination.

Bass supporters, in turn, accused Crowley of negligence and disobedience, saying she pushed for part of the restoration to carry out a bigger political attack on Bass, the city’s first black female mayor, with a larger political attack.

“At this time of crisis, when we try to turn, we are seeing a separatist political movement … publicly lynching the first African-American mayor in Los Angeles,” said Sylvia Castillo, who worked for Bass while the mayor was in Congress.

Castillo, who appeared before the council, said Bass had the right to remove him from his post “debt.” Another bass supporter said the push to bring Crowley back to Crowley was “rooted in anti-black.”

Benjamin Torres, president and CEO of South Los Angeles Group CD Tech, called the lawsuit a “political move to cut down on black leadership.”

“if [Bass] is a privileged white male,” he told the council.

Former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley appealed after firing the Los Angeles City Council.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The bass fired Crowley on February 21 and cited two main reasons. She said the Chief failed to explode in the winds of Hurricane Santa Ana in the morning. She also accused Crowley of refusing to participate in the post-action report after being asked to do so.

Bass began publicly criticizing Crowley before the strike that ousted her, accusing the former chief of failing to warn her of dangerous potential in the pre-fire.

Crowley’s defenders, in turn, accused the bass of trying to divert blame, which was assessed by the city’s preparation and response to the Palisade shooting before completing the post-action report. They said the mayor’s own staff have been receiving increasing warnings about the upcoming winds and the intensification of wildfires in the city’s emergency management department, which tracks dangerous weather conditions.

Rodriguez, who represents northeast of the San Fernando Valley, said Crowley was unfairly replaced by a mayor desperate to reset his government after a wildfire. She said she disagreed with the argument that Beth has the right to fire Crowley.

But she retorted that the city council also had its own power to overturn such actions by 10 votes, under the power provided by the city charter.

“We play a role, too, so we’re playing that role,” she told colleagues. “And I won’t apologize for my work.”

Tensions between Crowley and Bass appeared publicly in the first week of the Palisades fire. On January 10, Crowley appeared on multiple TV stations, condemning what she said was a lack of sufficient funds.

In an interview, she said the city failed her and her department. In another, she has created a connection between cutting back and her department and the city’s handling of the fire.

Firefighters union praised Crowley as a teller of truth—someone had the courage to call up its agents to invest for decades. Bass responded that Crowley had attended such a long meeting that the mayor missed her own press conference to update the wildfires to the public.

Although many expected Crowley to be fired, the next morning, the bass showed up with the fire chief and said the two were working together.

This messaging suddenly changed two weeks ago when Bass began criticizing Crowley for failing to warn her about the potential for an extreme fire situation.

“Crowley had the courage and courage to speak out to make sure her troops have the work they need to do on the ground,” said Firefighters Union president Freddy Escobar. “This is the first time the public and the city council have started to pay attention. But her honesty has cost her work.”

The city’s charter gives the mayor the majority of department heads who have no authority to remove him, without the approval of the board of directors. The Charter also gives Crowley the right to make decisions to the Council.

Tuesday’s lawsuit appears to be almost unprecedented in modern urban history, with the closest being Bernard C.

Former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley left City Hall after appealing to Los Angeles City Council.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The city council refused to overturn the committee’s ruling, a debate inciting racial divisions in the city. Three black members of the commission supported the park, the second black chief of the department, and targeted Hahn, who was politically hurt in the fight. Parks won a seat on the council the following year, while Hahn lost his reelection in 2005.

Tim McOsker, who was Hahn’s chief of staff during the second semester of Parks’ battle, said he didn’t want to force two people who were not getting along – Beth and Crowley to work together. He said he had lived, “It could be disastrous.”

“I’m going to put a functional city on top of what I might be more political to me,” Maxke said.

Districts of Councillor Traci Park include Pacific Palisades, who supports the recovery of Crowley’s relocation, said neither she nor her colleagues received any reports of post-action that show who should blame a series of failures – a lack of firefighters, a lack of water for the hydrant and a lack of orderly evacuation.

Parker said getting these answers “probably means firing everyone responsible in multiple departments, and I have no problem with that.” But I wouldn’t have done that without wise records and actual evidence to back up the decision. I didn’t have it today. ”