Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner is expected to challenge Mayor Karen Bass when she runs for reelection in 2026.

The 65-year-old investment banker and philanthropist, who ran the city’s school district from 2018-21, is planning to announce his candidacy Monday.

Beutner questioned Bass’ record on crime and development issues, but focused his most withering criticism on her response to January’s devastating Palisades Fire, having had said that the city showed a “failure of leadership” as historically strong winds spread flames through the expensive coastal enclave, gutting thousands of homes and killing 12 people.

The fire damaged Beutner’s house, and his mother-in-law’s home was destroyed.

An after-action report issued by the Los Angeles Fire Department last week said the department experienced poor communication, inexperienced leadership, a lack of resources and an ineffective process for recalling firefighters back to work during the crisis.

In light of the report, Bass has promised to make changes.

“When you have broken hydrants, a reservoir that’s broken and is out of action, broken [fire] trucks that you can’t dispatch ahead of time, when you don’t pre-deploy at the adequate level, when you don’t choose to hold over the Monday firefighters to be there on Tuesday to help fight the fire — to me, it’s a failure of leadership,” Beutner said.

“At the end of the day, the buck stops with the mayor,” he said.

The Mayor’s Office was reached for a comment Sunday morning, but did not immediately hear back.

Beutner was briefly publisher of The Times from 2014-15. He was also a deputy mayor of Los Angeles from 2010-13, during former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s second term.

Developer Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in 2022, is also a possible candidate in 2026. Caruso also owns property in Pacific Palisades and has also been a vocal critic of Bass’ leadership during the fire crisis, writing on social media last week that “Her and the city’s incompetence, mismanagement, and failure to plan, prepare, and predeploy directly led to people dying, thousands of lives being upended, and put on full display the consequences of ineffective and incapable leadership.”

Bass fired back on Wednesday.

“Well, the way he characterized me sounded like Trump,” she said. “But I just was saddened by it, honestly, because that response was beneath him. This is when the city needs to stand together. Why would you do that? So he’s better than that and I was just disappointed and sad.”