Former Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley is suing the city, claiming in a whistleblower lawsuit that Mayor Karen Bass \u201corchestrated a campaign of retaliation\u201d to protect her own political future and paper over her failures during the most destructive fire in city history.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit, filed Monday in L.A. County Superior Court, Crowley and her attorneys allege Bass sought to shift blame for the way the city handled last year\u2019s catastrophic Palisades fire to Crowley amid mounting criticism of the mayor\u2019s decision to attend a ceremony in Ghana on Jan. 7, the day the fire erupted. Bass, the suit alleges, left L.A. despite knowing of the potential severe winds and fire danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe sought to avoid accountability by shifting blame and lying \u2014 including falsely claiming that she was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event, falsely claiming that the LAFD\u2019s budget was not cut, and falsely claiming that LAFD\u2019s resources would have supported an additional 1,000 firefighters to fight the blaze \u2014 claims contradicted by public records and Bass\u2019 own prior statements,\u201d the lawsuit alleges. \u201cThese false statements were not mistakes but part of a deliberate strategy to divert scrutiny from Bass\u2019 decisions and to avoid accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Palisades fire took off the morning of Jan. 7, 2025 amid fierce Santa Ana winds, killing 12 people and destroying thousands of homes amounting to billions of dollars in damage. While authorities allege a Florida man started the fire, saying it was actually a rekindling of a Jan. 1 fire, decisions by both LAFD brass and the mayor before, during and after Jan. 7 have come under scrutiny.<\/p>\n
According to records obtained by The Times, shortly before releasing an after-action review report on the Palisades fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department issued a confidential memo<\/a> detailing plans to protect Bass and others from \u201creputational harm.\u201d The 13-page document is on LAFD letterhead and includes email addresses for department officials, representatives of Bass\u2019 office, and public relations consultants hired<\/a> to help shape messaging about the fire.<\/p>\n But as questions about the fire response swirled, instead of getting in lockstep with Bass, Crowley revealed to the public that \u201cbudget cuts had weakened the department\u2019s readiness and jeopardized public and firefighter safety\u201d and said her repeated warnings were ignored, the lawsuit says. It alleges Bass retaliated by ousting her as fire chief on Feb. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n Since the fire, the city has faced criticism for an inadequate deployment of firefighters, a chaotic evacuation of Pacific Palisades and a lack of water caused in part by a local reservoir being left empty for repairs. In December, The Times revealed that the city\u2019s after-action report had been altered to deflect criticism<\/a> of LAFD\u2019s failure to predeploy engines and crews to the Palisades<\/a>, among other shortcomings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crowley\u2019s lawyers claim Bass\u2019 view of her performance shifted with political opinion \u2014 starting with initial praise before the mayor reversed course and criticized Crowley as Bass came under fire for being out of the country during the blaze. The lawsuit was preceded by a legal claim, which is a precursor to a civil suit required by state law, filed against the city in August.<\/a> <\/p>\n Asked about the lawsuit, Bass senior advisor Yusef Robb said in a statement that \u201cthere is nothing new here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Crowley was removed from her post for her failure to predeploy and her decision to send 1,000 firefighters home instead of keeping them on duty on the morning the fires broke out,\u201d Robb said. \u201cThis lawsuit has no merit.\u201d<\/p>\n When Crowley was ousted, the mayor said it was because Crowley failed to inform her about the dangerous conditions that day or to predeploy hundreds of firefighters just in case. She also said Crowley rebuffed a request to prepare a report on the fires \u2014 a critical part of ongoing investigations into the cause of the fire and the city\u2019s response.<\/p>\n But Crowley\u2019s lawyers, Genie Harrison and Mia Munro, allege their client \u201crepeatedly warned of the LAFD\u2019s worsening resource and staffing crisis\u201d prior to the fire and warned that aging infrastructure, surging emergency calls and shrinking staff left the city at risk.<\/p>\n \u201cAn analysis of the 90th percentile of all incidents indicates that the overall response time of LAFD resources has increased from 6:51 (minutes) in 2018 to 7:53 in 2022. This dramatic increase is nearly double the time by national standards for first-arriving units,\u201d the lawsuit says. <\/p>\n Three days after the fire, Crowley told a local TV news station that her department was \u201cscreaming to be properly funded,\u201d which prompted Bass to summon Crowley to her office, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why you had to do that; normally we are on the same page, and I don\u2019t know why you had to say stuff to the media,\u201d Bass told Crowley, according to the lawsuit. Bass allegedly told Crowley she wasn\u2019t firing her then because \u201cright now I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Crowley was ousted, the city\u2019s top financial analyst pushed back on her budget-cutting narrative, saying that spending on the Fire Department actually went up during that budget year \u2014 in large part because of a package of firefighter raises. Those increases added an estimated $53 million to the department\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n The day after Crowley and Bass met in her office, the lawsuit alleges, retired LAFD Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva began working at the Emergency Operations Center, donning a mayor\u2019s office badge. On Feb. 3, 2025, more than two weeks before Crowley was removed from her position, Villanueva wrote a report to the Board of Fire Commissioners identifying himself as the interim fire chief \u2014 a position he held until the appointment of Fire Chief Jaime Moore last fall.<\/p>\n The lawsuit alleges that Bass and others in her administration defamed Crowley, retaliated against her in violation of California\u2019s labor code and violated Crowley\u2019s 1st Amendment rights. Crowley is seeking unspecified damages.<\/p>\n