{"id":356195,"date":"2026-06-11T13:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356195\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T13:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T13:16:12","slug":"mayor-bass-brother-joins-palisades-fire-lawsuit-against-city-of-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356195\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Bass’ brother joins Palisades fire lawsuit against city of L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kenneth Bass is one of thousands of residents and business owners suing the city of Los Angeles<\/a> and other entities over property loss and other damages suffered during the catastrophic Palisades fire. <\/p>\n

But unlike the other plaintiffs, he is suing a body led by his sister, who is in the midst of a heated reelection campaign<\/a> where frustrations over her response<\/a> to the inferno have taken center stage<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kenneth Bass, 78, and his wife, Cindy, filed their suit in L.A. Superior Court on May 18, according to court records first reported on by L.A. Material<\/a>. The couple allege that they suffered smoke inhalation injuries, emotional distress and mental anguish as a result of the fire, which destroyed their Malibu home, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Their claims are being processed as part of a master lawsuit alleging that numerous public entities and utility companies \u2014 including the city, the state, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the California Department of Parks and Recreation and Southern California Edison \u2014 bear responsibility for the harms residents suffered in the Palisades fire, which destroyed some 6,800 structures and killed 12 people. Lawyers for both the city and LADWP<\/a> have repeatedly denied responsibility for the tragic losses suffered.<\/p>\n

Bass\u2019 press secretary, Paige Sterling said in a statement that there was \u201cnothing new\u201d to note regarding Kenneth Bass\u2019 participation in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Bass has spoken of her brother\u2019s loss publicly since January of 2025,\u201d she stated. \u201cThousands of people are plaintiffs in this action, which names 18 public and private sector defendants. The City Attorney\u2019s Office is responsible for defending the City and DWP in this lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Karen <\/p>\n

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom tour the devastated downtown business district of Pacific Palisades on Jan. 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Bass shared that her brother had lost his home<\/a> in a meeting with the Pacific Palisades Community Council in January 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss that you\u2019re going through, I share indirectly. It\u2019s hit my family too,\u201d she told residents during the meeting. \u201cMy brother, who has lived in Malibu for 40 years, been through many fires, evacuated many times \u2014 this time didn\u2019t get away.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described the property as a family home where she spent the holidays and the loss of a home as \u201ca type of shock and grief that is trauma that will be with us for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although federal prosecutors have charged an alleged arsonist<\/a> with starting the Palisades fire, attorneys representing civil plaintiffs maintain that the city and LADWP failed to adequately prepare for and respond to the blaze.<\/p>\n

In particular, Mayor Bass and LADWP have drawn criticism because the Santa Ynez reservoir in the Palisades was empty<\/a> while the fire carved its destructive course. LADWP also has been accused of failing to maintain adequate water pressure and having a fire-prone electrical grid \u2014 claims it has denied. <\/p>\n

The master civil lawsuit filed by Palisades fire victims is still in initial stages. The city of Malibu has filed a suit of its own<\/a> accusing the city of L.A., the state and several other entities of engaging in negligent conduct that enabled the fire\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n

Mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt based his campaign in large part on a scathing criticism of Bass\u2019 handling of the Palisades fire and his own frustration after his Pacific Palisades house was destroyed. On Monday, however, he failed to advance to the run-off election.<\/p>\n

Bass will now face off against progressive City Council candidate Nithya Raman on the November ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenneth Bass is one of thousands of residents and business owners suing the city of Los Angeles and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11418,1409,17358,145143,48,52,51,29545,47,50,49,63,86907,17708,145146,145144,592,1437,145145,288,3293],"class_list":["post-356195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-brother","tag-city","tag-city-attorney","tag-kenneth-bass","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-ladwp","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-malibu-home","tag-mayor-bass","tag-other-entity","tag-palisades-fire-lawsuit","tag-people","tag-plaintiff","tag-property-loss","tag-resident","tag-thousand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}