\u201cTotal burn down.\u201d<\/p>\n
That sounds like what Karen Bass and a leftist City Council<\/a> have done, metaphorically, to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n But the phrase actually comes from court records that explain why Kenneth Bass is suing the city<\/a> that his sister (poorly) governs.<\/p>\n The mayor\u2019s brother, whose Malibu home was razed in the deadly 2025 Palisades Fire<\/a>, has joined litigation against the city, the LA Department of Water and Power, and a range of other defendants.<\/p>\n That sounds like what Karen Bass and a leftist City Council have done, metaphorically, to Los Angeles. Getty Images<\/p>\n But the phrase actually comes from court records that explain why Kenneth Bass is suing the city that his sister (poorly) governs. London Entertainment<\/p>\n Among the allegations: deficient fire preparation on the part of the city and its water utility, in part because the latter had left a nearby reservoir \u2014 built in part for firefighting \u2014 empty for a nearly year before the fire.<\/p>\n Question: How badly does a mayor have to perform for her own brother to sue the city she leads?\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the California Morning Report newsletter\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia’s top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly news that Mayor Bass royally botched the fire issue, but her brother\u2019s move adds an exclamation point.<\/p>\n Bass downplayed the news through advisers, who said Kenneth Bass\u2019 loss has long been publicly known and there are thousands of plaintiffs in the legal action.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hardly news that Mayor Bass royally botched the fire issue, but her brother\u2019s move adds an exclamation point. REUTERS<\/p>\n But a loss is not the same as a lawsuit, and the fact that thousands (some 40,000, in fact) are suing the city makes the case worse for Bass, not better.<\/p>\n And legal case aside, Bass is guilty of leadership failures.<\/p>\n A few lowlights: Not only was the mayor in Ghana when the blaze erupted, but while she was abroad, the city declined to deploy firefighters to the burn scar of a fire an arsonist had allegedly set in the Palisades just days before \u2014 a fire that reignited and roared through the area. Meanwhile, the LAPD failed to prioritize resident evacuations as the flames spread.<\/p>\n Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters <\/p>\n California Post News: Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, X<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> Later, the mayor deflected blame for the disaster, was slow to help fire victims, and was accused of watering down an after-fire report to make herself look better.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all emblematic of a city culture that prioritizes optics over accountability, ideology over common sense, and spending over results.\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, the ceaseless spending on issues such as homelessness is the intended result; the city ships tax dollars to nonprofits that entrench the problem to generate more money for solutions that never come.\u00a0<\/p>\n The focus is on the racket, not on clean streets or good governance or fire prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n Karen Bass must hope that voters are blind to this, or overlook it out of partisan fidelity.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how she avoids a total burn down of her campaign for reelection.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t
California Post Sports Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, TikTok<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, X<\/a>
California Post Opinion<\/a>
California Post Newsletters: Sign up here!<\/a>
California Post App: Download here!<\/a>
Home delivery: Sign up here!<\/a>
<\/a>Page Six Hollywood: Sign up here!<\/a><\/p>\n