While the raging fires in L.A are increasing in size and becoming deadlier, Mayor Karen Bass was busy attending the inauguration of the new president of Ghana. By the time she came back, the fires had spread through thousands of acres, causing hundreds of buildings to burn down and killing at least 24 people.
The mayor is facing a lot of criticism for her absence during this crisis. People are questioning her political future. Most of her criticism came from her 2022 opponent Rick Caruso. “We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country and a city that’s burning and there’s no resources to put out fires,” Caruso told Fox 11 News in Los Angeles last week. “It looks like we’re in a third-world country, and we’ve got a lot of tough questions that we need to ask the mayor and the City Council and our representatives and the county representatives. Why didn’t you work to mitigate this?”
Political antagonists asked her why she even decided to go on an international trip, considering that the Los Angeles National Weather Service had already warned of “extreme fire weather conditions”. Some people say the city was unprepared.
Bass ignored a question about her leadership at a press conference on Thursday. She refused to answer a reporter’s question about her absence during the tragic fires, claiming that she was focused on saving lives and homes. When questioned again, she replied: “I just said what I believe is the most important thing for us to do right now and that is going to continue to be my focus.”
“Conditions are expected to worsen for these locations by Tuesday morning as wind gusts near 70 mph will be possible,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Walter Otto stated on Monday.
While thousands of firefighters are fighting the terrible wildfires across LA, ABC News discussed the city budgets and other documents that are publicly available for the city.
Was the fire department’s budget cut? There’s a lot of confusion surrounding Mayor Karen Bass’ 2024-25 spending plan. When she spoke about her budget plan for 2024-25, she called for a 2.7% reduction in spending at the Los Angeles Fire Department. However, as her citywide budget proposal underwent evaluation, Bass was engaging in private discussions concerning a significant salary increase for the city’s 3,300 firefighters. In November, the City Council, authorized increased salaries for firefighters, adding over $53 million in extra payroll expenses. After this, the fire department’s operating budget grew by more than 7%, according to the city’s financial analysts.
