Former fire chief Kristin Crowley loses your offer to get your job back

The city council of Los Angeles rejected the offer of the former fire chief Kristin Crowley to get her job back, even though it was fully supported by the fire brigade union.

The council voted 13 to Crowley's reinstatement on Tuesday and provided competitive mayor Karen Bass an urgently needed political victory. Bass was in Ghana when the fire of the Pacific Palisad broke out and the President of the Council Marqueeece Harris-Dawson as an incumbent mayor and in the days after her return provided a chopped-up performance.

Crowley used the hearing on Tuesday to publicly act against the arguments on Tuesday, which bass ended from her post as head of one of the country's largest fire departments. Crowley sat before the council, argued that she was exposed to retaliation measures in her department due to publicly lacking resources.

“The truth is that the fire chief should not be prevented or punished to speak openly and honestly about the needs and skills of the LAFD or do their best to protect our firefighters and communities,” she told the Council.

The council member Imelda Padilla, who represents the central -San Fernando Valley, criticized Crowley for her decision last month to discuss the fire brigade's budget with the news media while the fire of the Palisades was still raging.

“The boss chose for the wrong time and the wrong place to address a problem,” she said.

In view of the fact that it needed 10 votes or a two -thirds majority, Crowley's offer for reinstatement was almost with certainty. Only the council members Monica Rodriguez and Traci Park, which were strong supporters of Crowley, voted in their favor.

Nevertheless, Bass, who crowded crowley almost two weeks ago as a boss, created a headache. During the public commentary before the council votes, firefighters repeatedly testified complaints that their department was underfunded for too long, with some said that bass tried to distract the guilt from their own actions.

Chuong Ho, the board of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, asked the council members to reintroduce Crowley, and said she was released because she “told the truth about the lack of resources”.

“She got up, she said and she had her back,” said Ho. “I have never seen a fire chief in my career who continuously spoke out about the constant understatement and the lack of financial resources for our fire brigade.”

Crowley's appointment that she submitted on Thursday only contributed to the feeling of volatility that the town hall broke out since the fire on January 7, destroyed thousands of houses and killed 12 people. For more than a week, Crowley's supporters have accused bass of being the fire brigade chief.

Bass supporters in turn accused crowley of mismanagement and insubordination and called on to re -re -post the part of a much greater political attack on bass, the city's first black mayor.

Sylvia Castillo, who worked for bass during the mayor, said that “split” political actors tried to make bass a “public lynch”.

Benjamin Torres, President and Managing Director of the group CD-Tech based in South LA, described the Proceedings as “political step to cut the black leadership”.

“That would not be done if [Bass] Was a white man of the privilege, ”he told the council.

Bass fired crowley on February 21st, citing two main reasons. She said the chief had not managed to take up to 1,000 firefighters in the morning. The fire exploded in the size of the hurricane force Santa Ana Winds. She also accused Crowley of having refused to take part in an internal report after the effect after he was asked.

In the days before Crowley's fall, Bass said that the boss had not warned her about the increasingly poor wind forecasts.

Crowley's defenders in turn accused bass of firing an experienced firefighter long before the after-action reports were completed, which would fire the preparation of the city for and the reaction to the Palisades. They said that the mayor's employees had received warnings of the coming wind and the increased forest fire risk from the city's emergency management department, which pursued the dangerous weather conditions.

Rodriguez, who represents the northeastern San Fernando Valley, said that Crowley was wrongly made sin by a mayor who was desperately desperately after a reset. She said the Council under the City Charter had the authority to reverse a general manager.

Crowley's shooting sends bad news to city employees and department heads – that it is “safer to stay silent than to call what is wrong,” said Rodriguez.

“The only failure I believe was that Chief Crowley was that people had their back. I apologize for that, ”said Rodriguez and spoke to Crowley. “Because as the leader of this department, they don't earn it.”

Dozens of Los Angeles firefighters packed the council chambers to support the former fire chief. After ending her comments, the room broke out with applause and screamed from “re -arrangement! Restore! “

Crowley, the first woman who led the LAFD in its 139-year history, was selected by Eric Garcetti for the top job in 2022, after he had climbed through the ranks of a department, in which female firefighters had complained about harassment and harassment.

After the start of the fire, the tensions between crowley and bass quickly appeared. On January 10, Crowley made several television stations to decipher what she described as inadequate financing for her agency.

In an interview, she said the city failed her and her department. In another case, she established a connection between cuts to her department and the handling of the fire through the city.

The fire brigade union praised Crowley as a fortune teller with the courage to call up decades of sub-investment in its agency. Bass replied by summoning Crowley for a meeting that was so long that the mayor missed her own press conference to update the public over the fire.

“Chief Crowley had the courage and courage to comment to ensure that their troops have what they need on site to do their work,” said Freddy Escobar, President of the Firefighters' team. “For the first time, the public and this city council began. But her honesty cost her job. “

In the past few days, Bass has supported an organization that the city's black firefighters represented, and argued that a change at the top was “necessary”.

In a letter to the Council, the Stentorians of Los Angeles City said that the department under Crowley was increased to increase the reports of discrimination and harassment as well as an increase in discriminatory attitude practices.

“In the past six months, their lack of accountability has only deteriorated,” the letter said.

Crowley used the hearing on Tuesday to offer its first major refutation of the mayor's allegations. She said she had not refused to carry out a report on the fire after the effect, but to have the work that should present an external review.

“The LAFD is unable to do, and we also do not have the right resources in order to adequately carry out a after -effect on the Palisades Fire due to the sheer size, scope and complexity of the incident,” said Crowley, who now has a lower position in the department.

Crowley also claimed that their department could not have used additional 1,000 firefighters in the palisades because they did not have enough fire engines, ambulances and other vehicles to transport them. Since the city has reduced the number of mechanics, these trucks are “broken down in our maintenance yards and are unable to help during one of the worst forest fire events in our history”.

Zach Seidl, a spokesman for bass, welcomed the vote and said that the city “forward”.

“According to the former boss, in which she confirmed that she sent firefighters home on the morning of January 7, her appointment was rejected 13-2 by members of the city council,” said Seidl in an explanation. “This is a topic of public security and for the operation of the fire brigade of Los Angeles.”

The procedure on Tuesday seems practically unprecedented in modern city history, whereby the offer of Bernard C. Parks for a second term as police chief in 2002 is closest. This year, the mayor James Hahn's representative in the Board of Police Commissioners rejected the renewal of the parks for a second five -year period.

The city council declined to lift the decision of the Commission during a debate that lit the racial departments in the city. The three black members of the council stood with parks, the second black head of the department, and against Hahn, who was politically wounded by the battle. Parks won a seat in the council the following year, while Hahn lost re -election in 2005.

The council member Tim Mcosker, who was head of the Stab during the fight of the Hahn Park, said that he did not want to force two people who do not get by – bass and crowley. He said he had lived through it and “it can be catastrophic”.

“I will put a functional city about what could be more politically functional for me,” said Mcosker.

Park, whose district comprises Pacific Palisades, supported the step of restoring crowley, and said that neither she nor her colleagues had received reports after after-action who would show who was to blame for a number of failures-a lack of firefighters, a lack of water in fire hydrants and a lack of orderly evacuation.

Getting these answers, “could mean very well to release anyone who is to blame in several departments and I have no problem with it,” said Park.

“But I would not do it without a well -informed recording and actual evidence to support this decision,” she added. “And I don't have it today.”