[throwbacktictac]

I keep seeing questions about the location of Karen Bass and I don't understand the outrage. Did she fly to Ghana when the fires erupted? Is she not allowed to take vacations? Was she expected to magically reappear in California when things got out of hand? Has her responsiveness been extremely latent.

[throwbacktictac]

Ok, I understand some of the criticism now. 1.) She cut funding to the fire department budget by millions of dollars. 2.) There is a video floating around where she is totally unresponsive to questions.

[sahila]

She cut some 2% of the LA fire department budget, 17M out of 837M. The outrage is politically fueled more than any rationale reasoning.

[X0Refraction]

Is that reduction absolute or real terms? If it's absolute then that's a pretty large reduction considering inflation

[ProcNetDev]

"That assertion is wrong. The city was in the process of negotiating a new contract with the fire department at the time the budget was being crafted, so additional funding for the department was set aside in a separate fund until that deal was finalized in November. In fact, the city’s fire budget increased more than $50 million year-over-year compared to the last budget cycle, according to Blumenfield’s office, although overall concerns about the department’s staffing level have persisted for a number of years."

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/08/wildfire-threatens-...

[consumer451]

Seeing people blame the fires on "DEI" is making my head exploded.

The fact that otherwise intelligent people are eating it up has made me give up for a generation.

It is a truly depressing state of affairs.

[ExoticPearTree]

From behind a keyboard and who knows how far away from Los Angeles you are, you may look at it with other eyes than the people who lost their homes in the fires.

And yes, in the end the mayor is responsible for the wellbeing of the city. And people see the mayor is nowhere to be found when their homes burned down. Who do you want them to be mad at?

[Yeul]

Texas governor was in Acapulco and nobody blamed him.

Anyway on topic an aunt of mine is a mayor of a small city (55k). Her opinion is that firefighters fight fires and having a politician walk around a disaster area with a hundred journalists isn't helping.

[ExoticPearTree]

> Texas governor was in Acapulco and nobody blamed him.

Wasn't that Ted Cruz, the senator? During the blizzard?

[stogot]

That’s a good point. They’d be a distraction to the fire chiefs

[throaway89]

That was Newsom

[frostburg]

Is the mayor expected to personally micromanage the fire deparment during fires? Criticism should be leveled at policy, not photo ops.

[harmmonica]

I think the outrage is part political, but it's also justified. The warnings were in place that the fire risk was extreme. The language experts were using to describe the upcoming weather conditions was "unprecedented," given both the winds and importantly the lack of measurable rain. These warnings were issued many days in advance of fires starting, before Karen Bass went to Africa, and yet, even with these warnings in place, she decided to get on a plane and head to Africa. I can 100% guarantee she was briefed on that, that she had deliberations with her staff about it, and that she decided to hop on the plane anyway. I do think it was a major strategic mistake on her part and I think people are rightly outraged about it. Of course the political part has poured gasoline on that legitimate outrage and that part is appalling since the crisis is still very much ongoing.

Of course that outrage assumes you believe that a mayor should be on the scene even if they're not, in this case, holding onto a hose and actively suppressing fire. I personally think that's a fair ask of her constituents. It would be an entirely different story if this was an unpredictable situation, but, again, every expert commenting pointed out how unique the upcoming weather was and that there was the very real potential for massive fires.

[JBlue42]

Many were asking the question when the news came out prior to the fires. In terms of actual management, I'd rather leave that to the city's experts. As long as the city didn't pay for it (which was the assumption), then I'm ok with it. Otherwise, I'd rather she spend her time here trying to fix domestic issues.

I think it's one of those issues where both sides of the aisle could agree except for the right-wing side turned it into this weird DEI stuff.