On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Story Is,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated that the failure to pre-deploy firefighters to the Palisades was a crucial factor in the dismissal of Kristin Crowley as chief of the LAFD, but “we all know I am the Mayor, and the buck stops with me. However, if I find something that is deficient in a leader in a department, then it is my responsibility to make that change.”
Host Elex Michaelson asked, “You got rid of Kristin — or demoted Kristin Crowley, who was the chief of the LAFD at the time of the Palisades fire, because of her performance, according to you. So, essentially, why were no firefighters pre-deployed to the Palisades?”
Bass responded, “Well, that was a key issue, a key factor that led to the change that took place. Now, –.”
Michaelson then cut in to ask, “Do you bear any responsibility for that, though?”
Bass answered, “Well, yeah. At the end of the day, we all know I am the Mayor, and the buck stops with me. However, if I find something that is deficient in a leader in a department, then it is my responsibility to make that change. And so, I made the change. We had an interim fire chief then, and what I did was I conducted a national search, we took our time, and I believe we came up with a leader who is going to lead the department and transform what needs to be changed within the department.”
Later, she added that she gets why people think more could be done by the city, and there will be investigations done.
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