They’re using the fires as a political pinata, please stop

Is anyone surprised that even as the Los Angeles region’s fires rage and before funeral arrangements have been made, there’s been an outbreak of politics and second-guessing? LA Mayor Karen Bass has been ripped by some critics for being out of the country when the killer fires began. President-elect Donald Trump has blamed California Gov. Gavin “Newscum and his Los Angeles crew” for the deadly infernos. And various TV personalities have blasted an LA Fire Department budget cut, the size of firefighting crews in California, and diversity hiring. Let me start with Bass, a former U.S. representative who travelled to Ghana late last week as a member of a US presidential delegation.

Generally speaking, I don’t have a problem with a mayor of Los Angeles — a world-class international city — traveling the world, particularly when it’s about fostering economic and cultural relationships that can benefit LA. Bass was attending the inauguration of Ghanian President John Dramani Mahama — a nice gesture, but not a vital mission. She left on Saturday, leaving City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson in charge. As The Times reported, that was two days after the National Weather Service warned of the coming fierce winds and extreme fire danger after months of drought. Historic, fierce, wind-driven fire destroyed much of Pacific Palisades before the mayor returned on Wednesday. Bass and multiple other public officials said she was in contact and helping manage the firestorm response while she was away. Rick Caruso, who lost to Bass in his run for mayor two years ago, pounced immediately, saying, “We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning.”

Bad timing, for sure, although nobody in charge of the Eaton fire in the San Gabriel Valley was out of the country, as far as I know, and it’s still devouring parts of Altadena and Pasadena. With Bass, I think the second-guessing is fair (and she, too, may be wishing she hadn’t left town), even though this doesn’t rise to the level of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz leaving Texas in 2021 to vacation in balmy Cancun while his state was crippled by an ice storm. But few of us imagined this level of devastation in Los Angeles or beyond, and had Bass been in L.A. all along, would anything have turned out differently?

If you’ve watched any of the daily news conferences, it’s not as if there’s a shortage of people in charge. In fact, it always drives me a little crazy to watch public officials take turns saying virtually the same things over and over at these events. First a city official, then a county official or two, then the police chief and the sheriff. They keep telling us there’s a theme here — that they’re all speaking with one voice. That’s actually a concept I could get behind. Why not have one person deliver the updates, without a dozen other people standing there like statues — while the fires rage — waiting for their turn at the microphone to tell us “we’re in unified command” or to acknowledge the presence of a federal official “who flew out with her team from Washington, DC.” These are news conferences, and people doing their jobs is not news.

And can we please stop with the log-rolling in which public officials thank Gov. Newsom or President Biden for taking a call and promising to help out, as if they deserve a pat on the back for responding to a catastrophic, life-altering, developing disaster? Getting back to Caruso, he mentioned the low water pressure that hampered firefighting efforts and said of the mayor, “We have terrible leadership resulting in billions of dollars in damage because she wasn’t here and didn’t know what she was doing.” A deep dive on preparedness and disaster response is a must, going forward. That’s true for lots of other policy matters, such as how, where and whether to rebuild; how to adequately staff public safety departments; and how to adapt to the mounting evidence that we live with ever-present danger related to topography, extreme weather conditions and climate change. Not to mention the earthquake faults that carve the terrain from mountain to sea.

So let’s talk about all of it, but can we do so as grown-ups, without using an epic disaster as a political piñata? Former Fox anchor Megyn Kelly claimed that “in recent years, L.A.’s fire chief” Kristin Crowley has made diversity hiring a top priority rather than filling the fire hydrants. Thanks, Megyn Kelly, this is a reminder that we should never let a gas bag near a fire.

CNN contributor Scott Jennings also weighed in on diversity, equity and inclusion, saying that “as a matter of public policy in California, the main interest in the fire department lately has been in DEI programming and budget cuts.” Asked by the CNN host if he was laying blame on the L.A. Fire Department, Jennings responded: “No, I’m blaming the Democrats who run the state.” I’d suggest that climate change deserves some of the blame, and that the Republican Party is led by someone who thinks it’s a hoax. But the smoke is still rising, and petty partisanship is a distraction and disservice at the moment, given all that’s been lost, and all the hard work of moving forward.