L.A. council president moved rapidly on the ousted fire chief. Then came the outcry

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Dakota Smith, Julia Wick and Rebecca Ellis, giving you the latest on city and county government.

The first thing that stood out was the sheer boldness of the move.

Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson received a letter from former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, asking the council to reinstate her, partway into Thursday.

Harris-Dawson, a close ally of Mayor Karen Bass, the person who ousted Crowley, moved swiftly to schedule the vote on Crowley for the following day, giving the public just 24 hours’ warning about a 5 p.m. meeting on Friday in Van Nuys.

Holding the council meeting so quickly would have given Bass, already under fire over her handling of the Palisades fire, a way to put the Crowley question to bed quickly, at a time used by politicians to break news they want buried or ignored.

A fast-track process also would have left Crowley with little time to prepare her case. On top of that, Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, an outspoken Crowley supporter, would not have been able to attend.

Rodriguez had an excused absence from Harris-Dawson for the regularly scheduled council meeting earlier that day. She told The Times that she was out of town and unable to make the 5 p.m. meeting.

At one point in his career, Harris-Dawson balked at such scheduling maneuvers. In 2022, he objected to then-Council President Nury Martinez‘s attempt to ram through the appointment of Heather Hutt to temporarily fill the seat held by Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, arguing that the public needed time to engage with such a major decision.

This time, with Bass struggling to regain her footing, Harris-Dawson made his own boss move. Even though the City Charter gave him until at least March 21 to hold the vote, he picked the first available day.

Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College, said it’s safe to assume that Harris-Dawson was moving quickly out of his allegiance to the mayor. The two have a long working relationship that predates their time at City Hall, she said.

“Clearly, the leadership, both in the mayor’s office and in the City Council, want to see this issue go away,” Sadhwani said.

Rob Quan, an organizer with Unrig LA, which pushes for greater public access to city meetings, said he was baffled by the push to take up the fire chief’s appeal so quickly, particularly since the council president likely has the votes to reject Crowley’s request.

“This was him trying to bulldoze. He didn’t need to do this,” said Quan, who closely follows council meetings.

As it turned out, the pushback on the meeting was as swift as the effort to schedule it.

On Thursday evening, not long after the agenda was posted, Rodriguez denounced Harris-Dawson’s rapid-fire scheduling, accusing him of trying to shut out public participation. Two groups that advocate for female firefighters also complained, saying the “last-minute” meeting would deny Crowley the opportunity to “appropriately appeal” the mayor’s decision.

“Providing a 24-hour meeting notice demonstrates the Council’s utter disregard for City protocol, and disenfranchises the Chief and the people of Los Angeles and their ability to witness and speak at this meeting,” said Tanya Crabbe, interim president of Los Angeles Women in the Fire Service, and Lauren Andrade, president of Equity on Fire, in a joint statement.

Officials with United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, which also backs Crowley, said they could not remember a similar scheduling maneuver. The planned Friday meeting was just another example of “why the public doesn’t trust City Hall,” the union said in a statement.

“It’s yet another public blunder coming out of City Hall that makes the people of Los Angeles continue to question the motives and trustworthiness of our city’s leaders,” the statement continued.

Shortly after 8 p.m. on Thursday — three hours after the agenda for the Friday meeting went out — Harris-Dawson announced he had changed course and would postpone the meeting until Tuesday at 10 a.m. at City Hall. Delaying the meeting, he said, would allow Crowley, council members and “interested parties” to be “present and prepared for the meeting.” By then, his office he had received feedback from at least two council members, some of it negative.

Harris-Dawson, in an interview, disputed the idea that he had scheduled the Friday meeting to help the mayor move past the controversy swiftly. He told The Times that he heard from council colleagues who wanted the matter quickly resolved.

“The Friday meeting was an effort to give Chief Crowley a hearing as soon as possible, because this has been going on for a long time,” he said.

Bass ousted Crowley on Feb. 21 over her handling of the Palisades fire, leaving her in a lower-level position within the LAFD.

Harris-Dawson said he picked Van Nuys because the council’s regular meeting was already scheduled there for 10 a.m. that morning. To comply with public noticing laws, the earliest the meeting on Crowley’s appeal could occur was Friday evening, he said.

Because council meetings frequently last only a few hours, council members and their staffs probably would have needed to spend the entire day in Van Nuys. Anyone who had plans for Friday evening would have needed to scrap them.

None of the back-and-forth over timing erases the fact that Crowley has a steep uphill climb to get her job back. She needs 10 votes to overturn her removal, a goal viewed by most at City Hall as insurmountable.

But the 10 votes may not even be the point. Greg Smith, an attorney who regularly files lawsuits on behalf of current or former city employees, said Crowley may be laying the groundwork for a lawsuit by showing she has exhausted all of the city’s administrative appeal procedures.

“This, I believe, is the reason an appeal has been filed, although there is little chance of success,” said Smith, who is not representing Crowley.

A spokesperson for Crowley said the former chief would not offer any comment beyond her appeal letter.

Not everyone sounded upset with the Friday evening meeting. Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who joined the council in December, said it was “wise” for city leaders to deal with the appeal quickly so they can “continue to focus our efforts on recovery.”

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who holds the council’s No. 2 leadership post, said he only learned of the 5 p.m. Friday meeting after the agenda had been posted. Blumenfield said he subsequently had a conversation with Harris-Dawson about the timing.

Asked if he pressed Harris-Dawson to change the meeting date, Blumenfield declined to comment, saying it was a private conversation.

“I’m very glad it was moved to next week,” he said. “It gives more time and space to everyone.”

State of play

— BEATING THE CLOCK: In a milestone for the region’s fire recovery, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced this week that it has finished the first phase of debris removal in the Eaton fire and Palisades fire burn zones. Crews removed hazardous materials from 9,201 buildings. Still, an additional 4,400 structures — or about a third of all the buildings that burned — were deferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for additional cleanup before the hazardous waste can be removed.

— SOUNDING OFF: Mayor Karen Bass’ wildfire recovery czar, Steve Soboroff, went public last week with his frustrations about doing the job for free. Soboroff, who was initially supposed to receive $500,000 over three months, told an audience he was “lied to” — and had the texts and emails to back it up. Days later, he walked back his comments, saying he did not think the mayor had lied or intentionally misled him.

— WHAT’S THE HOLDUP: The push to rewrite the Los Angeles City Charter is stalling out, and the mayor is a big reason why, Politico reports.

— JUMPING IN: It appears that City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto will have at least one challenger in the 2026 election: Deputy Atty. Gen. Marissa Roy, who has been handling consumer protection cases for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. Roy formed a fundraising committee this week, filing her paperwork with the secretary of state.

— WHAT ABOUT BOB: The field of candidates looking to replace Blumenfield in the west San Fernando Valley continues to grow. Barri Worth Girvan, who has been serving as director of community affairs for Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, recently formed her campaign committee, expanding the number of potential candidates to three. Blumenfield faces term limits in 2026 and won’t be eligible to run again.

— TESTING THE SYSTEM: Los Angeles County deployed its new emergency alert system shortly before the Jan. 7 wildfires, giving officials comparatively little time to get comfortable with the software. The speedy rollout raises questions about whether officials properly debugged the system before a faulty countywide evacuation order went out.

— THROWING A LIFELINE: The county Board of Supervisors approved new eviction protections for workers and small business owners hit hard by the wildfires. Renters across the county who were financially affected cannot be evicted for nonpayment through July 31.

— REOPENING RUNYON: Runyon Canyon Park has partially reopened to the public after being closed for weeks after the Sunset fire. The popular Hollywood Hills hiking spot is open for visitors everywhere except the West Trail area, which remains closed until further notice.

— PHOTO FINISH: Someone sent ABC7 a photo of Councilmember Ysabel Jurado sitting in a council meeting in a way that, at minimum, looks like she was seriously resting her eyes. Jurado told the station that she is “aware of the photo,” adding: “It looks like I was reading, and if indeed I did doze off, I think this won’t be the first or last of the human moments that I have as a council member.”

Bad Budget News

Things haven’t gotten much better for the city budget, according to a 197-page report released Friday. City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, who wrote the memo, warned that the city is now overspending by about $300 million during the current fiscal year.

The city’s revenues are running below estimates in a number of categories, including sales, property and hotel taxes. And, in the wake of the destructive wildfires, ratings agencies have put the city on a negative credit watch, signaling the potential for a downgrade.

One piece of good news: the estimate for wildfire damage to the city’s public infrastructure has been revised downward to $220 million, down from a previous figure of $350 million last month.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to address homelessness went to Olympic Boulevard at the 405 Freeway, which sits on the border of the Westside districts represented by Councilmembers Katy Yaroslavsky and Traci Park. The initiative also returned to the area around Virgil Middle School on Vermont Avenue, according to the mayor’s team.
  
• On the docket for next week: You’ve already heard, but it bears repeating: The City Council is set to take up Fire Chief Kristin Crowley’s request to be reinstated on Tuesday.