LA mayor Karen Bass knew one shocking image to keep under wraps during her “tour” of the fire-ravaged city.
She wasn’t about to address the scandalous scene of more than 100 emergency vehicles — a crippling number of fire trucks — lying idle in a massive parking lot in Los Angeles (located at North Avenue 19). Residents were later treated to the image on CNN as their communities were burning to the ground in the Southland.
Mayor Bass, obviously, knew the vehicles were in need of repair and maintenance, and for that reason could not be dispatched at the city’s most critical hour.
Such an appalling scene of incompetence was merely a glimpse into the mayor’s runaway failures and “commitment” to DEI follies. Mayor Bass and her cronies controlled a whopping (wait for it) $12.8 billion budget for the 2024- 2025 fiscal year. So why couldn’t they maintain 100 emergency vehicles? Mayor Bass, who spared no expense for personal travels, had made the now infamously tragic decision to defund $17 million from the LAFD’s already inadequate budget.
A few million taxpayers are asking themselves, where did all the money go?
This question, in a city with the nation’s highest taxes, is now the focus of a proliferation of scandalous headlines surfacing in the media. One particularly sordid headline reads: “LA Mayor Karen Bass’ Office Hit with Scandals Over Hush Money, Bribes and Accusations of ‘Legalized Corruption.” Mayor Bass, and her cronies, worked hard to suppress the 1,400 pages of documents (cited in the lawsuit) serving as the basis of the exposés of the mayor’s “completely inept” leadership.
Ironically, Bass may have regarded the lawsuit as an UXB (unexploded bomb) until now. No one paid much attention when the lawsuit was filed by the public-minded non-profit group Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles Times, dating as far back as 2019.
It’s hard to cherry-pick the more scandalous assertions made in the lawsuit: But the media is focusing on the alleged unpardonable misconduct by city officials including: Janisse Quinones, a friend and fellow “progressive” of the mayor, awarded a $750,000 salary, almost double her predecessor, to become CEO of the Department of Water and Power; and “Legalized shakedowns” of businesses given the proper sounding name, “Behested Payments,” which were alleged donations to the mayor’s office. AT&T and Coca Cola were named among the corporations making “donations.” And, of course, the flagrant misuse of public funds and tragic failure to allocate necessary resources to maintain the city’s firefighting infrastructure.
Susan Shelley, a member of the editorial board of the Southern California New Group and vice president of communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Shelley has been an annoying voice of integrity attacking the mayor’s office and her like-minded “progressives.” As for the “Behested Payments,” Shelley asserts the policy is better known as “extortion” in government circles.
There were other voices of integrity issuing warnings years in advance: Jenny Park, a former top-ranking attorney with the LAFD, must have taken some satisfaction in knowing her dire warnings — about top officials’ blatant ethical lapses and violations of duty — are now coming to the public’s attention.
Her 14-page complaint served as the basis for exposing the cesspool of misconduct in the LAFD, according to a Daily Mail article. “Toxic Civil War Breaks Out at LA Fire Department as Ex-Top Official [Park] Comes Back to Haunt $654,000-a-year Fire Chief,” read a recent headline.
Park alleges that Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, a self-identified “proud lesbian,” failed to promote personnel on the basis of merit; her Deputy Chief Orin Saunders, a gay African-American, allegedly engaged in a conflict of interest when attempting to arrange a city contract: and Chief Crowley, and top administrators, failed to “consistently enforce rules and regulations impartially… and routinely engaged in violating city procedures and ethics rules.”
If that weren’t enough, Park alleges that Chief Crowley had conveniently “ghosted” her numerous requests for the fire chief to return a $37,000.00 overpayment: This was in addition to the chief’s $654,000.00 annual salary.
Park, in a perverse twist of outcomes, was fired by Chief Crowley. She was told not to return to the office in December 2023. The $37,000.00 overpayment remains outstanding. It was one thing for Crowley to ignore Park’s numerous fiscal requests, but it will be quite another to ignore a front-page story in an international newspaper.
Perhaps the final word in this debacle belongs to firefighter Freddy Escobar, president of the LA United Firefighters and 35-year veteran. He broke down in tears, in a CNN interview, describing his attempts to warn city officials — for years — about the loss of life waiting to happen.
“If we cut one position, if we close one station,” he had warned at a city council meeting, “The residents of Los Angeles are going to pay the ultimate sacrifice and someone will die.” Such a prophetic warning is eerie to watch in outtakes of firefighters pleading with council members, in recent months, to act responsibly on behalf of the public’s welfare.
Firefighter Escobar undoubtedly was among the LA residents watching as Mayor Karen Bass, who “loved” to travel, returned from a trip from Ghana on Jan. 8 as LA burned. She had “enjoyed” five international trips in the past year (including three to France). This must have left many firefighters and taxpayers wondering how many emergency vehicles could have been serviced had the mayor chosen to spare the taxpayers her expenses (i.e. airfare, hotel, meals, etc.), and used the funds instead for lifesaving services.
And that would be a $12.8 billion tip of the administrative boondoggle.
Jesus Christ is King
