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Former Chief Kristin Crowley's dismissal a month after January's
Palisades Fire was followed by finger-pointing between her and
City Hall over the blaze's devastation and the fire department’s
funding. In March, Crowley lost an appeal to the City Council to
win back her job.
Crowley's legal claim this week alleges that Bass led "a
campaign of misinformation, defamation, and retaliation” to
protect the mayor's political reputation following the fire.
The mayor's office said Wednesday that it would not comment on
“an ongoing personnel claim.” A message seeking comment was also
sent to the LA City Attorney’s office.
Crowley accuses the first-term Democrat of defaming her to
distract from criticism of the mayor for being in Africa as part
of a presidential delegation when the blaze started, even though
weather reports had warned of dangerous wildfire conditions in
the days before she left.
In the filing, the former chief demands “that Bass immediately
cease and desist her defamatory and illegal public smear
campaign of Crowley, retract her false statements about Crowley,
and apologize for lying about Crowley.”
Such legal claims are often precursors to lawsuits. Crowley's
legal team wouldn't say if a lawsuit was imminent or what it
might seek.
Bass fired Crowley on Feb. 21, six weeks after the LA fire
started. She praised Crowley in the firefighting effort's early
going, but she said she later learned that an additional 1,000
firefighters could have been deployed on the day the blaze
ignited. Furthermore, she said Crowley rebuffed a request to
prepare a report on the fires that is a critical part of
investigations into what happened and why.
Crowley's legal filing disputes both those claims.
The Palisades Fire began Jan. 7 in heavy winds. It destroyed or
damaged nearly 8,000 homes, businesses and other structures, and
it killed at least 12 people in the Pacific Palisades, an
affluent LA neighborhood. Another fire started that day in
Altadena, a suburb east of LA, killing at least 17 people and
destroying or damaging more than 10,000 homes or other
buildings.
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