LA City Council Cancels a Special Meeting Originally Set to Review Her Appeal
By Dolores Quintana
Former Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley has appealed her firing to the Los Angeles City Council. In a letter to city councilmembers today, she gave notice that she would appeal the mayor’s decision but without any details as to why. This is a surprising move from the city’s first woman and LGBTQ chief of the Fire Department, but the immediate scheduling of the meeting was even more surprising. The city charter states that any dismissed employee has the right to appeal, but they only have ten days to do so. This is the sixth day since Crowley was fired.
City Council President and ally of Mayor Karen Bass, Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who stood behind the Mayor’s dismissal of the chief, has called a special meeting of the city council on Friday, February 28, at 5:00 p.m. at Van Nuys City Hall. This gave Crowley only 24 hours or less to respond and defend her case. Dawson was also acting mayor of the city while Bass was on her trip to Ghana, which she took right before the fires began.
However, in late-breaking news, the special city council meeting has been cancelled, per a source within city government. City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson announced that the vote will now take place at the Tuesday, March 4, city council meeting through his press representatives and the city council’s alert system. Rhonda Mitchell, Harris-Dawson’s representative said, “While it is in the city’s best interest to hear this matter expeditiously, it is also important to allow the appellant, interested parties, and Councilmembers to be present and prepared for the meeting,” as quoted by ABC 7 News.
Bass stated that her reasons for firing Chief Crowley were that she was not briefed on the fire danger, despite the fact that Harris-Dawson was acting mayor, and that the chief refused to complete an after-action report that the City Council requested. The other issue was the highly publicized decision not to deploy 1,000 firefighters. However, some have questioned whether or not the firefighters would have been able to do anything since a surplus of fire trucks were out of commission and waiting for repair.
Additionally, KTLA requested Crowley’s phone messages on the day of the fire, where they discovered that Deputy Fire Chief Jason Hing had briefed Crowley that he messaged Harris-Dawson about the city’s fire deployment, preparations, and need for more resources.
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, IAFF Local – 112 reacted strongly to the news of the scheduling of the last minute session, saying in a lengthy social media post, “It is outrageous that the City Council has scheduled, on just 24-hour notice, a “Special Meeting” for Friday at 5:00 pm in the Valley to hear Chief Crowley’s appeal of her dismissal as Fire Chief.”
“This is the first City Council meeting we are aware of, perhaps ever, that has been scheduled on 24-hour notice for Friday at 5:00 p.m. It’s obvious that some on the City Council are attempting to bury this issue when nobody is watching…City Council Members will have to ask themselves if this is the way they want to decide the fate of our Fire Chief. What’s happening is wrong, and everyone knows it.”
During the first city council meeting earlier this week, after Crowley’s firing, city council members did not discuss the issue, but some did comment on it. Council member Monica Rodriguez, who was opposed to the firing, said, “The council needs to look at why she was fired and the cause.”
Bob Blumenfield, city councilman from the third district, believes the Mayor has “the right to hire and fire whom she wishes. She needs to have the full confidence of her general managers and her chiefs. If she has lost that confidence, she has every right to change out the head of a department”
Council member Traci Park said, “The fire department shouldn’t be investigating itself. Nor should a city commission of political appointees,” adding that the chief wanted an independent investigation.
