February 21, 2025 • 36 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 1 (02/21) - Mayor Karen Bass has fired LA City Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. More on Mayor Bass's press conference announcing the firing of Kristin Crowley as the LAFD Chief. Pacific Palisades resident and iHeartMedia LA employee David Howard comes on the show to talk about how Pacific Palisades residents are reacting to the news of Mayor Karen Bass firing Kristin Crowley. More on Mayor Bass's press conference announcing the firing of Kristin Crowley as the LAFD Chief.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can If I am six forty, you're listening to the
John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
John Cobelt's show Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We're out every day from one until four o'clock, and
every day after four o'clock it gets posted as a podcast.
John Cobelt's Show on demand on the iHeart App. I
feel like I'm going insane. I feel like I'm really
going in saying there was just a press conference that
(00:28):
Karen Bass had within the last half hour. And when
you go home tonight, especially if you've been affected by
the fires and you watch her, You're gonna slam your
head through a window. I have never seen anyone more
smug and arrogant and dismissive. And if I hear her
say that we're we have to move forward one more time,
(00:52):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. This is really
we are deep, deep into crazy land here. Karen Bass
held it in this conference to announce that she's fired
Kristin Crowley as the LA fire chief. And Kristin Crowley
did a horrific, tragic, terrible job as fire chief handling
(01:14):
this fire. But Karen Bass is not taking any responsibility
at all for not being here and not overseeing Crowley's
plan to attack the fire because Bass wasn't here and
Crowley did not have a plan to attack the fire
(01:37):
the two of them, and then throwing Genie Quinoniez, who
had the empty reservoir.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
This is astonishing.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But Bass doesn't really want to deal with with with
all the consequences here. She wants to play misdirection. Point
at Crowley, talk over people and tell them we have
to move forward.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
This is it's not gonna work this way.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You've ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It doesn't work this way.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have never and for her to actually go on
television with Alex Michaelson on Fox eleven a couple of
days ago and say I, frankly wasn't aware of the
fire warnings is insane. It's impossible to believe her. It's
impossible to believe her. I'm going to play you some
(02:32):
clips here of the press conference because you probably didn't
didn't hear it or see it. Here is Bass announcing
the firing of Kristan Crowley.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Good afternoon, Thank you for being here acting in the
best interest of Los Angeles public safety and for the
operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department. I just met
with Chief Crowley and removed her as fire chief. I
have appointed a forty one year veteran of the fire department,
former Chief Deputy, Ronald via Nueva, as interim fire chief.
(03:05):
He is respected and ready to hit the ground running.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So let me be clear.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Our firefighters acted heroically during the Palisades fire, and they
act heroically every single day. That is without question. Bringing
new leadership to the fire department is what they and
the people of Los Angeles deserve. As you know, I
have called for a full investigation of everything leading up
(03:31):
to January seventh. A necessary step to the investigation was
the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to
do an after action report on the fires.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
The fire chief refused.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
We all know that a thousand firefighters that could have
been on duty on the morning the fires broke were
instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch. These actions required her.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Remove stop right there.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
If Karen Bass had been here in Los Angeles and
they had these extreme fire warnings, which Bass's staff put
out on Bass's x account on her social media, all right,
if you have Karen Bass, you're following her on social media.
You got messages the night before about the extreme fire danger,
(04:28):
So for her not to then have a meeting the
night before with Kristin Crowley and I realize it would
be easier if you were in Los Angeles, but even
in Ghana, even with the time difference, don't you have
a meeting and you go through?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
All right? What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Because if you look at the fire map, it says
it's most likely to break out in the foothills on
either side of the Santa Monica Mountains, which goes from
let's say the Palisades east past Hollywood and then on
the north side it's Woodland Hills east to Studio City.
(05:07):
So that's where the fire is most likely to break out,
according to the National Weather Service. So what are you
going to do? Are you going to keep the second shift?
Are you going to send out the extra engines and
the fire Crowley should have sent a crew to that
(05:28):
spot in the Palisades where the kids had started the
firecracker fire, the fireworks fire that they put on on
January first, because fire officials say that you can have
a flare up and they think that might have been
the case. Not certain could have been a bum fire.
(05:48):
We don't know, but they keep saying it may have
been the fireworks fire. And you still have smoldering going
on underground, and so the fire department is to monitor
that spot, and it was only six days later apparently
they did. And that should have been the first spot
that they sent a crew over because that was the
(06:10):
most likely spot in the Palisades for the fire. But
this all should have been discussed, not just the night before,
but for five days before Thursday, the second, Friday, the third,
the fourth, the fifth, the sixth is Monday, five days before,
and Karen Bass should have had that meeting. Karen Bass
(06:32):
is Crowley's boss. Karen Bass obviously is Crowley's boss because
she just fired Crowley. Somebody pointed out that when the
fire started, Bass did it a radio interview and was
praising Crowley and saying the fire department was prepared. And
(06:54):
the reporter said, why did you say that? And she goes, well,
obviously it I had to have all the facts. Then
why did you say that? So you go and you do, right,
this is what they do. You go and do a
radio interview. You don't have all the facts, You just
do cheerleading nonsense, which is what she did in this
press conference day, more cheerleading garbage. No, the fire department
(07:14):
wasn't prepared. Kristin Crowley sent a thousand people home, and
the fire engines, forty of them were kept in the garage,
and then there's another hundred that ever got fixed. And
the fire department is half funded, fifty percent funded, and
more than half of the fires they put out are
started by bums, by vagrants, and that all plays into this.
(07:41):
But she's got this attitude where everything's Kristin Crowley's fault.
Later on she goes, oh the buck stops here. I'm
the one in charge. Well, if you were the one
in charge, did you have a meeting where you went
through all the details? In this press conference she said,
this is the largest disaster for a city in American history. Well, yeah,
(08:07):
and you weren't here and you didn't have the meeting
to make sure everything was. In fact, you went on
the radio the next day and told the public that
she had pre deployed things properly.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So you made that up. You lied?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
How'd you know that? But she didn't know that because
she made it up or she lied. Nothing was pre
deployed nothing nowhere, not alone the foothills, on the north
or south side of the Santa Monica Mountains, anywhere else.
Nothing was done, and she as of Monday when she
(08:48):
was on with Alex Michaelson, she said, well, you know,
we have got investigations going on. Well, and then suddenly
you fire Crowley with well, what's the result of the investigation?
On Monday you weren't firing her. Today you're firing her.
I'm sorry, not Monday. I guess that was a couple
of days ago, maybe Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Now you're firing her. What changed?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then she claims that Crowley did not want to
do an after action report? Well when did that happen?
Because it's been six and a half weeks since the fire.
What day was that she wouldn't do the after action report?
And why wasn't that told to the public. Let's have
what's going on here.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Now. Crowley can be fired, and she should be fired,
But how will we get rid of bass?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
She's dangerously incompetent, dangerously and arrogant about it. And then
one about Denise Canonias who left the reservoir empty?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
What about that woman? No mention of her? The hell
is going on play some wre cut six.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
While the department is in the experienced and expert hands
of Chief Via Nueva. My office will lead a national search,
and I will speak directly with firefighters and Angelinos about
what they want to see in the next fire chief.
I will use a similar process as I did in
searching for our police chief. The business of the fire
(10:19):
Department and the city will continue. Our heroic firefighters are
on the job in our firehouses, engines, trucks, and ambulances.
The recovery of the Palisades is months ahead of expectations.
Los Angeles is moving forward on our fronts, and we
will keep moving forward together.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Moving forward, moving forward, moving forward, moving forward, without admitting
to everything she did that allowed this disaster to happen.
I can't stand people who do that. Well, let's move forward. No,
we're not moving forward. We are staying right in place
and gonna keep examining and blaming and finger pointing and
(11:05):
Monday warning, quarterbacking and all those cute little phrases that
these hacks like to use to evade responsibility. She is
a disaster. She needs to go. I don't know how
to replace her. I don't know what mechanism there is
to replace her outside a recall, which they always they
(11:26):
always screw with, but I cannot. I she's trying to
change the subject. She's trying to dump by Crowley because
she embarrassed herself so badly in that Fox eleven interview
by saying that she wasn't aware of the she wasn't
aware of the warnings. Well, she put her out on
(11:47):
her own her own Twitter feed. All right, we're gonna continue.
We've got more clips to play. That was just the beginning.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Now back to if you're just joining us.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Karen Bass fired Kristin Crowley, blaming Kristin Crowley for not
being prepared, blaming Kristin Crowley for not a learning Karen
Bass about the fire danger coming. I have never seen
anyone do something like this. There were so many warnings
(12:28):
that were all aware of, and Karen Bass was here
for two days before she went to Africa. She went
to Africa after two days of warnings, and then she
stayed in Africa until after the fire broke out and
was out of control.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
She chose to do that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Nobody is believing her, and nobody should believe her, And
now to change the sun object And that's what this is.
She's changing the subject by firing Kristen Crowley, who should
be fired. But why did Bass keep her on? She
was a Garcetti hier and Bass is the one who
(13:15):
hired Genice Kinonies TWP empty reservoir. So who's going to
trust Karen Bass going on a nationwide search?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
How the hell is Palisad's ever going to get out
of this?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
How with her running things for another two years?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
She was asked.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Bass was asked by somebody what specifically Crowley did to
endanger public safety?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
What specifically is.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
She Well, as I mentioned, one thousand firefighters who could
have been on the job fighting the fires were sent home.
The other thing that I mentioned is that I said
after the fires were after the fires were out, after
(14:04):
the rain had stopped, that a full investigation would begin.
One step of that investigation was to do an after
action report, of which she refused.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So we knew that our.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Firefiers who had been called in the day after the fire.
Speaker 6 (14:20):
At what changed Because you said you weren't playing on
firing her on anyuary?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You left, Oh, let me, let me, let me, let
me just let me just be clear, as I just said,
while the fire, well, Los Angeles was on fire.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Think of something. After that, we had rains.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I was not going to do anything while we were
in a state of emergency. Next, No, we are not
in a state of emergency right now.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
She's she's not easy to trip up because she just
says stuff and she doesn't even remember what she says.
She told a RA radio interview that Crowley was doing
a great job and they were well prepared.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then and then when asked about it today again
she said, well, I didn't have all the facts. Well,
why didn't you have all the facts before you said that?
When you agree to do an interview and then you
give boilerplate, cheerleading responses, misleading the city. You made it
clear you thought they had everything together. Well at the
moment you gave the interview where there were a thousand
(15:27):
firefighters fire not fighting out there. You should have went
through this the night before. But when the fire broke out,
she was having a cocktail with the President of Ghana.
I don't know how anybody avoids being tossed out of
office over this. I don't understand. I've never seen We
have seen a lot of crap over the years from
(15:50):
political figures. I've never seen something like this. It's like
she lives in some weird alternate reality and is trying
to sell us all on her reality play Cut eight
about the firing, I.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Said, this is a decision made.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
When did you meet with.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
About an hour ago? And how did you it was
very brief.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Did she tell you anything about why it was a
very brief meeting?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
No? It It is hard to believe that Crowley didn't
tell Bass about the fire warnings. It's hard to believe
Bass didn't know about it on her own. It's hard
to believe that she didn't call Crowley and that they
had it all hands on deck meeting somewhere between Thursday
(16:42):
the second, certainly by Monday the sixth, or maybe the
morning of Tuesday the seventh. I can't I cannot believe
that they had no discussions on this. Karen Bass is
the boss of Kristin Crowley. Karen Bass had no curiosity.
(17:04):
Oh that's right, she was in Africa. I keep forgetting.
She wasn't paying attention. You know, if you've ever gone
overseas after a couple of days. It's like your homeland
doesn't even exist anymore. You're just lost in the new
setting and meeting new people and the time difference, and
it's a you know, you kind of get disconnected.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
We come back.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I want to play another cut because it sounds like
she starts to get a little fraid here as the
reporter starts shouting questions and somebody trying to ask her
about Crowley not calling her directly about the weather. But again,
how does Bass not know about the fire warnings? How
does she not know? How does she not call Crowley?
(17:46):
She keeps saying, well, she didn't tell me, But why
didn't you tell her? That's your job. You heard your
city is under threat with an extreme wind and firestorm possible.
You should be calling the fire chief. If the fire
chief hasn't called you, What is this? What kind of
grade school game is this? Wow, she didn't call me?
I mean I didn't call her, but she didn't call me.
(18:08):
This is the mentality we have running Los Angeles. Seriously,
nice voting job.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I have from a good source that Karen Bass has
two hundred and thirty eight staff members in the mayor's office.
Two thirty eight staff members. Did any of them tell
her that a firestorm was coming?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Two hundred and thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
None of them followed the news, none of them spoke
with her about it. You know how much money they
cumulatively make, if you add up there regular pay, the
overtime bonuses and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Twenty five million dollars to two two hundred and thirty
eight staff members in Karen Bass's office. And if you
believe Karen Bass, not one of them picked up the
phone or sent her an email or a text or
a tweet.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh, for two hundred and thirty eight they all went
silent wow. Or maybe they all missed the news.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
For five straight days? Is that possible?
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Two hundred and thirty eight people for five days and
nobody knew that the firestorm was coming.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We're going to talk with David Howard.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Now, David workshare at KFI for iHeart and sales manager,
and he lost his home in the fires. And he's
been on with us periodically to give us a sense
of what it's like to be in the middle of
this travesty. And the reaction that he has and other
people that he knows in the Palisades.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
David, how are you?
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Hm, Hey, John, how's it going.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I'm I'm good. Did you get to hear or see
the press conference?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I heard parts of it, most of it on your
show because I was in a meeting, but I can
tell it being in the entertainment capital of the world,
the La City Hunger Games have begun, right, Yeah, that
was the most feeble attempt trying to save your own
job of anything we've probably ever seen or heard. And
my phone has been blowing up since the announcement came out.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's it's unbelievable that she admits that she didn't know
the fire was coming and then blames Kristin Crowley for
not telling her.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, I mean, you know, that's that's laughable. There wasn't
a person, there wasn't a person in this town that
didn't know for four days that those ones were coming.
And as you've a new and Debora repeatedly, you know,
shared on your show, it's not often where you hear
the word extreme in a wind event, and so that
that's just inexcusable. It makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I just don't know how people can deal with this
emotionally because of all the stress you obviously have in
losing the home and then losing that town, and then
you hear Bass every day bumbling around with all her nonsense.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
I mean, yeah, that's a great point, Like you don't
know whether you should be laughing it's how ridiculous it is,
or you should be crying and how pathetic it is.
And there's a picture. I think I sent it to Terray.
I don't know if you had a chance to look
at it, But on January eighth, when the second day
of the fire was burning, there were structures that were
completely intact at ten in the morning, and in the
(21:39):
afternoon those structures were gone. There's a photo of Karen
Bass walking down Sunset Boulevard, passing the Chase Bank building,
which literally John was on fire, and she's walking by
it and there's not a fire truck to be seen.
And she didn't turn and say, hey, where's the fire truck,
where's the structure protection, where's the help? She just kept walking.
(22:04):
So so I know that you and I both like
I know you and I both like sports. And when
a team doesn't do all, guess who gets fired? The
head coach.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, but there's nobody, nobody to fire her. I mean, well,
you notice every other politician in the city and the
state is absolutely silent.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
They should all be speaking out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, the clock has got to run out on her.
There's no point in debating this anymore. She's just got
to go. She's she can't do this job.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Well, I think she. I think she realizes that how
desperate things are becoming very quickly. And I'll tell you
one of the things that the residents are talking about
is literally forming like a Los Angeles doge like where
we are now going to get full exposure and transparency
of where our tax money is going, right, a disapportion
(22:53):
amount of the tax money and where it's being spent.
And why we've talked about this, why should we be
paying any taxes when we receive zero services except going
into the pockets of you know, of the cronyism and
all the ridiculous organizations that are set up, you know,
wildly that we don't have any transparency on. And it's
(23:13):
going to stop.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
No, the city is utterly corrupt.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
I mean, this fire might be that might be the
impetus for the change that so many of us have
been looking for for so long, I hope so.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I mean, I've been astonished on over the last you know,
ten twenty years with people in the city put up
with and and now finally I think everybody is awake
and angry, and they should be angry because this is intolerable.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I just well, well it is.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
It's it's nonsensical to be you know, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, all right, Well, whenever you want to talk, if
you find out stuff, let let us know. All right,
we'll put you on right away.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Well, there's a there's a big movement you'll be seeing
in you know, the next week or two, an open
letter that's being drafted by the residents. And again, the
pressure is not going away. It's only going to get worse.
So when Bass makes these silly decisions and does these
things that are just you know, people hard to comprehend,
it just makes it worse for HER's And this is
(24:16):
a group of people that are committed to change and
we're going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, this week has been really bad. All right, David Howard, thank.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
You, said David, who was a sales manager here at
to KFI, and iHeart listen to this clip. I haven't
heard this yet. The press conference went on about quarter
to one, and we were trying to put together the
show and keep track of this at the same time,
and I didn't hear this exchange. But bass is responding
to a question about Crowley not calling her directly about
(24:45):
the weather warning.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I spoke to her the evening of the seventh, yes, exactly,
which was the morning here, so it was after the
fire started. But let me just be clear, Los Angeles
needs to move forward.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
This is a new day.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I am excited to welcome our new chief, who was
a forty one year veteran of this fire department. He
is well known, he is well liked.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He knows most.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Of the members of the city Council except for our
two members that were recently elected. And it is our
plan to continue moving forward. We want to have the
full investigation that the governor has ordered and the investigation
that we will do locally.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Uh donis.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
She keeps saying We've got to move forward, going forward,
moving forward. Do you have the clip the excuse me clip?
I thought that was going to be the excuse me clip?
Speaker 6 (25:54):
You actually still with the chief that I heard a
black gas is as well for seven local Ard West
after the jeus here and she actually is talking about yes,
after and you're crazy prepositioning necessary and.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
A reporter saying you went on the radio and said
you're praising Crowley for her prepositioning.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And needless to say, I did not know all the facts,
but I had spoken to her maybe a couple of
hours before that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
But she blindly went on the radio and just praised Crowley. So,
in other words, when when when she speaks, she has
no credibility because you don't know if she's just parroting
cheerleading slogans or she actually knows what's going on. Apparently
she didn't know what was going on. She admitted she didn't.
She didn't have all the facts, but she was telling
(26:48):
us every everything was going well and that they were
prepared and that they were prepositioned, and clearly they weren't.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And only now.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
She's telling us she's been talking about the after action
report for weeks and weeks, and only now she tells
us that Crowley wouldn't do an after action report. All right, yeah,
all right, play this cut now, the excuse me cut.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
What I can tell you is is that what has
happened in the two plus years I've been here, every
time there was a weather emergency or even a hit
of a weather emergency, that she has called me directly.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
She has my cell.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Phone, she knows she can call me twenty four to seven,
and she briefed me and then we would talk about
what needed to happen next. That did not happen this time. Yes, yes,
excuse me, yes.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Why exactly?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
They asked her, Well, she's asked to do the after
action report and what was her justification. I don't know
her justification.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
She was asked this week.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I learned about this yesterday.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, it was this week this week, so that she
didn't start to do the after action report until this week.
She wasn't asked until this week. Now this is making
any sense and I don't understand this. Ka Kirstan Crowley
didn't call me with the weather warning. Why do you
need her to call you? You can call her you her
(28:07):
the warning was out there on January second. You put
out on January sixth on your own freaking Twitter that there.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Was an extreme fire warning.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
So after you put that out on your own Twitter
on the sixth, you didn't also talk to Crowley what
are you doing tomorrow morning?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What's the plan? Because the National Weather Service had a.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Map showing where it was likely to happen, and everybody
in the fire department knew that the hottest of the
potential hotspots would be where that old fireworks fire was
from New Year's Day.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
All right, let's say do the news.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Karen Dass had a preposterous news conference about an hour
ago where she fired Kristin Crowley, the fire chief, and
her biggest complaint is Kristin Crowley didn't tell Karen Bass
that the firestorm was coming. Really seriously, Karen Bass spent
two days in La where there were extreme fire danger
(29:13):
warnings and she wasn't aware of it. She goes to
Africa and there's more days of warnings and she's not
aware of it. And she claims Crowley didn't call her,
and that Crowley wasn't prepared and the fire department wasn't prepared.
But other than that, we're moving forward. Let me tell
(29:35):
you something that is going forward.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Nonsense.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
It's what cowards do to escape responsibility. And Karen Bass
is a coward. She hid behind Stephen sober Off for
a while. Now sober Off, you know, he's got maybe
six more weeks on the job. You got Rick Caruso,
who's actually accomplishing things, getting at least modular housing going
for dozens of people. Something good as haden happening there
(30:00):
and more will come. And every day you realize it's like, yeah,
everybody voted for the wrong person, Rick Caruso. Rick Caruso
would be an exceptional mayor. Karen Bass is a zero.
And let me tell you why people aren't going to
go forward Because I don't know if you've been on
the West Side of La lately, but you literally cannot
go forward some of the collateral damage. And obviously, you know,
(30:24):
I have a lot of empathy for a lot of
friends and everyone who lives in the Palisades because they're
not going to have a home for the next five
plus years and they've lost everything they ever had. But
the collateral damage is now there are communities who are
angry and screaming and protesting, and we'll get to that
(30:45):
later because the toxic waste is being brought into their neighborhoods.
Why they can't bring all the toxic waste out to
the desert. We'll get into that. But another thing is
the quality of life on the West Side. I don't mean
the vast west side, you know, from a four h
five going right to the ocean and over the four
(31:06):
h five into the valley, the West Valley from Showman
Oaks out to Woodland Hills. I have never and I
mean I've been out in LA for over thirty years.
I have never seen this kind of gridlock every day.
I have never seen this because they closed PCH or
PCH is severely restricted and there's absolutely no movement anywhere
(31:32):
on all the main roads and all the side streets.
And I just wanted to go grocery shopping the other
day and I had to take evasive action and go home.
Couldn't get to the grocery store, couldn't get to the
pet store. Driving home from Burbank, I couldn't stand on
the one on one. I had to I had to
get off. It seems like people are taking hours to
(31:55):
get home, especially in rush hour. Everything is gridlocked. Everything
is in a dead stop in all directions. And I
don't know when they're going to open the PCH and
what other roads are closed. But it is a disaster
(32:16):
for everybody on the west side. You cannot move and
every day is the same as the last day, and
so this collateral and you realize now with the toxic
waste and with the extreme traffic, and you kick it
to the store, and I mean, you can't even socialize
(32:36):
at night.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Sometimes you can't. You can't get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And this is why when there's an extreme fire warning
from the National Weather Service, you have extensive meetings with
everybody involved. At Kristin Crowley, what's your plan, geniez Konias.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Is that reservoir filled?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
What what do you mean it's not field? Get out
of here, go home. Did those three ever have a
meeting where Crowley explained about the thousand firefighters and the
forty engines and Kinona has explained why all the reservoirs
are full?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And did they ever have this? No, they didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And now people in the Palisades have to deal with
the next five plus years of their lives being in ruins,
and everybody else has got to deal with commutes that
go on for hours. Now there are neighborhood meetings all
over the place, people fighting all the toxic waste. There
(33:42):
are trucks rumbling down sunset with toxic dust coming out
and everyone's freaking out. And the best that Karen Bass
has to say as well, Kristin Crowley didn't call me.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
They didn't They apparently didn't know what.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The stakes are, what a firefight, what a fire gets
out of control in an urban environment. They didn't know,
They didn't understand, they didn't care. They have a half
funded fire department. We have exactly half the firefighters that
we should according to national recommendations. I hear bast preening. Well,
(34:24):
actually we increased the fire budget this year. You only
have fifty percent of a fire department that spends more
than fifty percent of their time putting out bumfires. The
hell is wrong with them. This can't be real, and
there's no sign this is ever going to end. This
(34:46):
is what matters in governing, Not diversity, equity, inclusion, can,
consensus building, climate, race, gender, None of that matters. What
matters is there's a fire warning coming and you need
(35:07):
the people in charge of the various departments to have
a meeting and put out the best defense and offense possible.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
One's in Africa.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Denise Cononiez is Bean counting equity numbers and Kristin Crowley.
They give her half a fire department, and when it
came time to pull the trigger to unleash that department,
she choked and set a thousand fighters home. A thousand
firefighters sent home. Three disastrous human beings who have no
(35:41):
business being in these jobs, anywhere near these jobs.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Here we are, We.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Got Prigina de Castillo live in the KFI twenty four
our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show live on
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course any time I'm on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
Can If I am six forty, you're listening to the
John Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
John Cobelt's show Welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
We're out every day from one until four o'clock, and
every day after four o'clock it gets posted as a podcast.
John Cobelt's Show on demand on the iHeart App. I
feel like I'm going insane. I feel like I'm really
going in saying there was just a press conference that
(00:28):
Karen Bass had within the last half hour. And when
you go home tonight, especially if you've been affected by
the fires and you watch her, You're gonna slam your
head through a window. I have never seen anyone more
smug and arrogant and dismissive. And if I hear her
say that we're we have to move forward one more time,
(00:52):
I don't know what I'm gonna do. This is really
we are deep, deep into crazy land here. Karen Bass
held it in this conference to announce that she's fired
Kristin Crowley as the LA fire chief. And Kristin Crowley
did a horrific, tragic, terrible job as fire chief handling
(01:14):
this fire. But Karen Bass is not taking any responsibility
at all for not being here and not overseeing Crowley's
plan to attack the fire because Bass wasn't here and
Crowley did not have a plan to attack the fire
(01:37):
the two of them, and then throwing Genie Quinoniez, who
had the empty reservoir.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
This is astonishing.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
But Bass doesn't really want to deal with with with
all the consequences here. She wants to play misdirection. Point
at Crowley, talk over people and tell them we have
to move forward.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
This is it's not gonna work this way.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You've ruined the lives of tens of thousands of people.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
It doesn't work this way.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have never and for her to actually go on
television with Alex Michaelson on Fox eleven a couple of
days ago and say I, frankly wasn't aware of the
fire warnings is insane. It's impossible to believe her. It's
impossible to believe her. I'm going to play you some
(02:32):
clips here of the press conference because you probably didn't
didn't hear it or see it. Here is Bass announcing
the firing of Kristan Crowley.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Good afternoon, Thank you for being here acting in the
best interest of Los Angeles public safety and for the
operations of the Los Angeles Fire Department. I just met
with Chief Crowley and removed her as fire chief. I
have appointed a forty one year veteran of the fire department,
former Chief Deputy, Ronald via Nueva, as interim fire chief.
(03:05):
He is respected and ready to hit the ground running.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
So let me be clear.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Our firefighters acted heroically during the Palisades fire, and they
act heroically every single day. That is without question. Bringing
new leadership to the fire department is what they and
the people of Los Angeles deserve. As you know, I
have called for a full investigation of everything leading up
(03:31):
to January seventh. A necessary step to the investigation was
the President of the Fire Commission telling Chief Crowley to
do an after action report on the fires.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
The fire chief refused.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
We all know that a thousand firefighters that could have
been on duty on the morning the fires broke were
instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch. These actions required her.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Remove stop right there.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
If Karen Bass had been here in Los Angeles and
they had these extreme fire warnings, which Bass's staff put
out on Bass's x account on her social media, all right,
if you have Karen Bass, you're following her on social media.
You got messages the night before about the extreme fire danger,
(04:28):
So for her not to then have a meeting the
night before with Kristin Crowley and I realize it would
be easier if you were in Los Angeles, but even
in Ghana, even with the time difference, don't you have
a meeting and you go through?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
All right? What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Because if you look at the fire map, it says
it's most likely to break out in the foothills on
either side of the Santa Monica Mountains, which goes from
let's say the Palisades east past Hollywood and then on
the north side it's Woodland Hills east to Studio City.
(05:07):
So that's where the fire is most likely to break out,
according to the National Weather Service. So what are you
going to do? Are you going to keep the second shift?
Are you going to send out the extra engines and
the fire Crowley should have sent a crew to that
(05:28):
spot in the Palisades where the kids had started the
firecracker fire, the fireworks fire that they put on on
January first, because fire officials say that you can have
a flare up and they think that might have been
the case. Not certain could have been a bum fire.
(05:48):
We don't know, but they keep saying it may have
been the fireworks fire. And you still have smoldering going
on underground, and so the fire department is to monitor
that spot, and it was only six days later apparently
they did. And that should have been the first spot
that they sent a crew over because that was the
(06:10):
most likely spot in the Palisades for the fire. But
this all should have been discussed, not just the night before,
but for five days before Thursday, the second, Friday, the third,
the fourth, the fifth, the sixth is Monday, five days before,
and Karen Bass should have had that meeting. Karen Bass
(06:32):
is Crowley's boss. Karen Bass obviously is Crowley's boss because
she just fired Crowley. Somebody pointed out that when the
fire started, Bass did it a radio interview and was
praising Crowley and saying the fire department was prepared. And
(06:54):
the reporter said, why did you say that? And she goes, well,
obviously it I had to have all the facts. Then
why did you say that? So you go and you do, right,
this is what they do. You go and do a
radio interview. You don't have all the facts, You just
do cheerleading nonsense, which is what she did in this
press conference day, more cheerleading garbage. No, the fire department
(07:14):
wasn't prepared. Kristin Crowley sent a thousand people home, and
the fire engines, forty of them were kept in the garage,
and then there's another hundred that ever got fixed. And
the fire department is half funded, fifty percent funded, and
more than half of the fires they put out are
started by bums, by vagrants, and that all plays into this.
(07:41):
But she's got this attitude where everything's Kristin Crowley's fault.
Later on she goes, oh the buck stops here. I'm
the one in charge. Well, if you were the one
in charge, did you have a meeting where you went
through all the details? In this press conference she said,
this is the largest disaster for a city in American history. Well, yeah,
(08:07):
and you weren't here and you didn't have the meeting
to make sure everything was. In fact, you went on
the radio the next day and told the public that
she had pre deployed things properly.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
So you made that up. You lied?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
How'd you know that? But she didn't know that because
she made it up or she lied. Nothing was pre
deployed nothing nowhere, not alone the foothills, on the north
or south side of the Santa Monica Mountains, anywhere else.
Nothing was done, and she as of Monday when she
(08:48):
was on with Alex Michaelson, she said, well, you know,
we have got investigations going on. Well, and then suddenly
you fire Crowley with well, what's the result of the investigation?
On Monday you weren't firing her. Today you're firing her.
I'm sorry, not Monday. I guess that was a couple
of days ago, maybe Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Now you're firing her. What changed?
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then she claims that Crowley did not want to
do an after action report? Well when did that happen?
Because it's been six and a half weeks since the fire.
What day was that she wouldn't do the after action report?
And why wasn't that told to the public. Let's have
what's going on here.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Now. Crowley can be fired, and she should be fired,
But how will we get rid of bass?
Speaker 1 (09:33):
She's dangerously incompetent, dangerously and arrogant about it. And then
one about Denise Canonias who left the reservoir empty?
Speaker 2 (09:43):
What about that woman? No mention of her? The hell
is going on play some wre cut six.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
While the department is in the experienced and expert hands
of Chief Via Nueva. My office will lead a national search,
and I will speak directly with firefighters and Angelinos about
what they want to see in the next fire chief.
I will use a similar process as I did in
searching for our police chief. The business of the fire
(10:19):
Department and the city will continue. Our heroic firefighters are
on the job in our firehouses, engines, trucks, and ambulances.
The recovery of the Palisades is months ahead of expectations.
Los Angeles is moving forward on our fronts, and we
will keep moving forward together.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Moving forward, moving forward, moving forward, moving forward, without admitting
to everything she did that allowed this disaster to happen.
I can't stand people who do that. Well, let's move forward. No,
we're not moving forward. We are staying right in place
and gonna keep examining and blaming and finger pointing and
(11:05):
Monday warning, quarterbacking and all those cute little phrases that
these hacks like to use to evade responsibility. She is
a disaster. She needs to go. I don't know how
to replace her. I don't know what mechanism there is
to replace her outside a recall, which they always they
(11:26):
always screw with, but I cannot. I she's trying to
change the subject. She's trying to dump by Crowley because
she embarrassed herself so badly in that Fox eleven interview
by saying that she wasn't aware of the she wasn't
aware of the warnings. Well, she put her out on
(11:47):
her own her own Twitter feed. All right, we're gonna continue.
We've got more clips to play. That was just the beginning.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
You're listening to John Cobelts on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Now back to if you're just joining us.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Karen Bass fired Kristin Crowley, blaming Kristin Crowley for not
being prepared, blaming Kristin Crowley for not a learning Karen
Bass about the fire danger coming. I have never seen
anyone do something like this. There were so many warnings
(12:28):
that were all aware of, and Karen Bass was here
for two days before she went to Africa. She went
to Africa after two days of warnings, and then she
stayed in Africa until after the fire broke out and
was out of control.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
She chose to do that.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Nobody is believing her, and nobody should believe her, And
now to change the sun object And that's what this is.
She's changing the subject by firing Kristen Crowley, who should
be fired. But why did Bass keep her on? She
was a Garcetti hier and Bass is the one who
(13:15):
hired Genice Kinonies TWP empty reservoir. So who's going to
trust Karen Bass going on a nationwide search?
Speaker 2 (13:25):
How the hell is Palisad's ever going to get out
of this?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
How with her running things for another two years?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
She was asked.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Bass was asked by somebody what specifically Crowley did to
endanger public safety?
Speaker 4 (13:42):
What specifically is.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
She Well, as I mentioned, one thousand firefighters who could
have been on the job fighting the fires were sent home.
The other thing that I mentioned is that I said
after the fires were after the fires were out, after
(14:04):
the rain had stopped, that a full investigation would begin.
One step of that investigation was to do an after
action report, of which she refused.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
So we knew that our.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
Firefiers who had been called in the day after the fire.
Speaker 6 (14:20):
At what changed Because you said you weren't playing on
firing her on anyuary?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
You left, Oh, let me, let me, let me, let
me just let me just be clear, as I just said,
while the fire, well, Los Angeles was on fire.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Think of something. After that, we had rains.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
I was not going to do anything while we were
in a state of emergency. Next, No, we are not
in a state of emergency right now.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
She's she's not easy to trip up because she just
says stuff and she doesn't even remember what she says.
She told a RA radio interview that Crowley was doing
a great job and they were well prepared.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
And then and then when asked about it today again
she said, well, I didn't have all the facts. Well,
why didn't you have all the facts before you said that?
When you agree to do an interview and then you
give boilerplate, cheerleading responses, misleading the city. You made it
clear you thought they had everything together. Well at the
moment you gave the interview where there were a thousand
(15:27):
firefighters fire not fighting out there. You should have went
through this the night before. But when the fire broke out,
she was having a cocktail with the President of Ghana.
I don't know how anybody avoids being tossed out of
office over this. I don't understand. I've never seen We
have seen a lot of crap over the years from
(15:50):
political figures. I've never seen something like this. It's like
she lives in some weird alternate reality and is trying
to sell us all on her reality play Cut eight
about the firing, I.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Said, this is a decision made.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
When did you meet with.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
About an hour ago? And how did you it was
very brief.
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Did she tell you anything about why it was a
very brief meeting?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
No? It It is hard to believe that Crowley didn't
tell Bass about the fire warnings. It's hard to believe
Bass didn't know about it on her own. It's hard
to believe that she didn't call Crowley and that they
had it all hands on deck meeting somewhere between Thursday
(16:42):
the second, certainly by Monday the sixth, or maybe the
morning of Tuesday the seventh. I can't I cannot believe
that they had no discussions on this. Karen Bass is
the boss of Kristin Crowley. Karen Bass had no curiosity.
(17:04):
Oh that's right, she was in Africa. I keep forgetting.
She wasn't paying attention. You know, if you've ever gone
overseas after a couple of days. It's like your homeland
doesn't even exist anymore. You're just lost in the new
setting and meeting new people and the time difference, and
it's a you know, you kind of get disconnected.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
We come back.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
I want to play another cut because it sounds like
she starts to get a little fraid here as the
reporter starts shouting questions and somebody trying to ask her
about Crowley not calling her directly about the weather. But again,
how does Bass not know about the fire warnings? How
does she not know? How does she not call Crowley?
(17:46):
She keeps saying, well, she didn't tell me, But why
didn't you tell her? That's your job. You heard your
city is under threat with an extreme wind and firestorm possible.
You should be calling the fire chief. If the fire
chief hasn't called you, What is this? What kind of
grade school game is this? Wow, she didn't call me?
I mean I didn't call her, but she didn't call me.
(18:08):
This is the mentality we have running Los Angeles. Seriously,
nice voting job.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
I have from a good source that Karen Bass has
two hundred and thirty eight staff members in the mayor's office.
Two thirty eight staff members. Did any of them tell
her that a firestorm was coming?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Two hundred and thirty eight.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
None of them followed the news, none of them spoke
with her about it. You know how much money they
cumulatively make, if you add up there regular pay, the
overtime bonuses and whatnot.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Twenty five million dollars to two two hundred and thirty
eight staff members in Karen Bass's office. And if you
believe Karen Bass, not one of them picked up the
phone or sent her an email or a text or
a tweet.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Oh, for two hundred and thirty eight they all went
silent wow. Or maybe they all missed the news.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
For five straight days? Is that possible?
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Two hundred and thirty eight people for five days and
nobody knew that the firestorm was coming.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
We're going to talk with David Howard.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Now, David workshare at KFI for iHeart and sales manager,
and he lost his home in the fires. And he's
been on with us periodically to give us a sense
of what it's like to be in the middle of
this travesty. And the reaction that he has and other
people that he knows in the Palisades.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
David, how are you?
Speaker 5 (20:00):
Hm, Hey, John, how's it going.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
I'm I'm good. Did you get to hear or see
the press conference?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
I heard parts of it, most of it on your
show because I was in a meeting, but I can
tell it being in the entertainment capital of the world,
the La City Hunger Games have begun, right, Yeah, that
was the most feeble attempt trying to save your own
job of anything we've probably ever seen or heard. And
my phone has been blowing up since the announcement came out.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
It's it's unbelievable that she admits that she didn't know
the fire was coming and then blames Kristin Crowley for
not telling her.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Yeah, I mean, you know, that's that's laughable. There wasn't
a person, there wasn't a person in this town that
didn't know for four days that those ones were coming.
And as you've a new and Debora repeatedly, you know,
shared on your show, it's not often where you hear
the word extreme in a wind event, and so that
that's just inexcusable. It makes no sense.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
I just don't know how people can deal with this
emotionally because of all the stress you obviously have in
losing the home and then losing that town, and then
you hear Bass every day bumbling around with all her nonsense.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
I mean, yeah, that's a great point, Like you don't
know whether you should be laughing it's how ridiculous it is,
or you should be crying and how pathetic it is.
And there's a picture. I think I sent it to Terray.
I don't know if you had a chance to look
at it, But on January eighth, when the second day
of the fire was burning, there were structures that were
completely intact at ten in the morning, and in the
(21:39):
afternoon those structures were gone. There's a photo of Karen
Bass walking down Sunset Boulevard, passing the Chase Bank building,
which literally John was on fire, and she's walking by
it and there's not a fire truck to be seen.
And she didn't turn and say, hey, where's the fire truck,
where's the structure protection, where's the help? She just kept walking.
(22:04):
So so I know that you and I both like
I know you and I both like sports. And when
a team doesn't do all, guess who gets fired? The
head coach.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, but there's nobody, nobody to fire her. I mean, well,
you notice every other politician in the city and the
state is absolutely silent.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
They should all be speaking out. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Well, the clock has got to run out on her.
There's no point in debating this anymore. She's just got
to go. She's she can't do this job.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Well, I think she. I think she realizes that how
desperate things are becoming very quickly. And I'll tell you
one of the things that the residents are talking about
is literally forming like a Los Angeles doge like where
we are now going to get full exposure and transparency
of where our tax money is going, right, a disapportion
(22:53):
amount of the tax money and where it's being spent.
And why we've talked about this, why should we be
paying any taxes when we receive zero services except going
into the pockets of you know, of the cronyism and
all the ridiculous organizations that are set up, you know,
wildly that we don't have any transparency on. And it's
(23:13):
going to stop.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
No, the city is utterly corrupt.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
I mean, this fire might be that might be the
impetus for the change that so many of us have
been looking for for so long, I hope so.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
I mean, I've been astonished on over the last you know,
ten twenty years with people in the city put up
with and and now finally I think everybody is awake
and angry, and they should be angry because this is intolerable.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
I just well, well it is.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
It's it's nonsensical to be you know, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah, all right, Well, whenever you want to talk, if
you find out stuff, let let us know. All right,
we'll put you on right away.
Speaker 6 (23:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:55):
Well, there's a there's a big movement you'll be seeing
in you know, the next week or two, an open
letter that's being drafted by the residents. And again, the
pressure is not going away. It's only going to get worse.
So when Bass makes these silly decisions and does these
things that are just you know, people hard to comprehend,
it just makes it worse for HER's And this is
(24:16):
a group of people that are committed to change and
we're going to get it done.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, this week has been really bad. All right, David Howard, thank.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
You, said David, who was a sales manager here at
to KFI, and iHeart listen to this clip. I haven't
heard this yet. The press conference went on about quarter
to one, and we were trying to put together the
show and keep track of this at the same time,
and I didn't hear this exchange. But bass is responding
to a question about Crowley not calling her directly about
(24:45):
the weather warning.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
I spoke to her the evening of the seventh, yes, exactly,
which was the morning here, so it was after the
fire started. But let me just be clear, Los Angeles
needs to move forward.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
This is a new day.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
I am excited to welcome our new chief, who was
a forty one year veteran of this fire department. He
is well known, he is well liked.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
He knows most.
Speaker 3 (25:21):
Of the members of the city Council except for our
two members that were recently elected. And it is our
plan to continue moving forward. We want to have the
full investigation that the governor has ordered and the investigation
that we will do locally.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Uh donis.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
She keeps saying We've got to move forward, going forward,
moving forward. Do you have the clip the excuse me clip?
I thought that was going to be the excuse me clip?
Speaker 6 (25:54):
You actually still with the chief that I heard a
black gas is as well for seven local Ard West
after the jeus here and she actually is talking about yes,
after and you're crazy prepositioning necessary and.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
A reporter saying you went on the radio and said
you're praising Crowley for her prepositioning.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
And needless to say, I did not know all the facts,
but I had spoken to her maybe a couple of
hours before that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
But she blindly went on the radio and just praised Crowley. So,
in other words, when when when she speaks, she has
no credibility because you don't know if she's just parroting
cheerleading slogans or she actually knows what's going on. Apparently
she didn't know what was going on. She admitted she didn't.
She didn't have all the facts, but she was telling
(26:48):
us every everything was going well and that they were
prepared and that they were prepositioned, and clearly they weren't.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
And only now.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
She's telling us she's been talking about the after action
report for weeks and weeks, and only now she tells
us that Crowley wouldn't do an after action report. All right, yeah,
all right, play this cut now, the excuse me cut.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
What I can tell you is is that what has
happened in the two plus years I've been here, every
time there was a weather emergency or even a hit
of a weather emergency, that she has called me directly.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
She has my cell.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Phone, she knows she can call me twenty four to seven,
and she briefed me and then we would talk about
what needed to happen next. That did not happen this time. Yes, yes,
excuse me, yes.
Speaker 4 (27:34):
Why exactly?
Speaker 3 (27:35):
They asked her, Well, she's asked to do the after
action report and what was her justification. I don't know
her justification.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
She was asked this week.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I learned about this yesterday.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, it was this week this week, so that she
didn't start to do the after action report until this week.
She wasn't asked until this week. Now this is making
any sense and I don't understand this. Ka Kirstan Crowley
didn't call me with the weather warning. Why do you
need her to call you? You can call her you her
(28:07):
the warning was out there on January second. You put
out on January sixth on your own freaking Twitter that there.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Was an extreme fire warning.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
So after you put that out on your own Twitter
on the sixth, you didn't also talk to Crowley what
are you doing tomorrow morning?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
What's the plan? Because the National Weather Service had a.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Map showing where it was likely to happen, and everybody
in the fire department knew that the hottest of the
potential hotspots would be where that old fireworks fire was
from New Year's Day.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
All right, let's say do the news.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am
six forty.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Karen Dass had a preposterous news conference about an hour
ago where she fired Kristin Crowley, the fire chief, and
her biggest complaint is Kristin Crowley didn't tell Karen Bass
that the firestorm was coming. Really seriously, Karen Bass spent
two days in La where there were extreme fire danger
(29:13):
warnings and she wasn't aware of it. She goes to
Africa and there's more days of warnings and she's not
aware of it. And she claims Crowley didn't call her,
and that Crowley wasn't prepared and the fire department wasn't prepared.
But other than that, we're moving forward. Let me tell
(29:35):
you something that is going forward.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Nonsense.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
It's what cowards do to escape responsibility. And Karen Bass
is a coward. She hid behind Stephen sober Off for
a while. Now sober Off, you know, he's got maybe
six more weeks on the job. You got Rick Caruso,
who's actually accomplishing things, getting at least modular housing going
for dozens of people. Something good as haden happening there
(30:00):
and more will come. And every day you realize it's like, yeah,
everybody voted for the wrong person, Rick Caruso. Rick Caruso
would be an exceptional mayor. Karen Bass is a zero.
And let me tell you why people aren't going to
go forward Because I don't know if you've been on
the West Side of La lately, but you literally cannot
go forward some of the collateral damage. And obviously, you know,
(30:24):
I have a lot of empathy for a lot of
friends and everyone who lives in the Palisades because they're
not going to have a home for the next five
plus years and they've lost everything they ever had. But
the collateral damage is now there are communities who are
angry and screaming and protesting, and we'll get to that
(30:45):
later because the toxic waste is being brought into their neighborhoods.
Why they can't bring all the toxic waste out to
the desert. We'll get into that. But another thing is
the quality of life on the West Side. I don't mean
the vast west side, you know, from a four h
five going right to the ocean and over the four
(31:06):
h five into the valley, the West Valley from Showman
Oaks out to Woodland Hills. I have never and I
mean I've been out in LA for over thirty years.
I have never seen this kind of gridlock every day.
I have never seen this because they closed PCH or
PCH is severely restricted and there's absolutely no movement anywhere
(31:32):
on all the main roads and all the side streets.
And I just wanted to go grocery shopping the other
day and I had to take evasive action and go home.
Couldn't get to the grocery store, couldn't get to the
pet store. Driving home from Burbank, I couldn't stand on
the one on one. I had to I had to
get off. It seems like people are taking hours to
(31:55):
get home, especially in rush hour. Everything is gridlocked. Everything
is in a dead stop in all directions. And I
don't know when they're going to open the PCH and
what other roads are closed. But it is a disaster
(32:16):
for everybody on the west side. You cannot move and
every day is the same as the last day, and
so this collateral and you realize now with the toxic
waste and with the extreme traffic, and you kick it
to the store, and I mean, you can't even socialize
(32:36):
at night.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Sometimes you can't. You can't get anywhere.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And this is why when there's an extreme fire warning
from the National Weather Service, you have extensive meetings with
everybody involved. At Kristin Crowley, what's your plan, geniez Konias.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Is that reservoir filled?
Speaker 1 (32:58):
What what do you mean it's not field? Get out
of here, go home. Did those three ever have a
meeting where Crowley explained about the thousand firefighters and the
forty engines and Kinona has explained why all the reservoirs
are full?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
And did they ever have this? No, they didn't have it.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
And now people in the Palisades have to deal with
the next five plus years of their lives being in ruins,
and everybody else has got to deal with commutes that
go on for hours. Now there are neighborhood meetings all
over the place, people fighting all the toxic waste. There
(33:42):
are trucks rumbling down sunset with toxic dust coming out
and everyone's freaking out. And the best that Karen Bass
has to say as well, Kristin Crowley didn't call me.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
They didn't They apparently didn't know what.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
The stakes are, what a firefight, what a fire gets
out of control in an urban environment. They didn't know,
They didn't understand, they didn't care. They have a half
funded fire department. We have exactly half the firefighters that
we should according to national recommendations. I hear bast preening. Well,
(34:24):
actually we increased the fire budget this year. You only
have fifty percent of a fire department that spends more
than fifty percent of their time putting out bumfires. The
hell is wrong with them. This can't be real, and
there's no sign this is ever going to end. This
(34:46):
is what matters in governing, Not diversity, equity, inclusion, can,
consensus building, climate, race, gender, None of that matters. What
matters is there's a fire warning coming and you need
(35:07):
the people in charge of the various departments to have
a meeting and put out the best defense and offense possible.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
One's in Africa.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Denise Cononiez is Bean counting equity numbers and Kristin Crowley.
They give her half a fire department, and when it
came time to pull the trigger to unleash that department,
she choked and set a thousand fighters home. A thousand
firefighters sent home. Three disastrous human beings who have no
(35:41):
business being in these jobs, anywhere near these jobs.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Here we are, We.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Got Prigina de Castillo live in the KFI twenty four
our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John Covelt
Show podcast. You can always hear the show live on
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course any time I'm on
demand on the iHeartRadio app
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt