January 8, 2025 • 36 mins
Multiple fires are burning across the Southland. Rick Caruso comes on the show to talk about the fire burning in Pacific Palisades.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio
app John Cobelt Show. Can't I Am six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And we are on today
from one n till four every day and if you
miss anything, that's what.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
The podcast is for.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
After four o'clock it gets posted John Cobelt Show on
demand and then you could listen to or you could
listen to it all over again, whatever you want. But
I'm telling you enough is enough. There has to be
a wholesale change. There should be mass resignations, starting with
Karen Bass and a whole lot of other people in
this city Hall and on the city council. Can you
(00:40):
sheep back from Ghana yet that the plane land? I'd
heard the plane was supposed to land earlier, like an
hour or two ago.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Let me check, yes, anything, let me see.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You're not gonna believe this stuff. You are not going
to believe this stuff. How many days warning did we
have about this this firestorm, about the red flag warning
high wind warning, potential for catastrophic devastating a deadly wind
and fire. I mean it was several days, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, and you've known about it for several days, right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And Karen Bass decided instead to go to Ghana and
stay in Ghana as the windstorm was approaching and developing.
And it was only after the fires blew up and
Pacific Palisades got almost entirely consumed by this windstorm and
(01:38):
this firestorm that she decided to go back on a
plane and come here Ghana. You know where Ghana is
in West Africa. Why would she go to West Africa?
What possible reason would there be to go to West
Africa and stay there when everybody knew a bad windstorm
(02:00):
was coming and we had extreme fire danger. I mean
the word extreme was used all over the place. Life threatening,
life threatening, extreme fire, extreme wind one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And she's in Ghana, seriously and she doesn't come back immediately.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Why was she there?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Because on Tuesday they were inaugurating a president, John Dromani Mohamma,
and that's more important. Meantime, the fire department in Pacific
Palisades runs out of water.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
The fire hydrants went dry by three in the morning,
according to the La Times, And who knows what's true.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
There by three in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
This morning, all the hydrants in the Palisades area nothing
dust coming out. Two of them had run out earlier
in the evening. So if you were watching the TV
news last night, and I guess we probably all spent
hours watching it, except for Deverrek because she had no power.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Oh wait, by the way, yeah, Karen Bass is back.
She just tweeted a video for talking with Governor Newsom
and she just got off her phone with Biden.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh well that'll help. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I wish we had a recording of that. What a
meeting of the geniuses? Huh Biden, knews them and Karen Bass.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Wow, Biden and Newsom.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
They were they held a news conference although their microphones
were not on this morning. They were in Santa Monica
being updated on the fire. But you couldn't hear what Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So you couldn't hear Biden mumbling now, And I mean,
I'm astonishing this. Any of these geniuses, in their meetings
have to come up with a way to supply the
LA Fire Department with water in the Pacific Palisades. Any
of them know what to do to fix that problem.
I've never heard of a major city fire department running
(04:12):
out of water when they knew a huge fire event
is coming. And it's not the firefighter's fault on the scene.
They all showed up, they're ready to do their duty.
They turn on the hydrants and the hydrants go dry.
Why how could that possibly happen? How in God's name
could that happen? And normally, I guess you'd contact the
(04:37):
mayor and the mayor is, oh, in Ghana, Okay, well
that helps. You have a thousand buildings burned in the Palisades,
a thousand, thousands of people displaced, total flattened, devastation, and
(04:57):
the mayor is in Ghana because the president's getting inaugurated.
Is she gonna be in Washington when the US president
gets inaugurated? Probably not because it's the wrong party, but Ghana.
She's there, ready to salute, ready to bow, ready to
(05:20):
do whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Who would go there?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Why would you want to go there? What would be
the point of that? I mean, I'm astonished. Water What
they don't have? What we have the freaking Pacific Ocean
less than a mile from the fire, and we're out
of water. How can that be? We had two of
(05:43):
the rainiest seasons in history. There's no water. This is
obviously a massive problem by these idiot incompetent politicians and
bureaucrats in management. We're gonna talk to Rick Caruso coming
up after one thirty, because he was all over television
(06:04):
last night on all the channels talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Uh, the the the the mismanagement. This is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
This is an infrastructure issue. I don't know who's been
running well, I know who's been running the city. We've
had We had nearly ten years of Garcetti and now
we've had several years of bass. And now you can't
do this many stupid things for this long without all
cut it all, cut it all coming together. It's it's
(06:32):
a perfect storm of its own perverse nature. There's no
excuse for this. It's intolerable. I don't want to hear
everybody's reasons. I've never heard of this these areas. Every
year a hilly area burns. They call it the urban
(06:54):
wildlife interface. You have natural wild lands, and then humans
build up as much as they can into the wild
lands because it's all beautiful and pretty, which is great,
except you need a water infrastructure, among other things, so
that when the inevitable fires happen, you can put them
(07:16):
out now to some extent. Obviously, you can't control an
overwhelming fire with eighty mile an hour wins or one
hundred mile an hour wins. But you can't possibly read
out of water. That's just not possible if you're running
your city properly. But maybe you've made decades of stupid
decisions and now you have an incredibly idiotic administration and
(07:43):
the mayor goes to Ghana.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I mean, you know what she had to do.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Oh, by the way, I heard while she was in
Ghana though, her office sent out twenty three tweets. Twenty
three tweets from Ghana. Well that's hands on management and huh.
That is putting on the old fire uniform and the
hard hat and jumping on the truck high oversee the
(08:07):
uh to oversee the operation.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
She's just announced that aircraft returned to dropping water on
the wildfires after being grounded by the winds.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So we should Yeah, Laura, whatever dope writes those tweets
for her. None of these people write, write their own messages.
Uh let me okay, let me uh play with you
what the deputy chief of staff said when we come back.
(08:38):
Selene Cordero had a press conference eight o'clock in the morning,
and uh, the reporters shockingly, they really were questioning over
why bass was in Ghana. We'll play that, see what
that's about when we come back, Rick Caruso after one thirty.
We're only getting started.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
When stuff like this happens, that's all you can rely
on is AM radio. The FM signals. They hit a
mountain and they stopped dead, and if you're on the
wrong side of the mountain, there's no FM coming in.
So yeah, it should it's that federal law should have
passed by Now who do we have to buy off?
(09:26):
It's John Cobelt Show, KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. We're on from one until four
after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand here on
the iHeart app. Rick Caruso coming on in just a
few minutes on the phone to talk about this. All
the fires, especially Palisades, a thousand structures destroyed and the
(09:48):
fire department ran out of water because the boobs who
run the city all these years, and our mayor who
didn't show up for this disaster she was busy Ghana
celebrating the inauguration of the President of Ghana. Some reporters
went after this issue. There was an eight am press conference.
(10:12):
This is from the question and answer portion Seline Cordero,
Deputy chief of Staff to Karen Bass. She tried to
explain how Karen Bass could do her job running this
disaster while in Ghana.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Good morning, everybody, Selene Cordero, Deputy chief of Staff to
Mayor Bass. I just wanted to step forward and address
the question about the mayor. The mayor will be on
the ground shortly, very shortly this morning and engage. But
I want to assure the community in the city, our
mayor has been actively engaged one hundred percent of the
time the entire last twenty four hours throughout this unfortunate
(10:51):
and fortunate event in crisis. The mayor has been in
constant communication with our chief of Police, our fire chief,
our council president, our law enforcement partners, our supervisor, Supervisor Barber,
thank you, and our county partners. So I just want
to stress she has had one hundred percent access the
entire time that she's been traveling and been actively involved
(11:12):
in the decision making.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So thank you.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
Very much to all up here, and the mayor looks
forward to meeting you very shortly this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Really, there's an eight hour time difference between here and Ghana.
So how sharp and alert was she? Was she working
through the middle of the night by her body clock?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Really? Was she? Was she awake during was she we
awake during all the fire hours?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Then if she's on the phone with all those officials
that Seline Cordero listed, how come there wasn't a water
supply for the fire department in the Palisades? Did the
water supply come up with all our meetings? Was there
those twenty three tweets? I didn't read any of them
or mention that, hey, we don't have enough water to
(12:02):
put out the fire. People are just going to have
to retreat to shelters or hotels and watch their homes
burn on live television and watch as the firemen are
forced to stand around either doing nothing or in some cases.
And I saw this with my own eyes, and I'm
going to emphasize this. I saw this with my own
(12:24):
eyes because I know these political these lying political hacks,
are going to try to rewrite history. Often, I saw
no firefighters in front of these homes. I saw a
school burn and nobody was there because they didn't have
water or there wasn't enough personnel. And why would there
(12:47):
not be enough personnel? We'll get to that, but it
looks like guess who the mayor from Ghana apparently cut
anywhere from seventeen to twenty three million dollars out of
the budget for the fire department. Yeah, you know why,
(13:09):
because the homeless budget is larger than the fire department budget.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Just learn that today too.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It takes some kind of disaster before everyone in the
media starts doing their job.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And oh, look at that. We spend more money on.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
The homeless who start a lot of the fires, than
we do on the fire department. By the way, what
started this fire up in the Palisades.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
They don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And if it turns out to be a vagrant, some
kind of filthy vagrant living up in the weeds, are
they going to tell us or are they going to lie?
And is the news media going to amplify the lie
just like they did for the last four year years
about Joe Biden, Like who are we supposed to believe?
(14:06):
When they finally come out with the real story as
to what started the fire. I have no idea, but
I know for a fact that they cover these situations
up because they don't want to stigmatize or feed into stereotypes.
So we'll be on the alert. We'll see if we
(14:28):
can find the truth. Here's here's a clip of LA
County Fire Chief Anthony Moron questioned from an La Times
report of Grace twoy if the crews were prepared and
had enough resources to fight fires of this magnitude got
to no.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
La County and all twenty nine fire departments in our
county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.
There are not enough firefighters in La County to address
four separate fires of this magnitude. We were prepared. We
did get state preposition resources that came from northern California
(15:09):
that were up in the Santa Clarita Valley. We did
hire additional firefighters from the La County Fire Department and
prepositioned them in the Santa Monica Mountains. The La County
Fire Department was prepared for one or two major brush fires,
but not four, especially given these sustained winds and low humidities.
(15:32):
Like our director of Emergency Management said, this is not
a normal red flag blurt. People were calling for help.
We tried to get them the help that they needed.
La County right now, like the La City Fire Department
is prioritizing life safety, but we were also engaging in
(15:52):
structured defense, perimeter control, and aerial operations. Remember that the
La County Fire Department has thirteen aerial assets available to it.
In addition to our agency owned helicopters. We have our
two col four fifteen super Scoopers and our CH forty seven,
which is part of the three County QRF. So we're
(16:15):
prepared to keep fighting the fight. Like I said earlier,
I've requested additional resources not only from northern California, but
from out of state. We did that last night yesterday.
So we're doing the very best we can. But no,
we don't have enough fire personnel in La County between
(16:37):
all of the departments to handle this.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And is that because of they didn't allocate enough money?
How much is it that they don't How much of
this story is they don't allocate enough money. I know
in the City of La Karen Bass cut in one
report seventeen million, another report twenty three million dollars cut
money from the La city budget.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
So what's the story with the county? Now?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I know the county and the city are spending billions
of dollars on homelessness, and they're spending huge amounts of
money on illegal aliens. So the idea that we don't
have the resources is garbage. You should spend every last
dollar on police and fire, and you should arrest the
(17:28):
homeless people and deport the illegal aliens. We shouldn't be
spending billions of dollars on those two categories. We should
be spending the billions of dollars on the fire and
the police to protect us. Anybody think otherwise? I'd love
to hear that explanation. All right, when we come back,
Rick Caruso is going to come on, and then after Rick,
(17:49):
we're gonna play a clip about the fire hydrants. We're
going to talk to about the hydrants to Rick, and
also a clip from this morning's press conference with the
lad WP chief Genice Kees and the la.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Oh yeah, isn't she the one making some godly amount
of money?
Speaker 8 (18:08):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I got to look up her salary.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
She's making some kind of record, unbelievable head smacking salary.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
My power is still out. It's been out since seven?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Still, yes, And you know what when we called last
night and I actually actually just texted my husband to
see if he's called DWP to get an update, you
can hardly. It's a bad connection. It sounds so horrible.
And they have no new information.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
They have no answer.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
No, yeah, no, my power has been out since seven
last night.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Uh so you have no idea.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
If you know a pole fell over, the wires are
lying on the ground. Maybe the wires fell on the
ground and started another wildfire.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You have no idea.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I have no idea. Will tell you, They will tell me.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, we're gonna talking to Rick Carus.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I'm coming up after Debora's news, and then we're also
going to play a clip of Genie KEINONEZ and I'm
going to find out what that salary.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Oh, Michael Monks just sent me a message. Seven hundred
fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She makes seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Yes, seven
hundred and.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yes, And there was no water to put out the
Palisades fire. How much water could you buy for seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars? You know what they all
got to go. Head's got a roll, Head's on a stick.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Continuing our coverage of these massive fires over southern California.
Pacific Palisades really has been devastated, and we're going to
talk now with Rick Caruso. You're well aware of him.
The developer ran for mayor last time around owns Palisades village,
and his village and his family suffered quite a bit
(19:54):
of loss in these fires, and he has spoken out.
He was all over television last night about the fire,
hydrants running drive, the water supply running out for the
fire department here in La. Let's get Rick on Rick.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Welcome, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm fine, Ben, how are you? I understand a couple
of family members may have lost their homes.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
Yeah, we love My daughter lost her home and we
lost another home. But you know, we're all together and
we evacuated our home also, But we're all together and
we're going to get through it and trying to work
very hard to support the neighborhood and the community up there.
The devastation, as you talked about, John, it's just it's
(20:41):
mind blowing. You can't even get your head around it.
Speaker 10 (20:44):
Entire neighborhoods have been wiped.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
Out, and so my heart really goes out to people
who have lost so much, because, as you know, you
lose a home, it's not the structure, it's the memories
and all the things that make life dear. And so
many small businesses up there is gone, and the fire
is still, you.
Speaker 10 (21:04):
Know, raging on.
Speaker 9 (21:05):
And uh. But we're going to do everything we can
do to support, you know, our brave Angelinos and rebuild
and certainly support our first responders that are fighting a
good fight. But I think a lot of tough questions
need to be asked.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
By three in the morning on Wednesday, all the fire
hydrants and the Palisades area went dry. They ran out
of water. Nobody understands this. Uh, this is I mean
we all saw on TV last night, is that homes
are burning and the firefighters had had had no water
to put out the blazes. I mean, what you used
to be a commissioner with the DWP, you got an
(21:41):
idea specifically what went on here.
Speaker 9 (21:45):
Well, actually the fight, the Heighten stopped working long before
three o'clock. I think it was about eleven o'clock and
even earlier the firefighters had been complaining to our people
about water pressure and then no water. And it's an
incredible thing to think about, John, this is the second
largest city in the United States and we don't have
(22:08):
hydrants at work. We had a warning of this. I
think we've got a big failure of leadership on this.
How you cannot be prepared for this now? Certainly it's devastating.
The winds are terrible. You could have probably never prevented
all of the damage, but you could have mitigated it.
And I think it goes back to there's been no
(22:28):
brush management program. The hills that are controlled by the
city and the state and the county. You know, those
haven't been managed. There's been no control burns for decades.
So you had this enormous amount of fuel and this
fire just took off.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 9 (22:48):
We've got a lot of tough questions.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Why wouldn't they do the controlled burns?
Speaker 9 (22:53):
You know, I raised it five years ago. If you remember,
we had the fire in Brentwood along the four or
five and thank god it stopped and didn't travel more
to the west. And I was told the city does
not have the resources to do it. But all of
us are old enough we can remember there used to
be control burns and that hasn't happened. So, you know,
(23:17):
we've got a lot of challenges in the city, and
I think at the top of it, we've got to
ask the questions. You know, who's running in the city.
Are they capable of making good decisions? And it's not
just about now, it's about for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But what do you think happened with the water supply?
I mean, I know it's an extraordinary event, but we
have those extraordinary events every so often.
Speaker 9 (23:44):
Yeah, well, this isn't the first time the Palisades has
burnt down either, so it's not like we didn't have
fair historical warning that this may happen again. It happened
in the sixties. But what I was told is at
the reservoirs.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
The hydrants there.
Speaker 9 (24:03):
Are fed by the reservoirs and it's a gravity flow,
and they didn't manage the water in the reservoirs properly,
so it depleted and weren't refilling them up quickly enough.
So from what I can see, I could be wrong,
But for what I can see is there is just
complete lack of proper management of this, and I think
(24:25):
it's negligence. I think the city is, unfortunately, is going
to be in a very libeless situation for the billions
of dollars of losses in the Palisades. But well, we
got to really start focusing on in the next days
and weeks. We've got to hunker down. We've got to
support people that don't have the financial means, lost their homes,
(24:49):
lost their businesses. We've got to get people back on
their feet, and then we've got to start rebuilding in
this city. I pray to God cuts all the red tape,
gets behind people and helps people rebuild. And let's get
out of the business of making life difficult in this
city and let's support support these families because not everybody's
(25:11):
wealthy in the Palisades, and most of the businesses of
the Palisades are small, independent businesses that just don't have resources.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, if it's the same people that didn't have a
brush clearing program for all these years or decades and
didn't have the water system working properly, you're going to
I don't know what to expect to try to help
rebuild the people's lives. It's the same people running LA.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Well, I mean, that's unfortunately, that's a problem, and I
hope this city starts really thinking.
Speaker 10 (25:50):
About who they're electing an office.
Speaker 9 (25:51):
And it's not about me. When I ran, I ran,
I did my best and I launched and that's the
way the system works. And I fully accept that. But
going forward, leadership matters, and we've got to be electing
people that actually are qualified and capable to make good
decisions and put the priority of saving lives making our
(26:15):
lives safe. The fact that our mayor and city council
cut the budget of the fire department two months ago
is absolutely unacceptable. And here's what we've got to show
for why.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I mean, I saw that story.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Why would they cut the fire department of all places,
because they.
Speaker 9 (26:36):
Completely mismanaged the finances of the city. The city has a.
Speaker 10 (26:40):
Deficit of half a billion dollars.
Speaker 9 (26:42):
They gave a whole bunch of people raises. We've got
fire stations and I talked about this when I was
running for mayor. We have fire stations throughout the city
that are closed because they don't even have the resources
to open. The mismanagement is that the highest level, and
(27:02):
it really did, and it still does today. It looks
like a third world city out there. It's still burning.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I know, it's overwhelming. What's burning? And you talk about
a third world Look, I mean, there's so much garbage
lying around the city. I'm sure you've seen. It's appalling.
Every time you stop at a traffic light or you
stop near a freeway on ramp and you just see
mounds of garbage. It looks like nobody's picked it up
(27:30):
in weeks or months. And I always look out and say, well,
what are the city workers doing all day? What is
the city management doing all day? Because the place looks
filthy much of the time.
Speaker 9 (27:42):
And you got to demand more, Johnny, We got to
demand more. The residents got to demand more. They deserve it.
They'd pay a lot of taxes.
Speaker 10 (27:47):
We don't be a lot of taxes.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
Yeah, very expensive to live in the city. It should
be clean, should be safe, it should be a happy,
wonderful place. They have a business and we're just not there. Well,
we got to change it, and and we're going to
change it by rebuilding the Palisades and some of these
other communities in a way that will be everlasting.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Well, I know you're going to be a big part
of it are our sympathies for the losses you and
your family have suffered. And uh, you're right, we just
got to move forward and start rebuilding. But we needed,
we need a complete changeover.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
Yes we do. But we're going to lean in heavily.
The Crusoe family is going to.
Speaker 10 (28:29):
Lean in heavily.
Speaker 9 (28:30):
And I know you and your family are great Angelano's
and we'll do the same. And we're a strong city.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
So we're going to bring it back.
Speaker 9 (28:37):
And Uh, that Palacease community is such a dear, wonderful
that's beautiful town.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh that's a beautiful town. I mean I've lived right
next door and we're there all the time. And places
that we've gone to for years have been destroyed. I
was just there yesterday yesterday morning.
Speaker 10 (28:58):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We did we did hike and pertare a canyon and
all the blocks that we drove up and down yesterday morning,
all the homes are destroyed. Twenty four hours later. It's
it's it's overwhelming.
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, it is overwhelming.
Speaker 10 (29:13):
It's going to take a massive us it's to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
All right, Rick, we'll talk again soon, all right, talked
to you later, Yeah, Rick, Caruso. Thanks, all right, bye,
we will continue John Cobelt Show KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
We just finished speaking with Rick Caruso, the developer, and uh,
you know, part of his shopping center in the Palisades
was damaged by fire, and his his family had I
think the daughter had one home destroyed and his son
had another home I think damaged. I'm not sure how badly,
(29:55):
but you know he's right in the thick of it
and in the Palisades, and he used to be on
the Water Board Commission or the Department of Water and
Power Commission, And I want to play for you. As
part of this morning's press conference the LADWP head Genice
(30:16):
Quinones and the LA Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. LA
Times reporter David Zaneiser asked about the water being shut
off in some hydrants in the Palisades and if the
whole system needs to be overhauled.
Speaker 8 (30:31):
Listen to this, so, Chief, please correct me if I'm wrong,
But we were trying to keep water at all altitudes
on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning,
dusk when the hydrants went dry off the Brainwood area.
We are able to push water on the on that
on that trunk line on the east side of that,
(30:53):
and we have some water on higher elevations sixteen to
eighteen thousand, But at three thousand, all of the at
three am, all of the fire hydrants when dry, and
the palisades. To your question of climate resiliency and how
do we need to update the system, I would say
that that is true. We were talking with the county
supervisor and Mark on how are we going to change
(31:15):
the way we operate our water systems for events like this.
This is an unprecedented event. I think the twenty eleven
winds was significant from a power Irish perspective, but the
fires have really increased.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
The second hold on. Now they're going to reevaluate the
water system. Now they're going to after all the hydrants
go dry and a thousand structures burn in the palis age.
Oh yeah, you know that's something that we got to discuss. Yeah,
we might have to reevaluate. What do you this should
(31:50):
have been done years ago? You just found out now
you don't have enough water for not even one day's
worth fire coverage. That fire was first reported at ten
thirty in the morning. Now eighteen let's call it seventeen
(32:11):
hours later the water runs out. And it's not like
they haven't had fires in the hills before. We've all
seen what happens in the hills. You know exactly how
many structures you have. You know that the Santa Ana wins.
Everybody knows they can go up forty sixty eighty, one
hundred miles an hour. This is all historically has gone
(32:35):
on since La was settled. We've been aware of this.
Don't they have all the latest computer technology, computer analysis
AI technology. Don't they know exactly what could happen if
you have sixty.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Eighty mile an hour winds that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
A fire suddenly takes off, What it could do and
how much what are you gonna need? Of course they
could calculate that, unless they're doing it on a handheld calculator.
They don't have the money for the computer technology and
the analysis. They should have it, right, and then you
(33:16):
have enough water stored and enough order transported. And now
she's going, well, yeah, we have to look at it.
You have to look at it again. She should be
fired too. She should go with Karen Bass Colossal mismanagement,
colossal mistake. And by the way, ye know, but she's
making this lady is making seven hundred and fifty thousand
(33:37):
dollars a year. When she got hired in twenty twenty three,
she was hired with a three hundred thousand dollars increase
over the previous general manager, Marty Adams. Marty Adams made
four hundred forty seven thousand dollars. This canon is lady
(34:03):
is making seven hundred and fifty one thousand, three hundred
thousand dollars more. The first big test of her tenure
get water to the Palisades for the big fire.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
They run out.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And her response says, yeah, we gotta look at that, Yeah,
we gotta look at that. What is wrong with these well,
listen to them, Listen to them. What do you think
is wrong? Double digit IQs, that's what's wrong? Room temperature
(34:43):
IQs in some cases.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Never never.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Underestimate the damage that low IQ people can do when
they get into powerful government positions. It's it, you know,
And next hour I got I gotta get into the
disparity between the amount of money that is spent on
homelessness versus the amount of money that they spend on
(35:11):
the Los Angeles Fire Department. It's a big difference. And
Jennie Kine, is you work on that new water supply idea.
That's a good one. Glad you noticed. We're gonna have
Michael Monks on next. He's gonna have all the latest
details about the many fires that are blown up all
(35:32):
over the place, and we're gonna keep on this case.
Today is the day enough is enough. We have to
stop putting up with Karen Bass and stop putting up
with Genie Knonas and all the rest of these clowns.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
They're terrible.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They're costing people lives, people's lives, They're costing billions of
dollars worth of property. Debor Mark Lyveen the KFI twenty
four our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John
Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show live
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand on
(36:05):
the iHeartRadio app.
I Am six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to the John Cobelt Podcast on the iHeartRadio
app John Cobelt Show. Can't I Am six forty live
everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. And we are on today
from one n till four every day and if you
miss anything, that's what.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
The podcast is for.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
After four o'clock it gets posted John Cobelt Show on
demand and then you could listen to or you could
listen to it all over again, whatever you want. But
I'm telling you enough is enough. There has to be
a wholesale change. There should be mass resignations, starting with
Karen Bass and a whole lot of other people in
this city Hall and on the city council. Can you
(00:40):
sheep back from Ghana yet that the plane land? I'd
heard the plane was supposed to land earlier, like an
hour or two ago.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Let me check, yes, anything, let me see.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You're not gonna believe this stuff. You are not going
to believe this stuff. How many days warning did we
have about this this firestorm, about the red flag warning
high wind warning, potential for catastrophic devastating a deadly wind
and fire. I mean it was several days, wasn't it?
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yes, and you've known about it for several days, right.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
And Karen Bass decided instead to go to Ghana and
stay in Ghana as the windstorm was approaching and developing.
And it was only after the fires blew up and
Pacific Palisades got almost entirely consumed by this windstorm and
(01:38):
this firestorm that she decided to go back on a
plane and come here Ghana. You know where Ghana is
in West Africa. Why would she go to West Africa?
What possible reason would there be to go to West
Africa and stay there when everybody knew a bad windstorm
(02:00):
was coming and we had extreme fire danger. I mean
the word extreme was used all over the place. Life threatening,
life threatening, extreme fire, extreme wind one hundred.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And she's in Ghana, seriously and she doesn't come back immediately.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Why was she there?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Because on Tuesday they were inaugurating a president, John Dromani Mohamma,
and that's more important. Meantime, the fire department in Pacific
Palisades runs out of water.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, I'm not making this up.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
The fire hydrants went dry by three in the morning,
according to the La Times, And who knows what's true.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
There by three in the morning.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
This morning, all the hydrants in the Palisades area nothing
dust coming out. Two of them had run out earlier
in the evening. So if you were watching the TV
news last night, and I guess we probably all spent
hours watching it, except for Deverrek because she had no power.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Oh wait, by the way, yeah, Karen Bass is back.
She just tweeted a video for talking with Governor Newsom
and she just got off her phone with Biden.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh well that'll help. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I wish we had a recording of that. What a
meeting of the geniuses? Huh Biden, knews them and Karen Bass.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Wow, Biden and Newsom.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
They were they held a news conference although their microphones
were not on this morning. They were in Santa Monica
being updated on the fire. But you couldn't hear what Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So you couldn't hear Biden mumbling now, And I mean,
I'm astonishing this. Any of these geniuses, in their meetings
have to come up with a way to supply the
LA Fire Department with water in the Pacific Palisades. Any
of them know what to do to fix that problem.
I've never heard of a major city fire department running
(04:12):
out of water when they knew a huge fire event
is coming. And it's not the firefighter's fault on the scene.
They all showed up, they're ready to do their duty.
They turn on the hydrants and the hydrants go dry.
Why how could that possibly happen? How in God's name
could that happen? And normally, I guess you'd contact the
(04:37):
mayor and the mayor is, oh, in Ghana, Okay, well
that helps. You have a thousand buildings burned in the Palisades,
a thousand, thousands of people displaced, total flattened, devastation, and
(04:57):
the mayor is in Ghana because the president's getting inaugurated.
Is she gonna be in Washington when the US president
gets inaugurated? Probably not because it's the wrong party, but Ghana.
She's there, ready to salute, ready to bow, ready to
(05:20):
do whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Who would go there?
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Why would you want to go there? What would be
the point of that? I mean, I'm astonished. Water What
they don't have? What we have the freaking Pacific Ocean
less than a mile from the fire, and we're out
of water. How can that be? We had two of
(05:43):
the rainiest seasons in history. There's no water. This is
obviously a massive problem by these idiot incompetent politicians and
bureaucrats in management. We're gonna talk to Rick Caruso coming
up after one thirty, because he was all over television
(06:04):
last night on all the channels talking about.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Uh, the the the the mismanagement. This is.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
This is an infrastructure issue. I don't know who's been
running well, I know who's been running the city. We've
had We had nearly ten years of Garcetti and now
we've had several years of bass. And now you can't
do this many stupid things for this long without all
cut it all, cut it all coming together. It's it's
(06:32):
a perfect storm of its own perverse nature. There's no
excuse for this. It's intolerable. I don't want to hear
everybody's reasons. I've never heard of this these areas. Every
year a hilly area burns. They call it the urban
(06:54):
wildlife interface. You have natural wild lands, and then humans
build up as much as they can into the wild
lands because it's all beautiful and pretty, which is great,
except you need a water infrastructure, among other things, so
that when the inevitable fires happen, you can put them
(07:16):
out now to some extent. Obviously, you can't control an
overwhelming fire with eighty mile an hour wins or one
hundred mile an hour wins. But you can't possibly read
out of water. That's just not possible if you're running
your city properly. But maybe you've made decades of stupid
decisions and now you have an incredibly idiotic administration and
(07:43):
the mayor goes to Ghana.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I mean, you know what she had to do.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Oh, by the way, I heard while she was in
Ghana though, her office sent out twenty three tweets. Twenty
three tweets from Ghana. Well that's hands on management and huh.
That is putting on the old fire uniform and the
hard hat and jumping on the truck high oversee the
(08:07):
uh to oversee the operation.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
She's just announced that aircraft returned to dropping water on
the wildfires after being grounded by the winds.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So we should Yeah, Laura, whatever dope writes those tweets
for her. None of these people write, write their own messages.
Uh let me okay, let me uh play with you
what the deputy chief of staff said when we come back.
(08:38):
Selene Cordero had a press conference eight o'clock in the morning,
and uh, the reporters shockingly, they really were questioning over
why bass was in Ghana. We'll play that, see what
that's about when we come back, Rick Caruso after one thirty.
We're only getting started.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
When stuff like this happens, that's all you can rely
on is AM radio. The FM signals. They hit a
mountain and they stopped dead, and if you're on the
wrong side of the mountain, there's no FM coming in.
So yeah, it should it's that federal law should have
passed by Now who do we have to buy off?
(09:26):
It's John Cobelt Show, KFI AM six forty live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app. We're on from one until four
after four o'clock John Cobelt Show on demand here on
the iHeart app. Rick Caruso coming on in just a
few minutes on the phone to talk about this. All
the fires, especially Palisades, a thousand structures destroyed and the
(09:48):
fire department ran out of water because the boobs who
run the city all these years, and our mayor who
didn't show up for this disaster she was busy Ghana
celebrating the inauguration of the President of Ghana. Some reporters
went after this issue. There was an eight am press conference.
(10:12):
This is from the question and answer portion Seline Cordero,
Deputy chief of Staff to Karen Bass. She tried to
explain how Karen Bass could do her job running this
disaster while in Ghana.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
Good morning, everybody, Selene Cordero, Deputy chief of Staff to
Mayor Bass. I just wanted to step forward and address
the question about the mayor. The mayor will be on
the ground shortly, very shortly this morning and engage. But
I want to assure the community in the city, our
mayor has been actively engaged one hundred percent of the
time the entire last twenty four hours throughout this unfortunate
(10:51):
and fortunate event in crisis. The mayor has been in
constant communication with our chief of Police, our fire chief,
our council president, our law enforcement partners, our supervisor, Supervisor Barber,
thank you, and our county partners. So I just want
to stress she has had one hundred percent access the
entire time that she's been traveling and been actively involved
(11:12):
in the decision making.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So thank you.
Speaker 6 (11:13):
Very much to all up here, and the mayor looks
forward to meeting you very shortly this morning.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Really, there's an eight hour time difference between here and Ghana.
So how sharp and alert was she? Was she working
through the middle of the night by her body clock?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
Really? Was she? Was she awake during was she we
awake during all the fire hours?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Then if she's on the phone with all those officials
that Seline Cordero listed, how come there wasn't a water
supply for the fire department in the Palisades? Did the
water supply come up with all our meetings? Was there
those twenty three tweets? I didn't read any of them
or mention that, hey, we don't have enough water to
(12:02):
put out the fire. People are just going to have
to retreat to shelters or hotels and watch their homes
burn on live television and watch as the firemen are
forced to stand around either doing nothing or in some cases.
And I saw this with my own eyes, and I'm
going to emphasize this. I saw this with my own
(12:24):
eyes because I know these political these lying political hacks,
are going to try to rewrite history. Often, I saw
no firefighters in front of these homes. I saw a
school burn and nobody was there because they didn't have
water or there wasn't enough personnel. And why would there
(12:47):
not be enough personnel? We'll get to that, but it
looks like guess who the mayor from Ghana apparently cut
anywhere from seventeen to twenty three million dollars out of
the budget for the fire department. Yeah, you know why,
(13:09):
because the homeless budget is larger than the fire department budget.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Just learn that today too.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
It takes some kind of disaster before everyone in the
media starts doing their job.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And oh, look at that. We spend more money on.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
The homeless who start a lot of the fires, than
we do on the fire department. By the way, what
started this fire up in the Palisades.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
They don't know yet.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
And if it turns out to be a vagrant, some
kind of filthy vagrant living up in the weeds, are
they going to tell us or are they going to lie?
And is the news media going to amplify the lie
just like they did for the last four year years
about Joe Biden, Like who are we supposed to believe?
(14:06):
When they finally come out with the real story as
to what started the fire. I have no idea, but
I know for a fact that they cover these situations
up because they don't want to stigmatize or feed into stereotypes.
So we'll be on the alert. We'll see if we
(14:28):
can find the truth. Here's here's a clip of LA
County Fire Chief Anthony Moron questioned from an La Times
report of Grace twoy if the crews were prepared and
had enough resources to fight fires of this magnitude got
to no.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
La County and all twenty nine fire departments in our
county are not prepared for this type of widespread disaster.
There are not enough firefighters in La County to address
four separate fires of this magnitude. We were prepared. We
did get state preposition resources that came from northern California
(15:09):
that were up in the Santa Clarita Valley. We did
hire additional firefighters from the La County Fire Department and
prepositioned them in the Santa Monica Mountains. The La County
Fire Department was prepared for one or two major brush fires,
but not four, especially given these sustained winds and low humidities.
(15:32):
Like our director of Emergency Management said, this is not
a normal red flag blurt. People were calling for help.
We tried to get them the help that they needed.
La County right now, like the La City Fire Department
is prioritizing life safety, but we were also engaging in
(15:52):
structured defense, perimeter control, and aerial operations. Remember that the
La County Fire Department has thirteen aerial assets available to it.
In addition to our agency owned helicopters. We have our
two col four fifteen super Scoopers and our CH forty seven,
which is part of the three County QRF. So we're
(16:15):
prepared to keep fighting the fight. Like I said earlier,
I've requested additional resources not only from northern California, but
from out of state. We did that last night yesterday.
So we're doing the very best we can. But no,
we don't have enough fire personnel in La County between
(16:37):
all of the departments to handle this.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
And is that because of they didn't allocate enough money?
How much is it that they don't How much of
this story is they don't allocate enough money. I know
in the City of La Karen Bass cut in one
report seventeen million, another report twenty three million dollars cut
money from the La city budget.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
So what's the story with the county? Now?
Speaker 2 (17:06):
I know the county and the city are spending billions
of dollars on homelessness, and they're spending huge amounts of
money on illegal aliens. So the idea that we don't
have the resources is garbage. You should spend every last
dollar on police and fire, and you should arrest the
(17:28):
homeless people and deport the illegal aliens. We shouldn't be
spending billions of dollars on those two categories. We should
be spending the billions of dollars on the fire and
the police to protect us. Anybody think otherwise? I'd love
to hear that explanation. All right, when we come back,
Rick Caruso is going to come on, and then after Rick,
(17:49):
we're gonna play a clip about the fire hydrants. We're
going to talk to about the hydrants to Rick, and
also a clip from this morning's press conference with the
lad WP chief Genice Kees and the la.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Oh yeah, isn't she the one making some godly amount
of money?
Speaker 8 (18:08):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I got to look up her salary.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
She's making some kind of record, unbelievable head smacking salary.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
My power is still out. It's been out since seven?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Still, yes, And you know what when we called last
night and I actually actually just texted my husband to
see if he's called DWP to get an update, you
can hardly. It's a bad connection. It sounds so horrible.
And they have no new information.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
They have no answer.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
No, yeah, no, my power has been out since seven
last night.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
Uh so you have no idea.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
If you know a pole fell over, the wires are
lying on the ground. Maybe the wires fell on the
ground and started another wildfire.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You have no idea.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I have no idea. Will tell you, They will tell me.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, we're gonna talking to Rick Carus.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
I'm coming up after Debora's news, and then we're also
going to play a clip of Genie KEINONEZ and I'm
going to find out what that salary.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
Oh, Michael Monks just sent me a message. Seven hundred
fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
She makes seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, Yes, seven
hundred and.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yes, And there was no water to put out the
Palisades fire. How much water could you buy for seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars? You know what they all
got to go. Head's got a roll, Head's on a stick.
Speaker 5 (19:27):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Continuing our coverage of these massive fires over southern California.
Pacific Palisades really has been devastated, and we're going to
talk now with Rick Caruso. You're well aware of him.
The developer ran for mayor last time around owns Palisades village,
and his village and his family suffered quite a bit
(19:54):
of loss in these fires, and he has spoken out.
He was all over television last night about the fire,
hydrants running drive, the water supply running out for the
fire department here in La. Let's get Rick on Rick.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Welcome, Hey John, how are you?
Speaker 2 (20:12):
I'm fine, Ben, how are you? I understand a couple
of family members may have lost their homes.
Speaker 9 (20:18):
Yeah, we love My daughter lost her home and we
lost another home. But you know, we're all together and
we evacuated our home also, But we're all together and
we're going to get through it and trying to work
very hard to support the neighborhood and the community up there.
The devastation, as you talked about, John, it's just it's
(20:41):
mind blowing. You can't even get your head around it.
Speaker 10 (20:44):
Entire neighborhoods have been wiped.
Speaker 9 (20:45):
Out, and so my heart really goes out to people
who have lost so much, because, as you know, you
lose a home, it's not the structure, it's the memories
and all the things that make life dear. And so
many small businesses up there is gone, and the fire
is still, you.
Speaker 10 (21:04):
Know, raging on.
Speaker 9 (21:05):
And uh. But we're going to do everything we can
do to support, you know, our brave Angelinos and rebuild
and certainly support our first responders that are fighting a
good fight. But I think a lot of tough questions
need to be asked.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
By three in the morning on Wednesday, all the fire
hydrants and the Palisades area went dry. They ran out
of water. Nobody understands this. Uh, this is I mean
we all saw on TV last night, is that homes
are burning and the firefighters had had had no water
to put out the blazes. I mean, what you used
to be a commissioner with the DWP, you got an
(21:41):
idea specifically what went on here.
Speaker 9 (21:45):
Well, actually the fight, the Heighten stopped working long before
three o'clock. I think it was about eleven o'clock and
even earlier the firefighters had been complaining to our people
about water pressure and then no water. And it's an
incredible thing to think about, John, this is the second
largest city in the United States and we don't have
(22:08):
hydrants at work. We had a warning of this. I
think we've got a big failure of leadership on this.
How you cannot be prepared for this now? Certainly it's devastating.
The winds are terrible. You could have probably never prevented
all of the damage, but you could have mitigated it.
And I think it goes back to there's been no
(22:28):
brush management program. The hills that are controlled by the
city and the state and the county. You know, those
haven't been managed. There's been no control burns for decades.
So you had this enormous amount of fuel and this
fire just took off.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Is there a reason for that?
Speaker 9 (22:48):
We've got a lot of tough questions.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Why wouldn't they do the controlled burns?
Speaker 9 (22:53):
You know, I raised it five years ago. If you remember,
we had the fire in Brentwood along the four or
five and thank god it stopped and didn't travel more
to the west. And I was told the city does
not have the resources to do it. But all of
us are old enough we can remember there used to
be control burns and that hasn't happened. So, you know,
(23:17):
we've got a lot of challenges in the city, and
I think at the top of it, we've got to
ask the questions. You know, who's running in the city.
Are they capable of making good decisions? And it's not
just about now, it's about for the last few years.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
But what do you think happened with the water supply?
I mean, I know it's an extraordinary event, but we
have those extraordinary events every so often.
Speaker 9 (23:44):
Yeah, well, this isn't the first time the Palisades has
burnt down either, so it's not like we didn't have
fair historical warning that this may happen again. It happened
in the sixties. But what I was told is at
the reservoirs.
Speaker 10 (24:00):
The hydrants there.
Speaker 9 (24:03):
Are fed by the reservoirs and it's a gravity flow,
and they didn't manage the water in the reservoirs properly,
so it depleted and weren't refilling them up quickly enough.
So from what I can see, I could be wrong,
But for what I can see is there is just
complete lack of proper management of this, and I think
(24:25):
it's negligence. I think the city is, unfortunately, is going
to be in a very libeless situation for the billions
of dollars of losses in the Palisades. But well, we
got to really start focusing on in the next days
and weeks. We've got to hunker down. We've got to
support people that don't have the financial means, lost their homes,
(24:49):
lost their businesses. We've got to get people back on
their feet, and then we've got to start rebuilding in
this city. I pray to God cuts all the red tape,
gets behind people and helps people rebuild. And let's get
out of the business of making life difficult in this
city and let's support support these families because not everybody's
(25:11):
wealthy in the Palisades, and most of the businesses of
the Palisades are small, independent businesses that just don't have resources.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Yeah, if it's the same people that didn't have a
brush clearing program for all these years or decades and
didn't have the water system working properly, you're going to
I don't know what to expect to try to help
rebuild the people's lives. It's the same people running LA.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Well, I mean, that's unfortunately, that's a problem, and I
hope this city starts really thinking.
Speaker 10 (25:50):
About who they're electing an office.
Speaker 9 (25:51):
And it's not about me. When I ran, I ran,
I did my best and I launched and that's the
way the system works. And I fully accept that. But
going forward, leadership matters, and we've got to be electing
people that actually are qualified and capable to make good
decisions and put the priority of saving lives making our
(26:15):
lives safe. The fact that our mayor and city council
cut the budget of the fire department two months ago
is absolutely unacceptable. And here's what we've got to show
for why.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
I mean, I saw that story.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Why would they cut the fire department of all places,
because they.
Speaker 9 (26:36):
Completely mismanaged the finances of the city. The city has a.
Speaker 10 (26:40):
Deficit of half a billion dollars.
Speaker 9 (26:42):
They gave a whole bunch of people raises. We've got
fire stations and I talked about this when I was
running for mayor. We have fire stations throughout the city
that are closed because they don't even have the resources
to open. The mismanagement is that the highest level, and
(27:02):
it really did, and it still does today. It looks
like a third world city out there. It's still burning.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I know, it's overwhelming. What's burning? And you talk about
a third world Look, I mean, there's so much garbage
lying around the city. I'm sure you've seen. It's appalling.
Every time you stop at a traffic light or you
stop near a freeway on ramp and you just see
mounds of garbage. It looks like nobody's picked it up
(27:30):
in weeks or months. And I always look out and say, well,
what are the city workers doing all day? What is
the city management doing all day? Because the place looks
filthy much of the time.
Speaker 9 (27:42):
And you got to demand more, Johnny, We got to
demand more. The residents got to demand more. They deserve it.
They'd pay a lot of taxes.
Speaker 10 (27:47):
We don't be a lot of taxes.
Speaker 9 (27:49):
Yeah, very expensive to live in the city. It should
be clean, should be safe, it should be a happy,
wonderful place. They have a business and we're just not there. Well,
we got to change it, and and we're going to
change it by rebuilding the Palisades and some of these
other communities in a way that will be everlasting.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Well, I know you're going to be a big part
of it are our sympathies for the losses you and
your family have suffered. And uh, you're right, we just
got to move forward and start rebuilding. But we needed,
we need a complete changeover.
Speaker 9 (28:26):
Yes we do. But we're going to lean in heavily.
The Crusoe family is going to.
Speaker 10 (28:29):
Lean in heavily.
Speaker 9 (28:30):
And I know you and your family are great Angelano's
and we'll do the same. And we're a strong city.
Speaker 10 (28:36):
So we're going to bring it back.
Speaker 9 (28:37):
And Uh, that Palacease community is such a dear, wonderful
that's beautiful town.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Oh that's a beautiful town. I mean I've lived right
next door and we're there all the time. And places
that we've gone to for years have been destroyed. I
was just there yesterday yesterday morning.
Speaker 10 (28:58):
Yeah, we were.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
We did we did hike and pertare a canyon and
all the blocks that we drove up and down yesterday morning,
all the homes are destroyed. Twenty four hours later. It's
it's it's overwhelming.
Speaker 9 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, it is overwhelming.
Speaker 10 (29:13):
It's going to take a massive us it's to rebuild.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
All right, Rick, we'll talk again soon, all right, talked
to you later, Yeah, Rick, Caruso. Thanks, all right, bye,
we will continue John Cobelt Show KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
You're listening to John Cobelt on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
We just finished speaking with Rick Caruso, the developer, and uh,
you know, part of his shopping center in the Palisades
was damaged by fire, and his his family had I
think the daughter had one home destroyed and his son
had another home I think damaged. I'm not sure how badly,
(29:55):
but you know he's right in the thick of it
and in the Palisades, and he used to be on
the Water Board Commission or the Department of Water and
Power Commission, And I want to play for you. As
part of this morning's press conference the LADWP head Genice
(30:16):
Quinones and the LA Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley. LA
Times reporter David Zaneiser asked about the water being shut
off in some hydrants in the Palisades and if the
whole system needs to be overhauled.
Speaker 8 (30:31):
Listen to this, so, Chief, please correct me if I'm wrong,
But we were trying to keep water at all altitudes
on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning,
dusk when the hydrants went dry off the Brainwood area.
We are able to push water on the on that
on that trunk line on the east side of that,
(30:53):
and we have some water on higher elevations sixteen to
eighteen thousand, But at three thousand, all of the at
three am, all of the fire hydrants when dry, and
the palisades. To your question of climate resiliency and how
do we need to update the system, I would say
that that is true. We were talking with the county
supervisor and Mark on how are we going to change
(31:15):
the way we operate our water systems for events like this.
This is an unprecedented event. I think the twenty eleven
winds was significant from a power Irish perspective, but the
fires have really increased.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
The second hold on. Now they're going to reevaluate the
water system. Now they're going to after all the hydrants
go dry and a thousand structures burn in the palis age.
Oh yeah, you know that's something that we got to discuss. Yeah,
we might have to reevaluate. What do you this should
(31:50):
have been done years ago? You just found out now
you don't have enough water for not even one day's
worth fire coverage. That fire was first reported at ten
thirty in the morning. Now eighteen let's call it seventeen
(32:11):
hours later the water runs out. And it's not like
they haven't had fires in the hills before. We've all
seen what happens in the hills. You know exactly how
many structures you have. You know that the Santa Ana wins.
Everybody knows they can go up forty sixty eighty, one
hundred miles an hour. This is all historically has gone
(32:35):
on since La was settled. We've been aware of this.
Don't they have all the latest computer technology, computer analysis
AI technology. Don't they know exactly what could happen if
you have sixty.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Eighty mile an hour winds that.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
A fire suddenly takes off, What it could do and
how much what are you gonna need? Of course they
could calculate that, unless they're doing it on a handheld calculator.
They don't have the money for the computer technology and
the analysis. They should have it, right, and then you
(33:16):
have enough water stored and enough order transported. And now
she's going, well, yeah, we have to look at it.
You have to look at it again. She should be
fired too. She should go with Karen Bass Colossal mismanagement,
colossal mistake. And by the way, ye know, but she's
making this lady is making seven hundred and fifty thousand
(33:37):
dollars a year. When she got hired in twenty twenty three,
she was hired with a three hundred thousand dollars increase
over the previous general manager, Marty Adams. Marty Adams made
four hundred forty seven thousand dollars. This canon is lady
(34:03):
is making seven hundred and fifty one thousand, three hundred
thousand dollars more. The first big test of her tenure
get water to the Palisades for the big fire.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
They run out.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And her response says, yeah, we gotta look at that, Yeah,
we gotta look at that. What is wrong with these well,
listen to them, Listen to them. What do you think
is wrong? Double digit IQs, that's what's wrong? Room temperature
(34:43):
IQs in some cases.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Never never.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Underestimate the damage that low IQ people can do when
they get into powerful government positions. It's it, you know,
And next hour I got I gotta get into the
disparity between the amount of money that is spent on
homelessness versus the amount of money that they spend on
(35:11):
the Los Angeles Fire Department. It's a big difference. And
Jennie Kine, is you work on that new water supply idea.
That's a good one. Glad you noticed. We're gonna have
Michael Monks on next. He's gonna have all the latest
details about the many fires that are blown up all
(35:32):
over the place, and we're gonna keep on this case.
Today is the day enough is enough. We have to
stop putting up with Karen Bass and stop putting up
with Genie Knonas and all the rest of these clowns.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
They're terrible.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
They're costing people lives, people's lives, They're costing billions of
dollars worth of property. Debor Mark Lyveen the KFI twenty
four our newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John
Cobalt Show podcast. You can always hear the show live
KFI Am six forty from one to four pm every
Monday through Friday, and of course anytime on demand on
(36:05):
the iHeartRadio app.
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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