February 24, 2025 • 34 mins
The John Kobylt Show Hour 3 (02/24) - LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez comes on the show to talk about why she is standing Kristin Crowley after Mayor Karen Bass fired Crowley as the LAFD Chief. More on the backlash Mayor Bass has been facing since firing Kristin Crowley as the LAFD Chief. There is fire debris washing up all over LA beaches. An employee of Mayor Karen Bass was caught on a hidden camera saying Bass knew about the weather and fire warnings.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every
day from one until four o'clock and then after four
o'clock whatever you missed John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. We're gonna have a lot about more
officials are reacting now to Karen Bass and her comments
(00:21):
last week with Alex Michaelson on Fox eleven and elsewhere where.
She claimed she frankly wasn't aware of the fire warnings,
among other things. She said. She then fired Kristin Crowley,
the fire chief, on Friday. And there are some people
on the city council who would like to override that firing,
(00:45):
and they can. There's fifteen members on the city council.
If ten of the fifteen agreed that Crowley's job should
be saved, they could override Bass's order. And we're going
to talk to Monica Rodriguez because she is trying to
convince other council members to do exactly that. She's a
council member of the seventh district. Monica, welcome, Thank you
(01:08):
for having me. What towns do you represent so people.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Know I represent the communities of North Hills, Mission Hills, Silmar, Pacoima, sure,
some the da Hanga, Shadow Hills, and Latuna Canyon.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It wasn't a quiz. I just wanted people to know
what part of the city you represent. All right, Mamonica,
you you have. You're trying to get ten votes together
to overturn the firing. Why do you think Crowley's job
ought to be saved?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, first of all, the chief has to want to
appeal the mayor's decision before we can take that item up.
But I just believe that the findings of what the
mayor sighted for her reasons behind dismissing her and so
ating that for the safety of Angelinos that she made
(02:03):
this decision, I thought was really a terrible way of
trying to classify it. Frankly, Chief Crowley has been an
incredible fire chief, ascending the ranks of our world class
fire department as a woman in this environment, earning the
(02:24):
respect of so many peers, both in this department and
outside of it. I was just really disappointed that that
was those words were even uttered to suggest that she
wasn't keeping Angelino safe. This chief has done a remarkable
job with the resources that she's been afforded, and I
(02:44):
didn't believe that she deserved to be treated in this manner.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Another reason Bass gave is that Crowley has refused to
put together an after action report in the wake of
the fires.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And frankly, I see no evidence of that. Frankly, an
after action report. By the way, the mayor both cided
that she wanted an independent after action report, to suggest
that Chief Crowley wasn't leading one is false because there
was both a state independent investigation that was supposed to
(03:20):
take place, but also the city council. My colleagues had
introduced emotion requesting an independent after action report. Now that's
not something that occurs quickly. Those types of after action
reports are normal course of action after a major incident.
But I want to remind the public that it was
just about a week and a half ago that the emergency,
(03:44):
the nature of the ensuing emergency continued with the rains
and the mudslides. So there's not going to be a
lot of bandwidth to now engage in some level of
an after action report. Certainly it wouldn't have been comprehensive,
but it absolutely just doesn't align with the individual that
(04:04):
I know who is fully aware of this practice and
has engaged in it with regularity after every major event.
So it's standard operating procedure, and I just thought that
wasn't a legitimate call.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
What do you think about the La Times report that
said she sent a thousand firefires home that morning and
withheld forty engines instead of potentially sending them to all
the high fire risk zones in the foothills, including the Palaces.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yes, sure, I've still not been It's not been made
clear to me that in fact there was sufficient apparatus
to be able to deploy any additional withholding of those members. Now,
I will tell you that in any regular deployment for
LAFD is their shifts end at eight o'clock. I believe
(04:55):
the Palisades fire started up somewhere around ten in the
If there was no fire, then the criticism would have been,
you spent all this money on overtime and there was
nothing to do. So I think the reality is is
that you call those individuals back when you have a
major incident, but you have sufficient deployment pre deployment to
(05:17):
basically shore up the potential risks we cover in the
city of Los Angeles is four hundred and sixty eight
square miles and the Palisades, Well, it's twenty four square
miles in that area. I will tell you, representing a
district that has borne the brunt of multiple major wildfires,
Palisades has I believe two to three fire stations in
(05:38):
that immediate area. I have one little fire station in Zilmar,
and we know that based on the standards of cover
what is required for meeting the deployment needs in our area,
we need another fire station.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, but I think it's clear we need a lot
of fire stations. Well, let me ask you about that.
According to one of these national of fire agencies that
make recommendations to cities, a city should have two point
zero firefighters for every thousand residents, and Los Angeles has
zero point nine. It doesn't even have half. That to
(06:14):
me is a severe issue. It's at the root of
all these problems is we have half a fire department
and it's half funded. You're on the city council. What
do you say to that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I don't disagree. In fact, the fire department still hasn't
fully recovered from the cuts that were implemented back in
two thousand and eight post the recession. So we haven't
even restored all of the engines and all the services.
I will tell you that also, the majority of call
(06:48):
load for the La City Fire Department is on emergency
medical response. You have, I believe the last percentage, if
I'm not mistaken, with eighty two percent of the call
load is EMS calls, which is why even in the
budget process, Chief probably was advocating, and we did in
fact restore and expand the investment in advanced practitioner units,
(07:11):
which helped to send nurse practitioners out to a lot
of these call loads. So there's a lot of work
that needs to be done. I actually introduced a motion
to help ensure that the department has a plan so
that we can invest as a city in building the
city fire station capacity or building fire service commensurate with
the population growth in the city, because we are willfully
(07:34):
underserved in that area.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, what do you think of Karen Bass saying she
frankly wasn't aware of the fire warnings in the two
days before she left on her African trip.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I mean, if she says that she wasn't aware, then
she wasn't aware, you know. We Well that's for her
to answer. I believe that we all of us in
southern California were made aware from the multiple news reports.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Right, So I mean, how credible is that she would
be I think the only person that I know of
that didn't know the warning had been issued.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Again, I can't see. That's for her to answer if
she says she doesn't know that she didn't know. But
I will say that the obligation for notification of the
weather conditions isn't the fire department, that is the emergency
management department. They are the ones that issue the warnings
to all the city departments and the elected officials on
the status of the weather events. And they're the ones
(08:30):
that issued the notices through notify LA about red flag
warnings and alerting the general public. So that primarily functions,
that primary function comes out of the emergency men.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, what do you think of a bassist statement that
Crowley never notified her and she has my cell number,
but she did the.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Protocol, and so I will say that the protocol is so.
For example, I had the cursed fire that erupted in
my district ten thirty in the evening on January seventh,
the first the aside, when my staff called me and
alerted me to the fire that started in Silmar, and
I was en route to the command post. It was
(09:11):
at about ten forty five that I got a call
from Chief Crowley saying, we have an incident in your area.
I said, yes, Chief, I'm already on my way to
the command post. So the Chief would only be in
communication with the mayor after the fire event has started
and commenced, so that she could tell me know what's going.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
On, tell me how these things work. I would think
that those fire mornings were so extreme that someone like
Karen Bass would be on the phone with Chief Crowley
and a lot of other people and say, Okay, we
got something really bad that very is likely to happen tomorrow. Sure,
how are we on extra crew, extra engines? Where should
(09:54):
they be deployed? Because the Weather Service actually drew a
magenta line around the highest risk areas in LA so
you don't have to cover the entire city, but there
are some areas that are more prone than not. I mean,
I guess I was really surprised that there wasn't that
meeting the night before.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, by the way, if you notice that map to
your point, that area is my district, which was circled
in that magenta color saying vie to the higher risk
areas predominantly in the San Fernando Valley. So again we
can Monday morning quarterback all day long. The reality is
is that there was pre deployment in the areas that
(10:31):
have had the greatest exposure. Now, you know, there's no
certainty that a fire is going to erupt at any
one particular location at any one time. Look at the
sunset fire, look at you know, there's a variety of
fires that took place and started that evening, right, and
so you know you pre deployed the best of your ability. However,
(10:52):
I will say and remind everybody that the mayor wasn't
the mayor because she was in Ghana. So the acting
mayor at the time mark Quise Harris Dawson, and so
my question would be he was in communication with her
as well, but he was the acting mayor at the time.
And so the again procedurally, EMD coordinated with all the
(11:14):
city departments, notified everybody of the wind conditions, sent out
the alerts. They convened all the city departments, as I understand,
on Monday, January sixth, to coordinate because you have to
get Department of Water and Power has to you know,
they have to do their preparations. You have Street Services
has to do their preparations with respect to Okay, I'm
(11:35):
going to need extra staff because I know the trees
are going to go down. Yeah, everyone has to prepare.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I only have another minute because I'm running behind here.
I'll ask you one more thing. Shouldkaren Bash resign?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, I think you know, the mayor has a
lot of work to do. We have a lot of
work to do, and I think again she needs to
determine her ability to continue. And you know, I think
she can do the job. It's just we have to
focus on doing the work.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
A lot of people have lost confidence in her.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well that's for that's for her to decide, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Monica Rodriguez, councilwoman, thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
All right, you're listening to John Cobelt on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
We just had, uh, we just had Monica Roberriguez on.
She's the councilwoman in seventh district. Covers a chunk of
the valley and kind of left Karen Bass hanging there
at the end. Uh. I asked Rodriguez, do you think
she should resign, and Rodriguez said, well, you know, that's
up to her. She's got a lot of work to do.
(12:46):
And she also is taking issue with Crowley being blamed
by Bass for not calling Bass. She said that's not
necessarily the protocol, but agreed that there should have been
a meeting the night before and pointed out that Marquise
Harris Dawson was the acting mayor. He's the city council president.
(13:08):
He was the acting mayor and you know what, he
hasn't said a word over the last six weeks. He
has disappeared and he technically had legal authority when the
mayor is out of the country in Ghana, Marquise Harris
Dawson had the responsibility to coordinate some kind of a
battle plan, and I guess he went to bed. So
(13:33):
he needs to be looked at. Ninety nine percent of
the city doesn't know who he is, and he's real
happy about that. He doesn't want to be dragged into
this mess. He also thinks. She also thinks Bass is
not being fair to Crowley because they just finished up
cleanup after the rains last week and it takes a
while to put the after action report together. She thinks
(13:53):
Crowley's being made a scapegoat by Bass, and she's trying
to get ten council members together to give Crowley her
job back. It's a two thirds vote, ten out of fifteen.
If ten out of fifteen say that Crowley's firing should
be rescinded, then it will be rescinded. One vote she
might have. I don't know. I can't speak for her,
(14:14):
but Tracy Park has been upset with Crowley being fired.
Play you some cuts, because she went public today and
she was passionate about it. Played cut seven.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I am disappointed and surprised by this decision.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Now, this idea that Karen bask did not know about
the warnings, the fire warnings two days before she left,
is that possible? Here's Tracy Park Cut eight.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I can't speak to what she knew or what her
team advised her of.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I don't have any insight to that.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
What I can say is that basically everybody in the
city of Los Angeles knew that we were headed in very,
very dangerous circumstances.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And she talks about the different ways you could have
found out about the warnings.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
It was on every news channel, it was on every
radio channel, it was everywhere in social media. The Fire
Department was blaring out that this was a dangerous circumstance.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So Karen Bass dug herself a much deeper hole. She
You remember when she came off the plane, she went
silent for a minute and a half and wouldn't answer
that reporter's questions about apologizing the Los Angeles or explaining
herself in some way. So, in addition to all the
sins she committed taking off to Ghana, taking off after
(15:43):
two days worth of warnings, and not coming back to
after the cocktail party. As the Palisades burns, she goes
silent for weeks on end. She just gives cliches and
platitudes at various press conferences, hides behind Steve sober Off,
positioned herself off at the end of press conferences to
utter those platitudes, and then you know, when she finally
(16:04):
is questioned by Alex Michaelson, she says, frankly, I wasn't
aware of the warnings, which is, you know, maybe her
political epitaph. This is maybe on the political gravestone, because
that's preposterous, that doesn't seem possible. So a lot of
people think she's lying. I'm telling you, I talked to
a lot of people this week. Nobody believed her, and
(16:26):
a normal person would say, you know, I heard the warnings.
There's really no excuse. The only thing is to apologize.
But to say you didn't hear the warnings is just
there's nobody believing it. And you could tell by the
way Monica Rodriguez and Tracy Park answered the questions. I'm
(16:49):
not sure either one of them believe it either. They
just don't want to drop the hammer on something they
don't know for sure. But it's just not possible. She
can hear the warnings.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
That is just not possible, and now she can't. She
can't come back from that means she can't. But she
can't apologize now because then she's going to be saying
that she lied.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And I think this is where it's the final nail.
That's where she if anybody was going to give her
a little bit of leeway, a chance to come back,
to apologize, to give a second chance in some way,
I think that's it. If you're trying to sell us
that you didn't hear the warnings, whether that's true or not,
it's that's like an indictable offense. It's either massive incompetence
(17:31):
or a massive lie. And what once you say that
you're cooked in people's minds, it is difficult to remove her.
But there isn't a soul I know who has any
confidence in her. And normally when that happens, somebody resigns
when they're in that powerful a position, and I think
(17:51):
that's what should happen. Nobody wants to see her handle
the recovery for the next two years. Nobody more Coming up,
we'll play some of the clips of Beast staff members,
one of whom who said is like, oh yeah, they
knew about the warnings.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Moistline is eight seven seven Moist Stady six eight seven
seven moist Stady six for Monday, or use for Friday
rather and use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app
if you wish. You could follow us on social media
at John Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio. Fire debris
is washing up on ALA's beaches. Do you see the
(18:33):
widespread after effects of this? We talked earlier with Matt Pacucko.
He is with a group that's trying to stop the
toxic waste from being dumped in the Sunshine Canyon landfill
in Granada Hills. They're also trying to stop the landfill
from getting the toxic waste in Calabasas. I talked the
(18:56):
other day about the massive, massive traffic jams on the
West Side that going for hours, and in the West
Valley as well. It's ridiculous. It is unlike, I mean,
over thirty years out here and there's been a lot
of like bizarre events and traffic jams. This is the
worst on the West Side I've ever seen in my life.
I simply cannot get to the grocery store. I can't
(19:19):
go out and pick up dinner if I ordered it.
I can't go to the drug You just can't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
It takes me so long. And I was talking to
angel Off there about this. It takes me so long
to get to work because PCH for the most part
and Topanga Canyon are closed, so everybody is jumping on
the one oh five to get to I mean the
one oh one to get to the four oh five freeway.
It's it's it's excruciating.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Every day there's no north south roads if you want
to get to Malibu or to Panga Canyon, or you
used to use topeg it to get over into the
West Valley. Right, there's no other way to go but
the four oh five and the same way you know
going south, and there's no way to go east west
at a. Sunset Boulevard is backed up, for Miles San
(20:08):
Vicente Boulevard, for Miles Wilshire Boulevard, I mean all of it.
It's incredible, and all the side streets are are are
backed up. I mentioned last week that you know I
live in a in a a neighborhood that's that's away
from the main roads, but there were one hundred and
one cars backed up trying to get on Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Time to count all those cars?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, I was rolled. I had to roll very slowly
because the road's kind of narrow, and there's cars parked
on both sides, and then the long line of cars
in the opposite traffic. So I got to go really
slowly so I don't sideswipe everyone. And as I was
I was going slowly, I went down one block made
of right, crossed one intersection, two intersections, three intersections, and
(20:55):
along the way were cars waiting to get on Sunset Boulevard,
and I got to a hundred one and now, all right,
here's the thing I wanted to get through. Fire debris.
According to La Times, all over LA Beaches from Malibuta,
Redondo Beach, charred black bits, melted debris, ash, sand, burned wood, plastic,
(21:19):
uh and it got washed into the ocean and then
you know, the tides come up and leave the residue.
And the Department of Beaches and Harbors said, it's not
hazardous to you or the environment. They've done some testing
at will Rogers State Beach, where of course they brought
all the toxic waste to and it's not going to
(21:40):
be removed. Trying to scrape it from the rocks and
sand could destroy marine habitats. So I think, I think
those habitats are already screwed. It's going to erode the shoreline,
caused long term damage. We just have to wait for
the natural tides and weather. They did find that there
are heavy metals, petroleum, hydrocarbon, chlorinated pesticides, poly coordinated bithenols,
(22:04):
volatile and semi volatile organic compounds, an asbestos.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Okay, so how can that not be harmful.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
To us because it's all below levels okay that the
government said, would.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Are you gonna put your feet in the water.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
No, I don't. I don't want to. I don't want
to drive on a road pass there because I know
that all that stuff is getting kicked up. Every time
the wind blows, you're probably getting all kinds of dust
and debris in the air. And then now the trucks
are rumbling downe since the Sunset Boulevard to take you know,
some of the waste to wherever, and you know they're
there are weird odors in the air at different times
(22:39):
of the day. People tell me, and I just don't
believe they're testing, and you just never the government is
largely dishonest. I don't believe them. I don't trust them.
I've seen other I mean, I remember what they did
with well, Matt Pakuco talked about it last hour. You know,
all the wine that was going on during the the
(23:01):
elise O Canyon natural gas leak that went on right
Yet thousands of people who were exhibiting physical illnesses and
you got nothing but foot dragging from the government, and
they were they're always downplay it. Flowing into the ocean
(23:21):
are the bird remnants of cars, plastics, batteries, household chemicals
and other toxic materials. See, some of the marine biologists
aren't buying this. They're saying, I don't think there's a
precedent for this kind of input into the ocean ecosystem,
according to a marine biologist named Noel Bowen. And they
(23:42):
had declared the water off limits in January because of
toxic or carcinogenic chemicals, and now they're saying it's okay.
I mean they have found they have found charred debris
on the ocean surface as far as one hundred miles away.
(24:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I'm not going in.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And they they've cut off the bike path and the
walking paths uh at will Rogers State Beach, and everybody
is screaming, nobody wants these trucks rumbling down sunset. Nobody
wants them going down pH Nobody wants the walking and
bike paths to be cut off. Nobody wants to go
on the beaches, Nobody wants these landfills. This this is
(24:32):
and and to think if at least the government that
we paid for was on duty the night before and
the next day and we could say, well, well they
gave it, they gave it their all, and now we
know that's not true. And now the infighting is starting
because again we've got a person running Los Angeles that
(24:55):
nobody believes and has acted arrogant and actually somewhat nasty
ever since this happened.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
So do you think the mayor, the mayor that was
under Bass, that that was taking over for Marquis, that
he's going to be the next person fired?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Is that coming tomorrow?
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Don't We can have a press compemation.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
She's a city council president. You can't fire those guys.
I don't know who should be in charge. I mean,
obviously the only person doing something productive, a lot productive
is Ricrus on his team. I mean, if there was
some magical way to turn his team into the government
and send all these other losers home where we're paying them,
(25:40):
these people should be paid to stay home.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
But if there's no accountability, we can't fire them.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Then then we're stuck with these people running the recovery effort.
And it's gonna be a long two years because she
she makes everything worse. Every time she opens her mouth,
she makes it worse. And look at all the decisions
she had to reverse, all the decisions where the rest
of the world looked and said, what the hell are
you doing? Like when she took the National Guard away
(26:06):
from the Palisades while the power was still out and
the looters were still running around. That was just one example.
This Steve sober Off thing a half million dollars to
him without telling anybody. I mean there's so many, you know,
when you see somebody in action in a pressure cooker
for two months, and every time she's done or said something,
(26:27):
it's made everything worse, where everything has been the wrong decision.
I mean last week, I think what she said I
wasn't aware of the warnings Laraka. That's it. You know.
We went out to dinner with a number of people
over the weekend and that was it. Nobody believes her,
Nobody wants to hear about it, Nobody wants to talk
about her anymore. Oh, somebody told me you heard this
(26:48):
that at LAX her voice comes on welcoming people to
Los Angeles and the airport erupted in booze. Yeah, I
guess from the people trying to leave LA on the
way out. Karen Bass was the last voice they heard
when people are booing you at the airport when they're
booing your welcome message.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Yeah I haven't heard that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, it's over all right. I'll play of those clips
when we come back of some of Bass staff members,
one of them Alexander Bose, admitting, yeah, yeah, we knew
about the warnings. Of course you did. He's on violating
some kind of a secret protocol here. Of course you did.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
James O'Keefe, the undercover journalist, had one of his reporters
do a secret recording of a Karen Bass employee, Alexander Bose.
He's got these international relations, he's from that department, and
he started talking about Bass knowing about the warnings. Listen
(27:54):
to this a little bit noisy background, but i'll translate
for you. Listen to this cut.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
You haven't no idea of fire, was like the possibility.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Of course they didn't. The thing is that they're expecting
to make the data, but run fire warnings like it's
a big indication of fire and speed out. So the
first they did, of course they did. The thing is
there's nothing they can do when the reporter asked them,
didn't they notice the red flag warnings? So that's the
attitude in the Bass office. Red flag warnings, nothing you
(28:24):
can do. Not Let's talk to Kristin Crowley and let's
see if she's got a battle plan for the high
risk areas of the city. Do we have and remember
we're only fifty percent staffed with the fire department. You
have one hundred engines that are broken. They have the
government has completely neglected the fire department for many, many years,
(28:47):
and then they got the big one and it was
extremely tragic and they don't understand why they're being criticized.
The responsibility just is so overwhelming. Every day when I
think about this and a little more news comes out,
it's just incredible how irresponsible and uncaring Karen Bass and
the rest of them were. Here is more Alexander Boz
(29:09):
blaming the Palisades, blaming the Palisades residents.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I was that today with the fires and popping people.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
It was loser blame.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's just crazy, ecume because these people like they've literally
like they've lost everything.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Like people are like literally breaking.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Down into tears while we're like just we're trying to
sign them out, like or get from Michael service that
they need.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Really good victims from Polisades or everybody as everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
But the other thing too at Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Like a lot of these a lot of the houses
there and so like they were out of like three.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yards were out of the outam.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Kelly, Like nobody gave me.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
I don't know, like this is like a long time
like waiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
It is just like a taking time on bo. But
like the house is like they're supposed to be like
a certain amount of feet of hard too.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just well you could stop it him.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
He says their yards were out of code, like nobody
gave an f the houses like they're supposed to be
like a certain amount of feet apart too. It was
just like a ticking time bomb. But as if you're
supposed to be able to move your house, you mean
there is supposed to be a certain amount of feet apart.
What are you supposed to do if you're a hat?
(30:39):
Of course, fire departments in the hills when they got
the warnings, then none of this is necessarily would occur.
Why was bess in Ghana? Alexander Bose Moore of him.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
So what wasn't your miss response when that when a
song happens like but because the mayor wasn't in town.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Here's the thing, and it's been so much completing because her.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So here's it. So we're trying to First of all,
she wasn't just out there like partying it out with
bad Bunny, you know what I mean. So she was
out there like doing more completing. Yeah, yeah, So right now,
Goan is trying to establish a pause with a Los Angeles.
One big plan of parts is to integrate like African
(31:29):
countries to get consolates out.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
There, and it's not like their charity cases, like we're
not doing.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Using city funds to do this. And also a right
stop me stop. You know. Actually, if she was at
partying with that bad bunny, it would have been a
better decision. She has this big plan to get African
consulates in Los Angeles. That is, there is not a
single citizen that cares about any nation's consulate being in
Los Angeles. And this was a primary interest of her
(31:58):
and it she was going to go away for five
days over it, and that's why she couldn't stick around
for consulates she's got the wrong job. Conway's here. Hey now,
I got Alex.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Stone coming on tonight to talk about, well, what else?
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Egg prices?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Right? People are constantly talking about eggs. I don't get it,
but I guess people like that. Also, Delta airliner return
bound for South Carolina had to go back to Atlanta
some either somebody was smoking or smoke out in the
cabin somehow, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And then you don't seem to know much about it.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
I don't really care Starbucks, this is more interesting than me.
Starbucks is gonna laugh a lot of people, and they're
gonna reduce their menu. I think they had to give
you another list, I think so. Hey, yeah, I could
care less. But let's talk about that trip you're going
on to. Is it Iceland? It's it is Iceland? And
when do you go? October seventeenth? Oh that's kind of cool,
(32:54):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Other slots still open, There are slots open, but many
of them are filled.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
And what is it two weeks? One week for that?
And you're flying to Kevic or Rakeovic? Yes, and driving
around with listeners.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Uh yeah, we're gonna be driven around.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Oh that's kind of cool. Yeah, And what are you
gonna see volcano?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
See the northern lights right and see volcanoes. We're going
to see mountains, glaciers. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
How do people get a hold of that? Not that
I want to turn this into a library.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
UKFI AM six forty dot com slash Iceland, Okay, And
I'd get it done soon.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Because they're gonna they're gonna sell out.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, they're gonna sell out, So I get it done.
There's still some seats left, but get it done. Make
your decision. There was a whole lot of people around
the fence and that's why we had the zoom meeting
last night. It's like, get off the fence, make a commitment.
I got a trip coming up in October. It's fifty
guys going to Vegas strip bars for a week.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Caf I listeners, Yeah, you magine different, different trip, different crap.
All right, dig dog with you Conway.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Michael Kruzer is the news live in the CAFI twenty
four hour newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John
Cobalt 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, anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app,
Can't. I am six forty. You're listening to the John
Cobelt podcast on the iHeartRadio app. We are on every
day from one until four o'clock and then after four
o'clock whatever you missed John Cobelt's show on demand on
the iHeart app. We're gonna have a lot about more
officials are reacting now to Karen Bass and her comments
(00:21):
last week with Alex Michaelson on Fox eleven and elsewhere where.
She claimed she frankly wasn't aware of the fire warnings,
among other things. She said. She then fired Kristin Crowley,
the fire chief, on Friday. And there are some people
on the city council who would like to override that firing,
(00:45):
and they can. There's fifteen members on the city council.
If ten of the fifteen agreed that Crowley's job should
be saved, they could override Bass's order. And we're going
to talk to Monica Rodriguez because she is trying to
convince other council members to do exactly that. She's a
council member of the seventh district. Monica, welcome, Thank you
(01:08):
for having me. What towns do you represent so people.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Know I represent the communities of North Hills, Mission Hills, Silmar, Pacoima, sure,
some the da Hanga, Shadow Hills, and Latuna Canyon.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
It wasn't a quiz. I just wanted people to know
what part of the city you represent. All right, Mamonica,
you you have. You're trying to get ten votes together
to overturn the firing. Why do you think Crowley's job
ought to be saved?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, first of all, the chief has to want to
appeal the mayor's decision before we can take that item up.
But I just believe that the findings of what the
mayor sighted for her reasons behind dismissing her and so
ating that for the safety of Angelinos that she made
(02:03):
this decision, I thought was really a terrible way of
trying to classify it. Frankly, Chief Crowley has been an
incredible fire chief, ascending the ranks of our world class
fire department as a woman in this environment, earning the
(02:24):
respect of so many peers, both in this department and
outside of it. I was just really disappointed that that
was those words were even uttered to suggest that she
wasn't keeping Angelino safe. This chief has done a remarkable
job with the resources that she's been afforded, and I
(02:44):
didn't believe that she deserved to be treated in this manner.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Another reason Bass gave is that Crowley has refused to
put together an after action report in the wake of
the fires.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
And frankly, I see no evidence of that. Frankly, an
after action report. By the way, the mayor both cided
that she wanted an independent after action report, to suggest
that Chief Crowley wasn't leading one is false because there
was both a state independent investigation that was supposed to
(03:20):
take place, but also the city council. My colleagues had
introduced emotion requesting an independent after action report. Now that's
not something that occurs quickly. Those types of after action
reports are normal course of action after a major incident.
But I want to remind the public that it was
just about a week and a half ago that the emergency,
(03:44):
the nature of the ensuing emergency continued with the rains
and the mudslides. So there's not going to be a
lot of bandwidth to now engage in some level of
an after action report. Certainly it wouldn't have been comprehensive,
but it absolutely just doesn't align with the individual that
(04:04):
I know who is fully aware of this practice and
has engaged in it with regularity after every major event.
So it's standard operating procedure, and I just thought that
wasn't a legitimate call.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
What do you think about the La Times report that
said she sent a thousand firefires home that morning and
withheld forty engines instead of potentially sending them to all
the high fire risk zones in the foothills, including the Palaces.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yes, sure, I've still not been It's not been made
clear to me that in fact there was sufficient apparatus
to be able to deploy any additional withholding of those members. Now,
I will tell you that in any regular deployment for
LAFD is their shifts end at eight o'clock. I believe
(04:55):
the Palisades fire started up somewhere around ten in the
If there was no fire, then the criticism would have been,
you spent all this money on overtime and there was
nothing to do. So I think the reality is is
that you call those individuals back when you have a
major incident, but you have sufficient deployment pre deployment to
(05:17):
basically shore up the potential risks we cover in the
city of Los Angeles is four hundred and sixty eight
square miles and the Palisades, Well, it's twenty four square
miles in that area. I will tell you, representing a
district that has borne the brunt of multiple major wildfires,
Palisades has I believe two to three fire stations in
(05:38):
that immediate area. I have one little fire station in Zilmar,
and we know that based on the standards of cover
what is required for meeting the deployment needs in our area,
we need another fire station.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, but I think it's clear we need a lot
of fire stations. Well, let me ask you about that.
According to one of these national of fire agencies that
make recommendations to cities, a city should have two point
zero firefighters for every thousand residents, and Los Angeles has
zero point nine. It doesn't even have half. That to
(06:14):
me is a severe issue. It's at the root of
all these problems is we have half a fire department
and it's half funded. You're on the city council. What
do you say to that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
I don't disagree. In fact, the fire department still hasn't
fully recovered from the cuts that were implemented back in
two thousand and eight post the recession. So we haven't
even restored all of the engines and all the services.
I will tell you that also, the majority of call
(06:48):
load for the La City Fire Department is on emergency
medical response. You have, I believe the last percentage, if
I'm not mistaken, with eighty two percent of the call
load is EMS calls, which is why even in the
budget process, Chief probably was advocating, and we did in
fact restore and expand the investment in advanced practitioner units,
(07:11):
which helped to send nurse practitioners out to a lot
of these call loads. So there's a lot of work
that needs to be done. I actually introduced a motion
to help ensure that the department has a plan so
that we can invest as a city in building the
city fire station capacity or building fire service commensurate with
the population growth in the city, because we are willfully
(07:34):
underserved in that area.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Well, what do you think of Karen Bass saying she
frankly wasn't aware of the fire warnings in the two
days before she left on her African trip.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
I mean, if she says that she wasn't aware, then
she wasn't aware, you know. We Well that's for her
to answer. I believe that we all of us in
southern California were made aware from the multiple news reports.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Right, So I mean, how credible is that she would
be I think the only person that I know of
that didn't know the warning had been issued.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Again, I can't see. That's for her to answer if
she says she doesn't know that she didn't know. But
I will say that the obligation for notification of the
weather conditions isn't the fire department, that is the emergency
management department. They are the ones that issue the warnings
to all the city departments and the elected officials on
the status of the weather events. And they're the ones
(08:30):
that issued the notices through notify LA about red flag
warnings and alerting the general public. So that primarily functions,
that primary function comes out of the emergency men.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, what do you think of a bassist statement that
Crowley never notified her and she has my cell number,
but she did the.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Protocol, and so I will say that the protocol is so.
For example, I had the cursed fire that erupted in
my district ten thirty in the evening on January seventh,
the first the aside, when my staff called me and
alerted me to the fire that started in Silmar, and
I was en route to the command post. It was
(09:11):
at about ten forty five that I got a call
from Chief Crowley saying, we have an incident in your area.
I said, yes, Chief, I'm already on my way to
the command post. So the Chief would only be in
communication with the mayor after the fire event has started
and commenced, so that she could tell me know what's going.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
On, tell me how these things work. I would think
that those fire mornings were so extreme that someone like
Karen Bass would be on the phone with Chief Crowley
and a lot of other people and say, Okay, we
got something really bad that very is likely to happen tomorrow. Sure,
how are we on extra crew, extra engines? Where should
(09:54):
they be deployed? Because the Weather Service actually drew a
magenta line around the highest risk areas in LA so
you don't have to cover the entire city, but there
are some areas that are more prone than not. I mean,
I guess I was really surprised that there wasn't that
meeting the night before.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Well, by the way, if you notice that map to
your point, that area is my district, which was circled
in that magenta color saying vie to the higher risk
areas predominantly in the San Fernando Valley. So again we
can Monday morning quarterback all day long. The reality is
is that there was pre deployment in the areas that
(10:31):
have had the greatest exposure. Now, you know, there's no
certainty that a fire is going to erupt at any
one particular location at any one time. Look at the
sunset fire, look at you know, there's a variety of
fires that took place and started that evening, right, and
so you know you pre deployed the best of your ability. However,
(10:52):
I will say and remind everybody that the mayor wasn't
the mayor because she was in Ghana. So the acting
mayor at the time mark Quise Harris Dawson, and so
my question would be he was in communication with her
as well, but he was the acting mayor at the time.
And so the again procedurally, EMD coordinated with all the
(11:14):
city departments, notified everybody of the wind conditions, sent out
the alerts. They convened all the city departments, as I understand,
on Monday, January sixth, to coordinate because you have to
get Department of Water and Power has to you know,
they have to do their preparations. You have Street Services
has to do their preparations with respect to Okay, I'm
(11:35):
going to need extra staff because I know the trees
are going to go down. Yeah, everyone has to prepare.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
I only have another minute because I'm running behind here.
I'll ask you one more thing. Shouldkaren Bash resign?
Speaker 2 (11:48):
You know, I think you know, the mayor has a
lot of work to do. We have a lot of
work to do, and I think again she needs to
determine her ability to continue. And you know, I think
she can do the job. It's just we have to
focus on doing the work.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
A lot of people have lost confidence in her.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Well that's for that's for her to decide, all right.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
Monica Rodriguez, councilwoman, thank you for coming on with us.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
All right, you're listening to John Cobelt on demand from
KFI Am six forty.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
We just had, uh, we just had Monica Roberriguez on.
She's the councilwoman in seventh district. Covers a chunk of
the valley and kind of left Karen Bass hanging there
at the end. Uh. I asked Rodriguez, do you think
she should resign, and Rodriguez said, well, you know, that's
up to her. She's got a lot of work to do.
(12:46):
And she also is taking issue with Crowley being blamed
by Bass for not calling Bass. She said that's not
necessarily the protocol, but agreed that there should have been
a meeting the night before and pointed out that Marquise
Harris Dawson was the acting mayor. He's the city council president.
(13:08):
He was the acting mayor and you know what, he
hasn't said a word over the last six weeks. He
has disappeared and he technically had legal authority when the
mayor is out of the country in Ghana, Marquise Harris
Dawson had the responsibility to coordinate some kind of a
battle plan, and I guess he went to bed. So
(13:33):
he needs to be looked at. Ninety nine percent of
the city doesn't know who he is, and he's real
happy about that. He doesn't want to be dragged into
this mess. He also thinks. She also thinks Bass is
not being fair to Crowley because they just finished up
cleanup after the rains last week and it takes a
while to put the after action report together. She thinks
(13:53):
Crowley's being made a scapegoat by Bass, and she's trying
to get ten council members together to give Crowley her
job back. It's a two thirds vote, ten out of fifteen.
If ten out of fifteen say that Crowley's firing should
be rescinded, then it will be rescinded. One vote she
might have. I don't know. I can't speak for her,
(14:14):
but Tracy Park has been upset with Crowley being fired.
Play you some cuts, because she went public today and
she was passionate about it. Played cut seven.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
I am disappointed and surprised by this decision.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Now, this idea that Karen bask did not know about
the warnings, the fire warnings two days before she left,
is that possible? Here's Tracy Park Cut eight.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I can't speak to what she knew or what her
team advised her of.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I don't have any insight to that.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
What I can say is that basically everybody in the
city of Los Angeles knew that we were headed in very,
very dangerous circumstances.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And she talks about the different ways you could have
found out about the warnings.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
It was on every news channel, it was on every
radio channel, it was everywhere in social media. The Fire
Department was blaring out that this was a dangerous circumstance.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
So Karen Bass dug herself a much deeper hole. She
You remember when she came off the plane, she went
silent for a minute and a half and wouldn't answer
that reporter's questions about apologizing the Los Angeles or explaining
herself in some way. So, in addition to all the
sins she committed taking off to Ghana, taking off after
(15:43):
two days worth of warnings, and not coming back to
after the cocktail party. As the Palisades burns, she goes
silent for weeks on end. She just gives cliches and
platitudes at various press conferences, hides behind Steve sober Off,
positioned herself off at the end of press conferences to
utter those platitudes, and then you know, when she finally
(16:04):
is questioned by Alex Michaelson, she says, frankly, I wasn't
aware of the warnings, which is, you know, maybe her
political epitaph. This is maybe on the political gravestone, because
that's preposterous, that doesn't seem possible. So a lot of
people think she's lying. I'm telling you, I talked to
a lot of people this week. Nobody believed her, and
(16:26):
a normal person would say, you know, I heard the warnings.
There's really no excuse. The only thing is to apologize.
But to say you didn't hear the warnings is just
there's nobody believing it. And you could tell by the
way Monica Rodriguez and Tracy Park answered the questions. I'm
(16:49):
not sure either one of them believe it either. They
just don't want to drop the hammer on something they
don't know for sure. But it's just not possible. She
can hear the warnings.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
That is just not possible, and now she can't. She
can't come back from that means she can't. But she
can't apologize now because then she's going to be saying
that she lied.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And I think this is where it's the final nail.
That's where she if anybody was going to give her
a little bit of leeway, a chance to come back,
to apologize, to give a second chance in some way,
I think that's it. If you're trying to sell us
that you didn't hear the warnings, whether that's true or not,
it's that's like an indictable offense. It's either massive incompetence
(17:31):
or a massive lie. And what once you say that
you're cooked in people's minds, it is difficult to remove her.
But there isn't a soul I know who has any
confidence in her. And normally when that happens, somebody resigns
when they're in that powerful a position, and I think
(17:51):
that's what should happen. Nobody wants to see her handle
the recovery for the next two years. Nobody more Coming up,
we'll play some of the clips of Beast staff members,
one of whom who said is like, oh yeah, they
knew about the warnings.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Moistline is eight seven seven Moist Stady six eight seven
seven moist Stady six for Monday, or use for Friday
rather and use the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app
if you wish. You could follow us on social media
at John Cobelt Radio at John Cobelt Radio. Fire debris
is washing up on ALA's beaches. Do you see the
(18:33):
widespread after effects of this? We talked earlier with Matt Pacucko.
He is with a group that's trying to stop the
toxic waste from being dumped in the Sunshine Canyon landfill
in Granada Hills. They're also trying to stop the landfill
from getting the toxic waste in Calabasas. I talked the
(18:56):
other day about the massive, massive traffic jams on the
West Side that going for hours, and in the West
Valley as well. It's ridiculous. It is unlike, I mean,
over thirty years out here and there's been a lot
of like bizarre events and traffic jams. This is the
worst on the West Side I've ever seen in my life.
I simply cannot get to the grocery store. I can't
(19:19):
go out and pick up dinner if I ordered it.
I can't go to the drug You just can't go anywhere.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
It takes me so long. And I was talking to
angel Off there about this. It takes me so long
to get to work because PCH for the most part
and Topanga Canyon are closed, so everybody is jumping on
the one oh five to get to I mean the
one oh one to get to the four oh five freeway.
It's it's it's excruciating.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Every day there's no north south roads if you want
to get to Malibu or to Panga Canyon, or you
used to use topeg it to get over into the
West Valley. Right, there's no other way to go but
the four oh five and the same way you know
going south, and there's no way to go east west
at a. Sunset Boulevard is backed up, for Miles San
(20:08):
Vicente Boulevard, for Miles Wilshire Boulevard, I mean all of it.
It's incredible, and all the side streets are are are
backed up. I mentioned last week that you know I
live in a in a a neighborhood that's that's away
from the main roads, but there were one hundred and
one cars backed up trying to get on Sunset Boulevard.
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Time to count all those cars?
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Well, I was rolled. I had to roll very slowly
because the road's kind of narrow, and there's cars parked
on both sides, and then the long line of cars
in the opposite traffic. So I got to go really
slowly so I don't sideswipe everyone. And as I was
I was going slowly, I went down one block made
of right, crossed one intersection, two intersections, three intersections, and
(20:55):
along the way were cars waiting to get on Sunset Boulevard,
and I got to a hundred one and now, all right,
here's the thing I wanted to get through. Fire debris.
According to La Times, all over LA Beaches from Malibuta,
Redondo Beach, charred black bits, melted debris, ash, sand, burned wood, plastic,
(21:19):
uh and it got washed into the ocean and then
you know, the tides come up and leave the residue.
And the Department of Beaches and Harbors said, it's not
hazardous to you or the environment. They've done some testing
at will Rogers State Beach, where of course they brought
all the toxic waste to and it's not going to
(21:40):
be removed. Trying to scrape it from the rocks and
sand could destroy marine habitats. So I think, I think
those habitats are already screwed. It's going to erode the shoreline,
caused long term damage. We just have to wait for
the natural tides and weather. They did find that there
are heavy metals, petroleum, hydrocarbon, chlorinated pesticides, poly coordinated bithenols,
(22:04):
volatile and semi volatile organic compounds, an asbestos.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Okay, so how can that not be harmful.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
To us because it's all below levels okay that the
government said, would.
Speaker 5 (22:16):
Are you gonna put your feet in the water.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
No, I don't. I don't want to. I don't want
to drive on a road pass there because I know
that all that stuff is getting kicked up. Every time
the wind blows, you're probably getting all kinds of dust
and debris in the air. And then now the trucks
are rumbling downe since the Sunset Boulevard to take you know,
some of the waste to wherever, and you know they're
there are weird odors in the air at different times
(22:39):
of the day. People tell me, and I just don't
believe they're testing, and you just never the government is
largely dishonest. I don't believe them. I don't trust them.
I've seen other I mean, I remember what they did
with well, Matt Pakuco talked about it last hour. You know,
all the wine that was going on during the the
(23:01):
elise O Canyon natural gas leak that went on right
Yet thousands of people who were exhibiting physical illnesses and
you got nothing but foot dragging from the government, and
they were they're always downplay it. Flowing into the ocean
(23:21):
are the bird remnants of cars, plastics, batteries, household chemicals
and other toxic materials. See, some of the marine biologists
aren't buying this. They're saying, I don't think there's a
precedent for this kind of input into the ocean ecosystem,
according to a marine biologist named Noel Bowen. And they
(23:42):
had declared the water off limits in January because of
toxic or carcinogenic chemicals, and now they're saying it's okay.
I mean they have found they have found charred debris
on the ocean surface as far as one hundred miles away.
(24:04):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
I'm not going in.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And they they've cut off the bike path and the
walking paths uh at will Rogers State Beach, and everybody
is screaming, nobody wants these trucks rumbling down sunset. Nobody
wants them going down pH Nobody wants the walking and
bike paths to be cut off. Nobody wants to go
on the beaches, Nobody wants these landfills. This this is
(24:32):
and and to think if at least the government that
we paid for was on duty the night before and
the next day and we could say, well, well they
gave it, they gave it their all, and now we
know that's not true. And now the infighting is starting
because again we've got a person running Los Angeles that
(24:55):
nobody believes and has acted arrogant and actually somewhat nasty
ever since this happened.
Speaker 5 (25:01):
So do you think the mayor, the mayor that was
under Bass, that that was taking over for Marquis, that
he's going to be the next person fired?
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Is that coming tomorrow?
Speaker 5 (25:14):
Don't We can have a press compemation.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
She's a city council president. You can't fire those guys.
I don't know who should be in charge. I mean,
obviously the only person doing something productive, a lot productive
is Ricrus on his team. I mean, if there was
some magical way to turn his team into the government
and send all these other losers home where we're paying them,
(25:40):
these people should be paid to stay home.
Speaker 5 (25:42):
But if there's no accountability, we can't fire them.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Then then we're stuck with these people running the recovery effort.
And it's gonna be a long two years because she
she makes everything worse. Every time she opens her mouth,
she makes it worse. And look at all the decisions
she had to reverse, all the decisions where the rest
of the world looked and said, what the hell are
you doing? Like when she took the National Guard away
(26:06):
from the Palisades while the power was still out and
the looters were still running around. That was just one example.
This Steve sober Off thing a half million dollars to
him without telling anybody. I mean there's so many, you know,
when you see somebody in action in a pressure cooker
for two months, and every time she's done or said something,
(26:27):
it's made everything worse, where everything has been the wrong decision.
I mean last week, I think what she said I
wasn't aware of the warnings Laraka. That's it. You know.
We went out to dinner with a number of people
over the weekend and that was it. Nobody believes her,
Nobody wants to hear about it, Nobody wants to talk
about her anymore. Oh, somebody told me you heard this
(26:48):
that at LAX her voice comes on welcoming people to
Los Angeles and the airport erupted in booze. Yeah, I
guess from the people trying to leave LA on the
way out. Karen Bass was the last voice they heard
when people are booing you at the airport when they're
booing your welcome message.
Speaker 5 (27:08):
Yeah I haven't heard that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, it's over all right. I'll play of those clips
when we come back of some of Bass staff members,
one of them Alexander Bose, admitting, yeah, yeah, we knew
about the warnings. Of course you did. He's on violating
some kind of a secret protocol here. Of course you did.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
You're listening to John Cobels on demand from KFI Am sixty.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
James O'Keefe, the undercover journalist, had one of his reporters
do a secret recording of a Karen Bass employee, Alexander Bose.
He's got these international relations, he's from that department, and
he started talking about Bass knowing about the warnings. Listen
(27:54):
to this a little bit noisy background, but i'll translate
for you. Listen to this cut.
Speaker 5 (28:00):
You haven't no idea of fire, was like the possibility.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Of course they didn't. The thing is that they're expecting
to make the data, but run fire warnings like it's
a big indication of fire and speed out. So the
first they did, of course they did. The thing is
there's nothing they can do when the reporter asked them,
didn't they notice the red flag warnings? So that's the
attitude in the Bass office. Red flag warnings, nothing you
(28:24):
can do. Not Let's talk to Kristin Crowley and let's
see if she's got a battle plan for the high
risk areas of the city. Do we have and remember
we're only fifty percent staffed with the fire department. You
have one hundred engines that are broken. They have the
government has completely neglected the fire department for many, many years,
(28:47):
and then they got the big one and it was
extremely tragic and they don't understand why they're being criticized.
The responsibility just is so overwhelming. Every day when I
think about this and a little more news comes out,
it's just incredible how irresponsible and uncaring Karen Bass and
the rest of them were. Here is more Alexander Boz
(29:09):
blaming the Palisades, blaming the Palisades residents.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I was that today with the fires and popping people.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
It was loser blame.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It's just crazy, ecume because these people like they've literally
like they've lost everything.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Like people are like literally breaking.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Down into tears while we're like just we're trying to
sign them out, like or get from Michael service that
they need.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Yeah, it's just.
Speaker 4 (29:35):
Really good victims from Polisades or everybody as everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
But the other thing too at Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Like a lot of these a lot of the houses
there and so like they were out of like three.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yards were out of the outam.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
Kelly, Like nobody gave me.
Speaker 6 (29:57):
I don't know, like this is like a long time
like waiting to happen.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
It is just like a taking time on bo. But
like the house is like they're supposed to be like
a certain amount of feet of hard too.
Speaker 6 (30:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just well you could stop it him.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
He says their yards were out of code, like nobody
gave an f the houses like they're supposed to be
like a certain amount of feet apart too. It was
just like a ticking time bomb. But as if you're
supposed to be able to move your house, you mean
there is supposed to be a certain amount of feet apart.
What are you supposed to do if you're a hat?
(30:39):
Of course, fire departments in the hills when they got
the warnings, then none of this is necessarily would occur.
Why was bess in Ghana? Alexander Bose Moore of him.
Speaker 4 (30:55):
So what wasn't your miss response when that when a
song happens like but because the mayor wasn't in town.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
So here's the thing.
Speaker 6 (31:04):
Here's the thing, and it's been so much completing because her.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
So here's it. So we're trying to First of all,
she wasn't just out there like partying it out with
bad Bunny, you know what I mean. So she was
out there like doing more completing. Yeah, yeah, So right now,
Goan is trying to establish a pause with a Los Angeles.
One big plan of parts is to integrate like African
(31:29):
countries to get consolates out.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
There, and it's not like their charity cases, like we're
not doing.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Using city funds to do this. And also a right
stop me stop. You know. Actually, if she was at
partying with that bad bunny, it would have been a
better decision. She has this big plan to get African
consulates in Los Angeles. That is, there is not a
single citizen that cares about any nation's consulate being in
Los Angeles. And this was a primary interest of her
(31:58):
and it she was going to go away for five
days over it, and that's why she couldn't stick around
for consulates she's got the wrong job. Conway's here. Hey now,
I got Alex.
Speaker 6 (32:11):
Stone coming on tonight to talk about, well, what else?
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Egg prices?
Speaker 6 (32:16):
Right? People are constantly talking about eggs. I don't get it,
but I guess people like that. Also, Delta airliner return
bound for South Carolina had to go back to Atlanta
some either somebody was smoking or smoke out in the
cabin somehow, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
And then you don't seem to know much about it.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
I don't really care Starbucks, this is more interesting than me.
Starbucks is gonna laugh a lot of people, and they're
gonna reduce their menu. I think they had to give
you another list, I think so. Hey, yeah, I could
care less. But let's talk about that trip you're going
on to. Is it Iceland? It's it is Iceland? And
when do you go? October seventeenth? Oh that's kind of cool,
(32:54):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Other slots still open, There are slots open, but many
of them are filled.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
And what is it two weeks? One week for that?
And you're flying to Kevic or Rakeovic? Yes, and driving
around with listeners.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Uh yeah, we're gonna be driven around.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Oh that's kind of cool. Yeah, And what are you
gonna see volcano?
Speaker 1 (33:14):
See the northern lights right and see volcanoes. We're going
to see mountains, glaciers. That's kind of cool.
Speaker 6 (33:21):
How do people get a hold of that? Not that
I want to turn this into a library.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
UKFI AM six forty dot com slash Iceland, Okay, And
I'd get it done soon.
Speaker 6 (33:30):
Because they're gonna they're gonna sell out.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, they're gonna sell out, So I get it done.
There's still some seats left, but get it done. Make
your decision. There was a whole lot of people around
the fence and that's why we had the zoom meeting
last night. It's like, get off the fence, make a commitment.
I got a trip coming up in October. It's fifty
guys going to Vegas strip bars for a week.
Speaker 6 (33:51):
Caf I listeners, Yeah, you magine different, different trip, different crap.
All right, dig dog with you Conway.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Michael Kruzer is the news live in the CAFI twenty
four hour newsroom. Hey, you've been listening to the John
Cobalt 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, anytime on demand
on the iHeartRadio app,
The John Kobylt Show News
Host
John Kobylt
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