As California fires raged, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana — showing local leaders what not to doIn times of crisis, people turn to their local leaders — for answers, for management, for morale and, it should go without saying, for leadership.
But what happens when the local leader is nowhere to be found?
That’s exactly the situation that came to pass this week in Los Angeles County, as devastating wildfires ripped through the region, killing at least two people, forcing thousands of evacuations, destroying homes and inundating social media with horrific videos of vicious orange flames consuming everything in their path.
As the flames crackled and spread, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana for that country’s presidential inauguration.
It’s unclear when exactly Bass departed for Ghana — her office has not responded to my questions about the timeline of her trip. But it likely would have been sometime after Jan. 3, when President Joe Biden announced the four-member delegation he was sending to Ghana for the Jan. 7 inauguration.
By then, forecasts of dangerous fire conditions were already emerging.
On Jan. 4, the Los Angeles Times reported that a “potentially damaging” offshore wind event was anticipated to sweep across Southern California the following week, which could quickly fan flames in the parched region that hadn’t received meaningful rainfall in eight months.
On Monday — the day before the Ghanaian presidential inauguration — the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles office issued warnings for a “LIFE-THREATENING & DESTRUCTIVE WINDSTORM!!!” and “extreme fire conditions” beginning on Tuesday, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to pre-position critical firefighting resources in the area.
If Bass wasn’t already in Ghana at that point, it’s difficult to understand why she still would have chosen to go. And if she was already there, it’s difficult to understand why she didn’t immediately head back to Los Angeles.
“I want to assure the community and the city our mayor has been actively engaged 100% of the time the entire last 24 hours throughout this unfortunate event and crisis,” Celine Cordero, Bass’ deputy chief of staff, said at a news conference Wednesday morning.
Bass was set to return to Los Angeles around noon Wednesday, and just before 1 p.m., posted a video on X showing her talking with Newsom, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and firefighters near the scene of a fire. But that appearance may be too little, too late to appease infuriated residents who have lost everything and feel abandoned by their local government.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department, which recently underwent budget cuts, admitted that it was “unprepared” for so many enormous blazes to break out at once, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power acknowledged that fire hydrants in Pacific Palisades ran out of water.
“This is an absolute mismanagement by the city,” Rick Caruso, the billionaire businessman who unsuccessfully ran against Bass for Los Angeles mayor, said Tuesday night on KTTV. “We’ve got a mayor that’s out of the country, and we’ve got a city that’s burning, and there’s no resources to put out fires.”
The situation is so dire that even Newsom — who’s not exactly known for focusing on his home state — on Wednesday canceled his planned weekend trip to Washington, D.C., to attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral. Instead, his office said, the governor would be staying in California with “all hands on deck” to respond to the fires. (On Tuesday, Newsom declared a state of emergency while visiting Pacific Palisades. On Wednesday, he held a news conference in Santa Monica with President Joe Biden — Bass was noticeably absent.)
Staying in California was the right decision for Newsom.
There of course will be times when local elected officials will need to travel outside of their city or state, but — extenuating circumstances aside — they should be laser-focused on addressing the local issues they were elected to solve. They should be spending the vast majority of their time in the areas they were elected to represent, and they should be among the first people on the scene when something goes wrong.
The lesson stemming from Bass’ faux pas is an important reminder for the Bay Area, which is set to usher in a new generation of leaders.
Wednesday, nonprofit founder and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie was sworn into office as the mayor of San Francisco. Also Wednesday, former Rep. Barbara Lee announced that she’s running for Oakland mayor, joining a crowded race of contenders in a special election to replace Sheng Thao, recalled by voters in November.
San Francisco and Oakland face entrenched problems — none of which will be solved by political posturing, glad-handing and photo ops. Residents made clear in the November election that they want leaders to double down on addressing local problems: public safety, high-quality education, clean streets.
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