When asked to comment on the recall movement and her plummeting approval ratings, Mayor Bass’s office coldly responded “The mayor is focused on recovery which right now is months ahead of expectations.”
Paperwork with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission was officially filed on Monday March 3rd for the recall of 43rd L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who has come under fire for her initial actions in regards to the devastating Palisades and Eaton Valley fires.
“I want the best person to have that seat,” Nicole Shanahan, former Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running mate and major funder for the recall effort, told The Benny Show, “We’re gonna make sure that the next Mayor of L.A. is a mayor that can rebuild, that would never allow a major reservoir to stay dry while in maintenance.”
The recall movement has taken shape as many Angelenos have expressed considerable disapproval over Mayor Bass’s performance in the days leading up to and following the outbreak of the January fires. Concerns have particularly been targeted towards her inopportune trip to Ghana only three days before the firestorms erupted, the hasty firing of former LAFD Fire Chief Kristin Crowley, and the resurfacing of deleted text messages and phone calls made by the mayor.
The mayor’s diplomatic mission to Africa was the first of many points of contention that has led to serious doubts over her ability to lead L.A. going forward. Mayor Bass had previously declared to the New York Times in 2021, before taking office, that she would never travel outside the United States during her tenure. In light of breaking that campaign promise, Businessman Rick Caruso, who ran for mayor against Bass in 2022, voiced his disappointment in January, “That’s not leadership, that’s abandoning your post.” He and many other agitated Californians feel there was an undeniable leadership void in Bass’s absence that was rather unbecoming of a city leader. “Especially in a moment of crisis,” remarked columnist Emily Hoeven on FOX40 News, “your community and your constituents are counting on you to be physically there handling problems as they develop.”
But, upon several questions about her ill-timed visit to congratulate the newly inaugurated Ghanaian president, Bass has repeatedly said the “normal preparations” to inform her on crisis potential were not fulfilled, and that “It didn’t reach that level to me, to say something terrible could happen, and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on a trip.” Despite claiming the danger was not stressed to her properly, her staff was in fact briefed by the National Weather based on the mayoral announcement made Jan. 7 warning of windstorms likely to increase fire risk, and several notices by the NWS earlier that week emphasizing the “life-threatening, destructive” turn they projected the winds would take.
As a result of her feeling deprived of enough information beforehand, Bass laid blame onto Crowley, the city’s very first female and openly LGBTQ+ fire chief and terminated her from her position on February 21st. The firing was met with immediate public backlash, with political experts lambasting the mayor for avoiding to take responsibility and instead lashing her regret onto Crowley in “an act of political desperation.” Sara Sadhwani from Pomona College expressed similarly on CBS KCAL News that the abrupt dismissal of the fire chief, added with Bass’ limited grasp of the coming catastrophe, leads to no surprise that in a UC Berkeley IGS poll, only 19% of L.A. residents thought her response to the fires was acceptable.
Bass tried to defend her decision to fire Crowley, asserting the former fire chief downplayed the role of the Santa Ana Winds. She stated to Elex Michaelson at FOX 11, from her point of view, Crowley had handled things “differently this time than they’ve been handled before.”
While the mayor has argued that the “normal preparations” for crisis mitigation had fallen short outside of her control. Supporters and co-workers of Crowley have objected to her demotion, calling it a clear scapegoating, with The United Firefighters of Los Angeles City disavowing Bass for firing someone “for telling the truth.” This is referring to the drastic cuts Bass made to the LAFD in June 2024. Allegedly, $76 million was only relocated, not cut, from the fire personnel budget, amid unfinished negotiations between the city and fire department employees.
However, Crowley has maintained since December 2024, in her Dec. 17 memo to Mayor Bass, “these budgetary reductions have adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations.” This report revealed that despite the mayor’s insistence she merely rearranged the budget, in actuality $7 million had been reduced from LAFD overtime funds, and $17.6 million overall had been drained from their allowance. “Yes, it was cut and it did impact our ability to provide service,” Crowley articulated on FOX 11.
On top of this already damning evidence, more recently Bass has found herself in hot water again for allegedly withholding communications about the fire response via text messaging. “My phone did an automatic delete after 30 days,” was the explanation Bass gave to ABC 7.
According to L.A. Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, she had offered the mayor, who by then was in Ghana, additional support on Jan. 7. The mayor does not believe she violated any laws, backed by city lawyer David Michaelson, claiming text messages are outside the scope of the California Public Records Act. Yet, the CPRA does disclose that texts fall under “every other means of recording upon any tangible thing any form of communication or representation,” which along with the fact that the act demands public officials retain any city communications for two years at minimum, Bass by definition has acted above the law regardless of how intentional it was.
The mayor is facing likewise outrage over a resurfaced phone call on Jan. 4, made just days before her trip to Ghana and the outbreak of the January fires. Provided by the O’Keefe Media Group, the recovered voice message overhears Bass to an anonymous source, telling them “And just in terms of my trip, just so you know, I’m missing two work days. That’s it.”
As the recording continues, however, the mayor makes cryptic remarks about “reading between the lines” and urging the other line to “hold tight. You will, you will understand soon.” She goes onto anticipating criticism for a matter not mentioned within the call.
Mayor Bass confirmed with FOX 11 that she fully intends to run for reelection come 2026, and for all that which she has been charged with, she says “It is my responsibility to disprove that.” The L.A. Times reported that the Shanahan-led recall committee will need to collect at least 330,000 signatures, 15% of Los Angeles residents, within 120 days since filing on Mar. 3, to trigger a recall election held within the present year.
