Back in January 13, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass “issued a sweeping Executive Order to clear the way for Los Angeles residents to rapidly rebuild the homes they lost in the ongoing firestorm and lays the foundation for businesses to plan their rebuild. She also updated the local emergency declaration to account for the firestorm’s devastation and to accelerate the city’s recovery and rebuilding.”
Terms like “rapidly” and “accelerate” sound impressive, but you will probably not be shocked to learn that the city government’s concept of “rapidly” is only fast when compared to glaciers.
As of Monday, March 24, 75 days after the fire, the city had issued… four permits for homeowners to rebuild their properties. Not forty. Not fourteen. Four.
On March 18, developer Rick Caruso – the man who came in second to Karen Bass in the last mayoral election – surprised some people by declaring a recall election of Bass was not an idea he supported.
“We must rebuild our communities, get people back into their homes, and open businesses that have been closed or lost,” Caruso said. “That must be our total focus. There is a time and place for politics, but it is not now.”
“What I want her to do right now, the mayor and her team: Focus on rebuilding, focus on the Olympics, focus on the homeless problems,” Caruso told NBCLA. “Otherwise, she’s going to be diverted by fighting the recall effort it just doesn’t make sense.”
Considering the performance of the city government, Caruso might be a little too magnanimous and high-minded in his desire to spare his former rival the political threat of a recall.
Mayor Karen Bass hired a private consulting firm to oversee the recovery effort. The contract with Hagerty Consulting is worth $10 million. Some councilmembers say that raises questions.
“We have city departments who know how to do this recovery, who have been involved in recovery efforts in the past,” Councilmember Monica Rodriguez told ABC7. “And yet they can’t be afforded the opportunity to hire the personnel that they need, but we can give a $10 million contract to an outside agency to help write a report for us.
“For me for me, it’s just — it’s obscene,” Rodriguez said.
As I laid out in January, recalling a mayor under the city’s laws is difficult but not impossible. If the city isn’t going to consider recalling Bass under these circumstances, it’s fair to ask whether the recall laws should remain on the books.