XPost: alt.wildland.firefighting, alt.los-angeles, alt.politics.miserable-failure
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
https://nypost.com/2025/01/15/us-news/la-mayor-karen-bass-sidelined-1m- crisis-response-team-during-wildfires/
LOS ANGELES — A crisis response team reporting to LA Mayor Karen Bass –
with hundreds of trained volunteers and a nearly million-dollar budget – languished on the sidelines for a week as the city endured its most
devastating natural disaster ever, The Post has learned.
The embattled mayor’s apparent failure to quickly deploy these key support resources is the latest in a series of botched leadership decisions that
has characterized her response to the Palisades Fire, which has killed
nine people, wiped out thousands of homes and engulfed an area half the
size of Brooklyn, New York.
The mayor’s office did not begin putting the volunteers to work helping
fire victims until Tuesday — after The Post began asking questions about
why its volunteers were idle.
“This team is more well funded than any in the country and is sitting on
its hands, not responding at all,” one longtime volunteer told The Post.
“I’m stunned by this.”
Days after the fires broke out, volunteers were notified in an email from interim director Edward Alamo obtained by The Post that their services had
not been requested.
In a follow-up email, the program manager, Ané Vecchione, reiterated to volunteers: “At this time, we are not deploying to shelters or community resource centers.”
Alamo and Vecchione both declined to comment.
Joseph Avalos, who served as director for the mayor’s Crisis Response Team (CRT) for 13 years until Bass fired him last May, told The Post he was “shocked” the team had not received a callout, typically a text, voice
message and email to its 250 members.
“Then I got some phone calls from current CRT members that they’re still
on standby and not involved yet. Quite honestly, I don’t understand why.”
Amid the fires, multiple volunteers continued to receive text
notifications for deployment to smaller tragedies like traffic crashes —
but nothing for fire victims.
Avalos said a large callout was necessary for major incidents to quickly identify who was available to swing into action and when.
LAFD spokeswoman Margaret Stewart also said she was unaware of CRT being
put into action by the mayor’s office.
The Los Angeles Mayor’s Crisis Response Team was created in 1992 to work
with victims of fires, crimes and other incidents, according to the CRT website.
The group has previously responded to major tragedies like the 2023
Monterey Park mass shooting.
Its trained volunteers offer “immediate, on-scene, practical and emotional support to survivors,” according to the CRT website.
Team members are trained in everything from staffing evacuation centers to providing psychological first aid to survivors.
The Palisades and Eaton fires, which broke out Jan. 7, have resulted in at least 25 deaths and have damaged or destroyed more than 10,000 homes and businesses.
“The mayor’s crisis response team should be deployed in this incident
because of the multiple fatalities that they have,” said former LAFD
Battalion Chief Rick Crawford.
“The mayor doesn’t have to wait for a request, she has all the authority
to deploy them at their discretion,” noted Crawford, who left LAFD earlier
this year and is now the emergency and crisis management coordinator for
the US Capitol.
The volunteer organization operates out of the mayor’s office of public
safety — and reported to LA Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Brian Williams.
However, Williams was placed on administrative leave in late December
after the FBI raided his home over a bomb threat he allegedly made against
city hall.
The CRT also has no permanent director, despite a job posting that went up
last year.
One of Williams’ staffers, Christopher Anyakwo, denied that the
organization has been sidelined, saying “the CRT is currently helping at
the disaster recovery center.”
However, he did not address why emails were sent to volunteers saying the
group was not being activated.
A Bass spokesperson said the team is working “right now” in the disaster recovery center — but did not specify when the volunteers were mobilized.
“We are grateful that they answered our call to serve,” the statement
said.
Conversation
Wolfie J
1 hour ago
She only cares about implementing "social justice", not about providing
what any normal person would consider to be essential government services.
YankeeHoosier
1 hour ago
Typical of these liberal blue big city mayor's, leadership is the least important trait on their resume. Social engineering is their most
important objective. Protecting their citizens, crisis management...not
that important.
ShowTime
1 hour ago
Chaos, mismanagement, DEI hires, water fraud, bomb threats.
FBI should be investigating from criminal charges.
Bass is Edith Bunker 101.
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November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump. We look
forward to America being great again.
The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and
eradicated.
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.
Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem. It has none.
Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
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