We’ll soon learn a lot more about LA leaders’ actions in the Palisades Fire
Victims of the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles will soon learn much more about the actions that their elected officials took as that fire began. The California Court of Appeals has rejected efforts from state and city leaders to stop a lawsuit against them from moving forward.
That means there will be a process called discovery, in which the public will see deleted text messages and other records from Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“This opens the door for the truth to come out without political games to try to avoid the curtain being pulled back,” Alison MacCracken, a fire rebuild liaison, told Straight Arrow.
Court decision
Elected leaders have attempted to shift blame for the fire away from themselves, especially Bass.
A lawsuit filed by many Pacific Palisades residents who were impacted by that fire alleges numerous charges against city and state leaders, including negligence.
Those leaders made every attempt to stop this case from moving forward, especially because they did not want to go to discovery.
That’s where both sides exchange evidence, documents, and testimony to learn what the other side knows before trial, and it typically becomes available to the public.
The court has now thrown out its last attempt.
“It’s great, it’s giving people some hope,” Kambiz Kamdar, owner of Pali Construction, told Straight Arrow. “At the end of the day, you’ve got a group of people that wants accountability and wants the city and the state and DWP and whoever else might be involved to be accountable.”
What it means
Now that the lawsuit is moving forward, those victims will get the chance to see a lot more of the moves made behind the scenes from elected officials, as the fire that killed 12 people and burned more than 6,000 structures began.
That’s especially true of Bass, who was in Africa when the fire began.
Bass spoke a little about what happened during a mayoral race debate earlier this week, where she continued to blame former fire chief Kristin Crowley.
“The primary problem there was that the chief sent home a thousand firefighters,” Bass said.
“The same way that LA was not prepared, neither was the county,” Bass continued.
Crowley has filed a lawsuit against Bass over her termination.
The fact that the lawsuit by residents against Bass and others is moving forward means we’ll likely learn a lot more about her communication with Crowley and the fire department as the fire spread.
“It does seem coincidence that she’s starting to mention some of these things as they lost that portion of the lawsuit,” Kamdar said.
What happens next?
Things do not typically move quickly through American courts, so it will likely be some time before victims learn more through the discovery phase.
“The attorneys that are representing the victims will continue to pursue uncovering all of the information to put together their case to hopefully reach the conclusion that they believe they already have, which the fires were not caused by natural causes, and that they could have been prevented,” MacCracken said.
Of course, rebuilding continues in the Palisades.
This lawsuit could have an impact on that as well. If leaders are found to have been negligent, it could bring more money to the victims and the rebuilding efforts.
If nothing else, this decision is a little bit of hope for those who lost so much.
“It restores a little bit of faith in a system that they don’t have faith in at the moment,” MacCracken said.
Round out your reading
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
