The large condo building (3-4?) stories high that was behind the Shell station is gone. The Shell station, which was the last place in Pacific Palisades to have cars repaired suffered severe damage.
On Thursday, January 9, there were embers smoking around the Palisades Rec Center and the tennis courts. The homes around that area were destroyed by fire.
By TIM CAMPBELL
When I was studying for my Project Management Professional certification several years ago, part of the content included disaster planning. I reviewed a case study of a project manager who planned a large IT project in Florida.
During the project’s implementation, a hurricane hit the state. The project manager was proud of his preparation and recovery plans, saying he was able to get the project back on track within a few weeks.
Much to my initial shock, the class leader said she would have fired the project manager. Knowing Florida is prone to seasonal hurricanes, why would the manager start an important project in the middle of the most dangerous time of year? Despite his recovery plans, he forgot the most fundamental issue; watch the calendar. Know the risks of weather on project planning.
There are many tragic stories around LA’s recent fires.
Thousands of homeowners, renters, and small business owners have lost their homes and livelihoods. Schools and churches have been destroyed. Historic structures are lost for all time. The environmental damage from burned-out cars and businesses will take years to mitigate.
Government officials have called the Palisades Fire, just one of four major conflagrations, the worst natural disaster in LA County history.
But, like the Florida IT project, LA’s disaster was exacerbated by human mistakes and poor timing. While nobody can control the weather, high winds are no stranger to Southern California. It is also no secret the City has failed to maintain and improve its infrastructure, including its water systems.
Budget cuts have affected public safety staffing and response. A large portion of the City’s homelessness budget is paid by the General Fund, the same source that pays for police and fire services.
One of the most frustrating stories to come out of the disaster is Mayor Bass’ absence during the first critical hours of the fire. Despite a forecast showing unusually high winds, Mayor Bass chose to follow through on her plans to travel to Ghana on a diplomatic mission.
Mayor Karen Bass
Just like the unfortunate project manager in Florida, she paid little heed to impending disaster. Her absence was bad enough, but she has steadfastly refused to address the issue since.
As she boarded a plane to return to LA, she stared stone-faced at a reporter asking her what she had to say to L.A.’s residents. Granted, the reporter works for Sky News, a right-wing news outlet, but politicians don’t get to pick and choose who they respond to, especially in the time of a major crisis.
The question would have been equally valid had it come from a Huffington Post reporter. Despite a spirited defense for fellow elected officials, public criticism of Bass’ actions before and after the fire is intensifying. Ironically, for more than a day, President Biden spent more time in LA than our mayor.
Things didn’t improve much once Mayor Bass returned.
At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, the Mayor appeared unprepared to give substantive answers to reporters’ questions. Responding to a question about how residents can obtain more information, she responded, “If you need help, emergency information, resources, and shelter is available. All of this can be found at URL.” A URL is the term for an Internet address, but she failed to provide the name of the website she was referring to.
When asked again on Thursday morning about her absence and questions about the city’s preparations, Bass evaded a direct answer by responding, “We have to save lives and we have to save homes. Rest assured that when that is done, when we are safe, when lives have been saved and homes have been saved, we will absolutely do an evaluation to look at what worked, what didn’t work, and to correct or to hold accountable anybody, department, individual, etc. But my focus right now is on the lives and on the homes.”
There was no mention of next steps or plans to bring relief to thousands of people left homeless, nor recognition she may have made a mistake flying 7,000 miles away in the face of extreme fire danger. This was much like her generic responses when negative news about homelessness programs is released; trite sayings like “We are locking arms and taking bold action”. While they sound catchy, they have little actual meaning.
Criticism is coming from sources other than conservative media. A change.org petition to demand Bass’ resignation was quickly published and gathered almost 8,000 signatures in its first hours. Even celebrities, who tend to be staunch liberals, criticized the city’s lack of preparedness.
On social media, one wrote, “5th largest economy on the planet. Firefighters didn’t have enough water pressure to do their jobs?!
Are you joking me?! The taxes we pay for third world infrastructure is unbelievable?! Come on.” Residents were critical as well. Watching live reporting, I saw one resident after another expressing frustration at the lack of water pressure or the fear their homes would be looted if they left because law enforcement was stretched thin.
At a Thursday, January 9, 2025 press conference, Bass again refused to address the issue of her trip, instead lecturing the reporter asking questions about the LAFD’s budget cuts and denying the reductions affected safety. However, a KCAL 9 reporter played a recording of a Fire Commissioner saying the department was in “crisis mode” because of the reductions at a Commission meeting a few weeks ago. The reporter also showed a memo from the Fire Chief expressing concerns about disaster response and air support in light of the budget reductions.
Perhaps some of the criticism is due to what seems to be the City’s confused priorities. The City Council approved a $17 million reduction to the Fire Department’s fiscal year 2024-2025 budget, which was actually lower than the mayor’s original proposed reduction of $23 million.
For years, policy observers like CityWatch’s Jack Humphreville have been warning about the consequences of the city’s failure to invest in its infrastructure, including its water system. At the same time, the City spends about 10 percent of its budget on homelessness, about $330 million of which comes from the City’s General Fund, which pays for services like public safety.
One of my regular readers emailed me an interesting question. Will the City say congregate shelters will have to suffice for taxpayers displaced by the fires, while it insists homeless people deserve private apartments?
The past three days have brought into sharp focus questions that go to the heart of the purpose of local government. Why do cities exist? Who should they serve? If they can’t provide basic safety and utility services, what is their purpose? If elected officials won’t take responsibility for their actions (or lack thereof), who will?
Part of the job of an elected official is to think in the long-term. They should think about the water needs of four million people in times of extreme heat or major fires. They should think about the best long-term use of the public’s money. Is governing a zero-sum game, where one group has to suffer a lack of services so others can receive them?
Over the past few months, we’ve seen stories about how MacArthur Park, one of the few green spaces available to mid-city working families, has been usurped by an open-air gang-controlled drug market, and local businesses have suffered in the name of allowing people to maintain their “personal agency” by refusing treatment.
Local leaders are willing to devote hundreds of millions of dollars to ineffective Housing First and Harm Reduction programs, while cutting funds to services that benefit the entire population.
Perhaps the disastrous fires are the inevitable and logical result of years of poor policy choices. When you choose to steer resources to high-profile but ultimately useless programs, and ignore the needs of the general population, you are playing Russian Roulette with public safety.
So, we really shouldn’t single out Mayor Bass for her ham-handed response to her trip. Her faux pas was merely the culmination of years of decisions made on the basis of optics and pandering to special interests instead of substantive policies.
On Thursday, January 9, the park by the Palisades Rec Center still had embers smoldering. The homes in the Huntington Palisades around the park were destroyed by the Palisades Fire.
Gotta love that final sentence!
Here is some helpful advice for fire victims:
ACTION PLAN for those who had loss. Start with the small list:
1. Get a PO Box
2. Longer term rental search – include insurance on it so they pay directly for rental. Find a nice place that you like, don’t settle. You should be able to get a “Like Property” so insurance should cover a nice place for you to live while you work through all this. You might be living here for 2 years, so choose wisely.
3. Find a place to buy some sturdy boots and gloves. Get some shovels.
4. Start working on the personal property list (this is not fun at all, be prepared to cry we sure did). Write down the moment you remember – keep list on phone or pad of paper with you at all times.
5. Save receipts. Loss of use insurance will cover incidentals too – hairbrush, phone chargers, etc.
6. As you buy things, tell the store owner your situation. Most stores will give you some level of discount as their way of helping you.
7. Let people do things for you. Do you have a friend that you can send to the store to buy you some basic clothes or comfort foods? Let them do it – they want to help and you don’t need to spend time doing these errands. (The ‘fun’ of shopping is gone…it quickly becomes a chore because you don’t want a new shirt, you want the one that you always liked to wear but now it’s gone and you are sad/mad.)
The Big List:
1. Register at the shelters, with Red Cross and any other agency there, california FEMA, etc. a. Most of the aid coming in will use these lists as a point of contact and will help to ensure that you don’t get left out of anything. b. This will be especially important should FEMA be activated, which in my opinion is very likely with the amount of devastation experienced.
2. Call Homeowners/Rental insurance to trigger “Loss of Use” . This typically will allow you to be in a “Like” property for x number of years and sometimes has a dollar limit attached and sometimes not, this is dependent on your policy. a. This coverage should also give you some immediate access to funds for essentials, clothes, toothbrushes, food, etc. b. This will also get the ball rolling for the insurance claim on your home and rebuilding/personal property Dollars.
3. Get a PO Box and forward all mail to the Box. . Use this PO Box as the mailing address on all forms you begin to fill out.
4. Start Searching for a Long term rental. . Coordinate with your insurance company so that payments can be made directly from them using your “Loss of Use” money. a. Plan on renting 1-2 years, but do not necessarily sign a lease for a full two years as circumstances can change.
5. Itemized List of belongings – (This is very hard but very necessary for your claim) . I would organize by room and list everything that was there with a replacement cost. (you will cry a lot doing this and that is ok)
a. Replacement Cost should be what it would cost to replace not on sale from pottery barn, it should not be the price you paid for it with that 50% off coupon.
b. Make sure you list everything, even if it is above and beyond your policy limit. This is very important because everything above and beyond the policy limit is considered a Loss and can be claimed as such on your taxes – See #9
6. Call all of your utilities and either freeze or cancel service. Electric, Gas, TV, Land Line phone a. Newspaper delivery, either cancel or update to PO Box.
7. Call the rest of your insurance points as needed. Car insurance a. Any specialty insurance for unique items
8. Permits – An unfortunate necessity. Debris Removal – as things wind down it will be necessary to remove the debris, this requires a permit usually. (This should be covered by your insurance, we had to force the issue but ask repeatedly.)
a. Erosion Control – If you are on any kind of hill or have sloped property you will need to put some sort of erosion control measures in place, again this will need some sort of permit.
b. Temporary Power Pole/Trailer on site Permit – Getting this earlier on can prove helpful in both the rebuilding process.
9. Taxes . You will be able to claim the monetary loss of the value of all your items minus what you receive from your insurance company. I’m unfamiliar with the exact laws, but I believe that we were able to carry our losses back 2-5 years and received most of the money that we had paid in taxes back in a nice large check.
10. Network with others. You will learn so much from others as you go through the rebuilding process. We all have our strengths so share yours and use others. The amount of time that you will spend on the rebuild, insurance, recovery process is staggering so you need to use all your resources.