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When the Palisades fire began, Los Angeles Fire Chief Anthony Marrone appeared before the Board of Supervisors for a pre-planned discussion about how to spend the first $152 million in property taxes approved by voters in the county in November for fire protection and emergency response.
Few other local governments could have these types of conversations, Supervisor Janice Hahn said at the Jan. 7 meeting.
“Our voters are going to vote to raise their own taxes” to protect themselves and each other, Hahn said, “and that’s not the case in other parts of, probably, the state and certainly not in other parts of the country. “
This is not quite true, but like the crisis unfolded in the days that followed, county leaders enjoyed an appearance of foresight and preparedness — even after Ethan’s fire effectively obliterated the unincorporated community of Altadena, where the county is the only municipal government.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was not so lucky.
It’s not just like that in Africa instead of the city when the fires broke out. Angry residents blamed her for the disaster not only in Pacific Palisades, which is part of her town, but also in Altadena, which is not. LA City Fire Chief Christine Crowley burst out in the mayor’s apparent budget cuts to her department, although careful analysis paints a a more complex budget picture.
Mall developer Rick Caruso, whom Bass defeated in 2022, accused the city of “mismanagement” and specifically called her out. So did Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who said his paper he made a mistake by supporting her but didn’t say why, except to suggest that the disaster somehow proved she was incompetent. Thousands of people signed up petitions calling for Bass’ resignation. It’s like she started the fires herself.
Why does Bass get so much blame and the county supervisors so little?
The supervisors are aided in part by the structure of their government, which, unlike the city, does not hold a single elected official like the mayor responsible for the operation of the entire body. It is the largest local jurisdiction in the US, with about 10 million residents, 117,000 employees, an annual budget of more than $50 billion, and enormous responsibility for disaster preparedness and response, natural resource management, public safety, economic development, and poverty.
Yet it has essentially the same representative structure as California’s 56 smaller counties (the combined city-county of San Francisco being the big exception): five county-elected supervisors and no elected and publicly accountable executive. Los Angeles County is essentially a state without a governor.
Supervisors are rarely criticized — even amid crises like the fires in January. Since 1980 no Los Angeles County Executive has been defeated for re-election.
After 2018 Ulsi fire — the region’s most destructive fire so far this month — supervisors avoided angry residents at community meetings and instead they let the fire chief handle it with the invective. During COVID lockdown, opponents of mask and vaccine mandates denounce county public health official outside her home but largely ignored the oversight bodies that approved the policies. When juvenile halls repeatedly fail state standards and jails fail even county inspections, supervisors scold their subordinates.
Their response to disgruntled voters is less “I’m sorry” than “I know, right?”
In the midst of the current fire emergency, County emergency alert system sent via SMS false evacuation warnings to millions of shaken residents. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Altadena, expressed anger on behalf of her constituents, and the county’s emergency management director issued a profuse apology. But social media posts often blamed Bass, even though the county system is outside her purview.
Being a county supervisor can be a tough job, but in times of crisis it’s a lot less uncomfortable than being mayor.
District voters supported the reforms
The dynamic is about to change. County voters in November approved by a narrow margin Measure G expand the Board of Supervisors from five members to nine and, importantly, create an elected county executive—essentially a mayor or county governor. For the first time, beginning in 2028, the nation’s largest local government jurisdiction will have a single elected official with ultimate authority and responsibility. Supervisors representing smaller districts will continue to do what they do best: respond to constituents’ needs and demand answers from others.
The the measure was supported by Los Angeles County’s newest supervisor, Lindsay Horvath. As she toured the devastation in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday, consoling constituents and thanking emergency workers and firefighters (including crews from Utah and Washington), she described her vast jurisdiction as “the most disaster-prone area of any county in the United States.”
In addition to the Palisades fire, her 3rd District is simultaneously dealing with the Kennett Fire in West Hills, the Hurst Fire in Sylmar and the Archer Fire in Granada Hills – all on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains from the Palisades. For all practical purposes, she is the municipal leader in the unincorporated (and threatened or blighted) communities of Topanga and Sunset Mesa, as Barger is in Altadena and many other communities.
Barger’s area is even larger and includes parts of the San Gabriel Mountains and the Mojave Desert. She opposed Measure G, arguing that it was insufficiently vetted. Still, she is familiar with the frustrating inaction that results in part from committee-style leadership and the lack of an accountable executive.
Barger is correct that many details of the new L.A. County government structure have yet to be determined and are critical. Having a single person accountable, like Bass, will not automatically improve governance if that accountability is not coupled with sufficient authority. It won’t prevent ridiculous real-time political opportunism like this meaningless statement that fire hydrants failed because of environmental protection for delta smelt or the repulsive claim that electing or appointing women and people of color to key positions undermines competence.
Read more: Track California wildfires
It also won’t change some weird aspects of Los Angeles County governance. A city fire department, for example, must compete for shares of the city budget with services that, before the fires, were top community priorities, including police and housing. The county department, on the other hand, is part of a fire protection district overseen by the Board of Supervisors and funded directly by the type of special property taxes Hahn bragged about at the board meeting with the county fire chief.
A majority of voters in the Los Angeles County Consolidated Fire Protection District approved the 2020 fire tax in the wake of the Woosley fire, but the measure fell short of the required two-thirds vote. So Hahn, a seasoned politician with strong ties to the firefighters union (and Horvath’s co-author on Measure G), left it to union members to gather signatures for the 2024 measure. Because it was placed on the ballot as a citizens’ initiative, it only required a simple majority. This time it passed.
That kind of political acumen will continue to be as crucial to the next iteration of county government as it is to the current one.
