Nearly 120,000 people have signed a petition calling for LA Mayor Karen Bass to resign.
The petition, launched on change.org last Wednesday, currently has 117,713 signatures at time of writing.
“We, the undersigned residents of Los Angeles and concerned citizens, urgently call for the immediate recall of Mayor Karen Bass due to her gross mismanagement and failure to effectively respond to the devastating 2025 fires in and around the city of Los Angeles,” the petition states.
“In the wake of these catastrophic fires, our city has been left in crisis. Water supplies have been severely strained, billions of taxpayer dollars have been misallocated or left unaccounted for, and countless lives have been lost. Families have been displaced, homes destroyed, and livelihoods shattered—yet Mayor Bass has been absent from the frontlines, choosing to travel abroad while her constituents suffer.
“Despite the tireless efforts of our first responders, the city has been woefully unprepared to ensure the safety and well-being of its residents. Basic resources, such as water and emergency services, have been inadequate, and leadership has been nowhere to be found when it was needed most.”
The petition goes on to demand Bass’s resignation; “a full, transparent investigation into the failures in disaster preparedness, response, and resource allocation that left our city vulnerable”; “accountability for the mismanagement of taxpayer funds intended for disaster relief and recovery”; and a comprehensive disaster plan to ensure the safety of Los Angeles residents in the future.
Mayor Bass was in Ghana on Tuesday when the fires broke out. She was forced to return and has faced probing questions about her role in disaster preparedness. Bass cut $20 million from the city’s budget for fire services this year.
It’s reckoned that the cost of the fires could exceed $150 billion, making them one of the costliest natural disasters in American history.
On Sunday evening, the Palisades Fire had expanded to over 23,000 acres with 11% containment, the Eaton Fire had reached over 14,000 acres with 27% containment, and the Hurst Fire had reached 799 acres with 89% containment.
There has been an increasing focus on official incompetence and mismanagement in recent days, as contributing factors towards the fires and their spread.
It’s claimed that Los Angeles water chief Janisse Quiñones knew the Santa Ynez Reservoir was empty when the fires broke out and that many fire hydrants in the city were broken.
It’s also been revealed that Newsom slashed the state firefighting budget by $100 million just months before the wildfires.
According to Newsweek, Newsom approved cuts totalling $101 million from seven “wildfire and forest resilience” programs.
The reductions were part of last year’s state budget, and were signed into law by Newsom in June.
The cuts included $28 million from state conservancies that increase resilience to wildfires; $12 million from a project to protect homes from wildfires; $8 million from wildfire monitoring and research; $4 million from a forest legacy program that encourages landowners to protect their properties; and $5 million from programs for vegetation management.