Former schools chief Austin Beutner plans to challenge Bass, blasting her over Palisades fire

"With the federal investigation tied up, the Fire Department released a long-awaited after-action report Wednesday. The 70-page report found that firefighters were hampered by poor communication, inexperienced leadership, a lack of resources and an ineffective process for recalling them back to work. Bass announced a number of changes in light of the report."

""When you have broken hydrants, a reservoir that's broken and is out of action, broken [fire] trucks that you can't dispatch ahead of time, when you don't pre-deploy at the adequate level, when you don't choose to hold over the Monday firefighters to be there on Tuesday to help fight the fire - to me, it's a failure of leadership," Beutner said. "At the end of the day," he added, "the buck stops with the mayor.""

Austin Beutner, former Los Angeles schools superintendent and philanthropist, plans to challenge Mayor Karen Bass in the 2026 mayoral race, citing city failures addressing crime, rising housing costs and the Palisades wildfire. The fire damaged Beutner's home and destroyed his mother-in-law's house, prompting criticism of emergency preparedness. He pointed to broken hydrants, an out-of-service reservoir, inoperable trucks, inadequate pre-deployment and staffing decisions as examples of leadership failure and said responsibility rests with the mayor. Federal prosecutors charged a suspect in the blaze, and the Fire Department's 70-page after-action report found poor communication, inexperienced leadership, lack of resources and an ineffective recall process; Bass announced changes. Beutner's prior political ties could make him a credible challenger.

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