The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday approved a $750,000 contract with outside attorneys for legal services related to the January wildfires and a potential federal investigation into the city\u2019s response during the emergency.<\/p>\n
In an 11-2 vote, council members advanced the contract, which heads to Mayor Karen Bass for her consideration. Council members Adrin Nazarian and Nithya Raman opposed the contract, while Imelda Padilla and Curren Price were absent during the vote.<\/p>\n
There was no discussion prior to Tuesday\u2019s vote, but it came after council members amended the proposal to require top city officials to identify potential funding sources to pay for the contract \u2014 and not immediately dip into the account that funds most of the city\u2019s services.<\/p>\n
Last week, the council voted 7-5 to deny approval of the contract with Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP. That decision came after a 30-minute discussion behind closed doors, when Raman noted funding for the contract would come from the city\u2019s General Fund.<\/p>\n
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said members got a last-minute communication from the City Attorney\u2019s Office recommending General Fund dollars be used for the contract.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dollar amount is the same, but the source of the dollars is different, which causes a dramatic difference,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got both a report and a motion that identified these funds as coming from DWP.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand why this was not known when the report was issued and then when the motion was introduced. I don\u2019t understand why this wasn\u2019t known until literally the last hour,\u201d Harris-Dawson said.<\/p>\n
Council members have recently sought more oversight into spending for contracts related to outside legal services.<\/p>\n
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has recommended elected officials approve the contract amid concern over a federal probe. Neither representatives for the City Attorney\u2019s Office nor the Council President\u2019s Office immediately responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
While details surrounding the need for the contract were not discussed publicly, city attorneys noted it was related to January\u2019s Palisades Fire. City officials also highlighted an expanded case involving a federal investigation.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 20, Sen. Rick Scott, R- Fla., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent a letter to Harris-Dawson asking for documents on Los Angeles Fire Department staffing and wildfire preparations, among other topics related to the devastating Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n
The senators gave city officials a deadline of Nov. 3 to produce the records. The senators also focused on the city\u2019s \u201cdiversity, equity and inclusion\u201d hiring policies at the fire department and the Department of Water and Power. Additionally, the probe sought information regarding the removal of former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley.<\/p>\n
Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez previously criticized the senators\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMAGA Republicans couldn\u2019t even look at a map before launching into this ridiculous investigation. DEI did not cause the fires, and these senators should take their witch hunts elsewhere,\u201d the councilman said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Fire officials recently concluded that the Lachman Fire \u2014 which allegedly was intentionally lit on Jan. 1 \u2014 re-ignited days later into the Palisades Fire.<\/p>\n
The LAFD recently also released its after-action report detailing challenges and successes of its initial response to the Palisades Fire. A state investigation is expected to be released in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday approved a $750,000 contract with outside attorneys for legal services related to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":339407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,6283,167201,5025,7414,2961,224,5337,53628,25548],"class_list":{"0":"post-339406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-council","11":"tag-counsel","12":"tag-fire","13":"tag-hiring","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-probe","18":"tag-response"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115454308775439257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}