LA Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered Palisades fire analysis to downplay LA’s failures: report

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered the official Palisades Fire response report to downplay the failures made by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted, a new report said.

Bass, after seeing an early draft of the after-action report, wanted key findings of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings scrubbed or watered down — and even warned then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva the unedited conclusions could expose the city to legal liability, sources close to the Democrat’s staff told the Los Angeles Times.

Bass was cautioned that the self-serving tweaks in with the report was a “bad idea” that could torpedo her political career, but still withheld the working draft until after changes were made, insiders told the Times.

The official report, released in October, cut a section from the initial version exposing the LAFD’s choice not to fully staff or pre-deploy all available crews despite forecasts of catastrophic winds because it didn’t align with city policy, the outlet reported.

It instead commended department brass for going “above and beyond” with a standard “pre-deployment matrix,” despite the fire leveling over 16,000 homes and structures, causing $150 billion in damages, and killing 12 people.

Bass has repeatedly denied having anything to do with the edits — but the sources claimed that’s a lie.

“The mayor didn’t tell the truth when she said she had nothing to do with changing the report,” sources told the outlet.

It remains unclear whether Villanueva or other LAPD officials made any edits at Bass’s direction.

In a statement to the California Post Wednesday, the mayor’s office continued to deny that Bass and her staff made any changes to the drafts.

“Mayor Bass has been unequivocal for months — she reviewed an early draft of the report and only asked the LAFD to make sure it was accurate on issues like weather and budget,” a spokesperson said.

“She and her staff made no changes to the drafts. The Mayor has been clear about her concerns regarding pre-deployment and the LAFD’s response to the fire, which is why there is new leadership at LAFD and why she called for an independent review of the Lachman Fire mop-up.

“There is absolutely no reason why she would request those details be altered or erased when she herself has been critical of the response to the fire — full stop. She has said this for months.”

Bass has already faced criticism over the handling of the Palisades fire — from confusion over evacuations to her being abroad when the ferocious inferno erupted. 

Critics have also slammed her for cutting nearly $18 million to the fire department ahead of the blaze.