Within the months after the Palisades hearth, the Los Angeles Hearth Division Basis raked in hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in charitable donations to pay for coaching and gear for firefighters, as LAFD leaders publicly complained about not having sufficient cash to maintain the town protected.
However a few of the funds have been quietly spent on one thing that had little to do with firefighting: a star public relations agency to assist LAFD leaders form their messaging after a catastrophe during which their missteps figured prominently, The Occasions has realized.
Neither the LAFD nor the muse would say how a lot the charity paid the Lede Firm, whose shoppers embody Reese Witherspoon and Charlize Theron, and what precisely the agency did for the division. A Lede consultant declined to remark, saying the corporate doesn’t talk about shopper issues.
“The LAFD Basis offered communications help by hiring the Lede Firm as a part of its mission to supply assets to the LAFD,” Liz Lin, president of the muse, stated in an e mail. “The Basis was not concerned within the providers offered by the Lede Firm. Particular particulars concerning the Division’s use of the Lede Firm ought to be addressed by the LAFD.”
The revelation comes because the LAFD is beneath heightened scrutiny for altering its after-action report back to downplay the town’s failures in making ready for and responding to the fireplace, which killed 12 individuals and destroyed 1000’s of houses. The LAFD declined to reply questions in regards to the work of the PR agency, together with whether or not any modifications to the report have been made at its course, vaguely citing federal court docket proceedings.
Federal prosecutors have charged a former Palisades resident with beginning a Jan. 1 hearth that reignited into the Palisades hearth six days later.
“Any additional responses will likely be evaluated following the conclusion of the federal case and in accordance with authorized steerage at the moment. Thanks on your understanding that no further responses will likely be offered till all associated court docket proceedings have been absolutely resolved,” the LAFD stated in an unsigned e mail.
The after-action report was meant to spell out errors, which included not absolutely pre-deploying engines to the Palisades amid forecasts of dangerously excessive winds, and to recommend measures to keep away from repeating them. However earlier than the report was even accomplished, LAFD officers nervous about how it will be acquired, privately forming a “disaster administration workgroup” to “create our personal narrative” in regards to the hearth and its aftermath.
Hearth Chief Jaime Moore stated he met with Lede in mid-November, on his first or second day on the helm, and thanked them for his or her work, however that he doesn’t know what exactly they did for the division, which was led by interim Hearth Chief Ronnie Villanueva when the report got here out on Oct. 8.
“I’m assuming that they had one thing to do with the after-action report, as a result of they’re a PR agency,” Moore stated in an interview final week. “I’d suppose a PR agency was going to present recommendation to the fireplace chief, as a result of on the time, they didn’t have a director of public info. So my assumption can be they have been utilizing a PR agency because the PR director.”
The creator of the report, LAFD Battalion Chief Kenneth Prepare dinner, declined to endorse the general public model due to modifications that altered his findings and made the report “extremely unprofessional and inconsistent with our established requirements.”
Whereas Moore admitted that the report was watered down and stated he wouldn’t permit comparable edits to future after-action reviews, he stated he didn’t see a profit in figuring out who made the modifications to the Palisades report.
“I gotta surprise, what’s it gonna matter to me? As a result of I can see what the unique report says. I can see what we put out to the general public. I can see the place the unique report and the general public report intention to repair the identical factor,” he stated. “They intention to appropriate the place we may have been higher. And it identifies … the steps which might be going to be essential to make these corrective actions.”
Mayor Karen Bass’ workplace didn’t reply to questions on whether or not she met with Lede, what course its publicists gave metropolis officers and what function the corporate had in making ready or enhancing the after-action report.
On its web site, Lede boasts of representing “a few of the largest names and types in leisure, style, magnificence & wellness, … advocacy, media, nonprofit and associated industries.” Along with Witherspoon and Theron, its shopper web page consists of photographs of actors Kerry Washington and Rami Malek and singers Rihanna and Pharrell Williams. The agency represents manufacturers comparable to Isabel Marant, Clinique and Hennessy Cognac and features a strategic company communications division.
Within the wake of the fireplace, Rick Caruso, the businessman and one-time L.A. mayoral candidate, dedicated $5 million to the Hearth Division Basis, in annual increments of $1 million.
One among Caruso’s executives sits on the board of the muse, which payments itself as “the official nonprofit arm of the LAFD” and lists internet property of $12.3 million on its tax return for fiscal 2023-24, the latest out there. In keeping with its web site, it “supplies very important gear and funds packages that assist the LAFD save lives and construct resilient communities.“
Caruso instructed The Occasions on Tuesday that the muse ought to disclose the quantity and particular goal of its spending on Lede, and that he’ll ask for an audit to make sure that none of his preliminary $1-million donation went to the corporate.
“The donation that our household made to the muse is particularly meant for and restricted to the safety and repair of the town of Los Angeles,” stated Caruso, who constructed standard malls just like the Grove and the Americana at Model. “I don’t need the cash we donated going to a PR agency.”
Caruso, who has been fiercely essential of Bass and the town in the course of the hearth and its aftermath, added that he’ll withhold future funds to the muse if an audit will not be carried out.
“Transparency is essential,” he stated. “It’s a part of the fiduciary accountability of the muse to the taxpayers and the town of Los Angeles to be fully clear.”
Austin Beutner, a former Los Angeles Unified faculty superintendent who’s working for mayor, stated the failure by Bass, the LAFD and the muse to elucidate the Lede Firm’s function is “an unconscionable lack of transparency.”
“Individuals died. Tens of 1000’s of individuals misplaced their houses, together with tens of 1000’s of people that misplaced their jobs. We owe them the reality,” stated Beutner, whose house was severely broken within the hearth and who has referred to as for an impartial investigation into the town’s preparations for and response to the fireplace.
Laurie Styron, government director and chief government of CharityWatch, a Chicago-based watchdog of nonprofit organizations, stated the muse “ought to be enthusiastic about” disclosing particularly how it’s spending donor cash, together with on the PR firm.
“The truth that they’re being cagey about it’s eyebrow-raising,” she stated.
In a quick interview this month, Bass instructed The Occasions that she didn’t work with the Hearth Division on modifications to the after-action report, nor did the company seek the advice of her about any modifications.
“That’s a technical report. I’m not a firefighter,” she stated.
A spokesperson beforehand stated that Bass’ workplace didn’t demand modifications to the drafts and solely requested the LAFD to verify the accuracy of things comparable to how the climate and the division’s price range factored into the catastrophe.
“The report was written and edited by the Hearth Division,” the spokesperson, Clara Karger, stated in an e mail in December. “We didn’t red-line, evaluate each web page or evaluate each draft of the report.”
LAFD Assistant Chief Kairi Brown wrote in a July e mail to eight others, together with Villanueva, that the aim of the inner disaster administration staff “is to collaboratively handle communications for any essential public relations challenge which will come up. The fast and most urgent disaster is the Palisades After Motion Report.”
“With vital curiosity from media, politicians, and the group, it’s essential that we current a unified response to anticipated questions and issues,” Brown wrote. “By doing so, we will guarantee our messaging is evident and constant, permitting us to create our personal narrative relatively than reactive responses.”
Prepare dinner emailed his last draft to Villanueva a couple of weeks later. Over the following two months, the report went by means of a sequence of edits — behind closed doorways and with out Prepare dinner’s involvement.
Prepare dinner’s model highlighted the failure to require firefighters to remain for an extra shift and to totally pre-deploy within the Palisades as a serious mistake, noting that it was an try to be “fiscally accountable” that went towards the division’s coverage and procedures.
The division’s last report said that the pre-deployment measures for the Palisades and different fire-prone places went “above and past” the LAFD’s customary observe. The Occasions analyzed seven drafts of the report obtained by means of a information request and disclosed the numerous deletions and revisions.
The report solely briefly talked about the Jan. 1 Lachman hearth, which the LAFD failed to totally extinguish. The Occasions discovered {that a} battalion chief ordered firefighters to roll up their hoses and depart the burn space regardless of complaints by crews that the bottom was nonetheless smoldering.
After the Occasions report, Bass directed Moore to fee an impartial investigation into the LAFD’s dealing with of the sooner hearth.
Moore stated he has opened an inner investigation into the Lachman hearth by means of the LAFD’s Skilled Requirements Division, which probes complaints towards division members. He stated he requested the Hearth Security Analysis Institute, which is reviewing final January’s wildfires on the request of Gov. Gavin Newsom, to incorporate the Lachman hearth as a part of its evaluation, and the institute agreed.
Pringle is a former Occasions employees author.
