LA City Council to pay $500K for legal defense in Kristin Crowley's lawsuit
The Los Angeles City Council approved a $500,000 contract with private attorneys defending the city against former Fire Chief Kristin Crowley's lawsuit, which alleges a "campaign of retaliation" against her following the Palisades Fire in 2025.
The deal will retain Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass LLP as outside counsel for three years. It received overwhelming support from councilmembers, with Councilman Adrin Nazarian casting the only dissenting vote.
Crowley claimed in her lawsuit that Mayor Karen Bass waged a "campaign of retaliation" against her for publicly discussing the budget cuts to the media, including CBS News, in the wake of the disastrous Palisades Fire, which burned nearly 23,500 acres, killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses.
"I don't know why you had to do that." Bass allegedly said during an unscheduled meeting the day of the CBS News interview, according to Crowley's legal claim. "Normally, we are on the same page, and I don't know why you had to say stuff to the media."
When she demoted Crowley in February 2025, Bass justified her action by claiming Crowley refused to conduct an after-action report in a timely manner and sent crews home as the wildfire spiraled out of control.
"We know that 1,000 firefighters that could have been on duty on the morning the fires broke out were instead sent home on Chief Crowley's watch," Bass said in a statement last year.
Crowley flatly denied the claims during her appeal hearing with the council in March 2025 and again in the lawsuit.
"I did not refuse to conduct an after-action report. During our discussions about an after-action report, I advised the fire commissioners about my opinion that was best in regard to how to use LAFD resources," Crowley said to the council in 2025. "I said that the LAFD is not capable, nor do we have the proper resources, to adequately conduct an after-action report for the Palisades Fire."
As for the claim that she sent 1,000 firefighters home, Crowley told the council that LAFD "did not have enough apparatus to put them on."
"Because of budget cuts and lack of investments in our fleet maintenance, over 100 of our fire engines, fire trucks and ambulances sat broken down in our maintenance yards, unable to be used to help during the worst wildfire events in our history," she said.
Crowley said that she has been demoted several times after she was removed as chief. When she filed the lawsuit, she said she was serving as Assistant Chief to a Special Duty position at the Risk, Health and Safety Division
When Crowley filed the lawsuit earlier this year, Yusef Robb, a senior advisor in Mayor Bass' administration, said: "The lawsuit has no merit."
