EDITORIAL: Palisade fire aftermath burns up government’s credibility

Anyone who believes that the government can solve their problems needs to spend some time in Southern California.

This month, Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., held a public hearing on the destructive Palisades Fire. Earlier in the year, it killed 12 people and destroyed almost 7,000 structures. Many of them were homes in the Pacific Palisades, a community west of Los Angeles.

The hearing featured six Pacific Palisades residents who mourned their losses and vented their frustrations. They directed much of their ire at local officials. And for good reason.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir, which could hold more than 100 million gallons of water, was empty when the fire started. One reason the fire did so much damage was that firefighters ran out of water.

The reservoir was around half full in January 2024 when an L.A. Department of Water and Power employee spotted a rip in the reservoir’s floating cover. It installed that cover in 2012 only to comply with federal regulations. The original plan was for the repair to be completed by April 2024. Instead, DWP didn’t even finalize a contract for the repair until November 2024. During that process, DWP drained the reservoir.

Then there was Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley. After she was hired in 2022, Ms. Crowley quickly pushed a plan to increase diversity. “Our efforts will be maximized by making sure diversity is celebrated and valued, and that equity and inclusion are intertwined into every policy, procedure and practice,” she said.

As it turned out, protecting the local population is maximized by prioritizing merit, not intersectional box-checking. After the fire, the L.A. Times reported that Ms. Crowley’s department didn’t pre-position its fire engines to danger zones. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who was in Ghana when the blaze erupted, fired Ms. Crowley in February.

But those residents still have good reason to be upset with local officials. Most of their homes haven’t been rebuilt. As of October, 75 percent of Palisades residents displaced by the fire were living in temporary housing. One of the reasons was an overly complicated permitting process for rebuilding. Ms. Bass recently announced a new pilot program to speed up permitting — a mere 10 months after the fire.

“More than 340 projects are already confirmed to have started construction,” a release from her office said.

That’s evidence of deep dysfunction in local governance, not something to brag about.

There’s a lesson here for the general public. If you want something fixed or rebuilt, a government with an overactive regulatory state is more likely to be a barrier to overcome than a helpful partner — especially in California