The Fires Prove It: California Needs Better Leadership

By Julie Lynch

The wildfires raging across southern California are one of the worst disasters in US history. So far these fires have consumed more than 26,000 acres, destroyed 12,000 structures, claimed 27 lives, and cost more than $50 billion in damage. Photos and videos from the area reveal a literal hell on earth.

Residents are furious with their elected leaders because they realize that multiple policy decisions led to this disaster and made it infinitely worse. Let’s look at three public policies that contributed to this conflagration -  poor water policies, poor land management, and poor social policy.

Let’s talk about water. Last weekend as I drove to Roseville I marvelled at the sparkling beauty of the distant Sierra Nevada mountains, covered in snow. As I approached Placer County the mountains rose up like a fairy tale, huge and white, spreading across the horizon. What an enormous, gorgeous blessing those mountains are to dry California. Snowmelt runs down every year into our rivers and lakes. Friends, California has plenty of water. The problem is in capturing, storing, and distributing it. 

In 2014 the CA voters passed Prop 1 to build more reservoirs. How many reservoirs have been built since then? Zero. The last time CA built a new reservoir was 1979. We are promised that our next major reservoir should begin construction in 2026 and be completed in 2032. Slowness and delays can be attributed to environmental regulations and lawsuits. Yet Gov. Newsom has been actively removing dams across California.

During the fires, locals reported broken fire hydrants, dry fire hydrants, dry wells and half-filled reservoirs. The Santa Ynez Reservoir above the Palisades had been drained for repairs. In fact, this 117 million gallon tank had been drained since Feb of 2024, almost a year, yet no one told the Fire Department it was empty.  Why officials allowed this crucial tank to sit empty for so long is mind-boggling. LA’s water chief, who makes $750,000/yr, had no answer.

Southern Ca water comes from the Colorado River, the Northern Sierra, desalination, and local groundwater. The heart of California's water system is the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers which form a Delta, right here where we live. This abundance of water is pumped to millions of people in the SF bay area, the San Joaquin valley, the central coast, and southern CA. You have all heard of the delta smelt, a tiny fish here in the delta which needs a certain amount of water to spawn. To protect this fish millions of gallons of water are flushed out to the ocean instead of being diverted to homes and farms. In 2020 Trump issued an executive order to divert delta water to central valley farms and further south. Newsom sued to reverse this and won. California residents are now demanding to know why a certain fish is more important than people. 

In 2020 Trump also lectured Newsom about his poor forest management policies: no logging, no clearing of brush, no building firebreaks, no controlled burns. Did you know that for centuries, native American tribes understood fire danger and cleared brush and conducted controlled burns? Yet the Biden administration cancelled controlled burns in California.  Gov. Newsom cut California’s fire budget by $100 million. When crews went into the Palisades to replace wood poles with steel ones and to widen fire access lanes, the project was halted due to a threatened plant that was being trampled. Rick Caruso, who lost the mayoral election to Karen Bass, declared that in many of the Los Angeles hills there has been no brush removal for 30 or 40 years.

Gov. Newsom’s priorities have been terribly misplaced. His covid vaccine mandate caused the resignation or firing of hundreds of firefighters. In Sept. 2024 he vetoed AB 2358 which would have allowed Cal Fire to retain seasonal firefighters. Newsom said the bill was unnecessary and the dismissed firemen were never replaced. In 2022 several tons of firefighting equipment was diverted from LA to Ukraine. Meanwhile, Newsom has spent $24 billion on the homeless. So billions to wind turbines, the homeless, and Ukraine, but not enough resources for the people and homes of California?

You have all heard of California’s Green Energy Mandate, which decrees that California must be powered by solar and wind by 2035. This has turned power companies’ focus away from the power grid and toward green projects. With time and resources diverted away, there is less maintenance for power lines, many of which are decades old and are huge culprits in fires.

I think you all know that Mayor Karen Bass spent $644 million to reduce greenhouse emissions at the port of LA while also reducing LA’s fire budget by $18 million. She also spent millions of dollars on many social justice and LGBT projects, my favorite being the Midnight Stroll Transgender Cafe.

Let’s take a closer look at Mayor Karen Bass. Bass has been involved with the Venceremos Brigade, a Marxist training program that sends young people to Cuba to get radicalized. There they learn guerilla warfare, sabotage, and bomb-making. Bass herself was a leader, visiting Cuba every six months. She is a committed radical, as are all LA officials. Every one of them is a Democrat. Kristin Crowley, the Fire Chief, made diversity and equity a top priority instead of fire readiness. She publicly stated that she wanted more firefighters to be female or LGBT. She famously said, “You want someone who responds to a fire to look like you.” (No I don’t! I want a big burly guy who can carry me out!)

According to Michael Shellenberger, officials had a 5-day warning about the approaching high winds. Yet they had over 100 fire trucks in the shop. No trucks were stationed in position, no water planes were ready to go. The LAFD only had half the number of necessary firefighters. The lack of preparedness is staggering. 

California is the 5th largest economy in the world. This state collects some of the highest taxes in the nation. You would think that we’d be able to mitigate and fight fires that happen every year. But Democrat rule has come home to roost, and they have now set California back decades.

Gavin Newsom says that California is a model for the nation. He’s right. It’s a model of what happens when you have one-party rule with a supermajority. The Democrats have total control in our state. Their misplaced priorities have given us high gas prices, high housing costs, unemployment, crime, poverty, and homelessness. Businesses are fleeing. It is time for true political change. 

Malibu, Santa Monica, and the Palisades are some of the bluest areas of California. These people voted in large numbers for Newsom and the Democrats. Now there are calls for Karen Bass’ resignation, and we have a new effort to recall Gov. Newsom. But we need political change across the board, at all levels of government. I hope the terrible tragedy in Los Angeles will bring this about.

Folks, take a good look at the charred rubble of a once-beautiful land. This is the end result of woke, radical, incompetent bureaucracy. Such criminal negligence affects not only lives and property. It affects our very civilization itself.