Ex-schools chief plans mayoral bid, cites 'failure of leadership'

Former Los Angeles Unified schools Supt. Austin Beutner is planning to announce a challenge to Mayor Karen Bass in the 2026 election, arguing that the city has failed to properly respond to crime, rising housing costs and the devastating Palisades fire.

- BY DAVID ZAHNISER AND JULIA WICK

AUSTIN BEUTNER, above in 2021, portrayed a city adrift and beset by problems. Irfan Khan Los Angeles Times

Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker who lives in L.A.'s Pacific Palisades neighborhood, would become the first serious challenger to Bass, who is running for her second and final term.

Beutner, whose announcement is planned Monday, said in an interview Saturday that city officials at all levels showed a "failure of leadership" on the fire, which destroyed thousands of homes and left 12 people dead.

The inferno seriously damaged Beutner's house, forcing him and his family to rent elsewhere in the neighborhood, and destroyed his mother-in-law’s home.

"When you have broken hydrants, a reservoir that’s broken and is out of action, broken [fire] trucks that you can’t dispatch ahead of time, when you don’t pre-deploy at the adequate level, when you don't choose to hold over the Monday firefighters to be there on Tuesday to help fight the fire — to me, it’s a failure of leadership,” Beutner said.

“At the end of the day,” he added, “the buck stops with the mayor.”

A representative for Bass’ campaign declined to comment.

Beutner's attacks come days after federal prosecutors filed charges in the Palisades fire, accusing a 29year-old of intentionally starting a New Year's Day blaze that later rekindled into the deadly inferno.

With the federal investigation tied up, the Los Angeles Fire Department released a long-awaited afteraction report Wednesday. The 70-page report found that firefighters were hampered by poor communication, inexperienced leadership, a lack of resources and an ineffective process for recalling them back to work. Bass announced a number of changes in light of the report.