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With five major wildfires continuing to devastate neighborhoods across Los Angeles, Khloe Kardashian took to Instagram to admit she wasn’t a fan of Mayor Karen Bass right now.
The Good American founder slammed the mayor next to a video of Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley telling Fox 11 Los Angeles that the city had failed them after recent cuts to the department’s budget.
“I stand by YOU Chief Crowley!!!! You spoke the truth and you had tears in your eyes because I can tell you didn’t even want to say that but it was THE TRUTH,” Khloe wrote on Instagram last night (January 10). “Thank you for being honest. Mayor Bass, you are a joke!!!!”
When Chief Crowley spoke out, three days after the start of the wildfires, which have now left at least 11 dead and over 37,000 acres destroyed, it was the second time she urged the city to increase the department’s funding in a little over a month.
On December 4, Crowley issued a warning that budget cuts would negatively impact her department’s ability to effectively respond to emergencies.
According to city documents, the fire department’s budget decreased by $17.6 million between the 2023-2024 fiscal year and 2024-2025. The department’s 2025 budget currently stands at $819.64 million, per the city’s website. Accounting for funding for salary inreaeses and new equipment, the department’s budget ultimately increased by 7 percent for the new fiscal year.
In Chief Crowley’s letter to the Board of Fire Commissioners, she said the reductions, including a $7 million slash to overtime hours, “have adversely affected the Department’s ability to maintain core operations” and “severely limited the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies” as well as brush clearance and resident inspections.
At a January 9 press conference, Mayor Bass claimed these previous cuts haven’t affected how the department has been able to respond to the current fires.
“I think if you go back and look at the reductions that have been made, there were no reductions that would have impacted the situation we were dealing with over the last couple of days,” she said.
“It’s important to understand that we were in tough budgetary times,” she continued. “Everybody knew that, but the impact of our budget really did not affect what we’ve been going through over the last few days.”
Despite her claims, several celebrities have expressed the same exasperation as Khloe, ridiculing the mayor for funding woes and being overseas in Ghana when the fires first erupted.
Sara Foster, the 43-year-old actress known for her role in 90210, wrote on X: “We pay the highest taxes in California. Our fire hydrants were empty. Our vegetation was overgrown, brush not cleared.”
“Our reservoirs were emptied by our governor because tribal leaders wanted to save fish,” she continued. “Our fire department budget was cut by our mayor. But thank god drug addicts are getting their drug kits.”
Meanwhile, gym legend Jillian Michaels wrote: “I lost a home in the 2018 Woolley fire. Was in Cali for New Years this year and podcasts – just evacuated my mom from her California home. The mayor is apparently in Ghana.”
“The fire departments budget was apparently cut by 17 mil,” she added. “And someone made the decision to not refill some of the reservoirs — now some fire hydrants are dry. Leadership in California is beyond negligent. This is completely unacceptable.”
